Madeira island📍The best places, trails, waterfalls and foods / travel blog

Madeira is a small island in the Atlantic Ocean with a special airport (an airstrip built as bridge above the water) and our landing was not very pleasant. Still, it’s worth going there, and here is why…

It is an island of waterfalls, hiking trails with beautiful views, forests covered with mysterious fog, lush green plants in the rainy season and rainbows.

Here are my “must see” places on the island:

Ponta de Sao Lourenco

Perfect for a hike, here you can see the video:

In December when it’s rainy and windy, you may see so many rainbows:

Achada do Teixeira – Pico Ruivo trail

Pico Ruivo is the highest peak of Madeira 1861 m. You can do this not so hard hike to reach it and enjoy some amazing views on the way.

Pico do Arieiro – pico Ruivo hike, PR 1

It’s an epic trail! You’re basically walking in the clouds 🙂 The trail leads through mountain tops, sometimes through tunnels and is quite demanding, but it seems very safe. A trip for the whole day.

Foods

It is quite hard to find a good food if you’re vegan or vegetarian. Sometimes you have to survive on fruits, French fries or “poncha regionale” 😉 There are vegan burgers in restaurants, but it is not an option for me because it’s with the “fake” meat, but some people may like it of course.

There is a great restaurant in Funchal, where the owner is vegan herself and makes delicious food and cakes, it’s called Mundo, address: Edifício Costa do sol III, R. Velha da Ajuda n°2, 9000-115 Funchal, Portugal.

Madeira wine and rum are known all over the world and I confirm, it’s really good 🙂

Levada 25 Fontes

Levada means “an irrigation channel or aqueduct on the island of Madeira“, also it is a trail in common language. Trails are all rather easy to find and well marked compared to, for example, some Greek islands. This levada to the waterfall is beautiful, especially in the rainy season when there is a lot of water. In summer, some waterfalls are dried up and there are more tourists.

The island is full of waterfalls and lush greenery:

In the Northern part od the Island there is a nice hotel ‘Aqua Natura Bay’ with an epic view and infinity pool:

There is a black sand beach in Seixal and the natural pools. There are not many places to swim on the island because there is an open ocean, big waves, strong currents and rocks. Even the “natural pools” were closed when I visited because the ocean was raging.

Fanal forest

The viral forest on Instagram 🙂 There’s often fog covering huge laurel trees and mystic vibe:

On the road to the Santa Cruz view point, there’s an old bridge that looks like in the middle of the jungle:

Ponta do Pargo

It’s a lighthouse with a perfect sunset view, but sometimes you may find only thick fog here:

Levada Nova

Beautiful and very interesting trail! On the way back however, we chose a worse way and had to eventually get through banana plantation, which I have a feeling wasn’t part of the trail, so it’s better to check the route before 🙂