About your itinerary
?
Don't forget that if something isn't quite right we can make changes to the itinerary.
Hi Christina and G,
I am incredibly excited to present you with your spectacular birthday trip to France, complete with international flights from Raleigh, private airport transfers, spectacular accommodation in the heart of the city, as well as an array of dreamy tours and experiences.
I've included 4 nights at the gorgeous Les Dames du Pantheon, which is perfectly-located in the city's Latin Quarter. This is one of the most famous and historic neighborhoods in Paris, located right on the left bank of the Seine River, and perfectly placed to explore.
To maximise your time in the city, I have included tickets to the Eiffel Tower, a beautiful small-group walking tour, as well as a VIP food tasting experience in Le Merais. I've also kept a free-day for self-exploration, but happy to send inspiration for an additional tour or two.
These Iceland Air flights are on sale for today only, and they've bought the price down by almost $2,000. Being totally transparent, I don't think we'll be able to get you to Europe within budget if we don't get these flights confirmed today. I appreciate it's a big decision and a super-important trip, but I don't want you to miss out if you love what you're seeing.
I'm in the office until 4pm Eastern, and you can reach me on +1 646 315 6225.
Jaike Rowe 
Your Itinerary In Detail
?
This itinerary has been tailor-made for you. No two itineraries are the same and we are always able to make changes if something isn't quite right.
Thursday 2nd May 2024
Flight on S4 160
Flight on S4 160
| From | To |
|---|---|
| Ponta Delgada Airport (PDL) |
Funchal Airport (FNC) |
| Departs | Arrives |
| 02-May-2024 13:55:00 | 02-May-2024 13:55:00 |
| Airline | Cabin |
| Azores Airlines | Economy |
Welcome to Madeira
Welcome to Madeira
Geologically dramatic, bursting with exotic colour and warmed year-round by the Atlantic Sun, Portugal’s most enchanting island is a place that keeps all its subtropical holiday promises. Pearl of the Atlantic, island of eternal spring…Madeira well deserves its fanciful nicknames and the affection visitors and locals alike feel for this tiny volcanic island that offers so much.
Repeatedly voted Europe's, and even the world's, top island destination, Madeira is a diverse place when it comes to holidaymaking. Black sand beaches, the frothing Atlantic, towering rock walls and gushing streams and irrigation channels make this an outdoor nirvana. But it's also a place of gentler pleasures such as wine tasting, visiting lush botanical gardens and watching embroiderers and wicker weavers at work. Hiking the levada irrigation channels is the top activity, with tens of thousands pulling on hiking boots to discover Madeira's secret interior.
Private Vehicle from Funchal Airport to Belmond Reid's Palace
Private Vehicle from Funchal Airport to Belmond Reid's Palace
Upon your arrival into Funchal, you will be greeted by one of our friendly drivers who will take you all to the legendary 5* Belmond Reid's Palace, ready for three nights of sheer bliss, overlooking the ocean.
Belmond Reid's Palace for 6 nights
Belmond Reid's Palace for 6 nights
This classic and luxurious retreat has been welcoming guests for over a century. The hotel is renowned around the world for its exceptional service, and is highly sophisticated yet never stuffy. Stroll through the beautiful subtropical gardens and you’ll find the chic spa tucked away behind the trees. Make your way down to the sea-level terrace and admire the views, or pick a shady spot by one of the three pools. After a relaxed lunch at the pool terrace, enjoy some tennis or golf coaching.
The hotel’s afternoon tea is deservedly world-famous – in the lounge or outside on the terrace, you’ll enjoy a selection of freshly baked scones, home-made pastries and dainty sandwiches alongside premium quality teas. There’s a range of fine dining options here; the Michelin-starred William Restaurant serves modern European cuisine with international influences, overlooking the Funchal coast; while Ristorante Villa Cipriani has excellent Italian dishes on the open-air terrace.
The elegant rooms overlook the botanical gardens or sea. Classic Rooms have partial sea views from the balcony. Book a Superior or a larger Deluxe Room for a balcony or terrace with either garden or sea views, or upgrade for more space and comfort to a Junior Suite Garden with a semi-private terrace overlooking the gardens. The Superior Suite has an extra sitting area and sea views.
