An anticlockwise loop from Funchal's cable car through Calheta and Porto Moniz to Santana's thatched houses and the Laurissilva forest, before returning for departure.
Most short Madeira trips base entirely in Funchal and day-trip out to one or two sights, which leaves the north coast and the central mountains as rushed half-days at best. This loop instead moves the base four times in one direction, so every stretch of coastal or mountain road gets driven exactly once. Two Funchal nights at the start cover the cable car, the market and Cabo Girão before the car is truly needed for anything demanding; Calheta and Porto Moniz then split the west and north coasts into manageable single-night stops; and two Santana nights carry both the traditional houses and a proper levada walk into the Laurissilva forest, a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1999. The trade-off is real mountain driving, roughly four to five hours across the week, concentrated on the Porto Moniz-to-Santana leg over the Encumeada Pass. A hiking permit through Madeira's SIMplifica system is only needed for the PR1 trail beyond Pico do Arieiro's summit, not for the drive-up viewpoint itself, which remains free and unbooked.
Two Funchal nights cover the €22 return cable car to Monte, the Mercado dos Lavradores market, and a half-day trip to Cabo Girão's €5 glass skywalk over a 580-metre sea cliff, all before the island loop's driving really begins.
Porto Moniz's lava-formed natural pools, refreshed constantly by the tide rather than held static, sit at the island's dramatic northwestern tip and cost €3 to enter, though swell can close them to swimmers with little notice.
Santana's two nights cover both its free traditional thatched houses and a levada walk into the UNESCO-listed Laurissilva forest, plus a drive-up visit to Pico do Arieiro's 1,818-metre summit viewpoint, no permit required for the viewpoint itself.
Best for
Think twice if
Travellers who want a single-base beach holiday with minimal driving, or anyone uneasy on narrow mountain roads and in tunnels.
StartBooker answer
A week is enough to circle Madeira without repeating a drive: two nights in Funchal for the cable car and Cabo Girão, one night each in Calheta and Porto Moniz for the west and north coasts, and two nights in Santana for the Laurissilva forest and a viewpoint drive to Pico do Arieiro, before returning to Funchal for departure. The Funchal-Monte cable car costs €22 return in 2026; Cabo Girão's skywalk is €5; Porto Moniz's volcanic pools are €3. Expect roughly four to five hours of mountain driving spread across the week, not concentrated in one day.
Funchal keeps two nights for the cable car, market and Cabo Girão; Calheta and Porto Moniz each earn one night as the west- and north-coast waypoints; Santana keeps two so both the traditional houses and a Laurissilva forest walk get proper time before the drive back.
4 stops · swipe
1
The Monte cable car, Mercado dos Lavradores, and the Zona Velha old town
Two nights cover the cable car to Monte, the covered market, the Zona Velha old town and a half-day trip to Cabo Girão's skywalk in nearby Câmara de Lobos, all without needing the mountain roads yet.
Watch out: The airport sits roughly 20 km from the centre; build that transfer, and Funchal's sometimes tight old-town parking, into arrival-day plans.
Read the Funchal guide →
2
Terraced vineyards, an imported sand beach, and a working sugar-cane spirit distillery
One night on the sheltered southwest coast breaks up the drive west and gives an unhurried afternoon among terraced vineyards before the more demanding north-coast leg begins.
Watch out: The coast road narrows through several small towns; allow extra time rather than treating the short map distance as the real drive time.
3
Volcanic natural swimming pools and the island's dramatic northwestern tip
One night at the island's northwestern tip puts the lava-formed natural pools within an easy morning or evening visit, either side of the crowds that build up around midday in summer.
Watch out: The pools close to swimmers in rough Atlantic swell regardless of posted hours; check conditions locally before planning a swim around this stop specifically.
4
Traditional A-frame thatched houses and the edge of the UNESCO-listed Laurissilva forest
Two nights let the traditional houses and a Ribeiro Frio levada walk happen on separate, unhurried days, with a drive-up visit to Pico do Arieiro's summit viewpoint fitting into the same base.
Watch out: Mountain weather changes quickly; check conditions before the Pico do Arieiro drive, since cloud can erase the summit view with little warning.
Each day covers one coastline or one central range, moving anticlockwise from Funchal so the mountain crossing on day six lands roughly halfway through the loop rather than at the start. Cited figures were verified on the relevant 2026 operator pages on 8 September 2026.
