Madeira High Roads and North Coast

Dense mountain and ocean scenery on a compact island network.

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Why this ride

Dense mountain and ocean scenery on a compact island network. The road: ER101, ER103 and ER110. Distance and riding time are estimates from the checkpoints until the road is measured on this page.

Roadbook

1. Funchal start

   Funchal climbs the sides of a natural amphitheatre on the south coast of Madeira, and from the harbour the houses rise in tiers into the green mountains behind. It is the island's capital, with about a hundred thousand people, and the name comes from funcho, the Portuguese word for fennel, which grew wild here when the first settlers arrived in the fifteenth century. Sugar made the island rich, then wine, and the legacy of both still shows in the tall merchant houses and the church interiors covered in gilded wood.

   Madeira wine is the thing to try, a fortified wine heated during ageing, which gives it a caramel richness and a remarkable ability to last for decades. The old lodges in the town offer tastings. The Mercado dos Lavradores, the farmers' market, sells tropical fruit, flowers and fish, including the black scabbardfish, espada, which is a local favourite and is often served with banana. Poncha, a drink of rum, honey and lemon, is the local welcome. The toboggan runs, where men in straw hats guide wicker sledges down the hill from Monte, have been a tourist attraction since the nineteenth century.

   The ride out is spectacular and demanding. The island is a mass of steep volcanic mountains, and the roads cling to the slopes, with sharp bends, short tunnels and sudden drops. The ER101 along the north coast passes waterfalls, laurel forest and cliffs, and the high roads near Pico do Arieiro, at around 1,800 metres, run above the clouds. The surface is generally good but can be slippery when wet, and fog and rain arrive suddenly, particularly in the mountains. Traffic in Funchal is dense, with steep streets and tight junctions, so the early miles need care.

   Fuel and services are all here. Funchal has many stations, and others lie in villages around the island, but the north and west are quiet and stations are fewer, so fill up before heading out. The temperature is mild all year, with warm summers and little frost except at the highest points, and the best months are spring and autumn.

   On your return, the lights of the city climbing the slopes make a fine sight. Look for a table with a view and order something grilled.

2. Santana stop

   Santana is the little town on Madeira's north-east coast that has made a living out of its roofs. The traditional houses here are steep A-frames of timber with thatched roofs sweeping almost to the ground, painted in red, white and blue, and a few of them are kept up for visitors to look at. They are charming and slightly improbable, like a child's drawing of a house, and they say a lot about how people built with local materials on a steep, wet island.

   About 8,800 people live in the municipality, so there is fuel and food here, and the ride to this side of Madeira is one where you will be glad to have both. The north coast is greener, wetter and more rugged than the sunny south. The roads out of town climb into terraced farmland, then into forest, with sharp hairpins, steep gradients and a surface that gets slick when the clouds come in. The cloud often does come in, because the north-east trade winds push damp air up against the mountains, and a clear morning can end in drizzle at altitude.

   Above Santana the landscape turns to laurel forest, the laurisilva, which is a UNESCO World Heritage listing and a remnant of a vegetation that once covered much of southern Europe. Walking trails start from the heights toward Pico Ruivo, the island's highest peak, and the levadas, the old irrigation channels cut along the hillsides, carry water from the wet north to the dry south. You will see farm plots clinging to slopes that look too steep to stand on. Nearby places such as Faial and São Jorge are small farming and fishing villages worth rolling through slowly.

   Riding here requires patience more than speed. Traffic can be slow behind lorries, tunnels appear suddenly on the coast road and can be damp inside, and fog can drop visibility to a few metres. Choose a dry day if you can, wear a proper waterproof, and finish with something warm in town. The poncha, the local sugarcane spirit with honey and lemon, is a Madeiran institution, but it belongs after the bike is parked.

3. Sao Vicente stop

   São Vicente lies on Madeira's north coast, in a narrow green valley where the mountains drop almost straight into the sea, and it is the sort of place where a road has to be persuaded into existence. The old road along the north coast, the ER101, runs between the sea cliffs and the steep slopes, in and out of tunnels carved through the rock, and over small bridges that cross waterfalls. The result is one of the most dramatic coastal roads in the Atlantic, wild, wet and green.

   The village has about six thousand people, a whitewashed church with a blue-tiled interior, a small harbour and a street of cafes. Its most unusual attraction is the São Vicente Caves, a series of volcanic lava tubes found in the nineteenth century, where visitors can walk a stretch of the tunnel formed when molten rock flowed through the mountain. The cool, dripping darkness is a good place to be on a hot day, and an exhibition explains how the island was born from the sea floor.

   Madeira's mountain interior is covered in laurisilva, an ancient laurel forest that has survived in a few places in the world, and UNESCO has listed it. The levadas, narrow irrigation channels cut into the hillsides, run through the forest, and walking beside them is a classic way to see the island. From São Vicente, the road to the Encumeada pass climbs to about 1,000 metres, with views to both coasts, and in the morning the clouds boil up the valley.

   For riding, the north coast is a pleasure but demanding. The bends are tight and often wet, the tunnels are long, and the surfaces can be slippery with moss and rain. Fog can come down quickly on the high roads, and rockfalls are possible after heavy rain. Traffic is light, but tour buses take up the middle of the road on blind corners. Look out for water running across the road.

   Fuel is available in São Vicente, and the town has shops and restaurants, but stations in the mountains and on the coast are few, so fill up when you can. Try bolo do caco, a round bread cooked on a stone, with garlic butter, and a glass of poncha, a local drink made from sugar cane spirit, honey and lemon.

   The best months are spring and autumn, but rain can come at any time.

4. Encumeada pass · 1007 m

   Encumeada is the pass that cuts Madeira in two. At about a thousand metres, it sits on the island's spine between São Vicente on the north coast and Serra de Água on the south, and from the viewpoint at the top you can look down both valleys at once. On a clear day you see the sea on each side, the north in a haze of cloud and the south in sun, with steep green ridges folding away like crumpled cloth. It is one of the few spots on the island where you can feel its shape in a single glance.

   The island's wild interior is home to the laurisilva, an ancient laurel forest that once covered much of southern Europe and survives here in a damp, mossy form. Its wet, twisted trees were recognised by UNESCO in 1999, and walkers use the levadas, narrow irrigation channels cut into the mountainsides, to reach waterfalls and viewpoints. Some routes begin near the pass, and the ground drips even on days of sun. The air smells of earth, leaf and rain.

   For riders, the road to Encumeada is a mix of tunnels, tight bends and long climbs. From São Vicente it rises along a valley with steep drops, passing waterfalls and terraced fields, and the surface is generally good but can be wet and slippery. Clouds often settle on the pass, reducing visibility, and the temperature falls noticeably compared with the coast. The road demands attention, with sharp corners, short tunnels and the occasional rockfall after heavy rain. On the south side it descends in a series of hairpins to the Ribeira Brava valley, with the views opening toward the sea.

   Fuel is not available at the pass, so fill up in São Vicente, about five kilometres away, or in Ribeira Brava on the south coast. A small café and a shop at the viewpoint sell drinks and snacks, though the hours vary. São Vicente is also known for its volcanic caves and a small old town with a chapel set into the rock, and it has several restaurants serving fresh fish, espetada, beef skewers grilled over laurel wood, and bolo do caco, a round bread served with garlic butter.

   The weather can change in minutes, from sun to mist to rain, so bring a rain layer and take it slowly. The best light is in the morning, before clouds build on the ridges, and the view from the top is worth the effort.

5. Back to Funchal finish

Where this sits

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