Collection
Big mountain days
The committing routes — long, high, and properly exposed.
When you've got the legs and the weather, these are the walks that earn the island its reputation. They trade gentle levadas for ridge-line veredas, long tunnel-strung epics, and exposed coastal shelves: the traverse of the central peaks, the full PR9 to Hell's Cauldron, the long tunnel-walk of the Ribeira da Janela.
All are graded hard for good reason — real ascent, real distance, real exposure. Read each page's exposure and tunnel notes, carry food, water and a torch, start early, and turn back in bad weather rather than push on.
For experienced walkers with a good head for heights. Check the weather and trail status carefully.
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
Levada do Caldeirão do Inferno
Not a separate trail but the full extent of the official PR9: from Caldeirão Verde the channel pushes a further ~2.4 km through a string of narrow, often flooded tunnels into the Caldeirão do Inferno, a sheer-sided canyon closed by a final towering waterfall. This is the demanding end of the route — guidebooks count around eleven tunnels in total and rate the complete out-and-back as hard, a full day of 6–7 hours or more. The popular shorthand 'PR9.1' for this extension is a misnomer: the official register names the whole Queimadas–Caldeirão Verde–Caldeirão do Inferno line as PR9, while the real PR9.1 is a short accessible path (Queimadas–Pico das Pedras) elsewhere.
- Has tunnels
- Waterfall on the route
Levada da Ribeira da Janela
The far northwest's epic, and a deliberate exception on this list: the Levada da Ribeira da Janela is not a classified PR trail, but it is one of the most ambitious tunnel walks on Madeira. The channel follows the right bank of the Ribeira da Janela — the longest river on the island — deep into a cliff-walled valley, the path hugging the inside wall above the gorge. Its centrepiece is a tunnel of more than 1,200 m, pitch-dark, dripping and partly flooded, with waterfalls spilling inside; in all there are roughly seven to nine tunnels. Crystalline pools punctuate the route, some deep enough to swim. Distances vary sharply with the chosen variant: about 11.5 km one-way along the levada, a long ~22.8 km full out-and-back, or roughly 16 km looped via the Vereda do Galhano. Edges are crumbly and exposed — for sure-footed hikers only.
- Has tunnels
- Waterfall on the route
Caminho do Pináculo e Folhadal
The big, strenuous traverse of the central highlands, crossing from the Lombo do Mouro on the Paul da Serra plateau down to the Encumeada pass. It links the Levada da Serra and Levada do Norte, passing the Pináculo viewpoint over the Ribeira Brava valley and threading several long tunnels near the Folhadal. Visit Madeira lists 15 km, Difficult, about 6.5 hours, climbing to 1,490 m (min 970 m). GPS trackers walking it as a loop from Encumeada log around 17.2 km with ~583 m of climbing.
- Has tunnels
- Waterfall on the route
Vereda do Larano / Boca do Risco
The great historic coastal traverse of eastern Madeira — a vereda, not a levada, though many walkers begin on the easy, flat Levada do Caniçal above Machico before the trail turns wild. It follows the old caminho real that for centuries was the only land route between Machico and Porto da Cruz before the road tunnels were cut. The dramatic centrepiece is the Boca do Risco, the 'Mouth of Risk', a wind-blasted clifftop notch where the path runs along a narrow, unprotected shelf roughly 300 m above the crashing north-coast surf before descending to Porto da Cruz. The walk delivers some of the island's wildest sea panoramas and is largely free of crowds, but the exposure is serious and it is recommended only for sure-footed, head-for-heights walkers in good conditions. Note it is unnumbered and is NOT PR8 (the separate Ponta de São Lourenço trail), with which it is frequently confused.
- Has tunnels