Things to do in Madeira
From levada walks along centuries-old irrigation canals to whale watching off Funchal and the wine lodges of the old town, Madeira rewards visitors with experiences for every kind of trip.
Signature experiences
The categories that define a first trip to Madeira — levada walks, the high mountain peaks, and whale and dolphin watching.
Levada walks
Walking the service paths beside Madeira's centuries-old irrigation canals, from the easy Levada dos Balcões to the tunnels of Levada do Caldeirão Verde. Official PR-marked trails have required a paid permit since August 2021, booked online before you set out.
6 guides
Mountain peaks
The Pico do Arieiro to Pico Ruivo ridge walk (PR1), with its tunnels and stone steps, and the shorter approach to Pico Ruivo from Achada do Teixeira. Sunrise above the cloud sea at Pico do Arieiro is the island's best-known outing.
5 guides
Jeep tours
4x4 excursions into the interior — the high plateau of Paúl da Serra, the misty tils of Fanal, and the levada roads around Rabaçal — reaching spots a hire car struggles with. Half-day and full-day routes usually combine two or three viewpoints.
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Boat trips
Catamaran and speedboat trips along the south coast, including day excursions towards the Desertas Islands, a strict nature reserve and refuge for the Mediterranean monk seal. Sunset sailings out of Funchal marina are a popular add-on.
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Whale & dolphin watching
Boat trips off Funchal, Calheta and Caniçal, where around twenty cetacean species pass through, from Atlantic spotted dolphins to sperm whales. Sightings run year-round, with the calmest seas in summer.
2 guides
Beaches & natural pools
Porto Moniz's lava-formed natural pools, Seixal's black-sand beach, and Porto Santo's nine-kilometre stretch of golden sand — the archipelago's only true sand beach. Machico and Calheta's beaches use imported sand, not natural.
3 guidesMore ways to experience the island
Specialist interests and practical planning — wine and poncha, seasonal timing, and the comparisons every first-time visitor searches for.
Canyoning
Canyoning through the steep ribeiras of the north and the Rabaçal area, with abseiling, jumps and natural slides under qualified guides. Madeira is one of Europe's canyoning capitals, and difficulty varies widely between routes.
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Diving & snorkelling
Diving at the Garajau marine reserve, protected since 1986 and known for its unbothered brown groupers, and along the coast at Canico de Baixo. Water sits between 18°C and 24°C depending on the season.
2 guides
Water sports
Coasteering, kayaking and stand-up paddleboarding along the volcanic south coast, plus the calm bay and long beach at Porto Santo for beginners. Surf spots exist on both the north and south coasts, exposed to different swells.
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Air sports
Paragliding above Arco da Calheta and other south-facing launch sites, riding the island's steady thermals out over the Atlantic. Flights depend heavily on the wind, so schedules often shift at short notice.
1 guide
Biking & cycling
Cycling and mountain biking on the tracks of Paúl da Serra's plateau and the coastal roads, with e-bikes increasingly used to handle the island's steep gradients. Levada paths are for walking, not cycling, so route choice matters.
2 guides
Wine & poncha
Madeira wine tastings at Blandy's Wine Lodge in Funchal, and poncha — sugar-cane spirit, honey and lemon stirred with a caralhinho — in the bars of Câmara de Lobos. Sercial, Verdelho, Boal and Malvasia run dry to sweet.
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Food & drink
Espetada skewered on laurel wood, bolo do caco with garlic butter, and limpets or scabbardfish with banana in Funchal's Zona Velha restaurants. The Mercado dos Lavradores is the place to see the catch and the produce together.
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Funchal sightseeing
Funchal's old town, the painted doors of Rua de Santa Maria, and the 1940s Mercado dos Lavradores, alongside Reid's Palace and the CR7 museum. A cable car links the Zona Velha to Monte in around fifteen minutes.
4 guides
Cable cars & viewpoints
The Funchal-to-Monte cable car, the Cabo Girão skywalk over a roughly 580-metre cliff, and the short service cable car down to Achadas da Cruz. Each delivers a different kind of view, from city and bay to sheer Atlantic drop.
3 guides
Gardens & quintas
Madeira's Botanical Garden and the Quinta do Palheiro Ferreiro, two distinct gardens often mixed up, plus the Monte Palace Tropical Garden above Funchal. Subtropical planting thrives here on volcanic soil and steady rainfall.
2 guides
Laurissilva & nature
The Laurissilva, a UNESCO World Heritage relict laurel forest covering close to a fifth of the island, mostly on the wetter north-facing slopes. Queimadas and the Rabaçal valleys are the easiest places to walk into it.
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Porto Santo
Madeira's sister island, around 43 kilometres northeast, reached by ferry or a fifteen-minute flight, with its long golden beach and the Casa Colombo where Christopher Columbus once lived. The ferry crossing is frequently cancelled by winter swell.
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History & heritage
The 1419 Portuguese discovery of Madeira, the Casa Colombo on Porto Santo, and the thatched-roof casas de colmo of Santana that recall the island's early rural housing. Funchal takes its name from funcho, the wild fennel that once covered the bay.
3 guides
Family
Cable car rides to Monte, the wicker toboggans of the carreiros do Monte, and the natural pools at Porto Moniz or the golden beach of Porto Santo for younger children. The Monte toboggan run ends partway down at Livramento, not in Funchal itself.
2 guides
Photography
Sunrise above the cloud sea at Pico do Arieiro, the wind-bent, moss-hung tils of Fanal in mist, and the painted doors of Rua de Santa Maria. Cabo Girão's glass skywalk and the terraced vineyards near Câmara de Lobos are reliable set pieces too.
2 guides
Day trips
Circuits from Funchal to Porto Moniz and the north coast, to Curral das Freiras and the central mountains, or across to Porto Santo by ferry or air. Most of the island's highlights can be strung into a single day with a hire car.
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Getting there & around
Hiring a car for the mountains and the north, using the VR1 tunnel road along the south coast, and reckoning with steep, narrow roads and limited Funchal parking. Bus networks — Horários do Funchal, SAM, Rodoeste and EACL — cover the main towns but rarely trailheads.
5 guides
Season by season
New Year's Eve fireworks over Funchal bay mark the island's busiest, most expensive week, followed by Carnival, the spring Festa da Flor and the June Festival do Atlântico. The south stays sunny and dry while the north and the peaks can be wet or cold at any time of year.
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Trip planning
Budgeting around €150-200 a day per person with a hire car, booking paid permits for official levada trails in advance, and checking IFCN trail closures after heavy rain. Madeira undercuts the Canary Islands and mainland Portugal on food, but car hire runs dearer in high season.
5 guides
Comparisons
Levada walking versus the high mountain trails, Funchal's old town versus Monte, and Madeira versus Porto Santo — the classic trip-planning dilemmas first-time visitors search for.
4 guidesBrowse by destination
Tours and activities organised by where you're headed — the best of each city and region.
Good to know about things to do in Madeira
Madeira's things-to-do hub is organised into eighteen categories, because the right day here depends heavily on what brought you. pt, it needs its own planning notes rather than a single line among dozens of activities. Boat tours & whale watching covers the year-round sailings from Funchal, Calheta and Caniçal in search of the roughly twenty cetacean species that pass through these waters, from Atlantic spotted dolphins to sperm whales. Viewpoints & skywalks groups the Cabo Girão glass platform, the Eira do Serrado above Curral das Freiras, and Ponta de São Lourenço's exposed headland.
Monte toboggan & cable car stands apart from ordinary sightseeing: the wicker basket sledges pushed by carreiros in white since 1850 are a genuine local specialty, not a way of getting back down to Funchal — the run stops at Livramento, and a taxi or bus finishes the journey. Gardens & botanical covers the Jardim Botânico, the Quinta do Palheiro Ferreiro and the Monte Palace Tropical Garden, three distinct properties often confused with one another. Museums & culture covers the CR7 museum, the Whale Museum at Caniçal and the Casa Colombo on Porto Santo.
Food & wine tasting overlaps in practice with shopping & markets — the Mercado dos Lavradores, Blandy's Wine Lodge, the bars of Câmara de Lobos where poncha is stirred with a caralhinho. Adventure sports covers Madeira's genuine claim as a European canyoning capital, thanks to the steep ribeiras of the north and the Rabaçal, plus paragliding and coasteering. Beaches & natural pools covers Porto Moniz's lava pools, Seixal's black sand and Porto Santo's nine kilometres of golden sand, the only true sand beach in the archipelago. Diving & snorkelling points to the Garajau marine reserve and Caniço de Baixo, where brown groupers no longer flinch from divers.
Family groups what genuinely works with children, and nightlife and shopping & markets round out Funchal's evening options. The day-trips category exists because Porto Santo and the Desertas sit well outside easy reach and deserve their own planning, while transport, planning, seasonal and comparison categories work through the questions travellers actually ask — car or bus, which levada suits a first-timer, and how the weather differs between the wet north and the dry south on the very same day.
Frequently asked questions about things to do in Madeira
What are the main categories of things to do in Madeira?
This hub groups activities into eighteen categories: levada walks & hiking, boat tours & whale watching, viewpoints & skywalks, the Monte toboggan & cable car, gardens & botanical, museums & culture, food & wine tasting, adventure sports, beaches & natural pools, diving & snorkelling, family, nightlife, shopping & markets, day trips, transport, planning, seasonal and comparison. Most visitors lean heavily on four or five of them.
Why do levada walks get their own detailed category?
Because official PR-numbered trails have required a paid reservation since 1 August 2021, and because a levada path is narrow, often unguarded above a drop and sometimes runs through unlit tunnels — none of that is obvious from a description alone, so it needs proper planning notes rather than a single line among dozens of other activities.
Is the Monte toboggan a way of getting back down to Funchal?
No — it's a short, spectacular ride from Monte to Livramento of about two kilometres, not a form of transport. The descent ends there, and a taxi or bus is needed to finish the journey into the city centre.
Which category covers whale and dolphin watching?
Boat tours & whale watching, run year-round from Funchal, Calheta and Caniçal in search of the roughly twenty cetacean species that pass through Madeira's waters, from Atlantic spotted dolphins to sperm whales.
What counts as a good canyoning experience in Madeira?
A guided descent through one of the steep ribeiras of the north or the Rabaçal is the local specialty — the terrain is what makes Madeira a genuine European canyoning capital, and a qualified guide is compulsory regardless of experience level.
Whale watching and boat tours on GetYourGuide
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