Places Not to Miss in Madeira, and the Best Hour for Each

Eight places in Madeira are worth building a day around: a mountain top, a bare peninsula, a waterfall forest, a fog forest, lava pools, a sea cliff, a lighthouse and an old town. Each one has an hour when it is at its best and an hour when it is a car park, so for each we give you both.

In short

• Pico do Areeiro, Fanal and Cabo Girão are at their best early. Ponta do Pargo is at its best at sunset. Plan the day around that, not around the map.
• Three of the eight are walks on classified trails and need a licence booked online first: €4.50 per person each in 2026 (€10.50 for the full PR 1 ridge).
• Group the places by region. Madeira is small on the map and slow on the road.
• Check a live webcam before any trip up the mountains. Sunny in Funchal says nothing about the peaks.

The eight at a glance

1. Pico do Areeiro, at sunrise

Pico do Areeiro is the third-highest peak on the island and the only high one you can drive to. At 1,818 m it is often above the cloud layer at dawn, when the valleys below fill with white and the ridges stick out of it like the backs of animals.

Why go at sunrise: the top is usually clear early and inside cloud by late morning. In summer the car park is full before the sun is up and cars line the road down.

What goes wrong: people drive up in shorts. It is cold and windy at that height all year. The other thing is cloud: if the webcam shows grey, go back to bed and try tomorrow.

Stay longer: walk the first stretch of the ridge on PR 1 to Pedra Rija and back, about an hour, with a licence. Beyond Pedra Rija the ridge is one way only, from Areeiro towards Pico Ruivo, on a €10.50 licence, so it needs transport arranged at the far end.

2. Ponta de São Lourenço, early or late

The eastern tip is where Madeira stops being green. Ponta de São Lourenço is a thin peninsula of red, ochre and black rock, with the sea on both sides and not a tree on it. It is the driest part of the island, and the colours in the rock change every few hundred metres.

Why early or late: there is no shade at all and the midday sun off bare rock is hard work. The car park at Baía d’Abra is full by mid-morning in season.

What goes wrong: people carry one small bottle for “only 4 km”. The walk is two and a half hours there and back, and the only café, near the end at Casa do Sardinha, is reported to open only mid-morning. The wind is the strongest on the island and closes the trail several times a year, and in October 2026 Visit Madeira lists the trail as restricted, with short signed diversions, so check its status first. Some edges have no fence.

On the way: stop at Ponta do Rosto, which most people drive past. The Eastern Edge drive covers the whole road out from Funchal.

3. Rabaçal, before the crowd

Rabaçal is a forestry house in a steep green bowl of laurel forest, and two of the island’s most walked levadas start there. The Levada do Risco takes half an hour to reach a waterfall dropping in one white line down a dark wall. The 25 Fontes carries on to a pool where a couple of dozen springs run out of a mossy cliff at once.

Why early: by eleven the narrow path is a queue in both directions, which is a hazard as well as a nuisance, because there is a drop on one side.

What goes wrong: the road. You cannot drive down to Rabaçal. You park on the ER 105 and walk 2 km of paved road, or take the council shuttle (€5 one way, €8 return in 2026; carry cash). The road over from Encumeada has been closed since January 2024, so from Funchal go west on the expressway and up from Arco da Calheta. Allow about three hours for both walks together, and take a torch for the short tunnel.

4. Fanal, in the fog

On the high plateau in the north-west, Fanal is a grassy slope of old til trees, twisted by wind into shapes that look like they are moving. On a clear day it is a pretty picnic spot. In fog it is something else: the trees come out of the white one at a time and the cows appear before you hear them.

Why fog: it is the whole point, and at 1,400 m you usually get it, most often in the morning.

What goes wrong: fog is also why people get lost here. Visibility drops to a few metres without warning. Stay near the road or on the marked path. It is cold and damp, so take a coat. You do not need a licence to stand among the trees near the car park; you do to walk the PR 13 trail.

5. Porto Moniz pools, when the sea is calm

At the north-west corner, the sea fills basins in black lava rock and refreshes them with every wave. The Porto Moniz pools come in two kinds: the municipal complex with changing rooms, a bar, lifeguards and sunbeds (€3 entry for anyone over three in 2026), and the free natural pools a little to the west with nothing but rock.

Why afternoon: the north coast is often cloudy in the morning. By afternoon you have a better chance of sun, and you have earned the swim after a day’s driving.

What goes wrong: big swell. Waves come over the walls and the pools close, or should. The water is open Atlantic and feels cool even in August. If Porto Moniz is packed, the pools at Seixal along the coast are small, free and mostly local.

6. Cabo Girão, at opening time

Cabo Girão is one of the highest sea cliffs in Europe, about 580 m, with a glass platform bolted onto its edge. Stand on it and there is nothing under your shoes but air and, a very long way down, small green fields farmed on a strip of fallen rock at the water’s edge.

Why at opening: the gates open at 08:00, twenty minutes from Funchal, and the tour coaches arrive mid-morning.

What goes wrong: the price surprises people. Since January 2026 entry costs €5 for anyone over 12 who is not a Madeira resident, up from €3 in 2025. The tourism board lists the fee for the viewpoint as a whole, not just the glass, so decide before you park. It is quick: half an hour is plenty, which makes it the natural first stop of a western day on The West Coast.

7. Ponta do Pargo, at sunset

The westernmost point of Madeira is a lighthouse, working since 1922, on a cliff nearly 300 m above the sea, with fields running to the edge and nothing between you and the Americas. Ponta do Pargo is the island’s best sunset and one of its emptiest, because it is a long way from Funchal.

Why sunset: it faces due west over open ocean. Arrive half an hour before, and stay after the sun has gone, when the colour is best.

What goes wrong: the drive home in the dark on unfamiliar roads. Either sleep in the west that night, or go back on the expressway rather than the coast road. Beside the lighthouse is a small museum about the island’s lighthouses, worth ten minutes if you arrive early.

Nearby: The Far West starts at this lighthouse and runs round to Porto Moniz, past the steep cable car at Achadas da Cruz. Do it in the afternoon and come back for the sunset, or the other way round on a second day.

8. Funchal’s old town, in the morning

Funchal is the place most visitors stay and the one they see least, because they leave every morning in a car. Give it one morning on foot.

Start at the Mercado dos Lavradores, the 1940 market hall with painted tiles, flower sellers at the door and the fish market downstairs. It is liveliest early, and stays open latest on Fridays, until 20:00. Then walk into the old town: the cathedral, built from volcanic stone, and the painted doors of Rua de Santa Maria. The Doors of Funchal walk strings it together in two hours. The Fisherman’s Quarter is its partner, from the fish market east to the yellow fort and the pebble beach.

Why morning: before the cruise passengers arrive, and before the heat in summer.

What goes wrong: buying fruit at the market. It is priced for visitors. Taste, then buy at a supermarket.

For each of the walks above, the app holds the trail offline with your position on it, and warns you when the IFCN closes it.