Madeira at a slower pace: Funchal, the North Coast and Calheta

1. Day 1: Arrive in Funchal

   Madeira Airport to Funchal

   • Drive about 30 min
   • Welcome dinner
   • Stay in Funchal
   Day 1 details

   We meet you at Madeira Airport (FNC) in Santa Cruz, whatever time your flight lands, and drive about 30 minutes along the south coast to Funchal, the island's capital, where you spend the first three nights. The rest of the afternoon is free to unpack, rest after the journey or take a slow stroll along the seafront promenade, which is flat, lined with benches and a short walk from the hotel. In the early evening your guide meets the group in the hotel and talks through the week: how far we walk each day, where the seats and cafés are, which afternoons are free and how we read the mountain weather. Then we go together to a welcome dinner in the Old Town, by vehicle there and back, so the first evening asks nothing of your legs.

   Included

   • Pick-up at Madeira Airport (FNC)
   • Welcome briefing at the hotel
   • Welcome dinner in the Old Town

   Free time: Afternoon free to settle in

   Activity: Under 1 km on foot, on the level.

2. Day 2: Monte by cable car, and Madeira wine

   Funchal to Monte and back

   • Drive about 30 min
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Funchal
   Day 2 details

   No early start. After a relaxed breakfast our vehicle drops you at the cable car station by the seafront, and the cabin lifts you about 15 minutes up over the roofs and terraces to Monte, a hillside village above the city. The Monte Palace Tropical Garden fills a steep valley with plants from around the world, lakes and old tile panels; your guide leads the gentlest loop, with benches along the way, and the lower terraces are there for anyone who wants them. Then comes Monte's famous ride: a wicker toboggan, steered down the lanes by two drivers in white with straw hats. You sit the whole way. If you would rather not, ride the cable car back down with your guide to the Old Town station. Our vehicle collects the toboggan riders at the bottom of the run and we all meet for lunch in the Old Town, then a seated tasting of Madeira wine at a wine lodge in the centre before an early return.

   Included

   • Cable car from Funchal to Monte
   • Monte Palace Tropical Garden with your guide
   • Wicker toboggan ride down from Monte
   • Sit-down lunch in the Old Town
   • Madeira wine tasting at a wine lodge in central Funchal

   Easier option: Stay in the upper garden by the café while the group walks the lower terraces, and ride the cable car back down instead of the toboggan; your guide meets you at the Old Town station, a short level walk from lunch.

   More active option: Walk the full garden, down to the lower lakes and back up.

   Free time: Late afternoon free in Funchal

   Activity: About 3 km on foot. The garden is on a slope with steps on the lower paths; getting into the low toboggan seat needs a hand from the drivers.

   

3. Day 3: The market, Câmara de Lobos and Cabo Girão

   Funchal to Câmara de Lobos and Cabo Girão, and back

   • Drive about 1 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Funchal
   Day 3 details

   We begin at the Mercado dos Lavradores, Funchal's 1940s market hall with tile panels at the entrance, where stalls sell passion fruit, custard apples and the black scabbard fish landed overnight. Your guide shows you round the ground floor, and there is a café for anyone who would like to sit. Then it is a 20-minute drive west to Câmara de Lobos, a fishing village where brightly painted boats are pulled up on a small pebble beach below the houses. The harbour front is level and has benches, and Winston Churchill painted the bay from a terrace here in 1950. A few minutes further on, Cabo Girão rises about 580 m straight out of the sea, and its glass-floored platform, a short level walk from the car park, looks down on the terraced fields at the foot of the cliff. Lunch is fish by the harbour, and you are back in Funchal by mid-afternoon.

   Included

   • Mercado dos Lavradores with your guide
   • Câmara de Lobos harbour
   • Cabo Girão skywalk
   • Sit-down fish lunch in Câmara de Lobos

   Optional experiences

   • Whale and dolphin watching from Funchal marina

   Easier option: Watch from the solid edge of the Cabo Girão platform rather than stepping onto the glass, and wait at the market café while the group finishes its walk.

   More active option: Walk the Old Town's Rua de Santa Maria and its painted doors in the free afternoon.

   Free time: Afternoon free in Funchal

   Activity: About 2.5 km on foot, mostly level, with benches at the harbour and a café at Cabo Girão.

   

4. Day 4: Pico do Arieiro and Balcões, on to the north coast

   Funchal to Pico do Arieiro, Ribeiro Frio and Santana

   • Drive about 2 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Santana
   Day 4 details

   We check out after breakfast, bags in the vehicle, and drive about 45 minutes up through the eucalyptus and the moorland to Pico do Arieiro, at 1,818 m the island's third highest peak. The road goes almost to the top; the summit viewpoint is a short walk from the car park, with the café terrace for anyone who prefers to stay level. On a clear day the jagged ridge to Pico Ruivo stands out above the clouds. If the summit is in cloud, we drive back up tomorrow morning instead; the walks keep their days and you sleep near Santana both nights either way. Then we drop 20 minutes to Ribeiro Frio, a hamlet with a trout farm in the laurel forest, and walk the level, wide path to the Balcões viewpoint, about 1.5 km each way, which looks across a deep valley to the peaks. Lunch is trout at Ribeiro Frio, and we reach the north-coast hotel near Santana by late afternoon.

   Included

   • Pico do Arieiro by vehicle (day 5 morning instead if today is clouded)
   • Guided walk to the Balcões viewpoint (PR11)
   • Sit-down lunch in Ribeiro Frio
   • Transfer to your north-coast hotel
   • Trail fees

   Easier option: Stay on the café terrace at Pico do Arieiro, and wait at the Ribeiro Frio café while the group walks to Balcões.

