Full-day tour
West Side
The ocean half.
Cliff road out of Funchal, the north coast in the afternoon, and a swim in volcanic rock if the sea allows it.
FUNENC
- Highest point
- 1 007 m
- Length
- Full day
- Stops
- 08
- Price
- From50 €
Where the road takes you.
Not a timetable. The island decides that on the morning. This is the shape of the day and what waits at each height.
01/ 08·0 m
Funchal
Photograph by Diego Delso · CC BY-SA 4.0
01/ 080 m
Funchal
01/ 080 m We collect you at your door, whichever end of the city that turns out to be.
02/ 0825 m
Câmara de Lobos
02/ 0825 m The fishing harbour Churchill sat and painted. The boats are still pulled up the same slipway, and the poncha is still made in the same bars by hand.
03/ 08580 m
Cabo Girão
03/ 08580 m A glass floor suspended over the water, with terraces people still farm on the ledge directly below it. Look down if you can.
04/ 0840 m
Ribeira Brava
04/ 0840 m The last flat ground before the climb, and lunch if the timing suits.
05/ 081 007 m
Encumeada
05/ 081 007 m The pass between the two coasts. The island drains north and south from this one point, and the weather almost always changes as we go over it.
06/ 0820 m
São Vicente
06/ 0820 m Down the north side on a road that was originally cut into the cliff by hand, a metre at a time.
07/ 088 m
Seixal
07/ 088 m Black sand under green cliffs, and a natural pool if the Atlantic is behaving itself.
08/ 080 m
Porto Moniz
08/ 080 m The volcanic pools at the far corner of the island. Swim in them, or sit and watch the sea refill them for you.
The practical half.
What to bring
- Swimwear and a towel
- A layer for the pass: it is colder at a thousand metres
- Shoes you do not mind getting wet on rock
- Sunscreen, even under cloud
If the weather turns
The north coast makes its own weather and the south often has none of it. If Porto Moniz is closed in when we set off, we run the day backwards and take the north in the afternoon instead.
Where we meet
We collect you at your door, wherever on the island you are staying.
Hold the date.
A Nossa IlhaBoarding pass
NI 37
From50 €per person
- Length
- Stops
- Class
Other days out.
Photograph by
H. Zell CC BY-SA 3.0 · Diego Delso CC BY-SA 4.0 · Unukorno CC BY 3.0 · Luis Miguel Bugallo Sánchez (Lmbuga) CC BY-SA 4.0 · RHaworth CC BY 2.5 · Stephen Colebourne CC BY 2.0 · Raquel Nunes Rodrigues CC BY-SA 4.0 · GerritR CC BY-SA 4.0 · Bjørn Christian Tørrissen CC BY-SA 3.0 · Alexander Baxevanis CC BY 2.0 · Bex Walton from London, England CC BY 2.0 · Leo-setä CC BY 2.0