hello my friends welcome back to the channel today we are going to go over 11 amazing things to do
in Madeira Portugal Madeira is an incredible island with
epic hiking volcanic swimming pools massive waterfalls stunning beaches and enough great
food and accommodation to make you want to stay forever make sure to stay tuned
until the end of the video because you are not going to want to miss number one
for those of you who don't know us my name is David i'm Cayleigh we run a travel vlog called
made to explore we are passionate about activities that get you outside and off the beaten path
and we spent three weeks exploring portugal this past fall this is one of our very favorite places
in europe and we can't wait to share why let's get into the list yes starting off with number 11
Funchal the city of fun it's the capital city of madeira it's probably where you'll fly into
and it's got a bustling day and night life they've got a ton of amazing restaurants a really cool
old town to walk through and they've also got they had a project called the painted doors project so
there's about 200 doors in a small area of the old town that are all painted with pretty impressive
artwork it's pretty fun to walk around yeah i'm not even a city guy like usually when we travel
i'm more towards the outdoor part of the trip but funchal was really fun yeah and delicious food
like so much food so many good restaurants and yeah number 10 on the list is cascada dos anjos
which is a waterfall that actually flows onto a road which i've never seen before yeah never
heard of but there are a lot of really cool photos of this spot it is right along the coastline it's
located along the southwest side of the island and we stopped there at a bit of a bad point because
there was a ton of people lined up ready to take photos and stuff so it would probably be good to
go sunrise sunset that's when the best lighting is going to be the road is still in operation so
you do have to drive under the waterfall to get past it which is also kind of cool
hilarious to see locals just going back and forth of course annoyed at all the tourists
that are clogging up the road but kind of fun to see if you guys are planning to travel to
portugal we have developed a travel guide that is very useful in the trip planning process and has
everything that we love about portugal including all of our favorite stops on the azores madeira
mainland portugal yeah it's jam-packed with pretty much everything that we loved about portugal
you don't have to do any research at all and it's 58 pages long so we will link that below if you
want it's an instant download too which is really nice we've had a lot of positive feedback and
reviews for it people get back from their trip and they've found it very useful so yeah we're
really excited to share it with you we'll link it below and up in the corner here if you want to
check that out number nine is the hike to lagoa do vento waterfall so there's actually two waterfalls
that make up a double-tiered waterfall lagoa do vento and cascada de risco you can actually hike
to the middle of them which is really cool that was probably our favorite hike it is
seven kilometers about 300 meters of elevation gain and well worth the hike very quiet actually
it's much better than that levada das 25 fontes
even though they're in the same area same spot same parking lot you can do both of them like we
did but we just found the 25 fontes waterfall a little yeah don't do it it wasn't it really
wasn't worth the time it's very touristy we also visited in the fall so like there wasn't a lot
of water coming down it was kind of just like a wet semi-circle of rock with hundreds of people
it was not good so do this one instead next on our list is staying at a savoy property while you're
in madeira they own a ton of different hotels on the island we got to stay at a few of them
while we were traveling there and we loved each and every one they each have a different theme
and they all have some pretty crazy pools and delicious breakfast like awesome buffet it's the
best buffet breakfast we've ever had yeah and the rooms and the accommodation and the staff
were so nice and we would just suggest it if you haven't booked your stay on madeira yet we would
definitely suggest staying at a subway property yes they have like David was saying each one has a
theme and they have all different kind of price points throughout their hotels too so you can
decide if you want to stay at a five star or if you want to stay like one that we stayed at next
was a little bit more digital nomad vibes they still had like pools and great restaurants and
just very cool place to stay yeah number seven on our list is the porto moniz sea pool so madeira
actually is a volcanic island and they have several volcanic swimming pools around the island
which is really really cool porto moniz is the most developed one and it does tend to get busy
but it's also the largest and most impressive one so it's definitely worth the visit it only cost a
