Madeira Hiking Fee 2026: Who Pays €4.50, and Who Doesn't

Walking a classified trail in Madeira costs €4.50 per person per trail in 2026, paid online on the SIMplifica portal when you book your entry time. The full PR 1 ridge from Pico do Areeiro to Pico Ruivo costs €10.50. Children aged 12 and under, residents of the island and people with a disability of 60% or more walk free, though everyone still needs a booked slot.

In short

• €4.50 a head, per trail, for everyone over 12 who is not a resident. It is not a daily charge.
• €10.50 for the full PR 1. The short stretch to Pedra Rija is €4.50.
• Online only, at the moment you book. There is nowhere to pay on the day.
• No refund if you change your mind. Money back only if the IFCN closes the trail.
• A few classified walks, and every unclassified levada, carry no fee at all.

The fee in one table

Prices set by Portaria 801/2025 as amended by Portaria 48/2026, valid for 2026:

Two smaller groups are outside the system altogether: people who own land the trail crosses and are going about their own business, and athletes entered in an event the IFCN has authorised.

For a family this changes the arithmetic a lot. Two adults and two children of 8 and 11 pay €9 for a trail, not €18.

PR 1: why €10.50, and what it includes

The ridge between Pico do Areeiro and Pico Ruivo was shut from August 2024 while the IFCN rebuilt parts of it, and reopened in part on 1 May 2026. It is the busiest mountain path on the island, much of it a narrow ledge or a rock staircase, and it has its own price.

It is sold as two separate tickets:

• PR 1 to Pedra Rija, €4.50. From the Areeiro car park out to the Pedra Rija viewpoint and back, about an hour.
• PR 1 full route, €10.50. The ridge to Pico Ruivo, and the ticket also covers the way down on PR 1.2 to Achada do Teixeira or PR 1.1 to Ilha.

The cheaper ticket ends at Pedra Rija. And none of the multi-day rates include PR 1 in either form, so it is always a separate payment.

As of September 2026 the IFCN runs the stretch beyond Pedra Rija one way only, towards Pico Ruivo, so the €10.50 ticket is a crossing, not a there-and-back. Budget for the taxi from Achada do Teixeira on top.

Walking up to Pico Ruivo the short way, on PR 1.2 from Achada do Teixeira, is an ordinary €4.50 trail.

Guided walks: the protocol rate

Licensed Portuguese operators (travel agencies and activity companies registered as RNAVT or RNAAT) can sign a protocol with the IFCN. They then pay €3 per walker instead of €4.50, and €7 instead of €10.50 on PR 1. They can hold places up to 30 days ahead without paying; after that the IFCN invoices them and the money is due 48 hours before the walk.

For you as a customer: the fee is almost always in the price of the walk already, so do not buy your own ticket as well. Get the operator to confirm it in writing. An operator without a protocol pays the same €4.50 as you and may list it as an extra. That is not a trick, just a different arrangement, and worth knowing when you compare prices.

What it adds up to: three real trips

The fee is small per walk. It grows with the number of adults, not with the distance, so a short trail costs the same as a long one.

A couple, one week, five walks. Balcões, 25 Fontes, São Lourenço, Caldeirão Verde and the full PR 1. Four trails at €4.50 and one at €10.50: €28.50 each, €57 for the two. None of the combined rates beats that.

Two adults and two children under 13, a Rabaçal day. Risco and 25 Fontes. The children are free, the adults pay two trails each: €18. The Calheta council shuttle down to the forestry house can cost you more than the walks: the council’s 25 Fontes page lists €5 one way and €8 return, and it does not say whether children pay.

A keen walker, three days, two trails a day. Six single tickets would be €27. The portal notices and charges the 3-day rate of €22.50 instead. You do nothing.

Then the costs around the fee. Parking at Queimadas for Caldeirão Verde is €2 an hour, so a six-hour walk costs more to park than to walk. Linear trails like Levada do Furado end far from the start, and the taxi back is often the biggest cost of the day.

Combined rates, briefly

There is no separate pass to buy. You book the trails you want, and the portal applies whichever rate is cheapest. The rate does not give free access either: every trail still needs its own slot, and the slot may be full. Against €4.50 singles, the 1-day rate saves money from the third trail, the 3-day rate from the sixth, and the 7-day rate from the twelfth.

Walks with no fee

The fee applies only to classified trails the IFCN runs. Four classified routes are run by local authorities and sit outside the system:

• PR 3 Vereda do Burro, downhill from the Pico do Areeiro car park to Ribeira das Cales (Funchal council).
• PR 3.1 Caminho Real do Monte, the old cobbled road down to Monte, which follows on from PR 3 (Funchal council).
• PR 4 Levada do Barreiro, only partly passable in September 2026 (Funchal council).
• PR 23 Levada da Azenha, half an hour on the flat near Caniço, good for children (Caniço parish).

Beyond the PR network there are hundreds of kilometres of unclassified levada paths with no ticket at all, such as the Levada Nova above Ponta do Sol. Free has its own price, though: nobody is checking the railings, waymarks may be missing, and nobody closes them after a landslip. Choose them with more care, not less.

Refunds and bad weather

The rule is narrow. If the IFCN closes or restricts the trail on your date, you have 10 working days to email the IFCN and ask for a new date on the same trail or your money back by bank transfer.

Everything else loses the fee. The IFCN lists the cases it gets asked about: rain, illness, a cancelled flight, a missed connection, booking the wrong date or the wrong trail. None of them qualifies. Asking to move a booking yourself counts as cancelling it.

At €4.50 that is a small loss. At €21 for two adults on PR 1 it is a reason to book the ridge two or three days ahead, once the mountain forecast is clearer, rather than before you fly.

What happens if you walk without paying

Not paying is an administrative offence under regional law, and it is enforced. Between early April and mid-May 2026 the IFCN’s forest police checked more than 5,500 walkers and issued 43 fines of €50, paid on the spot. Five of them were on PR 1 in its first two weeks after reopening. Entering a closed trail is treated more severely: the fines issued in the same period were €250, the legal minimum for that offence, which for an individual can go up to €2,500.

“We didn’t know” is not a defence, and the fine is eleven times the ticket.

Where the money goes

The Portaria is explicit about what the fee is for: it is charged for the use of the region’s natural heritage and goes to the IFCN, to be spent on protecting habitats and species, on making the trails more sustainable and on reducing and handling the rubbish walkers leave. Any price change has to be announced on the IFCN site at least 180 days before it applies, so a sudden rise mid-season should not happen.

The slots are the other half of the deal. Each trail has a daily limit, and a morning at 25 Fontes with a cap on it is a better walk than one without, whatever you think of the price.

For what things cost across the rest of your trip, see money, tipping and prices.

The Tropi Guide app shows which trails need a ticket and which are free, next to each trail’s live status.