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Itinerary

A week of levadas

Seven days, seven walks — north forest, high peaks, and the sunlit south.

7days
8walks
~66km total
~27hours total
Easy · Moderate · Hardgrades

A full week lets you walk the island the way its water moves: from the misty north where the springs rise, across the central massif, and down toward the coast. This is one walk a day — easing in, building toward the big mountain day mid-week, with an exposed coastal finish to change the scenery.

Distances and grades come straight from each walk's page. Treat the order as a suggestion and bend it to the forecast: save the peaks and the bare coast for the clear days, and keep the forest walks for when the cloud is down.

Most days are classified PR trails — book each on SIMplifica, and check the live status before travelling.

  1. Day 1

    Find your feet

    A short, railed viewpoint walk to read the central peaks before you climb among them.

    PR11 North — Ribeiro Frio (Santana municipality)

    Vereda dos Balcões

    The north's easiest classic: a near-level 1.5 km each way along the Levada da Serra do Faial from Ribeiro Frio to the Balcões — the 'balconies' — a railed promontory looking deep into the Metade valley and, on a clear day, across to the central peaks of Pico do Areeiro, Pico das Torres and Pico Ruivo, with the Fajã da Nogueira hydro plant far below. Through laurel forest alive with chaffinches and endemic flora, it is ideal for families and a fine half-hour acclimatiser. Visit Madeira gives 1.5 km / 3 km round trip, 1:30 h, Easy, altitude 880/870 m. The municipality on the official register is Santana, placing it firmly in the north, though it pairs naturally with the PR10 Levada do Furado that starts nearby.

    • Family-friendly
    3 kmLength1.5 hTimeeasyGrade
    View walk
  2. Day 2

    Into the laurel forest

    PR18 North — São Jorge (Santana municipality)

    Levada do Rei

    The 'King's Levada' climbs gently from the edge of São Jorge into one of the most intact and least-trodden tracts of laurel forest in the north. The well-graded channel winds through a green corridor — vegetation arches overhead like natural tunnels — past a working water mill three centuries old, beneath a small waterfall, and finally into the secluded Ribeiro Bonito, where spring water sheets down a rock wall some 100 m above the streambed. Visit Madeira gives it as 5.3 km each way (10.6 km round trip), 3:30 h, Moderate, altitude 573/535 m. Despite its royal name the channel is early 20th century (built by order of King D. Manuel II), not medieval. It is technically easy with little exposure, though the channel edge warrants care.

    • Has tunnels
    • Waterfall on the route
    10.6 kmLength3.5 hTimemoderateGrade
    View walk
  3. Day 3

    Rabaçal's water-staircase

    Both leave from the one Rabaçal trailhead — pair them if you have the legs.

    PR6 West — Rabaçal (Calheta municipality)

    Levada das 25 Fontes

    The signature walk of Rabaçal and one of the most popular trails in all Madeira. From the forestry house the path drops through Laurisilva to the Lagoa das 25 Fontes, a clear pool fed by roughly 25 springs that weep from the surrounding rock wall — the literal source of the name, confirmed by both the Visit Madeira register and Calheta municipality. The terrain is near-flat levada walking with steps and some narrow, exposed ledges. Visit Madeira lists it as 4.3 km one-way (8.6 km round trip); Calheta municipality cites 9 km and GPS trackers up to 11 km when the access road and Risco spur are included.

    • Has tunnels
    • Waterfall on the route
    8.6 kmLength3 hTimemoderateGrade
    View walk
    PR6.1 West — Rabaçal (Calheta municipality)

    Levada do Risco

    The shortest and gentlest of the Rabaçal trails, leading from the forestry house along an almost level levada to a viewpoint facing the tall, thread-like Risco waterfall. It shares its opening stretch with PR6, so the two are routinely combined into one outing. Visit Madeira gives 1.5 km one-way (3 km round trip), Easy, about 2 hours; the path runs at roughly 1,000 m through laurel forest. The former lower path beneath the falls is closed after landslides.

