Camping in Madeira: the permit, the 21 forest areas and the only campsite

You can camp on Madeira, and it costs very little. What you cannot do is arrive with a tent and look for a quiet spot. The island runs two separate systems, both tied to named places, and one of them wants your paperwork done before you fly.

The first is a campsite with a gate, showers and a price list, run by the Porto Moniz council. The second is a set of 21 forest clearings managed by the IFCN, the regional forestry and nature institute, where you pitch on grass next to a car park or at the end of a footpath, and where the licence is the whole story. Pick the wrong system for your trip and you either pay for facilities you did not want or turn up at 1,790 metres with no permit.

The island's one official campsite sits at the mouth of the Ribeira da Janela, about 20 minutes on foot from Porto Moniz village or four minutes by car. The camping ground is roughly 1,500 m² inside a 5,300 m² site, with reception, showers, toilets, laundry, a meal preparation area and a barbecue.

Charges are per person and per tent rather than per pitch. Per day, adults over 25 pay 3.00 €, anyone from 3 to 25 pays 2.00 €, and under-twos are free. The tent is charged on its footprint, which includes the kitchen and the awning: 3.00 € below 4 m², 4.00 € from 4 to 12 m², 5.00 € from 12 to 25 m², and 7.00 € above that. Electricity is 0.50 € a day. There are also deposits, which catch people out: 25.00 € per tent to use the site and 75.00 € to hold a reservation, plus 5.00 € on a locker that then costs 1.00 € a day. Two adults in a mid-sized tent come to about 10 € a night, with 25 € sitting on deposit until you leave. The same two with electricity for a week is about 75 €.

The campsite closed for several months and reopened in August 2026 after about 80,000 € of work on the access bridge, the terraces and the lighting, so photographs older than that show the previous state of the place. Entry is charged all year. The phone number is 291 853 856, and the site rules are posted at reception.

Getting there without a car is possible but slow, and the route numbers changed recently. Rodoeste renumbered its lines on 9 March 2026: Funchal to Porto Moniz via Calheta is now 380, with 381 coming back, and the north coast run via São Vicente is 340 out and 341 back. Buses 350 and 351 use the Via Rápida to Santa, and 250 is the São Vicente to Santa Porto Moniz shuttle that used to be 150. Porto Moniz council's own transport page still lists the old 80 and 139, so check the timetable on siga.madeira.gov.pt rather than a printed guide.

Everything else legal happens in a forest clearing on the IFCN's list, and every one of them needs a licence before you pitch. You apply online at simplifica.madeira.gov.pt, choosing the zone and the dates, and the fee is 5.00 € per tent per night for visitors. Residents of Madeira camp free on proof of residency. The price comes from Portaria 801/2025 of 10 December 2025 and survived the first amendment to it, Portaria 48/2026 of 13 February 2026.

The zones are Bica da Cana, Boca das Voltas, Caramujo, Carreiras, Casa do Sardinha, Chão das Feiteiras, Chão do Pasto, Chão dos Louros, Cruzes de Baixo, Cruzinhas, Estanquinhos, Estanquinhos Fontes Ruivas, Fanal, Fonte do Bispo, Pico das Pedras, Pico Ruivo, Poiso, Porto Moniz, Ribeira do Alecrim, Ribeiro Frio and Terreiros. Each has a daily cap on tents, and the booking portal tells you whether anything is left for your dates. Apply as early as you can, because the cap is per day and not per season.

Carry the authorisation, printed or on your phone. The Polícia Florestal checks it, and each zone sheet gives the local ranger's mobile number. Fires are allowed only in the fireplaces provided, and you carry your rubbish out. Most of the interior is inside the 27,000-hectare Parque Natural da Madeira, and the laurel forest within it, about 15,000 hectares, has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1999.

The zones differ more by height than by facilities, and the height decides what kind of night you have.

