Seven days in Madeira: levadas, one big ridge walk and the north-south weather split

What to take away

• North and south have different weather. Check both forecasts, every morning.
• Arieiro to Ruivo is the best walk on the island. Go at dawn, not at ten.
• Levada walks are flat and long. The tunnels need a torch and a waterproof.
• A car is essential. The tunnels make the island small and the roads make it slow.
• Fanal is a fog forest. On a clear day it is a field with trees in it.

Two islands, one mountain in the middle

Madeira is a volcanic ridge sticking out of the Atlantic, and the ridge splits the weather in half. The south coast, where Funchal is, is dry and sunny far more often than not. The north coast gets the cloud, the rain and the green. In March we drove through a tunnel in sunshine and came out the other side in fog with the wipers on full.

This is the single most useful thing to know when planning a week here. Do not check "the weather in Madeira", check the forecast for the specific coast and the specific altitude you are going to be at. The mountain forecast is a third thing again, and on the high ridge it can be clear above a cloud layer that makes the whole island look socked in from below.

The practical version: keep a north-coast day and a south-coast day both ready to go, and decide at breakfast. We ended up doing exactly that four times in seven days.

• South: Funchal, Camara de Lobos, Cabo Girao, Ponta de Sao Lourenco.
• North: Sao Vicente, Seixal, Porto Moniz, the Caldeirao Verde levada.
• High: Arieiro, Ruivo, Balcoes. Often clear above cloud on a grey morning.
• East: Sao Lourenco is a desert peninsula and is windy every single day.

The ridge walk, and why it starts in the dark

Pico do Arieiro to Pico Ruivo is the walk people come to Madeira for: about 7 kilometres each way along the crest between the two highest peaks, through tunnels cut into the rock, on stairs bolted to cliffs, above a sea of cloud when it behaves. It is genuinely spectacular and it is genuinely exposed.

The car park at Arieiro fills before dawn, because the sunrise from there has become one of the more photographed things in Portugal. That is the reason to go early, and it also happens to be when the trail is at its best: cool, quiet, and with the cloud still sitting in the valleys.

The practical bits: it is a there-and-back unless you arrange a car at the Achada do Teixeira end, which is what we did with two cars. There are three tunnels and you need a torch. The trail closes in bad weather and the closures are enforced and correct. Allow five to seven hours for the full return and take more water than seems reasonable.

Levadas: flat, long and not always easy

The levadas are irrigation channels cut across the island over five hundred years, and the maintenance paths beside them are now the walking network. They are close to flat, which sounds easy, and they are frequently a metre-wide ledge with a drop on one side and no railing.

Caldeirao Verde is the classic: about 13 kilometres return from Queimadas through laurel forest and four tunnels to a waterfall in an amphitheatre of rock. Bring a head torch and a waterproof, because the tunnels drip continuously.

The 25 Fontes and Risco levadas above Rabacal are the other famous pair, and they now run a shuttle from the main road because the access track cannot take the traffic. Vereda dos Balcoes is the short one, half an hour each way, and on a clear day it looks straight into the central massif; it is the best return on effort on the island.

Funchal, and the things that are worth a slot

Funchal is a proper small city, not a resort strip. The Mercado dos Lavradores is worth an hour in the morning, with the caveat that the fruit sellers upstairs will hand you slices and then charge for them; ask the price first and everyone stays friendly.

The cable car up to Monte and the toboggan back down is the famous combination. The toboggan is a wicker sledge steered by two men in straw hats, it costs around 30 euros for two people, it lasts about ten minutes, and it is exactly as ridiculous as it sounds. Do it once. The Monte Palace garden at the top is genuinely good and takes two hours.

And then there is poncha, a rum drink from Camara de Lobos that goes down like fruit juice and does not behave like it. The traditional bars in Camara de Lobos, twenty minutes west, are where to try it, and the fishing harbour there is more pleasant than anywhere on the Funchal seafront.

What a week costs, and the four-way split

Madeira is good value by western European standards. A hire car ran about 30 euros a day in March, apartments in Funchal 90 to 130 a night for four, a good dinner with wine 20 to 25 a head, and a espetada, beef on a bay-laurel skewer hung over the table, for about 15.

Most trailheads now charge a small fee, typically a few euros a person, collected at the start or booked online, and the money goes to trail maintenance. It is worth knowing in advance so you are not standing at a barrier with no phone signal trying to pay.

For four people the split was simple in structure and annoying in volume: one car, one flat, twenty small payments a day for coffees, fees and parking. We logged them as we went. Total for seven days, excluding flights, was around 480 euros a head.

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