   More active option: Walk a little way along the ridge path from Pico do Arieiro, where it is open, for the view down to the jagged peaks.

   Activity: About 3.5 km on foot, mostly level. The summit is cold even in summer: bring a warm layer.

5. Day 5: Santana, Queimadas and Porto da Cruz

   Santana to Queimadas and Porto da Cruz, and back

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Santana
   Day 5 details

   For anyone who wants it, this is the week's one early start. We leave about an hour and a quarter before sunrise for Pico do Arieiro, about 50 minutes away, to see the sun come up over the clouds, and are back for a late breakfast. The rest of the group sleeps in. Mid-morning we drive up to the Queimadas forest park, where the Levada do Caldeirão Verde sets off through the Laurisilva, the laurel forest that UNESCO lists as World Heritage. We walk the first level stretch of the channel, about 1 km out and back the same way, with picnic tables at the park; if the path is closed on your date, your guide swaps in another level stretch, checked before you travel. If yesterday's summit was clouded, everyone drives up again first, mid-morning. Then we visit Santana's traditional thatched A-frame houses, painted white with red doors and blue trim, and drive down to Porto da Cruz for lunch and a visit to its sugar cane mill and rum distillery, with a tasting. You are back at the hotel by mid-afternoon.

   Included

   • Optional sunrise on Pico do Arieiro, with a packed breakfast
   • Guided walk on the first stretch of the Levada do Caldeirão Verde (PR9)
   • Santana's traditional houses
   • Sit-down lunch in Porto da Cruz
   • Rum distillery visit and tasting in Porto da Cruz
   • Trail fees

   Easier option: Skip the sunrise, and sit at the Queimadas picnic tables while the group walks the levada.

   More active option: Join the sunrise, and walk a little further along the levada with the local guide.

   Free time: Afternoon free on the north coast

   Activity: About 3 km on foot. The levada path is level but narrow in places, with a railing on the drop side.

   

6. Day 6: Porto Moniz and Fanal, to Calheta

   Santana to Porto Moniz and Fanal, then Calheta

   • Drive about 3 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Calheta
   Day 6 details

   Today moves you from the green north to the sunny south-west, and is the longest in the vehicle, about 2 hours 40 minutes in all, in three legs with long stops. We leave after breakfast and follow the north coast west through tunnels and past waterfalls to Porto Moniz, at the island's north-west tip, about 1 hour 20 to 1 hour 30. Here the sea fills pools in the black lava rock; the main pool complex has steps and handrails into calm water, and the café terrace above is a fine place to watch the waves break on the rocks. Lunch is by the sea. Then we climb 30 minutes to Fanal, an open, gently sloping pasture where centuries-old til trees stand among grazing cows, often in drifting mist, and the walking is on grass and short. A last 45 minutes across the Paul da Serra plateau brings us down to Calheta for two nights.

   Included

   • Porto Moniz sea pools, with entry for anyone who wants to swim
   • Sit-down lunch in Porto Moniz
   • Time among the til trees at Fanal
   • Transfer to your Calheta hotel

   Easier option: Stay on the terrace at Porto Moniz, and watch Fanal from beside the vehicle.

   More active option: Swim in the Porto Moniz pools, in season.

   Free time: Evening free in Calheta

   Activity: About 2 km on foot, on paved promenades and open grass.

   

7. Day 7: The Risco waterfall and a Calheta afternoon

   Calheta to Rabaçal and back

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Calheta
   Day 7 details

   A short drive of about 40 minutes takes us up to Rabaçal on the edge of the Paul da Serra plateau. Rather than walk the steep road down to the forest house, we ride the small minibus that runs down it, then follow the Levada do Risco, a nearly level path through the laurel forest, for about 1.5 km to a viewpoint where the Risco waterfall pours off a high cliff into the valley. We walk back the same way and ride the minibus up. If the minibus is not running or the path is closed on your date, your guide swaps in another level stretch of levada on the plateau, checked before you travel. We are back in Calheta for lunch near the marina, and the afternoon is yours: the small sandy beach and its calm water, a slow coffee or the Mudas art centre on the hill. We end the week with a farewell dinner.

   Included

   • Minibus down and up the Rabaçal road, when it runs
   • Guided walk on the Levada do Risco (PR6.1) to the waterfall
   • Sit-down lunch in Calheta
   • Farewell dinner
   • Trail fees

   Easier option: Stay at the forest house tables at Rabaçal while the group walks to the waterfall.

   Free time: Afternoon free in Calheta

   Activity: About 3.5 km on foot, nearly level and shaded, on a path that is narrow in places.

8. Day 8: Departure

   Calheta to Madeira Airport

   • Drive about 1 h
   • Breakfast
   Day 8 details

   Your last morning is free and unhurried. There may be time for a final walk along the Calheta seafront, a swim in the sheltered beach by the marina or a coffee in the sun, depending on your flight time. Your guide checks your flight with you the evening before and sets the departure from the hotel to suit. We drive you about 55 minutes along the south coast on the fast road, past Ribeira Brava and Funchal, to Madeira Airport in Santa Cruz, whose runway is partly built out over the sea on tall columns. For a flight before noon we leave right after breakfast; if your flight is late in the day, ask your guide about keeping your room or leaving bags at the hotel. Allow two hours at the airport for international flights.

   Included

   • Drop-off at Madeira Airport (FNC)

   Free time: Free morning, depending on your flight time

Wildlife and weather: Madeira is mild all year, warmest from July to September. The south coast around Funchal and Calheta is the sunniest; the north and the mountains are cooler, greener and more often in cloud.

• Funchal3 nights
• Santana2 nights
• Calheta2 nights