Despite its current popularity, Madeira Island is a true hidden gem and still remains under the radar for most travelers. Prior to our visit Madeira Island, I asked friends and family if they had heard of this island. The answer was a resounding, NO. Truth be told, the only reason we heard of this Portuguese Island is because we are looped into the traveler grapevine following numerous travel bloggers on social media.
We allocated one full month to Madeira in order to explore the entirety of the island at a relaxed pace. Upon arrival and seeing how developed the island is, took me by surprise. Despite it’s development, the island still retains a unique peaceful quietness. The entire island of Madeira was impressively clean (on par with Singapore) and the infrastructure extremely well developed and maintained. The road and tunnel system built cutting directly thru the steep mountains branching off in every direction looked like some sort of major engineering feat. The island has got to have the most advanced roadway infrastructure in the world.
Many people compare Madeira Island to the natural beauty of the Hawaiian islands given the green mountain peaks and valleys. The infrastructure of Hawaiian islands, where we lived for a few years, is so far inferior to that of Madeira Island. However, the beaches on the Hawaiian islands blow away the beaches here in Madeira.
Madeira is like a hybrid between New Zealand (with its beautiful lush green forest hikes) and Hawaii (with its mountainous landscape and island feel). Strangely, being an island in the middle of the ocean, what Madeira lacks is the renowned Hawaiian white sandy beaches that we enjoy. The beaches in Madeira are black sand & rocky. They are unique wild beaches that are fun to check out but in my opinion, not ideal for a true relaxed sandy beach experience. If Madeira had similar beaches to Hawaii, we could easily see ourselves living on this island for a more extended period of time.
Madeira’s mountainous terrain has some pretty impressive elevation. Driving around Madeira Island is not for the feint of heart. It’s not traffic that is challenging, it’s the killer incline on the roads which run along the mountain hillside. It ain’t no joke. To get to all the renowned hikes, it requires a white knuckled drive up extremely curvy steep hills. I have been driving all over the world during our current RTW and have skillfully conquered some hairy driving conditions in countries/cities like Morocco, Turkey, Israel, Dublin, Italy, Spain. Even driving on the wrong side of the road (aka left side of the road) throughout thru our New Zealand and Australia roadtrips. However, the extremely steep, narrow and curvy mountain roads of Madeira are a bit challenging.
You better be quite proficient driving a manual (stick) or else you will inevitably have some hair raising experiences. I have been driving a stick all my life but found the driving a tad difficult, but really only on the first day because it was a new clutch getting used to in our rental car coupled with navigating the steepest inclines I have ever driven on. However, after a day getting acquainted with and navigating the hills, the driving became kinda fun, just as if I was in a video game. That being said, for inexperienced manual drivers, it is probably best to rent an automatic vehicle. A bunch of some top rated hikes are in the interior of the island which require some sharper driving skills up the steep mountain valleys to get to the trailheads.
Madeira has some of the most beautiful hiking trails in the entire world. To be exact, over 450 different hikes. It is one of the top locations in Europe for those looking for an active outdoor holiday with levada trails for all fitness levels. It’s a true theme park for nature lovers.
The hiking trails in Madeira are divided into two categories:
1) Levadas – Levada walks are very popular in Madeira. They consist of maintained paths alongside man made water springs, making it a calming experience to walk along being surrounded by lush nature and along the way you’ll see amazing panorama’s.
2) Veredas – Vereda hiking trails are up in the mountains of Madeira. They offer incredible vista’s but are often a little more challenging with steep inclines.
TOP MADEIRA ISLAND HIKES/ WALKS –
Levada dos Balcoes (PR11)
Pico do Areiro to Pico Ruivo
Archada do Teixeira to Pico Ruivo – shorter alternative to Pico Ruivo
Levada do Caldeirao Verde
Lavada 25 Fontes (PR6)
Verada do Fanal (PR13)
Levada do Alecrim
Miradouro Eira do Serrado
Levado do Moinho to Levada Nova
MIRADOUROS –
Madeira Island has tons of amazing viewpoints, also known as ‘Miradouro’ scattered around the island. Many viewpoints are very easy to reach as they are located right next to the road and some other viewpoints you have to hike a short or longer distance.
Big Doug & Barbie Drop Out of Society 