couple euros to get in if you want to avoid the crowds definitely go first thing in the morning
or a little bit later in the day obviously in the heat of the day it gets pretty busy yeah there are
lots of bus tours that actually drive from funchal all the way across the island to porto moniz but
the drive itself is beautiful yeah uh you drive kind of through the middle of the island which
is very mountainous and scenic so if you have a rental car we definitely suggest doing this drive
and all the roads are really well maintained too all of the main roads are really well maintained
on madeira and like they tunnel through the mountains they all look like brand new concrete
so it's really not an issue getting around where it will be an issue getting around is on the
smaller side side streets because you're literally sometimes driving at like a 45 degree angle on a
super narrow two-lane road with a standard vehicle that's exciting especially for us canadians
yeah we're not really used to that number six on our list is pico grande so we went into this hike
not expecting a whole lot but we did it didn't see anyone on the trail and it was actually
so close to our favorite hike on madeira the hike itself is 7.2 kilometers and 700 meters
of elevation gain it's a little bit challenging but it's also a lot of fun and the scenery is just
beautiful like you get views of the whole island pretty much yeah we stayed at the top
for almost two hours taking photos because it was so pretty such an unbelievable hike
and not that hard so beautiful you can see ruivo and arieiro in the background here
just gorgeous but it's like clear all around us yeah you can see ocean on pretty much all sides
there are a few different places that you can start this hike from but we would recommend
starting at miradouro boca da carrida I think I said that right it's the easiest way it's the
quickest way and the first half is relatively flat you pretty much gain all of your elevation
in the second half on the way up to the peak yeah just before the peak there's a bit of a rope chain
scenario going up the side of like this massive boulder and it looks kind of intimidating but
it's not very hard at all yeah and it takes like two minutes to get up like it's not a long haul
we barely held on to the ropes so yeah if you get intimidated at that point just push through
it's worth it number five on the list is to go dolphin or wheel watching so this is a huge thing
depending on the season in madeira there are tons of different tours that are offered they usually
range from about 25 euros per person to 60 euros per person vip dolphin tours is on the higher end
of that spectrum but they also offer an open bar food all of your equipment and smaller group sizes
so in our opinion if you're looking for kind of a relaxing way to spend the day that is the perfect
way to go number four on the list is another hike called Vereda da Ponta de São Lourenco aka the
tale of madeira this was i think the first hike we did when we landed on madeira and we did this hike
and we're like as soon as we did it i was like oh we're in for a treat like this is going to be
my kind of island so happy we came to madeira and this was a perfect way to start it this hike was
so hot though like it is bring sunscreen there's no shade yeah there's no shade there's like a
little solar restaurant bar near the end of the hike that you can actually go to we didn't because
we assumed that it was going to be super expensive and we had other things planned for the day as
well so we kind of just kept moving the trail goes along the eastern most tip of madeira and it
is 7.4 kilometers and 412 meters of elevation gain it honestly isn't too too hard but it was hot like
that was our biggest problem we did it during the dry season so everything was pretty yellow but if
you do it during the rainy season i've seen photos of it and everything is green which looks very
pretty it's also a great spot for sunrise so if you want to avoid the heat i would wake up early
and do this in the morning and then get out there and watch the sunrise it would just be beautiful
so you'd probably be one of the only people out there too pencil that into the itinerary penciled
number three is the sexiest beach madeira number three on the list is seixal beach so this is
actually known as one of the most beautiful beaches in portugal it is a black sand beach
and it is located really close to the porto moniz sea pools in the town of seixal so to get here you
are going to have to drive across the island totally worth it this would be a good place to
go before or after the sea pools kind of make that into one day excursion and you're gonna want to go
early to find a place to park because parking gets very questionable yeah as soon as you walk down
to the beach though you can totally understand why it's so beautiful there are waterfalls all
the way along the coastline and when me and Cayleigh did it as soon as we got there we
