The breezy hilltop suburb of Monte includes a church where Charles I, last of the Hapsburg emperors, is buried. But the real attraction are rides on the world-famous carro de cesto street toboggans. A pair of white-suited, skilled drivers will push and steer your wicker sled through the streets and down three miles of steep, winding roads back to Funchal. The cost is about $12; contact Carreiros do Monte, Sitio da Igreja (291 783 919).

This mountainside tavern halfway between Funchal and Monte does attract its share of tourists, but with good reason. The menu is terribly simple—chicken and beef espetadas (skewered kebabs) cooked in an open wood-burning oven—and makes for a refreshingly carnivorous break from all that seafood. Also, the atmosphere is exceedingly convivial, from the regular Fado shows and other folk music performed live nearly nightly, and because diners rip their own meat off the tripod of skewers hanging above the table, sopping up the juices with warm, freshly baked bread. All good fun.

If you can't decipher what's scrawled on the blackboard menu, Senhor Luis will help you pick something fresh from the catch of the day at this seafood restaurant by Funchal's bustling market. This is a plain and simple little eatery serving plain and simple fisherman's food—grilled fish straight off the boats, garlic-laden shrimp, and scrumptious tuna steaks.