Madeira is a mountain standing in the sea, so the island has a viewpoint on nearly every bend. The ones worth driving for are the ones you catch at the right hour: the peaks at dawn, the valleys before the cloud rolls in, the west coast at sunset. Get the timing right and a plain car park becomes the best ten minutes of your trip. Get it wrong and you stare into fog.
In short
- The mountain and valley viewpoints are best early. Cloud usually builds from late morning.
- For sunrise, go east (Ponta do Rosto) or up (Pico do Areeiro, Pico Ruivo).
- For sunset, go west (Ponta do Pargo, Boa Morte) or stay near Funchal (Cabo Girão, Pico dos Barcelos).
- Nearly all of them are free. Cabo Girão’s glass floor costs €5 for visitors (2026).
- Check a webcam before a long drive. It can be sunny on the coast and grey at 1,000 m.
Sunrise viewpoints
Pico do Areeiro
The top of the island you can reach by car. Pico do Areeiro, at 1,818 m, has a car park, a café and a short path to a summit platform. When the cloud sits low, the whole centre of Madeira sticks up out of a white sea, and the sun comes up over it. On the clearest mornings you can pick out Porto Santo and the flat Desertas islands on the horizon.
The catch is that everyone knows. In summer the car park is full before dawn and the overflow runs down the road. Arrive at least 45 minutes before sunrise, bring a hat and gloves (it is cold up here even in August), and look at the webcam first. If the summit is in the cloud, the view is a grey wall. Just beyond the summit, the ridge path drops into rock staircases that make the famous photograph, and the first stretch to the Pedra Rija viewpoint is an easy hour out and back with a trail licence.
Pico Ruivo
The highest point on the island, at 1,862 m, and you have to walk to it. The short route from Achada do Teixeira is PR 1.2, about an hour and a half up on a good path. Sunrise from the top shows both coasts, and the crowd is small compared with Areeiro, because it involves a head torch and an alarm at 04:30. The summit has no shelter from the wind.
Ponta do Rosto
At the eastern tip, on the road to São Lourenço, Ponta do Rosto faces the sunrise over open sea. The cliffs below are layered in red, ochre and black, and at first light the colours are at their strongest. It is a pull-off by the road, so there is no walk. Hold on to your hat: the wind at this end of the island is fierce. Most people drive straight past it to the trailhead, so you will probably be alone. It is a stop on our Eastern Edge road tour.
Morning viewpoints: before the cloud
Eira do Serrado
If you only see one viewpoint, see this one. Eira do Serrado is half an hour’s drive from Funchal, at 1,095 m. You park by the shop and walk two minutes up a stone path, and the ground stops. Below, in a ring of peaks, is the village of Curral das Freiras, where the nuns of the Santa Clara convent took refuge from pirates in the 16th century. From here the valley looks like the inside of a crater.
The bowl fills with cloud by late morning on many days. Go early, then drive down into the village for chestnut cake.
Boca dos Namorados
Curral das Freiras again, this time from the south-west rim. Boca dos Namorados sits at about 1,000 m in Jardim da Serra, high above Estreito de Câmara de Lobos, and the name means the lovers’ mouth. It has picnic tables and far fewer coaches than Eira do Serrado, because the last few kilometres are steep and narrow. Late afternoon light comes in from behind you and lights the whole bowl.
The Balcões
A viewpoint you walk to, but only barely. From Ribeiro Frio, a flat path of about 1.5 km through laurel forest ends at a railed balcony facing the central peaks and the deep valley below them (PR 11, trail licence needed). Listen for the Madeira firecrest, a tiny endemic bird, in the laurels. The chaffinches here have learnt what a picnic is and will perch on your fingers. The peaks are usually clear first thing and gone by early afternoon.
Viewpoints on the north coast
The north is greener and more dramatic, and its viewpoints are at their best when the sea is running high.
Portela
Portela is the pass between the dry east and the green north, at 660 m. From the viewpoint you look down on Porto da Cruz and the great block of Penha d’Águia (Eagle Rock) standing on the shore. It is a quick stop with a café, and a good first taste of the north if you are coming from the airport side.
Miradouro do Guindaste
Between Faial and Santana, the Guindaste viewpoint is a platform pushed out from the cliff over the Faial river mouth, with Penha d’Águia to one side and open ocean ahead.
Rocha do Navio
Below Santana, at the end of a road through the fields, the ground stops at a cliff. At the bottom lies a thin fajã of small farm plots, part of the Rocha do Navio nature reserve. The farmers’ cable car still runs down to it: €8 return in 2026, with a lunch break from 13:00 to 14:00 and a last run at 17:00 on weekdays, 18:00 at weekends.
