Madeira: A Gentle Guide to Portugal's Garden in the Atlantic

Madeira sits alone in the Atlantic, roughly 800 km southwest of mainland Portugal and about 400 km north of the Canary Islands. The main island is small — some 57 km long and 22 km wide — yet it rises to 1,862 m at Pico Ruivo, the third highest point in all of Portugal. The result is a landscape that feels far larger than the map suggests: terraced hillsides, laurel forests hung with moss, waterfalls that fall straight onto the road, and cliffs that drop into deep blue water.

What makes Madeira such a kind destination for travelers over 60 is how much of this beauty comes to you. You can drive almost to the top of the island's second-highest peak, ride a cable car instead of climbing a hill, and walk for an hour on a path as flat as a garden terrace beside a centuries-old water channel.

The climate helps too. Funchal, the capital, averages around 17°C in January and 26°C in August — warm enough to sit outdoors in winter, rarely hot enough to be uncomfortable in summer. This is an island for slow days, long views and good food, not for conquering summits.

A little history

Madeira was uninhabited when Portuguese navigators claimed it for Prince Henry the Navigator in 1418–1419. João Gonçalves Zarco and Tristão Vaz Teixeira came ashore at the bay now occupied by the town of Machico, and settlement began in the early 1420s.

The island's fortune was built on sugarcane, so valuable in the 15th and 16th centuries that it was called white gold. That wealth paid for Funchal's fine buildings, among them the cathedral — the Sé — built between 1493 and 1517, with a wonderful inlaid wooden ceiling. From the 18th century onward it was fortified Madeira wine that carried the island's name around the world, helped by the fact that Funchal was a natural stop for ships crossing the Atlantic.

The other great inheritance is less obvious and far more useful to walkers: the levadas. To bring water from the wet north of the island to the dry, sunny south, Madeirans cut narrow irrigation channels along the contours of the mountains, with maintenance paths running beside them. Today the network totals more than 2,000 km of channels and some 40 km of tunnels — and those level service paths are the reason Madeira has so many walks that barely climb at all.

Funchal Cathedral, built between 1493 and 1517, in the center of Madeira's capital.

What to see

Funchal and its gardens

The capital is a handsome, flower-filled city of around 105,000 people, with a seafront promenade, a lively old town and the Mercado dos Lavradores, where fruit, flowers and black scabbardfish are sold side by side. Santa Catarina Park gives a shady, gently sloping green space with harbor views, and the Botanical Garden sits high above the city on its own terraces.

Pico do Arieiro

The island's most spectacular high viewpoint is also the easiest to reach: a paved road climbs to a car park at 1,818 m, just a couple of minutes' stroll from the terrace. On a clear morning you look across a sea of peaks and, often, a floor of cloud below you. Bring a warm layer — it can be 10°C cooler than Funchal, and genuinely windy.

Cabo Girão

West of Funchal, one of Europe's highest sea cliffs ends in a glass-floored skywalk suspended some 580 m above the water, with views along the coast toward Câmara de Lobos. Access from the car park is short and level. A small cable car descends the cliff face to the farmed terraces at the bottom in about three minutes, for those who would like the view from below as well.

The laurel forest and Fanal

About a fifth of the island is covered by laurisilva, the relict laurel forest listed by UNESCO in 1999 as the largest surviving example of a forest type that once covered southern Europe. The high plateau of Fanal, in the northwest, is the easiest place to feel it: ancient, twisted laurel trees standing in open pasture, often half-dissolved in mist, a few steps from where you park.

Porto Moniz and the north coast

At the island's northwestern tip, Porto Moniz is known for natural swimming pools formed in black volcanic rock, with the Atlantic breaking just beyond the wall. The drive there along the north coast, past Seixal and São Vicente, is one of the great scenic roads of the Atlantic.

Ponta de São Lourenço

The eastern peninsula is utterly different: bare, ochre-colored and treeless, with cliffs on both sides. We should be honest — the marked trail along it rolls up and down over open ground with no shade, so it suits confident walkers. Everyone else can enjoy nearly the same scenery from the viewpoint at the road's end.

The view over Funchal and its bay from the Pico dos Barcelos viewpoint.

Gentle walks beside the water

Madeira's levada paths are the reason many visitors return. The best of them for a relaxed day are genuinely flat.

• Vereda dos Balcões (PR 11), Ribeiro Frio. The island's friendliest walk: about 1.5 km each way on a wide, essentially level path through laurel forest beside the Levada da Serra do Faial, ending at a railed balcony with a view toward Pico Ruivo and Pico do Arieiro. Allow 1 to 1.5 hours there and back; there is a small café with toilets along the way.
• Rabaçal: Levada do Risco (PR 6.1). From the Rabaçal house, a broad, almost flat levada path leads toward the Risco waterfall in under an hour return. A shuttle van runs between the upper car park and Rabaçal, saving you a steep 2–3 km of access road — well worth taking in both directions.
• Levada das 25 Fontes (PR 6). Beautiful, and flat for long stretches, but around 8 to 9 km with some narrow, unfenced sections and a descent to the waterfall basin. Lovely if you walk regularly; skip it if you do not.

Two practical notes: most of the official PR trails now require an inexpensive permit bought online before you set out, and paths can be muddy and slippery after rain. Shoes with grip matter more here than any other piece of equipment.

A levada irrigation channel and its level maintenance path near Rabaçal, Madeira.

The comfortable way to see the scenery

You do not need to walk far to see the best of Madeira.

