Madeira

IslandsMadeira,Portugal

A Portuguese island rising vertically from the Atlantic, carrying the largest laurel forest left on Earth and 2,500 kilometres of hand-dug channels walked as paths.

September·Peaking now

Jun–Sep

Madeira at its most itself: the driest, clearest months, when the Arieiro–Ruivo walk runs reliably above the sea of clouds. The ocean warms from roughly 21°C in June to 23°C by September, and Funchal's Atlantic Festival lights the bay with fireworks on June Saturdays.

Year-round Madeira's laurel forest, levada paths and cloud-topped peaks are here year-round in a mild climate; spring and summer bring the clearest days on the high ridge trail.

Madeira, a Portuguese island that comes almost straight up out of the Atlantic, is walked along its water supply. Some 2,500 kilometres of narrow channels, the levadas, were dug by hand from the sixteenth century on, to move rain from the wet north to the dry south. Each one has a maintenance path beside it, and because water has to run level, so does the path. That is how you get deep into country this steep without a climber's legs. They lead into the laurisilva, the moss-hung laurel forest that once covered southern Europe and survives here at its largest anywhere. Ferns crowd the path, water slides along at your elbow, and the canopy closes into a green half-light. The Portuguese who landed in 1420 called the island Madeira, wood, for trees too thick to land among. At Fanal the forest opens into meadow, where laurels five centuries old stand broad and gnarled in the drifting fog. Above the forest the island is rock. The classic walk links Pico do Arieiro and Pico Ruivo along a ridge of rock-cut stairs, tunnels and ledges, with five hundred metres of air on both sides. Most of its length is above the cloud layer. You start before sunrise, and the light comes in level rather than from above while the cloud in the valleys turns pink underfoot. At Porto Moniz old lava has hardened into pools that fill with clear Atlantic water, the sea breaking white on the black rock just beyond. Mountain bikes drop from wet laurel forest to banana terraces, a thousand metres in one run. Above Funchal two men in white with straw hats still push a wicker basket on wooden runners down from Monte, braking with their boot soles, as they have since 1850. The easy, level path under your boots was cut the hard way: men lowered on ropes over the ravines, chipping out the channel and the ledge beside it by hand.

Worth knowing

Good to know

Be on the ridge within the first hour of light — by late morning cloud usually stands over the peaks rather than below them, and the view goes white.
Dress for two climates — the summits run far colder and windier than the coast, and fog can close in within minutes, so carry warm layers and a windbreaker even on a clear morning.
Some levadas run through unlit tunnels — the longer forest routes like Caldeirão Verde punch straight through the mountain, so pack a head-torch and expect a cold drip from the rock overhead.
The clearest, driest weather runs late spring to early autumn — but the peaks make their own weather, so a summit can sit in fog while Funchal stays in full sun.
Whales and dolphins pass all year — more than twenty cetacean species move through these deep Atlantic waters, from common dolphins to sperm whales, and most boat trips make a sighting.

Things to do

1
Walk the Arieiro–Ruivo ridge above the clouds
The classic Madeira walk links the island's two highest peaks along a ridge that spends most of its length above the cloud layer. The path is carved into the rock — unlit tunnels you need a torch for, long stone staircases, and stretches with five-hundred-metre drops on both sides. Set out before sunrise: the light arrives level with you rather than from above, and the sea of cloud in the valleys turns pink while you walk over the top of it.
2
Swim the volcanic pools of Porto Moniz
On the island's northwestern tip, old lava flows have hardened into a maze of natural pools that fill with clear Atlantic water. You can slip in for a swim while the open sea breaks in white spray against the black rock just beyond.
3
Ride a wicker sledge down from Monte
Two carreiros in white, straw-hatted and shod in rubber soles that work as brakes, push a wicker basket mounted on wooden runners down the street from Monte. The carts have run since 1850, when they were simply the fast way down to Funchal. The two-kilometre slide to Livramento takes a little over five minutes and touches about 38 km/h on the steeper straights.
4
Walk the laurel forest, from a levada to Fanal
Follow one of the old water channels as it runs level and quiet deep into the moss-hung laurisilva. Ferns crowd the path, water slides steadily at your side, and the forest closes overhead into a green half-light. On the high plateau of Fanal the same forest thins into open meadow, where laurels have grown gnarled and broad over five centuries. When fog drifts across it their bare, twisting shapes seem to float free of the ground.
5
Drop by bike from the laurisilva to the banana terraces
The classic run starts in wet laurel forest near the ridge and finishes in banana terraces just above the sea, losing more than a thousand metres in one drop. The surface changes as you go: moss and root, then loose volcanic grit, then packed red clay. Riders have a name for that clay — Madeiran ice — because after rain it takes on a wet sheen and the grip simply goes. The Enduro World Series raced these trails in 2017 and 2019.