Madeira: 5-day itinerary on one of the most beautiful islands in Europe

How the desire to go to Madeira was born, I will never remember. The only thing that remains in my memory is a photo of the island drowning in flowers, found by chance on the Internet.

But first, here's how it was: in February, I discovered that Ryanair had a new Warsaw-Porto destination open for November for only 75 euros roundtrip. After thinking that it was just perfect for us, we decided on March.

I remember very well those moments when I was overcome by the sadness of not being able to get to the island on the cheap. At that time I knew only about the airline TAP Portugal, which flies to the island for 95 euros, which was more expensive than we paid for the flight from Poland to Portugal and back. But he who seeks always finds.

Madeira looks like a small island on the map, but it has a very steep topography. The island is of volcanic origin. By and large, it is just the tip of a huge volcano about 6 kilometers high, with its base resting on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. We had 5 days for our Portuguese adventure.

• A total of 106 kilometers were covered
• Start: Funchal
• Finish: Santa Cruz
• Accommodation: in a tent in camping sites.
• Difficulty level: medium
• Weather: gorgeous, not a single drop of rain fell on us during the whole time.

Our itinerary:

Funchal - Câmara de Lobos - Cabo Girao - Funchal - Monte - Pico do Arieiro - Picu-Pico Ruivo - Santana - Faial - Parque Natural do Ribeiro Frio - Portela - Machico - Pico do Facho - Ponta de São Lourenço - Santa Cruz Aeroporto da Madeira.

Early Sunday morning we landed at the Madeira Island airport (it's the only one there) - we flew EasyJet from Porto for only 25 euros each way. We left the airport building, boarded the Airport-Funchal airbus. Paid 5 euros each and 20 minutes later got off at the 4th stop called Mercado. It's just across the street from the port.

Everyone gets around the island by car or bus. We were something of a curiosity there. When people saw us and our big backpacks, they genuinely expressed delight, surprise, and sometimes envy. They clapped us on the shoulder and said "You are so good, it's cool".

We started our acquaintance with the island from the city of Funchal. The first thing that caught our eye was Azulejo, as the Portuguese call painted clay tiles, which they have been decorating their houses with since the XV century.

The most important distinguishing features of azulejo tiles are their square shape and traditional size of 14x14 cm. We didn't plan to spend a lot of time in Funchal, so we stopped by the Sé Catedral, ran along Rua de Santa Maria - this is one of the central streets of the old town, which runs parallel to the ocean, perhaps the most colorful place of the city. Practically every door and wall here is an art object.

You can book a hotel in Funchal with a discount of up to -65% on the website.

Checked out the San Tiago fortress, I liked the bright yellow coloring of the walls. There is now a restaurant on its grounds.

Since in Portugal Sunday is a day off and only supermarkets are open, we had to wait 24 hours to buy a gas cylinder. And to prepare ourselves for trails in the mountains, we went to the highest cape in Europe, Cabo Girao, on foot from Funchal along a levada called "Levada dos Piornais".

A levada is a type of irrigation canal built on the island of Madeira. It is a ditch, concreted or paved with stone, running along the mountainside. There is usually a path for pedestrians and sometimes a safety rope.

Cape Cabo Girao is free of charge and is open from 9:00-18:30.

Here is actually what you can see from the cape, the road serpentine down on the left, the ocean on the right. You stand on the glass floor, well, we also lay down, taking photos overlooking the ocean. To be honest, it's nothing special to spend a whole day on it. But we had to wait for Monday somewhere anyway.

On this day we walked 12 kilometers.

It was morning, no time to waste, so we walked quickly down to the village of Câmara de Lobus, on Largo do Poço 22 we stopped at the Pingo Doce supermarket for wine and coffee. We walked another block and took the 96 bus for 2.2 euros per person to Funchal. Tickets are sold at a booth next to the stop. The drivers on the island are so skillful at navigating the bus on these steep streets that we were there in 10 minutes.

We placed ourselves on the roof of a cafe overlooking the ships and small yachts, cooked soup, listened to the music that reached us from the cafe, and at the same time figured out which bus we could catch. Because of the steep terrain, we ruled out the option of walking to Monte at once, and at home we printed out the bus schedule, especially the price of 1.95 euros is not so high for a grueling climb on a hot day.