By cable car. From Funchal's old town, a cable car rises about 3.2 km in roughly 15 minutes to the village of Monte, some 550 m above the sea, with the whole bay unfolding below you. At the top are the Monte church and the Monte Palace tropical gardens, and a second, shorter cable car crosses the valley to the Botanical Garden in under ten minutes. Note that the Funchal–Monte line closes for maintenance for several weeks each year, so check before planning a day around it.

By wicker toboggan. From Monte, two drivers in straw hats steer you downhill in a wicker basket on runners — the famous carros de cesto. It is short, slow enough to be fun rather than frightening, and completely unlike anything else in Europe. Getting in and out requires a low step down and a hand to steady you.

By boat. Catamarans and sailing boats leave Funchal marina for half-day trips along the coast, often looking for dolphins and whales, which are seen year-round. Boarding is from a pontoon and the sea off the south coast is usually calm.

By car, with a driver if possible. The island's finest hours are spent on its roads: the north coast, the Encumeada pass, the high moorland of Paul da Serra. Roads are well surfaced and the expressway is quick, but gradients are steep and tunnels frequent. If you are not keen to drive, a taxi hired for the day or a small-group tour is money very well spent.

The ferry Lobo Marinho, which sails to Porto Santo, in Funchal harbor.

A day trip to Porto Santo

Madeira's sister island lies about 70 km northeast and could hardly be more different: low, dry, golden, and edged by a beach some 9 km long. After a week of mountains, it is a restful change.

The ferry from Funchal takes roughly 2 to 2.5 hours each way, usually arriving mid-morning and returning in the early evening — a long but easy day, with seats, cafés and open deck on board. There are also short flights of about 15 minutes from Madeira airport. If the sea is forecast rough, or if the crossing feels too long in one day, consider staying a night in Vila Baleira instead: the pace there is slower still, and the walking is flat.

Honest advice for comfortable travel

• Funchal is built on a slope. Streets behind the seafront climb steeply. Stay along the Lido promenade or in the flat old town so that your evening stroll is level, and use taxis for the uphill return — they are plentiful and inexpensive by European standards.
• Choose flat walks deliberately. Balcões and Levada do Risco are level; many other levadas have unfenced edges above a drop, and some pass through dark, wet tunnels. There is no shame in turning back at the first narrow section.
• The mountains are cold and the weather is local. Pico do Arieiro can be 10°C cooler than the coast, and the north may be in cloud while Funchal is in sun. Carry a fleece and a light rain jacket all year, and go to the high viewpoints early, before cloud builds.
• Heat is rarely the problem; sun is. Temperatures stay moderate, but the Atlantic light is strong. A hat, sunglasses and water are enough.
• Use the lifts and cable cars. Several hotels and the city itself use lifts to cross level changes, and the cable cars replace long climbs. Plan your day around them rather than against them.
• Boats and ferries involve a step and a gangway. Crew are used to helping; ask, and board early to get a seat in the shade.
• Medical care is good. Funchal has a central hospital and pharmacies are everywhere; bring your prescriptions and, for EU residents, your health card.

What to eat

Madeiran cooking is simple, generous and strongly tied to the island.

• Espada com banana — black scabbardfish, a deep-sea fish caught off the island, fried and served with sweet local banana and sometimes passion fruit sauce. Softer and less bony than it sounds, and the island's signature plate.
• Espetada — chunks of beef rubbed with garlic and salt, threaded onto a bay laurel branch and grilled over coals, traditionally hung on a hook beside the table.
• Bolo do caco — a flat, round bread baked on a hot basalt slab and served warm, split and spread with garlic butter. Order it with everything.
• Lapas — limpets grilled with butter and lemon, a classic starter along the coast.
• Fruit — Madeiran bananas are smaller and sweeter than the imported kind, and the market's custard apples and passion fruit are worth the detour.
• To drink — poncha, made with sugarcane spirit, honey and lemon juice, whipped with a wooden stick; and Madeira wine itself, from dry Sercial to sweet Malmsey, best tasted in one of the old Funchal lodges.

Restaurant portions are large, and sharing a main course with a bolo do caco and a salad is perfectly normal.

Getting there

Our verdict

Madeira is one of the few places where dramatic scenery comes without physical demands. The highest viewpoint on the island is a two-minute walk from a car park. The most beautiful forest path is flat. The best panorama over the capital is reached by cable car, and the whale-watching is done sitting down.

It is not a beach destination — the coast is cliffs and pebbles, and Porto Santo holds the sand — and the terrain means you will take more taxis than you might elsewhere. In return you get an island of extraordinary green, a capital that is easy to love, excellent food, kind weather in every month, and the quiet pleasure of walking beside water that has been flowing down these mountains for five hundred years.

If you have one week and want nature without effort, we would send you here before almost anywhere else in Europe.

Funchal under a rainbow in light drizzle, a common sight on the island.

“An island where the mountains come down to meet you, and the water shows you the way.”

Photo credits

• Vista desde el pico de Arieiro, Madeira, Portugal, 2019-05-30, DD 147-153 PAN: Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Catedral, Funchal, Madeira, Portugal, 2019-05-29, DD 34: Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Vista de Funchal desde Pico dos Barcelos, Madeira, Portugal, 2019-05-29, DD 37-44 PAN: Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Levada Madeira: Jörg Schmalenberger = JOEXX , CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Funchal Madeira, Portugal, Porto do Funchal -- 2025 -- 1298: Dietmar Rabich, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Funchal Madeira, Portugal, Ortsansicht -- 2025 -- 1307: Dietmar Rabich, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons