Madeira self-guided walking holiday

Our Madeira self-guided walking holiday is a flexible way to explore the island’s famous levadas at your own pace.

Madeira is renowned for it’s walking trails – a hikers’ paradise of waymarked trails which follow the island’s famous levada network. When the first settlers arrived in the 15th Century, they immediately began constructing irrigation channels to transport fresh water from the mountains inland to the settlements on the coast. As the population grew, so did the irrigation network: today there are over 2100km of levadas – remarkable when you consider the island is only 56km long and 21km wide.

We’ll normally begin the planning process for your Madeira walking holiday with a telephone chat, so we can get a feel for the type of walks you prefer before we put together a suggested day-by-day itinerary. You can include a hire car for added flexibility, or our drivers are available to transfer you to-and-from your walks if you’d prefer not to drive. We’ll normally base you in one of our favourite Quintas in Funchal, so you can spend your evenings relaxing in some of Madeira’s best restaurants – and we can personalise your holiday if you’d prefer the peace of a more rural location.