Grutas de São Vicente are closed: what still works in São Vicente

The lava caves at São Vicente are in every guidebook on the island, printed on leaflets in hotel lobbies, and pinned on half the maps people arrive with. They have also been shut since March 2020. In September 2026 the Funchal daily DNoticias reported them as closed for six years with no date to reopen, and noted that visitors still drive up to the gate and find it locked.

So the question is not how much a ticket costs. It is whether São Vicente is still worth the drive or the bus ride, and what you do with the day once you are there.

The caves are municipal. They and the Centro de Vulcanismo next door are run by Naturnorte, a company owned by the São Vicente council, and the council's own page for the site, last updated on 7 November 2025, says in one line that both are closed. Not the caves alone: the visitor centre too, which is what most of the leaflets are actually selling.

The closure dates from 16 March 2020 and the risk of collapse inside the tubes. DNoticias put the state of the route bluntly in September 2026: safety on more than 95 per cent of it is rated low. At its peak the site took up to 150,000 visitors and more than a million euros a year, which is why the closure is a running local political argument and why no official will commit to a reopening date.

Two practical consequences. The old booking website, grutasecentrodovulcanismo.com, no longer belongs to the caves at all; it now serves an unrelated property blog, so anything you read there is noise. And the phone number on the council page, 291 842 404, is the only live channel left if you want to check the position yourself before you travel.

For the record, what is behind the gate is unusual: tubes left by an eruption on Paul da Serra roughly 890,000 years ago, a guided underground route of about 700 metres, passages five to six metres high. They were among the first volcanic caves in Portugal opened to the public, in 1996. Missing them is a genuine loss, and still not a reason to skip the valley.

São Vicente sits where the island's main north to south road meets the north coast, so it is better served than most villages on this shore.

From Funchal the useful departure is 07:35, and it runs every day. On the Rodoeste sheet it is the Funchal to Arco de São Jorge service: Ribeira Brava at 08:45, a change of vehicle there, then Boca da Encumeada at 09:25 and São Vicente at 09:45. The same 07:35 slot also appears on the Porto Moniz sheet, reaching São Vicente at 09:40 and carrying on to Seixal at 10:25 and Porto Moniz at 10:45.

Coming back, there are four departures from São Vicente towards Funchal: 06:30 on weekdays, 07:45 (the only morning option at weekends), 13:00 on weekdays, and 15:30 Monday to Saturday. They reach Funchal at 07:30, 09:35, 14:05 and 17:05. Arriving at 09:40, that leaves you either three hours and twenty minutes in the valley on the 13:00, or five hours and fifty minutes on the 15:30. On a Sunday there is one bus each way in the morning, which does not make a day out.

Watch the route numbers. Every Rodoeste route on the island was renumbered on 9 March 2026, and the printed timetables still carry the old headers. The old route 6 is now 300 and 301 on the fast road, 302 and 303 on the coast road, and 304 and 305 for the Arco de São Jorge service over Encumeada. The old 139 to Porto Moniz is now 340 and 341 via São Vicente, and 350 and 351 on the fast road. The old 150 is 250. If you are reading a blog post from last year, the numbers in it are wrong and the times are probably still right.

Fares are zonal, and São Vicente is a different municipality from Funchal, so you pay the intermunicipal rate: 2.65 euros bought from the driver, 2.00 euros if it is already loaded on a GIRO card, under the 2026 tariff set by Portaria n.º 128/2026 of 23 March. A one day intermunicipal pass is 6.55 euros, which pays for itself the moment you add a hop to Seixal and back. The Porto Moniz sheet also runs no service at all on 1 January, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, 25 December and 26 December.

With a car, take the Encumeada road over the pass rather than the tunnel at least once. The tunnel is faster and completely blind; the old road climbs to around a thousand metres, and the bus at 09:25 stops up there too if you want to walk first and descend later.

This is the real reason the valley still earns a day. São Vicente has three classified trails on the official list, and all three were open when this was written.

The easiest is the Vereda do Chão dos Louros, PR 22, a 1.9 kilometre loop in the forest park near Encumeada, between 890 and 830 metres, graded easy, 45 minutes. Being a loop it needs no transport at the far end, which makes it the simplest classified walk on the island and the right answer for a family, a short weather window, or an afternoon that already has a drive in it.

The levada walk is PR 16, Levada Fajã do Rodrigues, running above the São Vicente valley from Fajã da Amã to the Ribeira do Inferno, 3.9 kilometres each way and 7.8 in total. The channel barely moves in height, from 630 down to 600 metres, and yet IFCN allows three and a half hours and grades it medium, which tells you something about the footing rather than the gradient. You walk out and back the same way. There is no useful bus to the trailhead: line 265, São Vicente to Ginjas Lameiros, is listed as a school service.

