MADEIRA · PORTUGAL
Mountains that fall straight into the Atlantic.
Sunrise above the clouds on Pico do Arieiro, levada paths through the laurel forest, lava pools on the north coast and whales in the deep water offshore. Every tour on the island, reviewed and ranked.
Only on Madeira
Three things you’ll only do here.
Boat trips and coast walks turn up on every island. A ridge walk above a sea of cloud, footpaths cut beside 500-year-old water channels, and a laurel forest older than the maps do not.
Above the clouds
The roof of the island, at dawn
The PR1 trail runs along the spine of Madeira from Pico do Arieiro, at 1,818 metres, to Pico Ruivo, the island’s highest point at 1,862. Set off in the dark and you climb out above the cloud, onto a ridge of bare volcanic rock with the Atlantic somewhere far below, and watch the sun come up over a sea of white. There is nowhere on the island quite like it at first light.
- 1 Funchal: Pico do Arieiro Sunrise Transfer Self-guided Hike
- 2 Madeira Funchal:East Tour Pico Arieiro & Santana&Laurissilva
- 3 From Funchal: Transfer to Pico do Arieiro & Pico Ruivo Trail
Water cut into rock
The levada paths
For 500 years Madeirans cut narrow channels into the mountainsides to carry water from the wet north to the dry south. The result is some 2,500 kilometres of levadas, each with a maintenance path beside it, and the gentlest way ever invented to walk deep into a mountain landscape. Follow one to the 25 Fontes waterfalls at Rabacal and the forest closes in around you.
- 1 Madeira: Enjoy a Guided Levada Walk in the Rabaçal Valley
- 2 Madeira Walks – Rabaçal and the 25 Fountains
- 3 Rabaçal: 25 Fontes & Risco Levada Transfer Self-guided Hike
The cloud forest
A laurel forest in the fog
Fanal is a stand of ancient til trees high on the plateau, part of the Laurisilva, the largest surviving laurel forest on Earth and a UNESCO World Heritage site. When the cloud rolls in, the gnarled, moss-hung trees fade into the mist and the whole place turns silent and otherworldly. A forest that was old before the island was settled.
- 1 Madeira: Skywalk, Porto Moniz, Seixal, and Fanal 4WD Tour
- 2 Funchal: Enchanted Terraces, Porto do Moniz & Fanal 4WD Tour
- 3 Porto Moniz, Seixal, Fanal Forest, Cliff Skywalk in Open Roof 4X4
The one everyone books
The island’s single most booked day out.
More travellers reserve this than anything else on the site. If you only lock in one thing before you fly, this is the safe bet.
The classics
Madeira’s Most Popular Tours
Whale-watching catamarans, sunrise peak hikes, west-coast 4x4 runs and the levada paths. The days most travellers book first.
Where to begin
The days a Madeira trip is built around.
Whale watches, levada walks, the high peaks, the wild-north jeep runs, Fanal forest and the island wines. The experiences most trips are planned around, and the best of each.
Where to base yourself
Funchal is your basecamp.
Almost everyone stays in the capital and heads out from there. The island is small enough that the peaks, the wild coast and the open sea are each a half or full day away. Pick a direction.
The water network
2,500 kilometres of footpath beside the water.
The levadas are Madeira’s great feat of engineering: narrow channels hand-cut into the cliffs to carry rain from the green north to the terraced south. Every one has a path running alongside, almost level, so you walk into the heart of the mountains without the climb. The classics, Rabacal and the 25 Fontes, the Levada do Caldeirao Verde, the Balcoes, thread through tunnels, past waterfalls and into the laurel forest.
Read the guide: the best levada walks →The far side of the island
Lava pools, waterfalls and forest tracks.
The north and west are Madeira at its most dramatic, and the hardest to reach on your own. Open-top jeeps run the old roads to the natural pools at Porto Moniz, the waterfall that falls onto the coast road at Seixal, the misty til trees of Fanal and the high plateau of Paul da Serra. Someone else takes the hairpins; you take the view.
See the jeep safaris →The floating garden
An island in flower, the whole year round.
A mild Atlantic climate and rich volcanic soil have made Madeira one long terraced garden. Bougainvillea spills over the walls of Funchal, jacaranda turns the avenues purple in spring, and the botanical gardens above the city are stacked with plants found nowhere else. Ride the cable car up to Monte and the wicker toboggans back down, or simply walk the old town with a glass of poncha.
Funchal, Monte and the gardens →Out in the deep water
Whales and dolphins, close to shore.
The seabed drops away fast off Madeira, so the open ocean and the animals that live in it are barely twenty minutes from the marina. Resident bottlenose and common dolphins travel in big pods most of the year, and pilot whales, sperm whales and the occasional Bryde’s whale move through with the seasons. Most catamarans carry a marine biologist and a code of conduct, so the boats keep their distance and the encounter is on the animals’ terms.
- 1 From Funchal: Ecological Catamaran Dolphin Whale Watching
- 2 Funchal: Dolphin and Whale Watching Catamaran Cruise
- 3 Funchal Bay: Dolphin & Whale Watch Luxury Catamaran Cruise
The island table
A wine that survived being shipped to the tropics.
Madeira has made its fortified wine for some 500 years, and the quirk that defines it is heat: barrels were once carried across the equator and back, and the warming turned out to make the wine better. The old lodges in Funchal still pour it from the cask, dry Sercial to sweet Malvasia. Pair it with a skewer of espetada, a glass of poncha, and the terraced vineyards it all comes from.
See all 49 wine experiences →Around the island
Pick a corner of the island.
Funchal for the gardens and the wine lodges. Porto Moniz for the lava pools. The west for the levadas and laurel forest, the east for Santana and the bare São Lourenço cape. Cabo Girão for the cliff edge, the high peaks for the dawn.
By activity
Or pick how to spend the day.
A jeep if you want range. A levada if you want the gentle way in. A catamaran if you want the whales. Plus canyoning down the ravines, a tuk-tuk through Funchal, a wine tasting, and the toboggan run down from Monte.
Plan it
Three perfect days.
First time on Madeira? A long weekend that mixes the high peaks, the wild coast and the open sea.
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