This is Route 3 of 5 round trips from Madeira's capital city, Funchal. Details for Madeira, Funchal and a motorcycle/car rental company are in Route 1's review. I have included a links to the hotel, rental company and Route 1 below this review.
After leaving the hotel, this route passes through 10 tunnels in the first 15 minutes and then travels along part of Route 2 but in the opposite direction and as you know, this always gives a different perspective.
Four more tunnels will take you to the north coast at Sao Vicente, just 40 minutes from south coast to north coast.
Huge green mountains, just a few meters away from the coast, with the sound of waves rolling on pebble beaches… this is how I would describe the north coast. And because of the close proximity of sea and mountain, there are a further 11 tunnels from Sao Vicente to Porto Moniz along the north coast. RP 21 offers you a chance to see the Véu da Noiva, the Bride’s Veil Waterfall and a little further on takes you to Seixal Harbour. Here you'll see the fine black volcanic sand beach between the green of the mountains and blue of the ocean - just beautiful. From here it's just 8 minutes through more tunnels with the occasional view of the coast, to Porto Moniz for lunch.
Porto Moniz is a charming little town that is perched on the dramatic north western tip of Madeira, a region comprised of towering mountains and views over endless deep blues of the Atlantic Ocean. Historically, the topography of the region isolated Porto Moniz from the rest of the island, and the town only survived as a fishing port by specialising in whaling, a practice which continued as late as the 1980s. A long lunch could be taken in one of the excellent seafood restaurants or just relax with a coffee at one of the cafes or bars. Porto Moniz is also home to the Madeira Aquarium that shows the habitats of the Madeiran maritime world. The building of the aquarium is located in the old Sao Joao Batista Fortress, built in 1730 as a response to the pirates’ attack against the people of Porto Moniz.

After lunch and it's back through 3 of the tunnels before heading into the hills towards Ribeira Janeta on the ER209. You climb and climb to around 1400 m and reach a mountain plateaux and you're surrounded by modern windmills in an open moorland setting. The highest point of this route is found at RP 50, 1570 m above sea level. The next few km is in my opinion, the most beautiful and thrilling part of the route. The road becomes what the French call; a balcony road. Carved out of a cliff with sheer cliffs above you on one side and a very big drop off on the other. The landscape is green mountain peaks and deep lush valleys, and just for a change - 3 rock tunnels! The balcony road ends at a junction where you will turn right a follow a gently descending, twisty road with great viewpoints to the deep gorge valley road leading to the south coast that Route 2 uses. But instead of travelling on the twisty roads back to the hotel, this route uses the same dual carriageway road with the 10 tunnels used at the start of this route. That makes a total of 36 tunnels but 39 journeys through them! There is a fuel stop just before the hotel so that you're ready to go again tomorrow.