Madeira

IslandsMadeira,Portugal

A Portuguese island rising vertically from the Atlantic, carrying the largest laurel forest left on Earth and 2,500 kilometres of hand-dug channels walked as paths.

September·Peaking now

Jun–Sep

Madeira at its most itself: the driest, clearest months, when the Arieiro–Ruivo walk runs reliably above the sea of clouds. The ocean warms from roughly 21°C in June to 23°C by September, and Funchal's Atlantic Festival lights the bay with fireworks on June Saturdays.

Year-round Madeira's laurel forest, levada paths and cloud-topped peaks are here year-round in a mild climate; spring and summer bring the clearest days on the high ridge trail.

Madeira is a volcanic island that rises out of the Atlantic almost vertically: knife-edge ridges, valleys that fall away in a single drop, and a high point at Pico Ruivo, 1,862 metres. Pico do Arieiro stands a ridgeline away at 1,818. It stands about a thousand kilometres southwest of Lisbon, closer to Africa than to Europe, and the mild air holds all year. Most of the high ground is under laurisilva, a moss-draped laurel forest that is the largest left on Earth. It survives from the woodlands that covered southern Europe before the last Ice Age dried them out, and it has been UNESCO World Heritage since 1999. Cut into the slopes below are the levadas, some 2,500 kilometres of narrow water channels dug by hand from the sixteenth century onward to carry rain from the wet north of the island to the dry south. Most mornings a sea of clouds pools in the valleys, and the classic walk between Pico do Arieiro and Pico Ruivo runs over the top of it, threading rock-cut tunnels and staircases with five-hundred-metre drops on either side. The flat maintenance paths beside the levadas make the gentlest walking routes through the forest. A central ridge splits the island in two: a wet, green north where the rain falls, and a drier south where Funchal and most of the population sit. In Fanal, gnarled five-hundred-year-old laurels loom through drifting mist. The coast hardens without warning: the glass skywalk at Cabo Girão hangs 580 metres above the Atlantic, and the bare red spine of Ponta de São Lourenço reaches east into the sea. The famous ridge trail reopened in 2026 after repairs to wildfire damage, so one day can take you from the peaks above the clouds in the morning down into the quiet of the laurel forest by afternoon.

Worth knowing

Good to know

Be on the ridge within the first hour of light — by late morning cloud usually stands over the peaks rather than below them, and the view goes white.
Dress for two climates — the summits run far colder and windier than the coast, and fog can close in within minutes, so carry warm layers and a windbreaker even on a clear morning.
Some levadas run through unlit tunnels — the longer forest routes like Caldeirão Verde punch straight through the mountain, so pack a head-torch and expect a cold drip from the rock overhead.
The clearest, driest weather runs late spring to early autumn — but the peaks make their own weather, so a summit can sit in fog while Funchal stays in full sun.
Whales and dolphins pass all year — more than twenty cetacean species move through these deep Atlantic waters, from common dolphins to sperm whales, and most boat trips make a sighting.

Things to do

1
Walk the Arieiro–Ruivo ridge above the clouds
The classic Madeira walk links the island's two highest peaks along a ridge that spends most of its length above the cloud layer. The path is carved into the rock — unlit tunnels you need a torch for, long stone staircases, and stretches with five-hundred-metre drops on both sides. Set out before sunrise: the light arrives level with you rather than from above, and the sea of cloud in the valleys turns pink while you walk over the top of it.
2
Swim the volcanic pools of Porto Moniz
On the island's northwestern tip, old lava flows have hardened into a maze of natural pools that fill with clear Atlantic water. You can slip in for a swim while the open sea breaks in white spray against the black rock just beyond.
3
Ride a wicker sledge down from Monte
Two carreiros in white, straw-hatted and shod in rubber soles that work as brakes, push a wicker basket mounted on wooden runners down the street from Monte. The carts have run since 1850, when they were simply the fast way down to Funchal. The two-kilometre slide to Livramento takes a little over five minutes and touches about 38 km/h on the steeper straights.
4
Walk the laurel forest, from a levada to Fanal
Follow one of the old water channels as it runs level and quiet deep into the moss-hung laurisilva. Ferns crowd the path, water slides steadily at your side, and the forest closes overhead into a green half-light. On the high plateau of Fanal the same forest thins into open meadow, where laurels have grown gnarled and broad over five centuries. When fog drifts across it their bare, twisting shapes seem to float free of the ground.
5
Drop by bike from the laurisilva to the banana terraces
The classic run starts in wet laurel forest near the ridge and finishes in banana terraces just above the sea, losing more than a thousand metres in one drop. The surface changes as you go: moss and root, then loose volcanic grit, then packed red clay. Riders have a name for that clay — Madeiran ice — because after rain it takes on a wet sheen and the grip simply goes. The Enduro World Series raced these trails in 2017 and 2019.