Bus № 20 and № 21 to Monte depart from the stop Rua 31 de Janeiro. Tickets were bought from the driver. At the stop it is better to come in advance to take a queue, otherwise you will have to stand in the bus for 20 minutes. You can also go up by cable car, but we, budget tourists, chose the cheaper way.

The Jardin Tropical Monte Palace is located in Monte. Inside is a small royal palace, where the last emperor of Austria-Hungary, Charles I, spent his last days. But this time our goal was the highest peak of Madeira island - Pico Ruivo.

While we were drinking coffee, the bus brought another batch of young strong carreiros guys. They are dressed in white shirts and pants, wearing brown boots with very thick rubber soles on their feet and straw round hats on their heads. It is in Monte that you can try the original entertainment - sledding down the streets of "Carros de Cesto do Monte". This is a purely tourist attraction, and not too cheap - so take a photo and go up.

On the third day of our trip, we found ourselves at the start of the PR1 route. This is an incredibly beautiful route connecting the highest and third highest peak on the island.

We didn't have much time, so we set ourselves the goal of completing the entire PR1 route in a day.

• Distance: 7km
• Duration: 3.5 hours
• Start: Pico do Ariero
• End: Pico Ruivo
• Maximum altitude: 1861 m
• Minimum altitude: 1542 meters

If you come by car, the route will take you 7 hours from one peak to the other and back.

Route PR1 - Vereda do Arieiro connects the two highest peaks of Madeira. Pico Ruivo 1861 meters and Pico do Arieiro 1817 meters are the 1st and 3rd highest peaks of the island. Route PR1 - Vereda do Arieiro starts next to Pousada Pico do Arieiro, near the observation deck. From this platform we admired the beauty of the Faja da Nogueira Valley, São Roque do Faial and almost the entire central mountain range while we drank tea and waited for our camera to charge. There are toilets near stores with souvenirs, they pay (0,5 euros), but water was free.

Be sure to bring enough water, as there are no places to refill bottles on the route itself. Another important point is sun protection: we could have used a lot of sunscreen on our hands and feet, but we flew with carry-on luggage, and somehow at home we didn't think that we could get so sunburned in March.

For safety, there is a railing made of metal cables along the whole route - but in principle, it is not scary to walk.

Not so long ago, after walking 3 km along the PR 1 route from Pico do Ariero, the trail split into left and right routes. You could go on one and return on the other, but after the collapse, the right route is now closed. But we were not really upset, as it was not in our plans to go back.

After reaching Pico Ruivo and admiring its landscapes, we went down the PR1.2 Achada do Teixeira (Achada do Teixeira) route. It was one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen.

Fluffy white clouds covered everything under our feet.

After 45 minutes we descended and decided to stop the car to drive down. The map showed that there was a campsite 5-6 km away. We were immediately picked up by a young couple from Spain. In their eyes we were monsters who could cover such long distances in such a short time. Ten minutes later we were already choosing a place for our tent.

March 8th is on the calendar. What I love about Madeira is that you fall asleep and wake up to the birds singing. Today we had a challenging day ahead of us, but we don't realize it yet.

The town of Santana was 5 km away from us. So pretty soon we were wandering around the town in search of a supermarket, at the same time we were looking for an open-air museum with traditional triangular houses. The park is a sort of interactive open-air exhibition of the island. Here you can see, visit and touch the traditional houses of the inhabitants of Madera, as well as outbuildings.

Today's destination was the Ribeiro Frio Natural Park, which is located in the Laurissilva forest - it is one of the most beautiful places in Madeira.

Santana and the next village of Faial were separated by a long car tunnel, so we had to hitchhike to get to the next point. Hitchhiking didn't work - either no one needed to go to Ribeiro Frio, or they didn't know what a finger pointed out meant. Anyway, we had 11 kilometers to go up. I was furious at the steepness of the climbs in some places, but I didn't have the strength to say a word. The road itself was serpentine, and only at the end of the way we got a ride.

Balconus - this balcony used to be prettier, not a metal fence, but a wooden one, like the one surrounding the houses in Santana. After taking a few photos we went along a small levada towards the trout farm.

The trout raised there are used to repopulate the island's rivers and are also sold to restaurants. We continue upwards from the trout farm and come to a meadow surrounded by daffodils - it's hard to think of a better continuation of March 8th.

