Well worth paying the 5 euros entry. You get 4 glasses of Madeiran wine at the end of the trip. What a great wine. If you like port or sherry you will love it.

The lodge is on one of the streets behind the main promenade, close to where the courtesy coaches drop you off. Walk through the shopping centre, and the street behind is the location of the lodge. English tours are done 4 times a say - but not Sunday.

You can get the lodge and the Monte palace gardens and cable car trip done in a day

A really good tour - very interesting and good value. Loved the malmsey and they are right, it tastes great with chocolate!

We went on the tour which we thought was extremely good value for the price paid. The guide was knowledgable and helpful. It is definitely worth paying the 5 euros as although you can wander around on your own, you would not get the same insight. Obviously it is geared to enticing you to buy the stuff at the end, but there is no hard sell its just left up to you. Tour lasts about 30 minutes with seemingly unlimited tastings at the end some of which were free, the more expensive ones had to be paid for by the glass. All in all a very interesting and enjoyable afternoon

This was a great way to spend a couple of hours on a cloudy afternoon. It's only EUR 4.50 entrance and you get a tour with a tour guide who explains everything. You then go to the tasting room and try some 3 and 5 year old wines.

If you suddenly feel like you're a Madeira conoisseur, you can then go to vintage room and try wines going back as far as 1860. You have to pay for these, but the ones post 1963 are inexpensive (about EUR 4.00 per glass). I bought a bottle of 1973 Verdelho for EUR 54.00 or you could buy a bottle of 1908 for EUR 720.00!