Your Madeira East Tour starts of from your hotel reception area at about 9h00. We drive up past Monte and the dense Nature Park forest, until we reach the second highest peak of Madeira, Pico do Arieiro. The altitude of 1818 meters gives visitors a really stunning view. When the skies are clear you can even see Porto Santo, the neighbouring island, which is situated 30 nautical miles to the north. But the scenery is just as spectacular in rainy weather when the clouds are heavy and the mountain peaks stick out the top. It almost feels as if you have just stepped out of an airplane at that altitude. We spend about 30 minutes here enjoying this great scenery.

Pico do Arieiro

We then make our way down over to the northen side of the island, passing through a protected forest which can only be described as the paradise of Madeira called, Ribeiro Frio.Ribeiro Frio which means - cold river, still has much of the original vegetation today, that of a great forest dating back to the Tertiary Era before the great ice ages. The island was once totally covered with ‘Laurissilva’ forest, a relic from prehistoric times. In 1999 this forest was classified ‘World Heritage’ by the UNESCO.On view are various endemic plants and non-indigenous flowers as well as other plants and birds. This is an excellent place to start a walk, where visitors can marvel at the beauty of the landscape. Here you will also find a trout farm right on the edge of the road, a few meters from where we stop. We do an short, easy levada walk here.

Ribeiro Frio

The next stop takes us to a small but beautiful village on the north coast, Santana. Characterised by its unique thatched triangular houses,that are built of natural stone and thatched with straw. Set amid some of the best kept private gardens of Madeira, these picturesque houses have served the locals for centuries as stables and dwellings. Santana is probably one of the most famous tourist areas in Madeira Island. All because of these houses where its people used to live in former times, which ended up by becoming the greeting card by excellence of the destination. Depending on which day you do this trip we will either stop for lunch here or in the next village of Faial.

Santana

After a great lunch we make our way all the way to the most eastern part of the Island where we visit Caniçal, which is the last village before the island ends at the most eastern point in Ponte de São Lourenço. Caniçal used to be one of the last locations in Europe of whaler hunters. The remainders of this industry can now be seen in the local museum Museu da Baleia. Ponta de São Lourenço is fascinating because of its immense rough desolation. It's a freakish scenery of high cliffs and steep valleys ending in the sea where all that is left are small black rocky islands. You can clearly see the various colors of the volcanic layers of the mountains. This, one of the last nearly untouched places in Europe, is the place where a fantastic combination of rocks, sea and nature created one of Mother Nature’s masterpieces. A trully fantastic part of Madeiras sightseeing!

Ponta de São Lourenço

We then drive through the oldest town of Madeira, Machico. This is where the first settlers landed back in 1418 and started it all. We then drive up to a quite beautiful part of the island called Santo da Serra. This is where madeira boasts its Santo da Serra Golf Course, that every year, since 1993, hosts the Madeira Island Open, part of the PGA European Tour. In summer when the flowers are in full bloom this drive lets one feel as if they are making their way through paradise itself.

Santo da Serra

This scenic drive continues all the way to Camacha where we make our last stop of the day. One of the oldest manufactures in Madeira is the articles made of wicker work, by hand, which is still a traditional product sold all over Madeira. The village most known for this industry is Camacha where the excellence of its products is noted and where different items are made, such as baskets, furnishing and some house utilities. Many also consider the Camacha village the ‘Madeira Island Capital of Culture’. In fact, if you look around, you will find very talented people and lots of cultural, social and entertainment events. One of the best examples is one of the local folklore groups, which is one of the most famous Portuguese folklore groups known throughout the world.

Camacha