Túnel das Poças do Gomes is the lit passage cut through the headland at Ponta da Cruz, and it is how Funchal's seafront promenade gets from the Doca do Cavacas pools to the black pebbles of Praia Formosa. It is about 100 metres long, the council rewired and relit it in 2023, and it is one of the first things on this coast to shut when the Atlantic gets up.
A Hundred Metres Between the Pools and the Pebbles
The tunnel sits in the parish of São Martinho, where Funchal's built seafront runs out of flat ground. On the city side is the Doca do Cavacas bathing complex at Rua da Ponta da Cruz 66, volcanic rock pools with direct sea access and Cabo Girão on the horizon. On the other side is Praia Formosa, which Frente MarFunchal counts as four beaches in a row, Praia Nova, Formosa, dos Namorados and do Areeiro, and which is free to walk onto.
Visit Madeira treats the tunnel as the hinge between two walkways. The Funchal seaside promenade, whose first stretch opened in August 1993 as the Lido Gardens, runs west past the Marine Biology Station and the Ponta Gorda pools to Ponta da Cruz. From the far mouth the 2.2 km Câmara de Lobos Promenade takes over, part of it carried on pillars to leave the cliffs alone, and ends at the fishing bay. The tunnel is the join in the middle, and the only part of the route with a roof.
Maps Say Poças do Gomes, the Council Says Doca do Cavacas
Search for it and you will find Túnel das Poças do Gomes. Read Funchal's own announcements and it is the túnel da Doca do Cavacas, or the túnel da Praia Formosa. They are all the same hundred metres. The city's visitor listing explains the muddle: the bathing complex at the eastern mouth was known as Poça do Gomes before it took the name Doca do Cavacas, and the older name stayed stuck to the tunnel.
That is worth knowing in advance. Closure notices and local reports use the official name, so a search for Poças do Gomes mostly turns up other visitors' photographs. Search for Doca do Cavacas in Portuguese and you get the council, the parish council and the regional press, which is where news about the passage actually appears.
New Lighting and a Full Rewire Reopened It in 2023
The tunnel has not always looked the way it does now. In April 2023 the Câmara Municipal do Funchal announced that it had been rehabilitated and reopened to the public: the whole electrical network repaired, new and more efficient decorative lighting installed, emergency signage added, and the escarpment cleaned on the western side where the tunnel comes out towards Formosa. The work ran alongside the rehabilitation of roughly 400 metres of sea protection and promenade at Praia Formosa.
It had been shut for most of the winter before that: a Frente MarFunchal notice in December 2022 gave the link between the two bathing complexes as closed until May 2023 for works in progress. An earlier reopening, on Saturday 12 June 2021, followed the repositioning of the walkway through the passage, and it was the Junta de Freguesia de São Martinho that announced it.
Important for the enjoyment of the public, offering greater safety to anyone moving around Praia Formosa.
Bruno Pereira, Funchal councillor responsible for Frente MarFunchal
Check the Sea Before You Rely on the Tunnel
The tunnel closes, and not always with much warning. The councillor responsible for Frente MarFunchal has set out the pattern plainly: it shuts in winter because sea conditions carry off the natural pebbles on that stretch of beach, and the council puts them back before the bathing season. Heavy seas can close it at other times of year too, so on a day with a big swell, check before you count on coming back the same way.
Getting there is simple. Walk west along the promenade from the Lido, which puts it within reach of most of the Funchal hotel district, or take Horários do Funchal's Ponta da Cruz bus, renumbered 002 in March 2026. Entry to the pools at Doca do Cavacas is ticketed. Praia Formosa, at the other end, is free.
Time it for a calm evening, with the lighting on and the pools behind you, and the best hundred metres of Funchal's seafront is the stretch where you cannot see the sea at all.
