Opening hours in Madeira
Shops are open from Monday to Friday between 09.00 and 19.00 and usually close for lunch from 13.00 to 15.00.
On Saturdays shops open only in the morning from 09.00 to 13.00.
The exceptions are the shopping centres that are open from 10.00 to 22.00, 7 days a week. The large supermarkets also stay open until 22.00, 7 days a week except for Christmas and New Year’s Day.
Banks are usually open from Monday to Friday from 08.30 to 15.00. Exchange houses operate everyday between 09.00 and 13.00 and from 14.00 to 19.00.
To see the conversion between a.m./p.m. and the 24-hour clock.
Electricity, Time and Water
Electricity
The local current is 220 AC and the connection has a two-pin plug.
Travellers from the USA will require a voltage converter.
Travellers from the UK will require a plug adapter and this is best bought from home as they are hard to find in Madeira.
Water
Tap water is safe to drink and it is of good quality. In Porto Santo the water is desalinated and can be consumed without question.
Time
The islands of the Madeiran archipelago operate on the 24-hour clock, which can be quite confusing for those who are accustomed to ‘am’ & ‘pm’.
Madeira maintains Greenwich Mean Time (GMT/UTC) as summer time.
Clocks are always put forward one hour on the last Sunday of March and back one hour on the last Sunday of October according to the rules of the European Union.