MADEIRA · PORTUGAL
Volcanic peaks, levada walks, the long Atlantic horizon.
Day trips from Funchal across the island. Levadas through cloud forest, sunrise from Pico do Arieiro, whale-watching off the south coast, the natural lava pools at Porto Moniz and the wicker toboggans from Monte.
Only in Madeira
Three things you can’t do anywhere else.
Catamaran trips, scenic hikes and wine tastings exist in every European holiday destination. These three don’t. The 16th-century irrigation walks, the wicker sled run from Monte, the whales pulled in by a 2,000m Atlantic trench just offshore. Each one is genuinely specific to this island. Plan the rest of the trip around them.
In the cloud forest
Walks of the Levadas
Two thousand kilometres of waist-deep irrigation channels were cut into Madeira’s mountains in the 16th century to move rain from the wet north to the dry south. You walk along the maintenance path beside the channel, often a metre wide, through tunnels in the rock and the moss-hung Laurissilva cloud forest. The forest is a UNESCO World Heritage relic of what covered most of southern Europe before the last ice age. No other island has anything like the network.
- 1 Madeira: Enjoy a Guided Levada Walk in the Rabaçal Valley
- 2 Rabaçal: 25 Fontes & Risco Levada Transfer Self-guided Hike
- 3 Madeira East Island Tour and Levada Walk
Down from Monte
The Wicker Toboggan
Two men in white linen and rubber-soled boots push a wicker basket on wooden runners down a 2km cobbled street from the church at Monte to Livramento. They started doing this in the 1850s to bring goods down the mountain. They still do it, the carreiros are still a recognised trade, and the run still ends on the same street. Nowhere else on earth runs this as a sightseeing trip.
- 1 From Funchal: Nuns Valley, Monte and Sleigh Ride Tour
- 2 Funchal: Guided Tuk Tuk Tour to Toboggan Rides & Old Town
- 3 Funchal: Monte Tropical Garden & Toboggan Ride by Tuk Tuk
Off the south coast
Whales Within Sight of Shore
Madeira sits above a two-thousand-metre Atlantic trench that pulls cetaceans unusually close in. Twenty-eight species have been recorded in the surrounding waters, with year-round resident pods of pilot whales and bottlenose dolphins. Most catamarans leave Funchal marina and sight the residents within forty minutes; sperm whales, Bryde’s and orcas are seasonal regulars.
- 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
Out of Funchal marina
Start with the one that everyone books.
If you book one Madeira day trip, this is the one most travellers end up on. Out from Funchal’s marina, into the deep Atlantic, looking for the resident pilot whales and dolphin pods that live within sight of the south coast.
The classics
Madeira’s Most Popular Tours
Whales, levadas, Pico Arieiro at sunrise, the west-coast Fanal forest, the Skywalk at Cabo Girão. The trips travellers keep coming back for.
By place
Pick a corner of Madeira.
Funchal for the old town and the market. Pico Arieiro for the sunrise above the clouds. Porto Moniz for the volcanic pools. Cabo Girão for the cliff drop. Fanal for the mist forest. São Lourenço for the rust-red peninsula.
By tour type
Or pick how you want to spend the day.
A catamaran out to the dolphins. A levada walk through laurel canopy. A 4x4 across the western highlands. Canyoning down a basalt slot, sunrise above the clouds, a wine tasting in the old quarter, or the wicker toboggan ride down Monte.
Above the inversion
The morning that starts at 1,800 metres.
Madeira’s two highest peaks sit above the daytime cloud layer most mornings. Sunrise guides drive you up from Funchal in the dark so you watch the sun come up onto a sea of cloud below the ridge. Ponta de São Lourenço on the eastern tip is a shorter, gentler version of the same view. The three we’d build a Madeira morning around.
A day around the island
The round-the-island loops.
Madeira is small enough that a single guided day covers a third of it. The West loop takes in the Skywalk at Cabo Girão, Porto Moniz lava pools, Seixal and Fanal’s mist forest. The East loop runs through Santana’s triangular thatched houses, Pico Arieiro and São Lourenço. If we had to pick three island-wide days, these.
Off the south coast
When you want to be on the water.
Sailing yachts, catamaran half-days, sunset cruises along the cliffs to Cabo Girão, the Santa Maria de Colombo replica with its lateen sails. The Funchal marina boats that aren’t the dolphin trip. Our three favourites for when the swell is down and you want a deck under you.
Old town & the wine lodges
Funchal’s table.
Madeira wine tastings at lodges that have been pouring since the 1700s, a Mercado dos Lavradores food walk through the old town, a poncha bar with the locals, the volcanic-soil vineyards above Câmara de Lobos. Three picks for the trip’s slower days.
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