Madeira Luggage Storage: The Airport Desk and Funchal Lockers

Where It Sits and When It Opens

The Left Luggage desk sits before security, on the ground floor, marked as floor 0 in the airport's own floor numbering. It opens 00:00-24:00. That wording covers every hour of the day, so an arrival before hotel check-in or a departure after checkout both work.

It is the only luggage service in this guide that opens through the night. If you are planning your first or last hours on the island, our Madeira airport guide covers the rest of the airport in detail.

What It Costs and the Exact Price Wording

The operator prints the price as follows: per item, for 24h or 4h fraction, $5.17 (€4.50). Prices include VAT. The phrase '24h or 4h fraction' is the operator's own wording and it is ambiguous, so we repeat it exactly rather than interpret it.

The safest reading for your budget is our own: assume you pay $5.17 (€4.50) per item for any period up to 24 hours, and that fractions of time are charged at the 4-hour step, not the minute. There is also a penalty worth knowing before you hand over a bag. Loss or damage of the receipt costs €26.00.

Keep the receipt in your phone case or passport holder, not loose in a pocket. Note the penalty stays in euro alone because it is a charge the operator sets, not a travel cost we convert.

What You Can Leave

The operator lists three cases that matter to travellers with awkward gear. The desk takes bicycles. It takes surfboards.

It takes several bags per passenger, so a family of four can pool six or eight suitcases at one desk with no problem. That makes the desk our pick for anyone with equipment cases that no standard locker in Funchal would fit.

Safe Bag Wrapping and Free Trolleys

The airport also runs a Safe Bag service. It covers cleaning, disinfection and packaging of a bag. It sits before security on floor 1 and opens 08:00-14:00, so morning arrivals only.

The operator prints no price for it, which we flag again in the section on gaps below. On the free side of things, baggage trolleys are available at baggage claim and at the first floor entrance at no charge. Use one to move bags from the carousel to the left-luggage desk without a second trip.

Keep it Safe 24/7: Two Stores, Three Locker Sizes

Keep it Safe 24/7 runs two stores in Funchal. The Downtown store is at Travessa do Freitas 9B, 9000-042 Funchal. The Old Town store is at Rua dos Barreiros 26B, 9060-397 Funchal.

Both sets of lockers are accessible 24/7, and you open your locker with your smartphone after booking. You pay only when you are about to enter the store, which the operator says guarantees the locker is free. Sizes and prices per 3 hours are M 50x30x85 cm from $5.63 (€4.90), L 50x50x85 cm from $11.37 (€9.90), and XL 50x60x85 cm from $14.81 (€12.90).

If your bag stays longer than 24 hours, the operator arranges it through WhatsApp on +351 935899178. Paid collection and delivery of bags is also available on request via the same WhatsApp number, subject to availability. That last service is worth knowing if you store at the airport and want a bag brought into town.

Locker in the City: One Locker, Any Number of Bags

Locker in the City lists one Madeira location, on Avenida Monumental at R. José António de Freitas Gonçalves, Loja B do Bloco A, which the operator describes as 1 minute from Forum Shopping Centre. It is open 24H, 24/7, including Sundays and holidays. The pricing model differs from Keep it Safe.

You rent the entire locker, not a space per bag, in three sizes called M, XL and XXL. The operator gives one worked example for the M locker: it fits one suitcase of 20 kg plus one backpack, or three suitcases of 10 kg. If two of you share one locker, you split the cost.

Luggage is insured up to €1,000, the locker has video surveillance, Wi-Fi and a USB charger, and cancellation is free up to 24 hours before the reservation. Booking is online only, with no cash on premises. The catch is the price: it is shown only after you choose your dates, so you cannot compare it with Keep it Safe until you start a booking.

Bounce and LuggageHero: Marketplaces of Partner Shops

Bounce and LuggageHero work differently. Neither runs its own lockers. Each lists partner shops, hotels and cafés around Funchal that hold bags for a fee set by the venue.

Bounce's Funchal page headlines 18 luggage storage spots from $2.24 (€1.95) per day, while each spot card on the same page reads from $4.02 (€3.50) per day. Two different starting prices on one page is a reason to read the specific spot card before you book, not the headline. Partner hours vary because the venues are ordinary businesses.