Véu da Noiva
On the coast road near Seixal, the Véu da Noiva viewpoint faces a waterfall that drops hundreds of metres down the cliff towards the sea and spreads into a thin white sheet as it goes, hence the name, the bride’s veil. There is no safe way to its foot, so this lay-by is where you see it. After a wet week it roars; in a dry September it can be a thread.
São Cristóvão
In Boaventura, on the stretch between São Vicente and Arco de São Jorge, this one looks along the north coast, ridge after green ridge ending in the sea. The Restaurante São Cristóvão is right beside it, which makes it a practical lunch stop on a north coast drive.
Viewpoints in the east
Pico do Facho
Facho means a beacon, and this hill above Machico is where a fire was lit to warn the town when ships appeared on the horizon. Today it is the best place to see how the airport works: the runway sits on its pillars below, the bay beside it, and you can watch planes swing in over the sea. A short, steep drive up from the town.
Sunset viewpoints
Cabo Girão
The most visited viewpoint on the island. Cabo Girão is a sea cliff of about 580 m, one of the highest in Europe, with a glass platform built out over the edge. You look down through the floor at terraced fields on the strip of land at the bottom. Non-residents pay €5; children up to 12 are free (2026). Coaches arrive from mid-morning. Come late in the afternoon when the light turns gold along the coast and the groups have gone.
Ponta do Pargo lighthouse
At the western tip, the lighthouse at Ponta do Pargo, lit since 1922, stands on a cliff about 300 m above the sea, with green fields running to the edge and nothing but ocean between you and America. The sun goes down straight ahead. It is well over an hour from Funchal, so combine it with the west coast rather than driving out just for this.
Miradouro da Boa Morte
In the same parish, Boa Morte is a small cliff-edge viewpoint that has recently been restored, and the parish council has added a bench and a fixed swing facing the ocean. At sunset it draws a fraction of the lighthouse crowd.
Achadas da Cruz
On the north-west corner, Achadas da Cruz is a clifftop viewpoint where a farmers’ cable car, one of the steepest in Europe, dives almost vertically to fields by the sea. The view from the top is free. Riding down costs about €3 one way or €5 return. Our Far West road tour links this, the lighthouse and the gorge in between.
Viewpoints in and around Funchal
Pico dos Barcelos
The best overview of the city. Pico dos Barcelos is ten minutes above the centre at 355 m, and from the terrace you see the whole amphitheatre of Funchal, the harbour and the mountains behind. Come on your first evening to get your bearings, and again at night when the city lights up.
Miradouro das Neves
On the old airport road at the eastern edge of Funchal, in São Gonçalo, this viewpoint at 283 m looks back west across the whole bay to the city, with Cabo Girão at the far end and the Desertas out to sea. Come after dark, when the amphitheatre of houses is lit up.
Cristo Rei do Garajau
A statue of Christ with open arms on a headland east of the city, put up in 1927, four years before the one in Rio. Cristo Rei stands over the open sea and looks straight down into the Garajau marine reserve. The water below is clear enough that you can often make out the rocks on the bottom.
Which viewpoint for which kind of day
| If you have | Go to |
|---|---|
| A clear, early start | Pico do Areeiro, then Eira do Serrado |
| An hour in Funchal | Pico dos Barcelos or Cristo Rei |
| A day on the west coast | Cabo Girão in the morning, Ponta do Pargo for sunset |
| A day on the north coast | Portela, Guindaste, Véu da Noiva |
| A cloudy day inland | The coast: Ponta do Rosto, Cabo Girão, Achadas da Cruz |
| Legs and a head torch | Pico Ruivo at sunrise |
For timing around the crowds, see beating the crowds, and for the mountain roads, our driving guide.
Our road tours tell you what you are looking at from each of these viewpoints as you arrive, with the map working offline.
Questions people ask
What is the most beautiful viewpoint in Madeira?
On a clear morning, Pico do Areeiro, where you look down on the clouds with the island's peaks rising through them. For the least effort, Eira do Serrado, a two-minute walk from the car to a view straight down into a valley ringed by mountains.
Where can I watch the sunset in Madeira?
The west. The lighthouse at Ponta do Pargo and the nearby Boa Morte viewpoint face straight out to the open Atlantic. Closer to Funchal, Cabo Girão and Pico dos Barcelos work well.
Where is the best sunrise in Madeira?
Pico do Areeiro if the clouds are low, or Ponta do Rosto at the eastern tip, which faces the sunrise over the sea and is much less crowded.
Are Madeira's viewpoints free?
Almost all are. Cabo Girão charges non-residents over 12 €5 to enter the viewpoint with its glass skywalk (2026). The cable cars at Achadas da Cruz and Rocha do Navio charge a fare to ride down, but the viewpoints at the top are free.
How do I know if a viewpoint will be in cloud?
Look at a webcam before you drive, and go early. The mountain and valley viewpoints are usually clearest before 10:00 and often in cloud by the afternoon.