Park rangers (Polícia Florestal) were issuing fines to hikers without a valid ticket on the section between PR14 and PR15 (Google Maps location) today (23.04.26) at 19:21. I thought and had read that after the reservation time on Simplifica (specifically, for PR14 you can only book until 16:00), you can hike PR routes without paying the fee, but this is clearly not the case.
I know for the PR hikes you have to buy a permit pass. My Fiance and I are avid hikers and enjoy being busy. I will be renting a car and how will parking be? Bonus for must go eatery's. I will be going 10/15-20. Also best places to stay at? (dont need the Ritz Carlton but also not a shoebox) Any hidden fees we should be aware of?
Day 1: Arriving in Funchal around 1. Want to visit and be in the natural pool at Seixal + walk the beach + visit Miradouro do veu. Sunset on beach. Curious if you can even get into the pool or are there hidden fees?
Day 2: Fanal Forest + Cristo Rei Statue + Cabo Girao/ Maybe Cathedral of Funchal or Sao Tiago Fort.
Day 3: Pico do Arieiro for sunrise (what happens if I get a time and date but it pours do they reschedule me or is it a RIP?) + ? other ideas?
Day 4: Levada das 25 fontes + Potential Vereda dos balcoes (personally dont want to pay for a stroll) +maybe Church of Sao Bento + other ideas?
Day 5: Porto Moniz or Funchal city.
We booked a sunrise PR1 tour on Apr 27 but I am so confused about the closure and I've been in contact with our guide. He said that even the locals are just as confused.
I read the article below and it says "The full trail reopening is expected after the MIUT — Madeira Island Ultra Trail, which starts on 25 April 2026. For approximately one month after that, access may be limited to Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays only, while paving and repair work continues Monday to Thursday." https://beyondmadeira.com/pr1-vereda-areeiro-one-way/
So that means that the trail is closed on Apr 27 (Monday)? I need some insight please
Hi group!
Me and my fiancée were planning for a long time that we'll spend our honeymoon on Madeira doing a through-hike from west to east on the island, using the designated wild camping spots. Researching the topic I found out that we'll need camping permits for these camping sites, so naturally I tried to obtain them in time from the SIMplifica platform (https://simplifica.madeira.gov.pt/services/7-22-101).
Here's the problem though: as many of you may already know, the SIMplifica platform is apparently not accessible from abroad. In spite of checking it regularly (I assumed it was a temporary downtime), I couldn't get the site working. There is no information about this anywhere on the official websites, so it took me quite a while to accidentally stumble upon the information that using a VPN with a Portuguese IP address might help. I did so hastily and indeed succeeded in accessing the site — but had to face the fact that the camping sites are already fully booked, with no slots remaining for the duration of our planned trip.
I tried contacting the Institute of Forests and Nature Conservation (IFCN) hoping they might help, given that we couldn't book due to the inaccessible website. Unfortunately they confirmed that permits are issued exclusively through SIMplifica and there are no exceptions.
The situation is that our plane tickets are long purchased, and our whole vacation plan is centered around this through-hike.
I'd love to hear from anyone who has been in a similar situation. What do people actually do when they can't secure permits? Are slots known to free up closer to the date?
Thanks in advance!
Hi everyone, trying to plan some hikes for our trip to Madeira from April 25th to May 2nd. I'm having trouble requests and reservations, and also having trouble trying to create an account. It just gives me an error message saying "Can't process this request right now." Has anyone ran into this before?
Hello! I am flying to Madeira for 4 days in May. I would like to do a multi day hike, and was wondering if I could do this from Funchal airport (with small amount of public transport of course) ? As I do not have that long I did not want to go too far from the airport or rent a car.
Are there any recommendations for multi day hiking routes that are not hard to get to with public transport from Funchal airport?
Thanks so much 😊
I'm trying to book a timeslot for Ponto do São Lourenço and it only shows up to 16:00 but google says it's open all day...
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