Madeira, walked and sailed.
Which sunrise hike leaves early enough to beat the cloud. How close the whales really are. What a levada day costs once the transfer is in. Every tour on Madeira, reviewed and ranked.
Levadas, peaks, whales: the Madeira shortlist.
The laurel-forest water walks, the sunrise above the cloud line, the catamarans out of Funchal marina and the open-roof run round the west. The handful of days most Madeira trips are built around, and the best way to book each.
Above the cloud by six: Pico do Arieiro at sunrise.
All peak hikes →A road runs to the summit of Pico do Arieiro, so the hard part is the alarm clock. Past the viewing deck the PR1 ridge to Pico Ruivo turns into stairs, tunnels and cut rock — take a head torch, and expect it to be five degrees colder than Funchal.
Pico do Arieiro Sunrise Transfer Self-guided Hike
Read our review →
Madeira Funchal:East Tour Pico Arieiro & Santana&Laurissilva
Read our review →
Transfer to Pico do Arieiro & Pico Ruivo Trail
Read our review →On Madeira, the footpaths follow the water.
All 61 levada walks →
Settlers cut irrigation channels into the wet north face and a maintenance path beside every one. Those paths are now the island’s trail network: mostly flat, mostly shaded, and the reason people come back to Madeira with boots.
Rabaçal and the 25 Fontes
Down the closed road to the Rabaçal house, then along the levada to a waterfall bowl fed by twenty-five springs. Wet feet, mossy walls, a queue at the pool in August.
Caldeirão Verde, PR9 from Queimadas
Out of the thatched park at Queimadas along a channel carved into the cliff, through unlit tunnels, to a green cauldron with a single 100-metre fall in it.
Ponta de São Lourenço: no levada, no shade
The island’s dry end. Red and ochre cliffs, sea on both sides, wind the whole way and not one tree — the opposite of every other walk here, which is why it is worth a morning.
On Madeira the whales go first, then the west loop.
The full ranking →More travellers take these than anything else on the island — the catamarans leaving Funchal marina, the open-roof runs to Porto Moniz, and the two walks everyone has heard of.
1
Ecological Catamaran Dolphin Whale Watching
A hybrid-electric catamaran cruise from Funchal to spot dolphins and whales, plus a swim stop at Cabo Girão and scenic return views.
From · $40
Read our review →
2
Skywalk, Porto Moniz, Seixal, and Fanal 4WD Tour
from $72
3
Dolphin and Whale Watching Catamaran Cruise
from $41
4
Enchanted Terraces, Porto do Moniz & Fanal 4WD Tour
from $74
5
Porto Moniz, Seixal, Fanal Forest, Cliff Skywalk in Open Roof 4X4
from $75
6
Best of Madeira’s West Tour
from $42
7
Best of the East Tour from Funchal
from $42
8
Old Town Walking Tour
from $19
The seabed drops away a mile off Funchal. So do the whales.
Bottlenose and spotted dolphins in most weeks of the year, Bryde’s and short-finned pilot whales through the warm months, and boats close enough to shore that a sailing fits in a morning. Operators here will usually take you out again if nothing surfaces.
Porto Moniz, Seixal, Fanal: one road, Madeira’s best day.
Lava pools filled by the Atlantic at Porto Moniz, the black-sand cove at Seixal, a glass floor 580 metres above the sea at Cabo Girão, and the laurel trees of Fanal standing in their own fog. Most of it runs in an open-roof 4×4 because the old roads are too narrow for anything larger.
What a day on Madeira costs.
Every tour on the site, sorted by what it actually charges. Both of the island’s signature days — a levada walk and a whale catamaran — sit in the cheaper half.
Levada transfers, the old-town walk, the toboggan run and most whale catamarans out of Funchal.
The full-day 4×4 loops, canyoning, guided hikes with hotel pickup, food-and-wine afternoons.
Private guides, buggy and sidecar days priced per machine, and the aquarium dives.
Madeira invented these, and kept them.
Laurel forest survives on other Atlantic islands and every coast has a viewpoint. The water channels, the wicker sledges and the wine that wants heat all started on this one.
The Levadas
From the 1500s, settlers cut channels into the wet north face to carry water across the ridge to the dry, sunny south, and a narrow walkway beside each one so it could be cleared by hand. More than a thousand miles of them still run, still get cleared, and the maintenance path is now the island’s footpath network. Marked PR trails carry a small per-person fee, bought online before you set off; a guided walk includes it.