Your room: Deluxe Junior Suite
Tranquil and serene Deluxe Junior Suites are found throughout the hotel and garden wing. Each offers a balcony, most with stunning ocean views.
Friday 3rd May 2024
Discover Madeira | Highlights
Discover Madeira | Highlights
Madeira is an island of discovery, and there is nothing short of adventures and experiences to be had. Here are just a handful of fabulous options to consider on your days of leisure.
Step off the Cabo Girão Cliff
It takes a while to adjust your mindset. Madeira’s staircase geography of lush green terraces and dark, plunging cliffs is so abrupt and dramatic, it’s hard to comprehend when first you see it. So go to Cabo Girão early in the trip and accelerate your acclimatisation. Here, not far from the island capital of Funchal, a wall of rock drops 589m, straight down onto one of the island’s all-but-unreachable strips of faja farmland. And to deepen the sense of awe, the clifftop viewpoint has been rebuilt to include a glass-floored skywalk. Some people will tell you this is the highest cliff in Europe. It isn’t, but your heart will be thundering all the same.
Taste Madeira’s Wine
Madeira wine is, essentially, cooked. Hundreds of years ago the island’s winemakers discovered that if they fortified their produce and took it on a long, hot sea voyage to the East Indies, it became delicious and almost impossible to spoil. Once bottled, it can last for centuries. Now, of course, the process is more scientific, but the estufagem of the wine is still the key — as you’ll learn on one of the many guided tours on offer at the wine lodges of Funchal.
Walk the Levadas
Taming an island as remote and vertiginous as Madeira was a huge, sometimes brutal undertaking, and nothing quite evokes the size of the challenge as its network of levadas. This sinuous and spectacular network of irrigation channels brings water from the wetter northern and western parts of the island to the drier southeast, and at times the channels hug terrifyingly steep hillsides. For self-reliant hikers, the Sunflower guide is the bible, but if you’re setting out on your own, make your first levada walk an easy one. Some, such as the Levada Caldeira Verde, are not for the unfit or faint-hearted. Guided walking tours offer a more reassuring introduction, but avoid Saturday excursions to the Levada das 25 fontes, which can be overcrowded.
Swim in a Giant Rock Pool
Madeira sits at the top of a huge underwater volcano, 6.5km up from the ocean floor. So don’t be surprised by the lack of white-sand beaches. But what the island does have by way of compensation are spectacular, oversized rock pools in which to swim. Most are raw and rudimentary, but at Porto Moniz they’ve been shaped with concrete to create smooth-sided bowls with steps down into the water and, in places, flat bottoms too. With the waves breaking near by and sometimes washing over the pool’s leading edge, it’s the perfect place to flirt with the power of the Atlantic without actually being in its grip.
Ride the Monte Toboggan Run
Who needs snow? It’s more than a century since the locals in the village of Monte realised that their wicker sledges could carry people down into Funchal, just as well as fruit and veg. And it wasn’t long before the island’s growing number of tourists were joining them. On the steep road that drops away from Monte’s church (near the top of Funchal’s cable car) it’s not hard to get going, especially if you’ve greased the runners. It’s the stopping that’s the problem, which is where your team of two carreiros come in, keeping speeds down to 20mph and pulling up after just over 1.5km.
Climb the Pico Ruivo
Madeira scrambles through all kinds of ecosystems as it hauls its way to its highest peak. At the ocean’s edge on the south coast it’s almost tropical. Higher up, beyond the terraced fields and bananas, it can have an almost Alpine feel. But once you’re on the 1,862m peak of the Pico Ruivo, the atmosphere is altogether more austere. Up there you can expect narrow ridges and sun-blasted rock, and even though the R1.2 footpath from Achada do Teixeira is well-mapped and maintained, you might want to join a guided party for your first ascent.