If we found yesterday challenging, it was because we just didn't know how our day today would end.

The plan for the day was as follows:

• PR10 Portela route (11km);
• route PR 5 Marocos (8km);
• the town of Mashiku;
• Pico de Fasho lookout (1,4km);
• route PR8 Ponta de Sao Laurenço (4km);
• Santa Cruz Airport

We had to get up at 6am to make it through all of this.

The Ribeiro Frio - Portela route gives you the opportunity to see the nature that welcomed the first settlers.

The first 9 kilometers along the levada are easy to walk, morning sun rays penetrate through the tree crowns. The light is very soft, birds are singing around and in some places you can hear water gurgling in the levada. Only after walking along the route you realize how lush nature was and how difficult it was to fight with it to build levadas. We passed this route quite quickly in 3 hours and 10 minutes instead of the declared 5 hours.

We came to a place called Portela, a tourist spot with beautiful views of Porto da Cruz.

As we were quite high up, and the town we wanted was at the bottom, the road soon went downhill - but not a gentle descent, but a very steep one. So steep that we had to walk on half bent knees. At about 12 o'clock we found ourselves in the town of Marocos, already quite tired on the descent.

The town itself is not convenient, as you can leave it only by bus, or you can take another levada, but we didn't have the energy for it - we spent it on the descent. The sun was baking and we wanted to get to Mashiku town as soon as possible. But these two cities were separated by a 3 kilometer tunnel. And it is forbidden to walk through tunnels, especially in which high-speed highways pass. So we stopped at the exit to the main highway and in 15 minutes we stopped the car.

After eating a 400 gram carton of ice cream, we went to the Pico de Fasho observation deck. It offers a great view of the airport and Cape Ponta de Sao Lourenço. The topography of the town in Mashiku is very difficult for backpackers - we had to walk up the stupefyingly steep streets.

We climbed about 1 km, I didn't go further to the observation deck - I fell down and stayed lying in the grass.

This is probably the most tense moment of the whole Madeira trip. You really want to get to the cape, which you saw from the plane before the whole island - but it is not so close. And it's one thing to walk on flat ground, and quite another to gallop 5km up hills with a backpack. We decided to hide our backpacks in the bushes and go to the cape only with the most expensive things - camera, passports and jackets.

We had the only way out - to run along the trail that goes to the town of Canisal along the ocean. And as we turned over the hill, the entire cape came back into view. How beautiful it is in the sunlight. Not knowing for sure if we would make it, we took a few photos just in case.

Many tourists specifically come to the east of Madeira in the evening to see the sunset. So, while we were walking one way along the route, they were all on their way back - it was 17:25 on the clock. The nature in this part of the island was radically different from anything we had seen before - there are no trees growing here, the landscape is slightly reminiscent of Icelandic, and the whole thing is surrounded by fabulous seascapes.

The length of the track along Ponta de Sao Lawrenço is 3 km, up to the extreme point where the passage is closed - 4 km. There is no need to describe the PR 8 route, you just have to admire it.

We did not reach literally 500 meters to the end of the route. Having turned around 180 degrees, we took a quick step to the parking lot, then the bus #113 to Funchal arrived and we decided to take it to Mascicu for 1,30 euros per person. For those 15 minutes that he took us, we came to our senses a little, rested and asked to drop us off at a stop 1 km away from our backpacks. And since we hid them in the bushes near the observation deck, it is clear that this 1 km had to go uphill again.

Tired but happy, together with our native backpacks we sat down at the table and, eating a tuna sandwich, admired the night Mashiku. We had 12 hours left before boarding the plane. On this day we walked about 25 kilometers.

In general, the island is incredibly beautiful and comfortable, it is not difficult to find anything, there are signs everywhere. If anyone is interested, you can spend the night at Madeira airport, it doesn't close. Many tropical fruits don't grow all year round - December seems to be the best month to visit Madeira if you want to try fresh local tropical fruits like mangoes and avocados. And we were very comfortable in March. In some places it was unbearably hot, but we did not have time to swim in the ocean - we really wanted to, but one day was not enough.

Summarizing, I would like to say that I am very satisfied with the fact that I managed to spend 5 days on this island. I did not want to leave, in particular, because we have not yet seen so many beautiful things that Madeira hides.