Examples printed on the page run from 9:30am-6pm to 7am-11:30pm, in areas including Avenida Sá Carneiro, the Old Town and near the cathedral. LuggageHero headlines Funchal storage from $1.15 (€1) per hour with book now pay later and free cancellation, on hourly or daily rates. It prints no daily cap and no location list on its landing page.

The practical point for an evening flight is simple. A marketplace spot is only useful if its partner closes late enough, so check the printed hours of the exact spot before booking, not just the price.

The table below compares what each service rents out and the starting price it prints, using each operator's own figures. Where an operator shows no figure before booking, the cell says Not stated and the note above explains why.

Each row matches one common travel day to the service we would choose and the reason, based on the published hours and prices in this guide. Read the row that matches your case and skip the rest.

The One Open Through the Night

Only the airport desk and the two Keep it Safe 24/7 locker stores are reachable at any hour. Every Bounce and LuggageHero partner sets its own hours, and the printed examples range from 9:30am-6pm to 7am-11:30pm. If your bag needs to come back after 23:00, our pick is the airport desk on the way out or a Keep it Safe locker in town.

The Aerobus Airport Bus

The Aerobus is the airport express bus between Madeira Airport and Funchal, running as far as Praia Formosa in about 50 minutes, and SIGA describes it as designed for travellers with luggage. What SIGA does not publish is any baggage size or weight rule for it. There is no printed limit on dimensions, no printed weight cap and no printed per-bag charge on the operator's own material.

In practice that means you board with your suitcase and manage it yourself. For fares, stops and the timetable, see getting around Madeira and Madeira airport.

Taxis and the Luggage Supplement

The regional taxi tariff sets a supplement for luggage or pets at $1.72 (€1.50) per piece. Two things travel free: a pram, and hand luggage up to 55x35x20 cm and 25 kg. A wheelchair and a guide dog are also free.

So a couple with two large suitcases from the airport to Funchal pays the meter fare plus $1.72 (€1.50) plus $1.72 (€1.50). The tariff sets no fixed airport-to-Funchal price, and the figures quoted on travel blogs are not in the official document, so we do not print them. Ask for a receipt, as the tariff itself advises.

More detail is in our Madeira taxi guide.

The Porto Santo Ferry

The Lobo Marinho ferry to Porto Santo has written rules in its own passenger contract. Each passenger may bring one piece of hand or cabin baggage, including handbags and laptop bags, not exceeding 56x45x25 cm. Anything larger must travel as hold baggage.

Hold baggage must be placed on the designated trolleys up to 30 minutes before departure. The carrier also states that it is not responsible for loss of or damage to valuable items including jewellery, artwork, camera, computer and sports equipment, so carry those with you in the cabin bag. Live animals travel in an appropriate carrier or special compartment, and weapons require a licence and are handed to the ship's duty officer.

Gaps at the Airport

The airport operator publishes a dedicated left-luggage page, but that page will not load for us. The site sits behind bot protection and returned empty content on repeated attempts. The figures in this guide come instead from the operator's own baggage services page, which we read in full and which carries the price, hours and location.

That page prints no price for the Safe Bag wrapping service either. None of this changes the numbers, but it explains why we quote one airport page and not two.

Gaps in Funchal and Porto Santo

No left-luggage office is published at the Funchal cruise and ferry terminal. The port authority's own site advertises no luggage storage or locker service for the passenger terminal. No dedicated left-luggage or locker page exists for Porto Santo airport either, and the airport network that covers it publishes nothing equivalent.

The Funchal tourist information office at Avenida Arriaga 16 publishes no bag-holding service, so the desk there is for maps and questions, not suitcases.

Gaps in the Private Prices

Locker in the City and LuggageHero print no final price before you choose dates or a spot, so we cannot quote them here, and you cannot compare them without starting a booking. No operator in this guide publishes an insurance figure except Locker in the City, which states cover up to €1,000. Bounce's two starting prices on the same page are the clearest example of why the note under our comparison table matters.

No private price in this guide is final until the booking screen.