The Wild North Coast
A saint in a box, and houses built for the cold
- Full daystart to finish
- 54 kmof road
- 22stops with a story
You own this tour. It is waiting in the app.
Photo: H. Zell · Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Before you buy
Hear how it begins
The north coast the other way: east from São Vicente along the wet side to the pass above Machico. A saint that came in a box and survived a fire, a village whose name nobody can explain, seventeen thousand roses on a cliff, the thatched houses of Santana, a rock shaped like a crane, and a sugar mill still running on steam. A voice in the car that knows where you are, and tells you what you are looking at.
These are the first twenty seconds of the tour's three free blocks. In the app the three play in full, and the rest of the tour starts by itself as you reach each place.
This run goes São Vicente → Portela; the app also has it the other way round.
On the road
- 20stories along the way
- 3free to hear first
- São Vicente Free sample
- Boaventura, the name nobody can explain Free sample
On the way
Questions about this tour
Do I need a car?
Yes. Fifty-four kilometres from São Vicente to the Portela on the ER101 and its tunnels, with a steep descent to the Calhau at São Jorge and the climb to the pass at the end. Any rental car copes.
Where does it start, and where does it end?
It starts as you leave São Vicente heading east and ends at the Miradouro da Portela, the pass above Machico. It is one way; Machico and the airport are twenty minutes down the other side, Funchal about forty.
How long does it take?
About seventy-five minutes of driving. Plan on five hours with the stops, and the day if you add the Rocha do Navio cable car or the walk up the Penha.
Is anything included?
Everything the tour stops at is free to look at. The Parque Temático in Santana, the Rocha do Navio cable car and the Engenhos do Norte tasting are separate tickets, all under ten euros, and the tour tells you what each is before you decide.
Does the driver have to touch the phone?
No. Every story plays on its own as you reach it. Mount the phone, press Begin Tour before you set off, and leave it alone until the Portela.
Plan the day around it
This tour is also in a bundle
Drive round the whole island
Five drives, one purchase. The whole coast of Madeira from one tip to the other, and the wild north in between: by the end you know the island from top to bottom.
- 5tours, yours to keep
- 201km of road
- 72stops with a story
almost −30% compared with buying them one by one. Free samples on every tour before you buy.
The other tours
The app
The Wild North Coast, in your pocket
Buy it once and it is yours on every phone you sign in to. Download it over wifi, put the phone away, and each story starts as you reach the place it is about, with no signal needed.
On a computer? Point your phone's camera here.
