Had a great first time Surf experience and was able to catch a lot of waves!The Owner Rodolfo will always greet you with a big smile and assist in all kind of inquiries. Professional instructors teach you the proper technique and give you feedback what to improve on.Overall, the atmosphere and people were awesome, and I would recommend Calhau Surf School to anyone, who visits Madeira and wants to catch some waves and have a good time.
Great surf experience!I had several surf trips and this one was great! good vibes, enough instructors for the people in the water and differentiations between the levels. Highly recommended!!
We enjoyed our two days of surfing a lot. Five instructors cared about 10 surf-newbies, which was great to learn a lot. Most of us took huge steps even in this 2 days. Each day the coaches decided which beach may serve best regarding the conditions for suiting best to the skills of the participants. The whole lesson, pictures of all of the participants were taken. In the afternoon we had a detailed session together with Rodolfo, who showed us on the pictures, how each one of us can improve.Additionally, we also enjoyed our stay in the Villa Bella Hotel a lot. We had a room with balcony and amazing beach view. The people of the hotel were very kind and professional.Thanks to the whole team of the surfing school and the hotel for making our stay in Porto da Cruz perfect!
I've had several surfing lessons all over the world and I can honestly say this was the best surfing school! Not only do you get a really warm welcome and have lots of laughs, the most important are of course the lessons. Right from the start you learn proper base techniques which help you throughout all your surfing, plus they instantly see when you picked up on bad habits and make sure you'll loose them.Rodolfo will be making beautiful pictures, which you not only download for free after, but they use it to sit together after the lesson and go through it to show you what you did good and where you can improve on.Rodolfo and the surf instructors are great, friendly and awesome people. You definitely get your money's worth here!
Definitely recommend! My girlfriend and I took a 3 day surf and stay. The instructors are extremely helpful. Some days we almost got a private lesson because there were just 3-4 surfers per instructor. Got to meet fantastic people in the group and Villa Bella is a great place to stay. Right at the beach side. If you’re a beginner, this is the thing for you.
It was my second time on Madeira and the second time I had surf lessons with the Calhao Surf Crew. I can't wait to go back! The experience was amazing, thank you guys for making our trip so special and for sharing your experience with us! Also the stay in Villa Bela was beautiful, the staff is so friendly and helpful! I wish you all the best and see you soon!!
We booked the week surf camp and had a phenomenal experience. We had 5 days of surfing with the best coaches. The whole team was supportive and encouraging while providing useful feedback every time. We surfed with Phillip, Augusto and Nikita — all of whom gave helpful tips and tricks to improve our technique. We had been surfing before, but never with such quality instructors. We stood up on the first wave and could see real improvement over the course of 5 days.Rodolfo took pictures and invited the group to look at them together back at the surf school in the evening. You can really tell how passionate he is about surfing and helping others learn to surf.The hotel was also wonderful. We stayed at the guest house and they upgraded us to the apartment room for the week and it was incredible. Spacious, clean, well-equipped and stunning views. Would definitely recommend anyone looking to improve their surfing to visit this Calhau surf school! Hope to come back soon!
My husband and I, we super love this experience!We never ever stay on surf before and the friendly stuff, the instructors attention, very good advices and care they provide help us falling in love with the surfing.We also enjoy stay in the guest house which is super hospitable and clean.We definitely recommend this place and the surf school. It’s the perfect choice.
Brilliant experience delivered by Rodolfo, Philippe, Nikita & Augusto. Very reliable and friendly, great experience as a couple getting practically private lessons. Definitely recommend to go here if you want to go surfing on Madeira, especially if it’s your first time! Many thanks to Calhau, maybe see you soon again Rodolfo! Greetings from Holland, Floor & Marten
Me and my boyfriend booked 5 night surf pack. We enjoyed it so much that we extended our stay for two more nights. We were staying in Nature guest house which was really nice, tidy, cozy with a street view but also could see mountains and the beach. The staff in the restaurant and hotel were really friendly and helpful. Communication with Rudolfo was really good and easy.In these five days of surfing I made great progress and had so much fun. The instructors were really professional. For a beginner the waves sometimes were big but I was feeling safe. Depending on the conditions we would surf at different beaches which I really enjoyed.Will come back,Thank you so much!
We had a great surfing experience! The surf school has a lot of instructors (1 instructor per 3-5 surfers), which guarantees enough personal attention. Especially for us as beginners this contributed to it being a very fruitful lesson. The instructors we had, Rodolfo and his wife, seem to be really passionate about surfing.One thing the surf school could improve, is the communication at the start of the lesson. It felt really chaotic and we were send to different places without proper instructions. In the end it all worked out fine, but in the moment we felt a bit lost.All in all a super experience! We would definitely recommend this school and come back in the future!
Picked up the 'stay and surf' package of 7 days and 5 surf lessons. The guest house is lovely with great sea views, spacious rooms and a 10/10 when it comes to cleanliness.The surf lessons and team are mega friendly and helpful, they will offer you loads of feedback so you can improve as quickly as possible. At the end of each lesson, you'll have access to really high-quality pictures that will help you both identify the things you may be doing wrong when you surf, as well as create great memories for you to take home.Tips for future guests: Rodolfo and his wife Paula (the owners) are super friendly and very quick to get back to you on Whatsapp. If you don't see a package that suits you on the Calhau site (for example, you may want to do 4 or 7 days of surfing instead of 5) get in touch and they will put together a package for you that works. Also, they lend you beach towels if you don't have any/don't want to carry them in your luggage. There are various hikes that are not far from Porto da Cruz for you to do on your days off (e.g. Ponta de São Lourenço) and if you're into trail running you're going to be spoiled. If the morning is clear, get up early and catch the sunrise over the ocean.Tips for Vila Bela: I always try give ideas to things I would add in the future in the hope they help make the business even more appealing. I would add more veggie/vegan options to the restaurant (especially more of that veggie soup please!). Also, surf and yoga retreats have become very popular in the last few years so perhaps this is also something to look into.
