Madeira Airport car rental: collection and return

The voucher tells you. It is emailed after you pay and holds the pick-up place and time, the driver's details and the booking, and the rental company can be contacted before picking up the car to confirm the meeting details. Some cars add a charge for the airport handover; where they do, the car shows it before you book.

The driving licence itself, valid for the whole rental and printed in Latin script; copies and electronic licences are refused. If your licence is valid only in the country that issued it, the rental conditions strongly recommend an International Driving Permit as well. A UK photocard licence is enough anywhere in the EU. Bring a passport too: it is among the documents shown at the handover, and Portuguese law requires a driver to carry a legal identity document along with the licence.

Age and experience are set car by car, even between similar models: each car's page gives the minimum age and the years the licence must have been held, and the agent can refuse the handover to a driver outside them.

Some cars need a physical, embossed credit card in the main driver's name. Others take a debit card, which must also be physical, embossed and in that driver's name, and some take the deposit in cash. The car says which before you book, and the voucher repeats it; where a card is needed, bring that card to the handover.

The deposit is set car by car and can be zero. A fine, or an unpaid toll invoiced to the rental company after the return, is taken from it, with administration costs added for a fine. Each car also carries its own excess under the standard cover, zero on some cars, with higher levels of cover listed on the car's page.

Madeira charges 2 euros for each full day of a car rental, up to 10 days per contract, which makes 20 euros the most any one rental pays; a zero-emission car pays 1 euro a day. The rental company collects it when you pick the car up and issues a receipt in your name. It has applied to contracts from 1 June 2026, it is set by the regional government, and it is not part of the price you pay online.

The airport sits in Santa Cruz on the south-east coast and joins the expressway network directly. Funchal is about 19 minutes away, Caniço 12 and Machico 6. Calheta on the west coast takes about 49 minutes and Porto Moniz, at the north-west tip, 70. These are times from the airport by the fastest road without traffic; the Funchal rush hour and cloud on the mountain roads add to them.

Bring the car back to the place and time on the voucher with the same fuel it had at the start. A lower level is charged at the rental company's rate, and a fuller tank is not refunded. A car returned too dirty to inspect is washed at your expense.

The shortest chargeable rental is 24 hours, and every day is charged in full: Monday morning to Tuesday afternoon is two days. To keep the car longer, tell the rental agent before the end of the rental, not at the return. To leave the car somewhere other than the airport, choose a different drop-off in the search: the delivery towns include Funchal, Caniço and Calheta, and the price shown includes any delivery charge.

About ten months ahead: that is when rental companies load their cars for Madeira, and dates further off can look thin until they do. Small cars are the most popular cars at the airport, while automatics are usually fewer than manuals and seven-seat cars fewer still, so a driver who needs one of those has less to choose from.

Tell the rental company about a delayed flight; its contact details are in the email sent after booking. If the flight is cancelled and the trip moves, the booking can be cancelled and made again.

Flights to Madeira are sometimes diverted when the wind is over the airport's published limits. Keep the phone number you booked with switched on from the day before pick-up until the car is back: the rental conditions require it, and no complaint about the service is accepted if the company could not reach you.

A no-show, when the renter does not arrive and has not cancelled, is treated as a late cancellation, and the advance paid online is kept as compensation. The rest of the rental and the regional fee are paid only at pick-up.

Walk round the car, inside and out, with a phone camera running, and make sure every chip and scratch is recorded in the agreement; if no one inspects the car with you, photograph any damage before leaving. Note the fuel level, and check the deposit taken and how it is held.

The rental contract is electronic, signed by both sides and emailed to you, and it lists the insurance cover, its exclusions and the deposit. Check the return place and time, and any extras booked, such as a child seat. Keep the invoice, which lists the regional fee on its own line.

On Madeira, a rental contract may not impose any payment that is not itemised in it, and any change to the agreed conditions, such as a service added at pick-up, must be set out in a separate document the renter signs. If a charge still looks wrong, write to the rental company; if it does not answer or rejects the complaint, contact your national European Consumer Centre, then the European Car Rental Conciliation Service or a national dispute-resolution body.