Madeira
Portugal
March 20th - 28th, 2026
This trip was organized and booked on very short notice, since our initial plan to hike the Jordan trail was derailed by the start of the Iran war. So we had to change plans quickly and find a new hiking destination, that was warm enough in March and steep enough to satisfy Max's altitude goals. Madeira emerged as an obvious choice. I met up with Max and Lara at Gatwick airport for our direct flight to Funchal's Cristiano Ronaldo Airport. We stayed at the large but lovely Saccharum Resort in Calheta on the southern coast.
Madeira is a volcanic island located in the Atlantic Ocean some 1,000 kilometers southwest of Lisbon, about halfway between the Azores to the north and the Canary Islands to the south. It is an autonomous region of Portugal and a member of the EU. The previously uninhabited island was first discovered by Portuguese navigators in 1419. The island is formed by rugged volcanic peaks, and the early settlers quickly realized the agricultural potential of the fertile volcanic soil despite the difficult terrain. The first major crop to be cultivated here in the 15th and 16th was sugar cane. When Portugal's sugar production later shifted to the Caribbean and South America, Madeira reinvented itself as a major producer of wine. Today, Madeira’s economy is driven by three main pillars, namely tourism, agriculture, and financial and business services.
We came here mainly for hiking. Max has become an amazing, if somewhat obsessive, hiker. He had been planning all of our hikes beforehand to ensure that he achieves his goal of 2000 feet (609 meters) of elevation gain per day. So the following is mainly a description with photos from all of our hikes.
We started the next morning with a short, beautiful stroll along the Levada do Norte. The historic levadas are something very unique about Madeira. They are irrigation channels built over centuries to distribute water across the island. They are often many kilometers long and sometimes involve tunnels, are crossed by waterfalls and take you along steep cliff paths with amazing views.
In the afternoon, we decided to be more ambitious and tackled the steep stairs of the Footpath of Eira do Mourão. This hike took us through the terraced fields, that cover the whole island. One of the iconic views of Madeira, are these dry wall terraces that cover many of the steepest slopes. These were built over the course of centuries, some in the 15th century initially by slaves, but most by farmers in later centuries.
When we got near the top it started to rain pretty heavily, and we decided to try and book an Uber, rather than hiking back down on the slippery stairs. It took quite a while for a car to arrive, as he seemed to get lost a couple of times on the way up. The driver told us that even though he grew up on the island he had never been to this place. And, although he claimed to be scared to be driving these steep and narrow mountain roads, that did not deter him from barreling down at breakneck speeds, which scared us too.
The next day, even though the weather forecast did not look promising, we did one of the most famous and iconic hikes, the Levada das 25 Fontes. There is a list of about 40 hiking trails on Madeira, which are so popular that you have to buy a ticket in advance in order to enter the trail. During high season in summer and during European school holidays, these tickets apparently sell out quickly, so it's best to buy them in advance on the Simplifica website. Levada das 25 Fontes is one of these restricted hikes. We had booked our tickets the day before, but there was no one to check or control them. The first part of the hike was all downhill. It started to rain a little bit after about an hour, but we still had some sun, which provided us with this stunning rainbow.
By the time we reached the waterfall it had started to rain really heavily. We decided to cut the hike a bit short, and after a short rest in an overcrowded café we trotted up through the rain getting completely soaked.
In the afternoon, Max and I went on another quick hike right near the hotel, so he could get his altitude average in that day. It's called the Calheta Circular Route on AllTrails. We had great views of our hotel from the path, which took us through the nearby town of Calheta along some streets that were so steep, I could not even imagine how cars could get up.
The weather had improved significantly the next day and we headed out to the Levada Nova - Levada do Moinho hike. This one again took us along the concrete channels of a historic levada, with may small waterfalls dripping on our heads along the way.
We also had some gorgeous views into the valley. But the highlight of the hike came, when we had to walk through a very dark tunnel and emerged underneath a double waterfall on the other side.
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The hike was supposed to be a loop in and out of the valley along two different levadas. However, we decided to turn around about half way, because of a very sketchy river crossing on the lower levada, that would have been too dangerous for Max. That made the whole hike quite a bit longer, but it resulted in Max's first ever 10 mile hike, which he was very proud of.
The next day's hike was one of the most famous on the island, and another one we had to buy tickets for. It was called the "Curral das Freiras to Eira do Serrado Viewpoint" hike, which started in the small town of Curral das Freiras.
It was quite a steep and relentless hike uphill, but all on very well maintain trails and steps.
We had spectacular views from above, which were made even more amazing by another rainbow. We found a taxi from the top to take us back down to town thus saving our knees from the steep downhill.
That afternoon we also added a short but fun little walk, called the Banana Trail, which takes you through a banana plantation. Bananas are one of the main agricultural exports from the island.
We drove along windy roads for almost an hour to the west coast the next morning. Our plan was to take the small cable car (called the Teleférico das Achadas da Cruz) down to the coast and then hike back up the steep cliff. However, the winds were so strong that day, that the cable car was not running. So instead we drove to the south-west coast for a different steep hike passing a very high waterfall. This one was called the Paul do Mar hike.
We left the most spectacular of all the hikes for our last day. Hike PR8, called "São Lourenco Viewpoint - Cais do Sardinha" is located on a narrow peninsula on the north-eastern edge of Madeira. The landscape is very different here. It remined me more of landscapes on Iceland or the Faroer Islands, than the lush green tropical surroundings, we had experienced on all our previous hikes. It was also incredibly windy, which might explain the lack of trees in this part.
The hike took us out onto a peninsula along a steep cliffs, with incredible views along the way.
We couldn't quite get to the lookout point at the end of the trail, since that part was temporarily closed due to erosion. But we found a little detour along a crest which gave Max enough elevation gain to keep him happy.
It was a very busy hike, with lots of people on the trails. We managed to get there early enough to find a decent parking spot. On the way out in the afternoon we saw that cars who arrived later had to park several kilometers away from the trail head.
On we way back to drove along the Northern coast, which is much wetter and much less populated. Winds and clouds tend to come from the north, and get stuck on the high mountains, which causes the northern part of the island to have quite a different climate with a lot more rain. We stopped for lunch in the town of Santana to visit some beautiful examples of the island's traditional triangular houses.
As recent as 30 years ago it used to be much more difficult to get around Madeira, as the only roads where narrow windy mountain passes. It could take more than 5 hours to cross to island. However, after Portugal joined the EU in 1986, a massive road building project went under way, which lasted about 20 years. Today, the whole island is connected via modern and fast highways, that include more than 150 tunnels and numerous bridges, which reduce the driving time across the whole island to just over an hour. How challenging the terrain is can also be seen at the airport, which was entirely build on hundreds of concrete columns, since there is not a single flat strip of land on the island, that could fit an airport.
I dropped off Max and Lara at the airport, the next day. I had one more night in the lovely Albatroz Beach & Yacht Club, which is located right next to the airport, and I took a direct flight back to Munich the next morning.
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