- 1Enjoy a Guided Levada Walk in the Rabaçal Valley★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 2,197 reviews
- 225 Fontes & Risco Levada Transfer Self-guided Hike★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 841 reviews
- 3Madeira East Island Tour and Levada Walk★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 787 reviews
The Wicker Sledge
Two men in white cotton and straw hats steering a wicker basket on greased wooden runners down two kilometres of public road from Monte to Livramento. It began as a way for growers to get downhill fast and never stopped being useful. The ride takes about ten minutes, the brakes are the soles of their boots, and nowhere else does anything remotely like it.
- 1Nuns Valley, Monte and Sleigh Ride Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 1,829 reviews
- 2Guided Tuk Tuk Tour to Toboggan Rides & Old Town★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 308 reviews
- 3Monte Tropical Garden & Toboggan Ride by Tuk Tuk★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 227 reviews
The Wine That Wants Heat
Madeira is the only wine deliberately cooked and oxidised — a habit learned when barrels crossed the tropics as ballast and came home tasting better. Estufagem does it in warmed tanks over months; canteiro does it slowly in attics over decades. An opened bottle keeps for months, which is why a lodge in Funchal will happily pour you a glass of something older than your grandmother.
- 1Taste Funchal: food, wine & cultural tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 906 reviews
- 2Taste Funchal: food, wine and cultural tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 680 reviews
- 3Skywalk with Wines Tasting and Vineyards Half day 4×4 Adventure★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 520 reviews
Funchal is the base, not the compromise.
Nearly every tour on this island leaves from the same two streets, so the city is where the waiting happens — and it is good at it. Painted doors down Rua de Santa Maria, the Mercado dos Lavradores at opening time, a cable car up to Monte and a sledge back down, and more poncha than is strictly sensible.
- 1Old Town Walking Tourfrom $19
- 2Old Funchal Walking Tourfrom $19
- 3Food and Wine Walking Tour in Funchalfrom $111
The Madeira bookings that close before you arrive.
Most of the island can be arranged from your hotel the night before. These cannot — they run on pre-dawn departures, a shuttle at a barrier, small fitted kit and one boat a day.
- 01Pico do Arieiro Sunrise Transfer Self-guided HikeDepartures leave Funchal in the dark and each van seats a handful of walkers. In summer the good mornings go days ahead.
- 0225 Fontes & Risco Levada Transfer Self-guided HikePrivate cars cannot drive down to Rabaçal — everyone rides the shuttle from the barrier above it, and the marked trail carries a per-person fee bought online.
- 03Island Highlights 4×4 Tour with Hotel TransfersOne ferry a day, a shade over two hours each way. Through August it is sold out before the week begins.
- 04Canyoning Madeira Island – Level OneWetsuit, harness and helmet are fitted to you, so groups are capped and dated. Same-day places in high season are rare.
Grey in Funchal is not grey on Madeira.
A ridge nearly 1,900 metres high sits between a wet north coast and a dry south one, and the cloud usually parks on the middle of it. When Funchal is under a lid, the peaks are often above it and the east end is bare and bright. Almost nothing here is a write-off; it is a routing problem.
By coast — where the day actually goes
The west loop73 tours
The east & São Lourenço55 tours
Porto Moniz & the north42 tours
Santana44 tours
Curral das Freiras27 tours
Funchal13 tours
Porto Santo4 tours- Every review on the island →
By experience — boots, boat or open roof?
A first Madeira week, coast by coast.
Out to sea
Pico do Arieiro
Rabaçal
São LourençoThe newest Madeira tour reviews.
Everything reviewed so far →
Arieiro Peak and Cristo Rei 4×4 Experience + Dolphins Watching
Read our review →
Snorkelling Trip at Ponta de São Lourenço Protected Area
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Hop-on Hop-off Bus Tour and Catamaran Whale & Dolphin Watching
Read our review →
Shore Excursion Porto Moniz – Enchanted Terraces 4×4 tour
Read our review →
Shore Excursion – Northwest Terraces and Volcanic Pools 4×4 tour
Read our review →
Full Day Santana Wonders and Northeast 4WD Experience
Read our review →
