{"id":92344,"date":"2026-10-12T16:47:02","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T08:47:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=92344"},"modified":"2026-10-12T16:47:02","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T08:47:02","slug":"a-writers-birthday-escape-to-madeira-blends-island-adventure-with-a-lot-of-pampering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=92344","title":{"rendered":"A writer\u2019s birthday escape to Madeira blends island adventure with a lot of pampering"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.i-scmp.com\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/1280x720\/public\/d8\/images\/canvas\/2026\/10\/12\/8eb570a8-81ca-4b01-8b18-4fd9c6522e69_e5e17289.jpg?itok=w4oaGCzN&amp;v=1791788798\" \/><\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\"><em data-qa=\"ContentSchemaRender-defaultRenderMapFunctions-Component\" class=\"css-1mniedq ex3nmsa15\">By Alan Behr<\/em><\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Wilson Fernandes takes every tight turn, steep plunge and narrow miss of parked cars like the pro that he is, driving me in his Land Rover through the back roads of the island of Madeira.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">We are in the eastern Atlantic Ocean, 500 miles to 600 miles (800km to 1,000km) southwest of the Portuguese mainland, but the hill-studded landscape, challenging roads and the rotating patches of functional housing, opulent villas and open terrain remind me of Saint Barthelemy, far to our west, in the Caribbean.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Wilson, who is part South African, speaks excellent English. He drives me to Paul da Serra, a broad plateau, for a view from nearly 5,000 feet (1,524 metres) above just about everything. The Fanal Forest sits atop the plateau, vivid green with the native evergreen til trees that gave the island its name.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/lifestyle\/travel-leisure\/article\/3370333\/writers-birthday-escape-madeira-blends-island-adventure-lot-pampering?utm_source=rss_feed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Alan Behr Wilson Fernandes takes every tight turn, steep plunge and narrow miss of parked cars like the pro that he is, driving me&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":92345,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[5945,117,5571,924,5067,1776,31518,31519,8971],"class_list":["post-92344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bored-interesting","tag-adventure","tag-birthday","tag-blends","tag-escape","tag-island","tag-lot","tag-madeira","tag-pampering","tag-writers","wpcat-33-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=92344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92344\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/92345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=92344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=92344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=92344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}