Walking in Madeira: 60 Routes on Madeira and Porto Santo

Great soft cover book to review hiking in this beautiful location. Easy to carry in your backpack!!

I used this book to plan a walking trip to Madeira and to help guide me around the island while I was there. While most of the walks are linear, the sectional/regional maps help tie those walks together (which is what I did). See the attached photo of one of the sectional maps. I tried to plan my trip using another book first and found it difficult, so I bought this book and was much more successful.However, I decided to walk in the reverse direction from some of the descriptions in the book, which made navigation difficult, though not impossible, at times. If distances were given between landmarks, it would have been easier to navigate in reverse. So, while this book isn't perfect, it worked for me and it was certainly better than another book on Walking on Madeira.

Very thorough coverage of the trails. This book covers how to get to the start of the trails and how to get back

Es muy claro, informativo y para mi viaje ha sido enormemente útil.

I don’t often write reviews , but felt this time it was important as it may save somebody’s life. My husband and I are experienced walkers, this is what we do for our holidays. We are also quite fit and not afraid of a bit of adventure. Whatever you do, do not take walk 18, it’s quite tempting as one can take a bus into Curral des Freires and then walk back to Funchal. The path is not being maintained, and nobody should be allowed to go on it. There are numerous ravines where the path has long since lost any railings and often the levada wall has crumbled away. We were very lucky as it did not rain till the very end of the walk, levada walls are very slippery when wet even if you wear the best of walking boots, and soil is prone to just slipping away. The walk starts with warning you that if you feel uncomfortable with heights you will know that early on. The start is quite tame, it’s only about an hour or two into when you start wondering if you should really be there. What kept us going was the signs that somebody had walked there shortly before, and it was very scary to go back , knowing that we had got over by risking our lives, as well as the realisation that we might not get back before dark. Generally there is nowhere to wonder off, but in number of places where levada has crumbled away, there are steps bypassing the levada, if you miss those, you may end up on a slippery chute going into several hundred meter abyss.On the positive note, if you make it , you will feel very, very grateful to be alive indeed. If you get to the bamboo jungle (about 7km in) where all your clothes will be torn away, that’s actually not that dangerous, there’s plenty to hold onto. As long as you don’t mind having scratches all over, and it’s slightly less painful than all the brambles.Don’t be fooled by the beauty of the picture, this was one of the few places where we felt safe enough to take a photo. And you will not be admiring the stunning views very much, because you need to be looking at your feet.Anyway, we made it and for that we are very grateful. And we will burn the book… ceremonially, as an offering. It will be a fitting form of celebration. Who knows what dangers the other walks hold.But seriously, never go on a walk that’s from a five year old edition. There should be a responsibility for updating descriptions on annual basis for this type of walk.

Far superior to the sunflower guide, which i also bought but didnt use. Great, accurate instructions & clear maps, like every other cicerone guide ive used

A very useful and now well-thumbed book for hiking on Madeira. The primary challenge is that few of the walks are circuits so there are complex issues in returning to your car!

Had a lot of fun and uses a lot of the suggested trips in the guide! Great book!