were like wow this looks exactly like hawaii yes like the kauai coast it's it looks so similar it's
just astonishing beautiful spot so beautiful yeah and like David said you can go walk along
a little bit closer to the shore depending on the tide and you can actually go underneath or see
waterfalls that are dropping right into the ocean which is really cool you can rent paddle boards on
the beach as well yeah this is a great place to go after hike or when you just kind of want to like
chill out number two on the list is catching a sunrise at pico do arieiro so this is the highest
lookout on madeira and the road up there is beautiful this is one of the most popular things
to do while you're on madeira though so probably do it during a weekday if you can but it is
totally worth it a lot of times there are actually inversions happening so you're looking out over
top of the clouds and onto the sunset it's just beautiful yeah you really can't go wrong so if
you catch an inversion lucky you that's gorgeous and if you don't you can see the entire island and
ocean all around the island so also lucky you it's beautiful sunrise is between 7 30 and 8
o'clock so you don't actually have to get up that early to catch it it's i think about an hour drive
from funchal yeah you can roll it about at like 6 30 and still make it up in time but keep in
mind we got there and parking was full so we kind of just like parked on the road going down
okay the number one thing to do in madeira is to hike from pico do arieiro to pico ruivo so pico d
she is so excited about number one she can't even say it speechless speechless okay i can do this
pico de arieiro is the number one sunrise spot so this is the highest peak on madeira and from there
you can hike over to pico ruivo which is i believe the third highest peak on the island and the
entire trail is staircases built in rock you're climbing on ledges along the side of a mountain
like it is absolutely gorgeous the entire way it's probably the most unique hike we've ever done
it is very challenging so it is 10.8 kilometers almost 1200 meters of elevation gain but you
go down first so you lose about half the elevation it's flat and then you hike up
to pico ruivo and then you gain the other half on your way back up as i
said it's split up it doesn't feel as bad that way we just started the stairs back
up and we're dying well i'm dying already but look at this mountain looks like a nose
and then the green is the moustache and then the lips underneath what's the green the moustache
you weren't pointing at the mountain were you don't let the elevation gain intimidate you for
this it is 1 000 percent worth every step you definitely want to do this hike if you are able
to in madeira this hike can get so busy and the pathway is so narrow in spots so you want to do it
during like we got to pico arieiro for sunrise watched the sunrise for about five minutes
took some footage and then just started our hike because people show up so quickly bus would show
up you'll be passing tour groups along a pathway that is no joke yay big we didn't pass many on the
way there our hike there was pretty free rolling but on the way back it was terrible we'd have to
stop and let these massive groups go by and it was so slow so keep that in mind yeah dave and i are
quicker quicker hikers and we like to keep it moving keep it moving so we found it
weird really trying to channel our inner zen and just not be frustrated by the situation
but if you're like us you're definitely gonna want to go early if you don't really care as much
and you want to like hang out with the tour groups you can do that too yeah and if you want to take
it a step further and not just do a day hike there are camping spots at pico ruivo that we saw
and there's also kind of like a hotel tea house that you can go into and get something to drink
when you get there so if we ever go back we are totally doing a multi day you could
stay there and watch the sunrise from pico ruivo as well which would be just it's just
a web of ridges too so like from there you can just follow different ridges to different peaks
it's just be such a cool experience and also like another tip for just general hiking on madeira is
each hike is has a number so it goes pr1 pr2 pr3 and that's based on how high the peak is
so pr1 is going to be the highest peak it's kind of odd at first but it's actually very handy when
you're using the app all trails which is the one we use and a perfect one from madeira it worked
really well you can just type in pr one and then pico arieiro to pico ruivo comes up all right so
that sums this video up we hope you guys liked it don't forget to check out our portugal travel
guide where we go over everything from madeira azores mainland portugal everything you need to
know about traveling portugal that is linked below be sure to like this video if you liked
it subscribe to the channel and we'll see you guys in the next one see you next week next week