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PR11 · North — Ribeiro Frio (Santana municipality)

Vereda dos Balcões

Also known as PR11 Vereda dos Balcões · Balconies Trail · Balcões viewpoint walk

3 km Length out-and-back
1.5 h Duration typical
Easy Grade easy
10 m Ascent climb
low Exposure vertigo
PR11 Trail official PR

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.

Highlights

  • Short, family-friendly walk to the Balcões ('balconies') viewpoint
  • Panorama of the central massif — Pico do Areeiro, Pico das Torres and Pico Ruivo on clear days
  • Views over the Fajã da Nogueira hydroelectric plant and the Metade valley
  • Tame chaffinches at the miradouro
  • Easy access to laurel-forest birds and endemic flora

Water on the route

  • Follows the Levada da Serra do Faial channel
  • Ribeiro Frio Forest Park aquaculture centre with a rainbow-trout nursery nearby
Tunnels: No tunnels. Bring a head-torch — some levada tunnels are long, low and pitch black.

Walks like this

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
PR9 North — Santana

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
17.4 kmLength6.5 hTimehardGrade
View walk
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