Things to do in Madeira

Madeira is a volcanic island of 741 square kilometres, closer to the African coast than to Lisbon. A ridge runs the length of it and reaches 1,861 metres at Pico Ruivo. Nothing here is flat, and that governs the rest.

How the island is laid out

• The south. Dry, sunny and built up. Funchal sits here, and with it almost every hotel and every boat.
• The north. Wetter and far emptier, with terraced villages and the laurel forest standing behind them.
• The high middle. Pico Ruivo and Pico do Arieiro, joined by a path along the rim that often runs above the cloud.
• Porto Santo. A little over two hours by ferry, and nine kilometres of sand that Madeira itself does not have.

Why the walking is unlike anywhere else

The dry south needed the wet north's water. From the fifteenth century it came in channels cut by hand. The levadas still run — some three thousand kilometres of them, most with a maintenance path beside them.

Those paths became the walking network. A walk here stays level for hours and is often a metre wide with a drop beside it. It ends where the water does, not at a summit.

What a Madeiran day is made of

• A levada walk. Half a day or a full one, pick-up included. Rabaçal and the 25 Fountains, and Caldeirão Verde, are the two most booked.
• The water. Dolphins and whales run all year. Diving centres on the Garajau reserve, where the groupers are unbothered by people.
• Wine and a table. Madeira is fortified and outlives its bottler. Tastings come with a vineyard lunch, or with cooking after the market.
• A four-wheel-drive day. The bare eastern tip, or the northern highlands above Santana. The road is the reason to go.

Practical

• Season. There is no bad month on the coast. The peaks run about ten degrees colder and disappear into cloud without warning.
• Almost no sand. Beaches are pebble or black volcanic rock. The golden sand at Calheta was shipped in; the real thing is on Porto Santo.
• Shoes and a torch. Levada paths stay wet, and several run through unlit tunnels.
• Laurisilva. The laurel forest covers about a fifth of the island and has been a World Heritage Site since 1999.
• The levadas are not. They have sat on the tentative list since 2017, which travel pages routinely round up to listed.
• Boats. Winter swell cancels sailings at short notice, and a refund is not another day.