Socalco, Madeira's most Madeiran hotel

Socalco Nature Hotel opened to the public in October 2020, in Calheta. It is the realization of Chef Octávio Freitas’s dream: “the most Madeiran hotel in Madeira”.

It is an agritourism unit that stands out for offering unique experiences in an attempt to recreate local traditions: it is possible to sleep in a cave, to participate in cooking classes, wine tasting events and gastronomic tours, to participate in farm tasks or watch the production of bread and jams.

With sustainability as a concern, it brings in its name the respect for nature and local culture. Perfectly framed in the “socalcos” (small farming areas) that run through the landscape, the accommodation units are distributed between stone walls, cultivated land and “levadas” (irrigation water courses).

There are 8 detached houses, 10 other houses and a main building, the latter an old manor house from 1685 that is divided into 2 floors: on the top floor, “Casa do Chef” (Chef’s house), in which the guest can “have a chef at his disposal”; on the lower floor, the restaurant ‘A Razão’.

This hotel favors the strong gastronomic component of its offer: after all, its owner is a chef. With a strong connection to the soil and the healthy eating, the main ingredient is always the freshness of the products that come from the garden and that determine the daily variability of the menu.

At “Casa do Chef” you can find cooking equipment from the historic French brand La Cornue, supplied and installed by FN hotelaria. In the restaurant's kitchen, the highlight goes to the Marrone cooking block, designed by FN hotelaria and fully customized for Socalco, produced in Italy by Marrone Custom Cooking. The remaining kitchen, pantry and storage area equipment was also object of project, supply and installation by FN hotelaria.