Collect the rental car at Cristiano Ronaldo Madeira Airport, roughly 20 km from central Funchal, and settle in before doing anything ambitious with the mountain roads. Spend the afternoon in the Zona Velha, Funchal's old town, where painted doors along Rua de Santa Maria and small family-run restaurants replace the resort strip further along the seafront. In the late afternoon, ride the cable car from the marina up to Monte; the 15-minute ascent climbs 560 metres over a 3.2-kilometre cable, and the return fare is €22 for an adult in 2026. Monte's own gardens and church are worth an hour if daylight allows, but the ride itself, with the whole bay opening up below, is the actual reason to go up rather than the summit facilities.
Overnight: Funchal
Start at the Mercado dos Lavradores, Funchal's covered market, where flower stalls and a fish hall selling espada, the black scabbardfish unique to Madeiran waters, give a better sense of the island's produce than any restaurant menu. By late morning, drive fifteen minutes west to Câmara de Lobos for the Cabo Girão skywalk: at 580 metres, it sits over one of Europe's highest sea cliffs, and the €5 entry fee for an adult goes toward maintaining the suspended glass platform itself rather than a separate concession. The cliff face below drops almost sheer to vineyards clinging to terraces partway down, a detail the glass floor makes hard to ignore. Return to Funchal for the evening, since the next three days move the base steadily away from the capital.
Overnight: Funchal
Drive the coast road west through Ribeira Brava and Ponta do Sol, both worth a short stop for their riverside squares, before reaching Calheta on Madeira's sunnier southwest tip. The terraced vineyards and banana plantations along this stretch explain why the south coast, sheltered from the Atlantic's rawer north-facing weather, became the island's main resort belt. Calheta itself has one of Madeira's few sand beaches, imported rather than natural, alongside a working sugar-cane distillery that still produces the local cane spirit used in poncha. Use the afternoon at an unhurried pace rather than packing in a second driving leg; the next two days cover the island's more demanding roads.
Overnight: Calheta
The road from Calheta to Porto Moniz can run either along the coast or up through São Vicente's cave network, formed by lava tubes from an eruption roughly 890,000 years ago; a short cave visit adds context to the volcanic landscape the whole island sits on. Porto Moniz itself, at Madeira's northwestern tip, is built around its natural swimming pools: seawater fills volcanic rock basins formed as ancient lava cooled against the ocean, with the water refreshed constantly by the tide rather than held static. Entry runs €3 for an adult in 2026, and the complex includes changing rooms and a bar, but check conditions before committing to a swim, since the managed pools close when Atlantic waves make the site unsafe regardless of the posted hours.
Overnight: Porto Moniz
Follow the north coast road east, stopping at the Encumeada Pass viewpoint where the road briefly crosses the island's central spine and both coastlines are visible at once on a clear day. Santana itself is known for its traditional A-frame thatched houses, once ordinary farmhouses and now mostly craft shops and small museums clustered around a central garden; entry to the individual houses is largely free, making this one of the trip's few genuinely no-cost stops. Santana also sits at the edge of the Laurissilva forest, a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1999 covering roughly a fifth of the island; the town makes a practical base for the following day's walk into it rather than a rushed drive-through stop today.
Overnight: Santana
Drive up to Ribeiro Frio for the short Vereda dos Balcões walk, an easy levada-side path that reaches a viewpoint over the Ribeira da Metade valley in under an hour round trip and needs no special permit. From there, continue up to Pico do Arieiro, Madeira's third-highest peak at 1,818 metres, where the paved road ends at a car park and summit viewpoint that anyone can visit without booking. The PR1 trail continuing from the summit toward Pico Ruivo is a separate, permitted route through Madeira's SIMplifica system, priced at €4.50 for a short there-and-back to the Pedra Rija viewpoint or €10.50 for the full one-way crossing; treat either as a bonus for a clear-weather day with time to spare, not a required part of the visit. Return to Santana for a final night before the drive back to Funchal.
Overnight: Santana
Drive back to Funchal via the ER101 or the faster VE1 expressway, depending on whether a last coastal viewpoint or a direct airport run matters more with the time available. Return the rental car with a full tank well before the flight, since Madeira Airport's single runway and compact terminal move efficiently but still reward the standard two-hour buffer before departure. If a few hours remain, the Aerobus stops near several central Funchal hotels, so a same-day bag drop and a final walk through the Zona Velha are possible even on departure morning without needing the car any further.
Overnight: Santana
All four legs are driven, since Madeira's public transport network does not realistically connect these coastal and mountain bases on a one-week timeline; each leg follows a different type of road, from coastal terraces to a central mountain pass.
