By TOM PERRY
Gannett News Service

Although it sounds like the stuff of too many umbrella drinks, there really is a sub-tropical island with its very own toboggan run.

The Portuguese island of Madeira, located in eastern Atlantic Ocean, 310 miles off the coast of Africa, is home to a toboggan run that is about 150 years old.

Every day, in the village of Monte, conveyances called toboggans can be found gliding beneath the palm trees down a certain steep slope high above the capital city of Funchal.

These toboggans, which resemble pieces of wicker furniture with sledlike bottoms - do not glide over snow or ice.

Instead, they are guided down two miles of a narrow, cobblestone street that snakes through an old residential neighborhood by two drivers dressed in traditional white shirts and slacks with stiff straw hats.

The toboggans have been following roughly the same downhill route since at least 1848, according to local drivers. Before becoming a tourist attraction, the carro de cesto, as the toboggan is called in Portuguese, was used to transport grapes and casks of Madeira wine, for which the island is famous.

No longer utilitarian in the automotive age, these oversized wicker baskets are throwbacks to slower times. Today, they are to Monte what horse and buggies are to New York City's Central Park.

Madeira was a heavily wooded (the name ''Madeira'' means ''timber'' in Portuguese), uninhabited archipelago when it was settled by the Portuguese at the outset of its seafaring glory years in the early 1420s.

Through the centuries, the island has been supported by economies that evolved around sugar cane, wine and now, tourism. Since early in the 19th century, Madeira has been a warm-weather retreat for affluent Europeans.

Especially favored by the British, who have long enjoyed a chummy relationship with the Portuguese, the island remains largely untrammeled upon by North Americans.

In some ways, Madeira is a rough-hewn, decidedly European version of Bermuda.

Although short pants and motor scooters are rare on Madeira, the Savoy, a five-star resort in Funchal, still serves high tea with finger sandwiches in the afternoon.

Because of Madeira's volcanic origins, the main island has only dark, rocky beaches. So there isn't much of a lotion-soaked, sunworshipping culture there.

Also, flat land is so scarce on the mountainous terrain of Madeira that the airport, which wasn't even built until 1964, has one of the shortest runways in the European community, which makes it almost impossible to land the kind of jumbo jets that would fly in droves of tourists.

Both of these factors allow Madeira to cling to a modicom of Old-World charm, while remaining relatively uncrowded and affordable.

Funchal is a modern, bustling seaport with a busy cargo harbor, frequently visited by cruise liners.

But it is possible to step back in time a few blocks away from the harbor by visiting the frenetic Workers' Market, where fresh produce and fish are sold every day.

Beyond downtown Funchal, the island is doing a slow, if not reluctant, march into the 1990s.

It remains possible to find church festivals that serve food cooked the old-fashioned way, over open wood fires. The fishing village of Camara de Lobos, with its colorful boats, still looks much the way it did in 1949 when Winston Churchill came here to paint it.

And, of course, the toboggans are still running up in Monte.

• Travel Front Page •

• Getting there: There are no direct commercial flights from the United States to Madeira. The best bet is to connect via Air Portugal in Lisbon or British Airways in London. Flying time from Lisbon is 90 minutes and about three hours from London.

• Getting around: Madeira is only 35 miles long by 13 miles wide, but it will seem bigger because it is so mountainous, and the roads are so narrow. Only visitors used to driving in Europe should rent a car. Taxis, usually a BMW or Mercedes, are plentiful and cheap. Although relatively less expensive than many other island destinations, Madeira is even more affordable when purchased as part of a package. Dozens of U.S. firms can help with Madeira arrangements including your local travel agent.

• Lodging: There is diverse accommodation choices in Funchal. Best rates usually come with packages. Top hotel choices include the Savoy Hotel, a majestic, sprawling resort ($220-$440 per night) that's far more affable than Reid's, the quintessential, uptight British hotel ($330-$550).

• Dining: Fresh seafood served in gut-busting portions is the main attraction on the island. Do try the espada, an eel-like, scabbard fish found only off Madeira and Japan. If you dine on meat, take a $25 cab ride from Funchal to Santo Antonio (all the cabbies know about it) above Camara de Lobos. The Madeiran specialty, meat on a skewer (espetada), is a specialty. It is possible to have a good meat-based meal with wine for less than $40 per couple.

• Diversions: As island destinations go, Madeira is restrained and relatively sedate. Like the weather, it never gets really hot, nor does it ever get really cold. Late December and August, are the busiest times of the year. Madeirans enjoy festivals. Anyone on the island during a festival should make every effort to check it out. Hiking, golf, tennis, scuba diving, wind sailing and deep sea fishing are the tourist activities of choice on the island.