    • Has tunnels
    • Waterfall on the route
    • Family-friendly
    3 kmLength2 hTimeeasyGrade
    View walk
  4. Day 4

    The northern classic

    PR9 North — Santana

    Levada do Caldeirão Verde

    Madeira's most celebrated levada walk and the archetype of the north. From the thatched A-frame shelter at Queimadas the path runs almost level along an 18th-century channel cut to water the fields of Faial, plunging into the densest interior of the UNESCO Laurisilva. Four rock tunnels punctuate the route — bring a torch and expect water underfoot — before the channel rounds a final escarpment to the Caldeirão Verde, a green-walled amphitheatre where the Ribeiro do Caldeirão Verde drops roughly 100 m into a dark pool. The drops beside the unfenced channel are real and the basalt is slick when wet. Visit Madeira gives the official PR9 as 8.7 km one-way / 17.4 km round trip; in practice GPS tracks to the waterfall and back cluster around 11.5–13.5 km.

    • Has tunnels
    • Waterfall on the route
    17.4 kmLength6.5 hTimemoderateGrade
    View walk
  5. Day 5

    Fanal's ancient trees

    Best on a grey, misty morning — the fog is the point.

    PR13 Northwest — Fanal / Paúl da Serra (Porto Moniz)

    Vereda do Fanal

    More a forest footpath than a levada, the Vereda do Fanal traverses the high Paúl da Serra plateau through a wide expanse of UNESCO laurel forest in superb condition, ending at the Fanal — a shallow volcanic crater designated a Rest-and-Quiet Reserve and famous worldwide for its gnarled, fog-haunted Til trees. The route passes the Sítio do Fio, where a historic cableway once lowered timber and brushwood off the plateau. Visit Madeira gives 10.8 km, 4 h, Moderate, altitude 1,420/1,130 m, with the official classified line running from Assobiadores onward toward Encumeada. Exposure is low, but the plateau is frequently in cloud — which is precisely what gives the Fanal its otherworldly atmosphere.

    • Has tunnels
    10.8 kmLength4 hTimemoderateGrade
    View walk
  6. Day 6

    The roof of the island

    The big day. Save it for clear, settled weather.

    PR1 Central Massif — Santana / Funchal border

    Vereda do Areeiro (Pico do Arieiro to Pico Ruivo)

    This is a VEREDA, not a levada — a footpath blasted and carved into the spine of the central massif rather than a water channel. PR1 links Madeira's two great viewpoint peaks, starting at the Pico do Arieiro car park (1,818 m), crossing Pico das Torres (1,851 m) and ending atop Pico Ruivo (1,862 m), the highest point in the archipelago and the third-highest in Portugal. The path threads tunnels dug through volcanic tuff that once sheltered shepherds and livestock, climbs rock-cut staircases, and runs along knife-edge ridges with drops of 500 m or more to either side, frequently above the cloud line. Visit Madeira lists it as 6.1–7 km and grades it moderate, though its length, exposure and altitude see it widely rated hard. Following the August 2024 wildfire the route reopened in late April 2026 and now operates one-way, Arieiro to Ruivo. A premium entry fee applies via the SIMplifica portal.

    • Has tunnels
    7 kmLength3.5 hTimehardGrade
    View walk
  7. Day 7

    Sea and stone

    PR8 East — São Lourenço peninsula (Caniçal / Machico)

    Vereda da Ponta de São Lourenço

    The PR8 is Madeira's most famous coastal walk and a deliberate counterpoint to the island's green levadas: it is a vereda (footpath), NOT a water channel, crossing the bare, wind-scoured volcanic peninsula that forms Madeira's eastern tip. The trail undulates over red, ochre and grey cliffs with the Atlantic on both flanks, threading a Partial Nature Reserve of rare endemic plants and seabird colonies before reaching the green oasis of Casa do Sardinha, where a path drops to a swimming cove. There is no shade, the wind is often fierce, and several sections run close to unprotected drops. It is moderate by effort but should not be underestimated in heat or strong wind.

    • Has tunnels
    6 kmLength2.5 hTimemoderateGrade
    View walk