Escape to Porto Santo
There may of course come a time when you’ve had enough of sheer cliffs and lush cloud forest, and long for a proper beach. In which case it’s time to take the boat to Porto Santo. Twenty-five miles northeast of the Ponta do São Lorenço, this is Madeira’s little sister, ready to deliver the ultimate mid-Atlantic beach day with an 8km strip of sand. The return crossing by ferry from Funchal takes two and a half hours each way and gives you almost a full day on the island, albeit with an early start. Once there, hire a kayak from the southern tip and you could deepen the middle-of-nowhere atmosphere by paddling across a narrow strait to the rugged and completely deserted isle of Cal.
* Madeira Tour by Tukxi
* Madeira Tour by Tukxi
Today you will enjoy a 6h tour of Madeira with one of our expert local guides. You will travel around the island by tuk tuk, stopping at a number of must-see areas along the way.
Sightsee around Funchal, stop at the fishing village of Camara de Lobos, take in the sights from Cape Girao, stroll through the botanical garden, and more. While you explore, your guide regales you with information about the island and its landmarks.
Monday 6th May 2024
Dolphin & Whale Watching Adventure | Small-Group
Dolphin & Whale Watching Adventure | Small-Group
This morning after breakfast, make your own way down to Funchal's Port where you will be greeted by your friendly skipper and small group for a really special 3hr experience out at sea, in pursuit of seeing some of the local dolphins and whales!
Enjoy comfortable and fun cruising aboard your Eco Catamaran, where you will embark on a lovely tour around the island, on the lookout for dolphins, whales and endemic birds. When sea life arrives, the catamaran's electric engines engage for silent emission-free cruising which helps keep the cetaceans very happy!
As specialists in dolphin and whale watching experiences, the team will do everything they can to ensure that you are successful at sighting these beautiful creatures, and however rare, there is a small chance that if there are no sightings, you will have the opportunity to rejoin another group for just 10 EUR per person.
Wednesday 8th May 2024
Private Vehicle from Belmond Reid's Palace to Funchal Airport
Private Vehicle from Belmond Reid's Palace to Funchal Airport
This morning is your final day in the beautiful sunny Madeira. After your last day at your leisure, you will be collected from your hotel and taken back to Madeira's International Airport in enough time to start your journey home.
Flight on S4 163
Flight on S4 163
| From | To |
|---|---|
| Funchal Airport (FNC) |
Ponta Delgada Airport (PDL) |
| Departs | Arrives |
| 08-May-2024 14:35:00 | 08-May-2024 15:40:00 |
| Airline | Cabin |
| Azores Airlines | Economy |
Flight on S4 247
Flight on S4 247
| From | To |
|---|---|
| Ponta Delgada Airport (PDL) |
John F. Kennedy Airport (JFK) |
| Departs | Arrives |
| 08-May-2024 17:30:00 | 08-May-2024 19:35:00 |
| Airline | Cabin |
| Azores Airlines | Economy |
What's Included
Your itinerary includes
- International flights with Iceland Air
- Private transfer from Paris CDG to hotel
- 4 nights at the Les Dames du Pantheon, Paris
- Classic Double with breakfast
- 2x tickets to the Eiffel Tower observation deck
- Small group walking tour of Paris
- Small group food tour
- Private transfer from hotel to Paris CDG
- 24/7 emergency concierge service
Your itinerary excludes
- Arrangements on the 4th
- Travel insurance
- Visas (if applicable)
- Gratuities
Important Information
Travel Advice
It is important to seek independent and up-to-date advice when travelling to any foreign country. Many of our customers ask us to keep them up-to-date on the existing legal position regarding LGBT rights in the country to which they are travelling. You can find up-to-date details on our website under the country which you are travelling to. They are provided as a guide only and laws can change frequently. You should seek advice from the relevant authorities and embassies before travel (if applicable).
Travel Insurance and Terms and Conditions
It is a condition of booking with Out Of Office that you have adequate insurance cover for your trip at the time of booking. Please also ensure you have referred to our terms and conditions which can be found at www.outofoffice.com/terms-and-conditions. Please note that as each booking is tailor-made for you we only confirm the itinerary once we have received a deposit. There is a small chance that availability on some items quoted may change. If this is the case we will book similar accommodation and let you know.