• Pico Ruivo, 1,790 m, in Faial and Santana. Reached on foot only, and water, toilet and fireplace are 200 m from the pitches. The highest of them.
• Bica da Cana, 1,560 m, in Ponta do Sol. Tarmac to the door, which makes it the easiest high camp on the island and the busiest.
• Poiso, 1,395 m, in Porto da Cruz and Machico. On the road up to Pico do Arieiro, with tarmac access.
• Fanal, 1,135 m, in Seixal and Porto Moniz. Old laurel trees, and the fog that draws photographers. Tarmac access.
• Ribeiro Frio, 925 m, in Porto da Cruz and Machico. Footpath access, in the trees, near the levada walks.
• Chão dos Louros, 805 m, in São Vicente. Below the cloud more often than the others, on the Encumeada road.
• Casa do Sardinha, 25 m, in Caniçal. At the far end of the Ponta de São Lourenço peninsula, reached on foot, with no shade and no shelter.

Above about 1,200 metres the island is a different place after dark. Cloud sits on Bica da Cana and Poiso for days at a time, condensation soaks everything inside a single-skin tent, and a summer night at Pico Ruivo can sit close to freezing while Funchal is at 22 degrees. Take what you would take to a mountain rather than to a beach.

Water and toilets are worth checking per zone instead of assuming. When the Madeiran daily DNOTICIAS reviewed the network in September 2024, toilets were near Bica da Cana, Chão dos Louros, Fonte do Bispo, Pico Ruivo and Porto Moniz, and the other clearings had none. Montado do Pereiro in Camacha, the one site with showers, has been reserved for organised groups since mid-2024 and is not on the list you can book. Chão da Lagoa, in the Parque Ecológico do Funchal, is licensed by the city instead of the IFCN, which makes it a separate application.

Most people who camp on Madeira do it for two or three nights out of ten: one high camp for a sunrise, one in the laurel forest, and the rest of the trip indoors with a kitchen and a shower. That mix works well, and it is worth booking the indoor half first, because the camping half can move with the forecast and a hotel cannot. For the nights under a roof, Madeira with Views rents houses in the hills above Funchal, which keeps you above the city and close to the mountain roads you will be driving anyway.

Outside the campsite and the 21 zones, pitching a tent is not allowed, and that includes the levada paths, the miradouros and the beaches.

Vans are their own question. Article 50-A of the Portuguese road code bans both sleeping in a motorhome and spreading out beyond its footprint in protected areas, Natura 2000 sites and the coastal planning zones, except where a place is expressly set up for it. Outside those areas, and where no municipal rule says otherwise, a motorhome approved by the IMT may stay up to 48 hours in the same municipality. Sleeping means occupants in the vehicle between 22:00 and 07:00. Fines run from 60 € to 300 €, and from 120 € to 600 € in the protected and coastal zones, and much of Madeira's interior and coastline falls inside them.

Porto Santo has no zone on the official list; all 21 are on Madeira. The island's old campsite at Fontinha closed and the ground became an urban park, so plan on a room there.

Do I need a permit to camp in Madeira? Yes, for all 21 forest zones. Apply at simplifica.madeira.gov.pt before you travel and carry the authorisation with you.

How much does camping cost? 5.00 € per tent per night in the forest zones, free for Madeira residents. At the Porto Moniz campsite it is 3.00 € per adult plus 3.00 € to 7.00 € for the tent, so about 10 € a night for two people.

Can I sleep in a campervan? Not in protected areas, Natura 2000 sites or coastal zones, which covers most of the island's scenic parking. Elsewhere, up to 48 hours in one municipality, with fines of 60 € to 600 € if you get it wrong.

Which zone should a first-timer pick? Chão dos Louros at 805 m or Fanal at 1,135 m. Both have road access, both sit below the worst of the cloud, and neither commits you to a mountain night before you know how your tent handles the damp.

• IFCN, camping in forest areas and the individual zone sheets: ifcn.madeira.gov.pt
• Camping licence applications: simplifica.madeira.gov.pt
• Portaria 801/2025 of 10 December 2025 and Portaria 48/2026 of 13 February 2026, Jornal Oficial da Região Autónoma da Madeira
• Porto Moniz council, campsite prices and facilities: portomoniz.pt
• SIGA, new route numbers in force from 9 March 2026: siga.madeira.gov.pt
• DNOTICIAS, review of Madeira's camping areas, 26 September 2024
• Código da Estrada, article 50-A
• UNESCO World Heritage List, Laurisilva of Madeira