The third is PR 21, Caminho do Norte, the old link from the Encumeada pass down to Ribeira Grande: 3.2 kilometres, an hour and a half, losing 680 metres from a thousand down to 320. The two ends are far apart by road, so settle how you are getting back before you start down.

Two neighbouring routes are flagged as restricted rather than open, PR 1.3 from Pico Ruivo to Encumeada and PR 12 from Boca da Corrida. Status on this island changes week to week after heavy rain, so read the official map on the morning you walk, not the week before.

Every classified trail except PR 1 costs 4.50 euros per person over 12 in 2026, and a combined day ticket for two or more routes is 9 euros. Both are booked and paid for only through the SIMplifica portal, online, and registration is obligatory for everyone walking, including children under 12 who pay nothing and anyone else who is exempt. There is no desk at the trailhead and no desk at an IFCN office, so if you have not registered, you have not booked.

Most drivers see the strip of bars and restaurants tucked under the cliff on the coast road and conclude that is São Vicente. The old centre is about half a kilometre inland, behind the church, and it is two streets of properly pretty village with quiet bars to sit outside.

Down at the river mouth is the Capela de São Vicente, also called the Capela do Calhau, a tiny chapel built on a single block of basalt in the last quarter of the seventeenth century, usually dated to 1692 and restored in 1885. It costs nothing, takes ten minutes, and is a more memorable piece of volcanic geology than an audiovisual display about one.

Ten minutes west by bus is Seixal and the Praia da Laje, where the sand is black volcanic grit rather than imported gold, with a waterfall dripping off the cliff at one end. There are lifeguards in season, showers, toilets and parking, and no entry charge. The north coast takes the Atlantic swell head on, so a red flag here is not a formality; on those days the natural pools a few minutes further west are the alternative.

Almost nobody should base a whole trip in São Vicente. The bus timetable above is the giveaway: one useful departure each way, and a Sunday service that does not make a day. The north coast rewards a car, or a day trip from the south.

For the day trip, the practical base is the hills above Funchal, twenty minutes from the start of the Encumeada road and with the city underneath you for dinner. Madeira with Views lets apartments in exactly that band of the hillside, high enough for the harbour view and still inside the bus network.

If you do want a night on the north coast, São Vicente has a seafront hotel and a choice of guest houses in the old centre, which are quieter and closer to the bars worth sitting in.

A worked example for two adults, by bus, in 2026: two one day intermunicipal passes at 6.55 euros, two PR 22 bookings at 4.50 euros, and lunch in the old centre. Call it 35 to 45 euros for the pair, with the walking and the chapel and the beach costing nothing beyond the trail fee. The caves, had they been open, were a paid attraction on top of that.

Are the São Vicente caves open in 2026? No. The São Vicente council's own page, updated on 7 November 2025, says the caves and the Centro de Vulcanismo are both closed, and press reporting in September 2026 described them as shut for six years with no reopening date. Do not book through any site that sells you a ticket.

Is there any other cave to visit on Madeira instead? Not of this kind. The São Vicente tubes were the island's show cave. What is left of the same geology above ground is the Encumeada road, the forest park at Chão dos Louros and the basalt block the chapel sits on.

How do I get from Funchal to São Vicente by bus? The 07:35 departure, every day, arriving 09:40 to 09:45. Back at 13:00 or 15:30 on weekdays, 15:30 on Saturdays, and only 07:45 on Sundays. The fare is the intermunicipal one, 2.65 euros from the driver, and the route numbers changed on 9 March 2026.

Do I have to book the walks in advance? Yes, and only online. Classified trails other than PR 1 cost 4.50 euros for anyone over 12 in 2026, booked through the SIMplifica portal, and everyone in the party has to be registered even when they pay nothing.

• Grutas e Centro de Vulcanismo, Município de São Vicente, updated 7 November 2025
• Grutas de São Vicente, Visit Madeira
• Grutas sem plano, DNOTICIAS, 25 September 2026
• Grutas de São Vicente, Wikipédia, on the closure of 16 March 2020
• Funchal to Arco de São Jorge timetable with the Encumeada stop, SIGA Rodoeste
• Funchal to Santa Porto Moniz timetable via São Vicente and Seixal, SIGA Rodoeste
• Nova numeração e denominação das carreiras, in force from 09/03/2026, SIGA
• 2026 fare table under Portaria n.º 128/2026 of 23 March
• Alertas e lista de percursos, the live status map for classified trails, Visit Madeira
• Percursos pedestres classificados abertos e fechados, Visit Madeira
• Perguntas frequentes, taxas, percursos pedestres classificados, IFCN
• Trail booking and payment, SIMplifica
• Capela de São Vicente, Elucidário Madeirense