Maybe it was the time of year, barely any colour in November, very dark inside, damp and cold! Wear a raincoat as narrow walkways between dripping plants!

We went here in September taking a taxi from funchal. We negotiated this at 10 euro each way. The entry when we got ther was 5 euro each. The gardens are well up steep hills and i am not aware of buses to car/taxi seem to be the only ways to get there. The gardens were very pleasant but quite small and though we stayed an hour we could have seen the lot in 20 minutes. It was more like a small garden centre at home than what i had expected. Orchids can be purchased there for about 15 euro and there is a small cafe which is very reasonable. Our lasting memory are the lizards, hundreds of them and they eat cake. we stayed for a snak and about 20 lizards gobbled a small piece of cake that we dropped on the floor. We were glad we went but the cost and effort to get there and back were such that we would not bother again and if you have not gone before dont expect too much

This small orchid garden only needs about an hour to view but is full of orchids and is well worth a visit. They also have lots of orchids at different stages to buy and will answer questions you have about growing your own orchids.

i have to say,when you get here you wonder why you bothered,its not the prettyest of places and has you thinking you were ripped off.Once inside though its truly amazing,all these cascading tiny through to big orchids,infact ther so perfect they dont look real,but are of course,ita just a big glass house with a tree or two and orchids everywhere..truly amazing and we we glad we went,,as im sure you will