Reids Palace has been going for a good 130 years, it’s founder William Reid, a Scotsman who sold his farm back home to buy a swathe of land on the cliff top, he wanted to create an irresistible retreat in the warmer climes of Madeira. He had already established a successful wine business on the island, which no doubt paved the way in establishing the hotel. He had initially moved to Madeira upon his doctor’s instructions, he was advised to seek warmer climes due to health reasons.
Sadly William didn’t live to see the Hotel completed, his sons took over and carried on with the development. They welcomed the first guests in 1891. The Reid’s continued to manage the hotel until 1996 when they handed the reins over to the Blandy family. The Madeira Wine family, you can visit Blandy’s Lodge in Funchal, to sample their wines and take a tour.
Over the years many very well known, powerful, famous individuals have signed the guestbook, including George Bernard Shaw, Winston Churchill, the latter who chose the hotel as a retreat, wrote his memoirs there and painted. You can stay in the Churchill suite till this very day, with it’s views across the gardens.
A beautiful dining experience
We thoroughly enjoyed our time there today, we arrived at 3pm and took a seat in the lobby for awhile, here we took in the sheer decadence of the hotel, beautiful marble, which I believe was imported from Italy at a not inconsiderable expense at the time the hotel was constructed. A pianist playing gentle music in the background. I fell in love with the place, we could get used to this level of hospitality quite easily.
We didn’t wait for long and were shown to our table with one of the best viewpoints from the terrace, out in the open air, looking dreamily out to the Atlantic Ocean. We could see Funchal Harbour and most of the city’s coastal stretch.
Then there was the garden, with it’s many trees, shrubs, flowers all from around the island. It’s like Madeira all in one space.
The views were intoxicating which can be said for many of the hotels along the cliff tops but Reid’s certainly takes a lot of beating. I would’ve argue with anybody claiming it to be the best hotel on the island; I agree entirely!
The waiting staff were all great, especially Cindy who was very bubbly and excited to learn that I am a blogger. If you get to read this Cindy, hello there and I’d like to thank all of your colleagues for an unforgettable experience, it was so good.
We had a choice of teas, the menu offered so many, I wish I had made a note of how many there were but we had Raspberry tea which was scrumptious.
There were plenty of sandwiches, with various fillings from avocado to prawns, to cheese. Then we had scones and loved those so much we had an extra one. That is worth mentioning here, you’ll be offered extras if you want them, we turned down extra sandwiches, as we had plenty. We had an extra scone and extra pots of tea.
The cakes were a lovely assortment of filo pastry, sponge cakes, macarons and I couldn’t tell you what each one was called. They were all excellent though.
We were made to feel at home, to not be rushed and even when we’d finished, there was no rush to issue you us with a bill and off you go. I felt like they wanted us to stay as long as we wished.
The bill came to 78 euros for the two of us, no extra charges at all. It was darned good values for money with lovely old fashioned manners and etiquette. Many restaurants back in the UK could learn a lot from these people!
Finally we were allowed to have a mosey around the gorgeous gardens, I include a gallery of photos to wrap up this post.
Thanks Reid’s - I will share this post with lots of people and say, “If you go to Funchal, which you should of course, it’s all beautiful, book in advance a table for afternoon tea at Reid’s Palace. You will be pleased you did!”
My blog is normally about photography but staff member Cindy was telling us about a blogger she follows who is reviewing afternoon tea venues in the UK. That sounds like fun!
Time for some photos….
