Madeira diving - do you have a club and/or sites to reccommend?

[ivana]

Hi, everybody.

I'm going on vacation to Madeira this Friday, will be staying one week. Does anyone have a diving club to reccommend? Preferably one that has a web page I can check out. Interested in those that take care about safety. And perhaps good sites for diving?
I'm a beginner. Have 8 dives in total.

Thanks ever so much.

Ivana

 

[Redshift]

I have never dived in Madeira, only in Porto Santo, a small island close by. But I have heard nice comments on three diving centres (more comments about the centre in first place):

Diving in Madeira - Madeira Oceano's Diving Center
Tubarao Madeira - Diving in Madeira
Magos Diving

The best thing to do is to check their websites, conditions, prices, maybe talk to them (or send some emails...) and, if you can, meet them once you get there.

One good spot I've heard about is "Reserva do Garajau" which is a marine reserve.

 

[nxg]

Probably a bit late for you as you'll be back by now, but if you go again, I highly recommend Madeira Divepoint (I'd put the URL up but can't as haven't made enough posts yet!). Just put the two words together and add a ".com" to the end, you'll get there

They have an excellent attitude, very professional and good sense of humour. They usually answer emails within 48 hours if you or anyone else reading this wants to get in touch with them. I'll be going back there for the 3rd time in 2 years in a few weeks!

I'd say the dive sites are good for anyone from complete novice to pro (probably not technical, though they're tech qualified). Anyway, checkout the website.

HTH
Steve

 

[ivana]

Thanks for the replies.
Here's the report on my experience. I went with Manta diving in the end. Situated in Canico de Baixo. As they promote themselves, the only dive centre in the protected marine park.
All in all, content with the choice. The cost of one dive (including rental equipment) was 39 euros. The instructors were helpful and care about safety which I liked. I went for two dives in total, one in the morning and another in early afternoon. The sightings were ok. I was previously told that the best site to dive is Garajau but didn't see it in the end cause they only organize trips there in certain days of the week and they told me I'd have to have more experience. I found out all this when I got there. We went for the Lavafinger and Arena instead. People in the centre speak German and the website is also in German if that's a plus for you.
Downsides of my experience there:
I was in a hotel in Funchal and tried to get to Canico early enough to be on time, the bus schedules were not friendly at all so I had to take a taxi. The dive centre does not offer a pickup service.
They don't accept credit cards so I had to pay in cash.

One more detail: There were a lot of yellyfish around the shore in all of Madeira this summer. Not a problem for the diving but was for regular swimming.