3 transfers
Funchal Calheta
The coast road west from Funchal passes through Ribeira Brava and Ponta do Sol, both worth a short stop, before reaching Calheta on the sheltered southwest tip. Traffic through the small town centres, rather than distance, is what stretches this leg beyond what the map suggests.
Booking note: No booking required; fuel up before leaving Funchal, since options thin out on the western stretch.
Calheta Porto Moniz
Continuing north, the route can run along the coast or detour inland through São Vicente's lava-tube cave network before reaching Porto Moniz at the island's northwestern point. Both options are paved and manageable in a standard rental car, but the coast road includes several tunnels cut directly through cliff faces.
Booking note: No booking required for the drive; book any São Vicente cave tour separately if adding that detour.
Porto Moniz Santana
The leg east to Santana climbs over the Encumeada Pass, where both the north and south coasts are visible from the road on a clear day, before descending toward the traditional-house town. This is the loop's most mountainous drive, and cloud cover at the pass is common even when the coasts below are clear.
Booking note: No booking required; check the pass's current weather before departing, since visibility there can differ sharply from conditions at either coast.
Mountain and coastal roads on Madeira include narrow tunnels and switchbacks; drive times assume calm weather and normal traffic.
Madeira's paid sights are individually inexpensive; the real cost driver is the rental car needed to cover the west coast, the north coast and the central mountains in one loop. The Funchal-Monte cable car is €22 return for an adult in 2026; Cabo Girão's skywalk is €5; Porto Moniz's natural pools are €3. Santana's traditional-house park charges a small entry on top of that. None of these figures include food, lodging or fuel, which flex far more with season and choice of base.
Booking tips
Funchal carries the arrival, departure and widest choice of rooms on the island: pick a base near the Zona Velha or the marina so the cable car and market stay a short walk away.
Trace the anticlockwise loop from Funchal through Calheta and Porto Moniz to Santana, with each stop plotted at its verified coordinates before the return drive to the capital.
Funchal
Split the week into four bases moving in one direction around the island: two nights in Funchal, one each in Calheta and Porto Moniz, and two in Santana, before driving back to Funchal for departure. This order means every coastal and mountain road gets driven once rather than twice, and it places the demanding north-coast and central-mountain legs in the middle of the trip rather than the jet-lagged first day or the rushed last one.
Yes, effectively. Funchal is well served by taxis, buses and the cable car, but Cabo Girão, Porto Moniz, Santana and Ribeiro Frio have no realistic public transport link that fits a one-week timeline. Madeira's roads include narrow tunnels and switchbacks, so a smaller rental car is genuinely easier to drive here than a large SUV, and mirrors get tested more than on a typical mainland road trip.
No booking is needed to reach the summit viewpoint itself, which sits at the end of a paved road with its own car park. A SIMplifica permit is only required for the PR1 hiking trail continuing from the summit toward Pico Ruivo, priced at €4.50 for a short there-and-back to the Pedra Rija viewpoint or €10.50 for the full one-way route; check current availability before planning around the full hike specifically.
Not always, and it's worth checking before building a day around swimming. The lava-formed pools close to the public when Atlantic swell makes conditions unsafe, independent of the posted opening hours, which is more common outside the calmer summer months. Treat the visit as worthwhile for the scenery even if swimming isn't possible that day.
April through June and September into October usually offer the most reliable mix of mild temperatures, lower rainfall and calmer seas for Porto Moniz's pools. July and August are warmer and busier in Funchal, while winter brings the wettest weather to the north coast and the highest chance the Porto Moniz pools stay closed for safety.
Add the extra night to Funchal at the start or end rather than a new stop, to allow a boat trip to see dolphins or whales offshore, or a second Zona Velha evening without cutting into the loop itself. Curral das Freiras, a village hidden in a steep central valley, is a common alternative day trip from Funchal that this seven-day version doesn't reach.
Reviewed by StartBooker editorial Madeira island loop planning and editorial research
Last reviewed 2026-09-08
How this itinerary was researched and verified: Twelve direct source records across eleven publishers were reviewed. Visit Madeira's official pages supplied prices, hours and access rules for the cable car, Cabo Girão, Porto Moniz and the Pico do Arieiro trail directly; UNESCO's listing confirmed the Laurissilva forest's heritage status; Madeira Airport's own site covered arrival logistics. Independent Madeira-focused itineraries were used to test stop order and driving-time estimates, not as prose sources.
10 references reviewed
Photos provided by Pexels.
Choose a complete route with the stops, transport and overnight plan already mapped out.
Were Porto Moniz's pools open and calm when you visited, or did Atlantic swell close them?
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