Some benefits measure a place’s priorities better than any brochure. Madeira made its public transport free for the two groups who need it most: the Passe Social +65 gives residents aged 65 and over free travel across the regional network, and the Passe 4_23 does the same for students up to 23. Both ride on the GIRO card, valid across the island’s operators — Horários do Funchal in the city, Rodoeste and others across the island, Porto Santo included.
For everyone else, the network is inexpensive and improving — but the deeper point for anyone planning decades here is the +65 pass: this island is built to keep its older residents mobile, independent and out of the car. If you are choosing where to grow old — and if you read our villa design articles, you know we think about that constantly — the transport policy belongs on the same list as the stair gradients.
THE FERRY PERK. Porto Santo — nine kilometres of golden sand, a two-and-a-quarter-hour sailing on the Lobo Marinho — comes subsidised for residents too: roughly €25 return for adults and €12.50 for children in the subsidised season, applied instantly at purchase once you register on the regional SIMplifica portal with a residence certificate. Porto Santo’s own residents pay about €10.70 return. (And no, there is no ferry to the mainland — that link is air only, which is what the €79 flight cap is for.)
Registrations — GIRO, SIMplifica, the mobility platform — are the small administrative layer of a relocation that our team simply does for clients as part of settling you in. The dots, connected.