Hiking tips for Madeira

Always good for a surprise: Thanks to its diversity, Madeira still offers a lot of unknown and unexpected things to discover and experience, even for insiders. With over 1.300 kilometers of hiking trails, over 2.500 different plant species and a mild, subtropical climate all year round, the flower island in the Atlantic is a true paradise for hiking enthusiasts and plant and nature lovers who are looking for variety and inspiration on vacation and are ready to experience new perspectives deliver.

The tour operator Weltweitwandern takes Madeira guests who are keen to explore on an unusual, one- or two-week hiking adventure tour and provides them with its local partners, the local guides Christa, Gerald and Raimund. The Austrians emigrated to Madeira in 1999, immediately fell in love with the island paradise and show their guests their personal favorite places in the various regions of the island and hidden places that only locals know about on varied hikes and excursions every day. It goes along levadas and coasts, through forests and up mountains, to special people and selected places of power. They also reveal why they lost their hearts to this island and why sustainability is so important to them in this context. It is quite possible that after this personal journey of global hiking, the guests will also feel like emigrating to Madeira.

Personal recommendations from local guides make the trip special: “One of our absolute favorite places on the island is the laurel forest. The jungle of ancient, gnarled tree trunks and branches, which are densely overgrown with green mosses, lichens and ferns, has something mystical about it, especially in the fog; the scent is beguiling. Our guests are always really excited about this intense nature experience that we discover on a hike,” enthuses Christa. “And they love Espada,” adds her husband Gerald. “Espada is the scabbardfish from the North Atlantic that is typical of Madeira. It is caught with small bait lines and has no scales or bones. Small fillet pieces of fish taste delicious with grilled Madeira banana and passion fruit sauce. Our friend, a landlord from a neighboring village, likes to prepare this dish when we visit him with our guests.”

With attention to detail, the two adapt the routes of their daily hikes to the preferences of their guests and the current weather conditions. Always with the goal of making the beauty, diversity and uniqueness of Madeira as close as possible to everyone. The travelers hike in small, family groups to ensure an optimal hiking experience.