Levada do Caldeirão Verde (PR9): the booking, the four tunnels and getting to Queimadas

This is the walk people mean when they say they want to walk a levada rather than climb a mountain. It starts at a forest park above Santana, follows a water channel cut into the side of a valley, passes through tunnels, and ends at a pool fed by a waterfall at the head of the valley.

What decides whether the day works has nothing to do with fitness. You need a timed ticket bought before you leave your accommodation, you need a way to reach a trailhead no bus serves, and you need to know that the back half of the route printed on the official sign has been shut for most of 2026. The walk on offer is shorter than the one described on the tourism board's page.

Settle those and it is a straightforward day. Miss them and you drive an hour to a closed gate.

The tourism board lists PR 9 as Queimadas Forest Park to Caldeirão do Inferno: 8.7 kilometres one way, 17.4 there and back, six and a half hours, graded moderate, between 872 and 1,020 metres above sea level, with four tunnels cut through rock along the way.

For most of 2026 those numbers have not described anything you could walk end to end. The section beyond Caldeirão Verde, the continuation into the interior towards Caldeirão do Inferno, closed after landslides in the spring. The main trail reopened at the end of May. Reports through the summer, the most recent in August, still have the Inferno link shut, with the ground above it described as unstable.

So plan for the part that is open: Queimadas to Caldeirão Verde and back, about six and a half kilometres each way, thirteen in total, four to five hours at an ordinary pace with stops.

The pair of altitudes is the most useful thing on the official page. You start a little under 900 metres and the walk stays close to that contour the whole way, because a levada is a canal and water does not climb. The climbing is in the car journey rather than the walk. That is why this route suits people who want the high laurel forest without a mountain ascent, and why it is the sensible answer for anyone who has looked at Pico do Arieiro to Pico Ruivo and decided against 1,800 metres.

Check the status before you book rather than after. The tourism board page and the IFCN trail list both carry it, and on the day they are the only sources worth trusting.

Access to Madeira's classified trails moved to a reservation and fee system on 1 January 2026, set by Portaria n.º 801/2025 of 10 December and amended by Portaria n.º 48/2026 of 13 February. PR9 sits inside it.

For 2026, for visitors without an operator protocol:

• One trail, PR9 included: 4.50 euros
• Two or more trails in one day: 9.00 euros
• Two or more trails across three days: 22.50 euros
• Two or more trails across seven days: 52.50 euros

The multi-day rates save money and do nothing else. IFCN is explicit that they do not replace the individual booking: you still reserve every trail, for a named date and a named entry slot, subject to whatever capacity is left. There is no separate purchase button for them. You book the trails you want and the portal applies the lowest applicable price.

Booking happens online through the SIMplifica portal and nowhere else. No office takes a reservation or a payment. If the portal misbehaves it is not IFCN's system to fix: the SIMplifica contact centre is on +351 800 29 90 90, with WhatsApp on +351 926 155 465, weekdays 09:00 to 18:00.

Who pays nothing:

• Madeira residents, on production of a resident card and citizen card
• Children of 12 and under
• Visitors with a disability of 60 percent or more, plus one legal guardian accompanying them

All of them still need a registered booking with a slot. The exemption is from the fee, not from the reservation.

Slots are entry times, not finishing times. The day is divided into them, capacity is held separately for visitors, residents and tour operators, and IFCN allows roughly fifteen minutes either side of the time you booked, with a little more latitude for walkers doing trails in sequence. A slot locks itself as soon as it fills, which is the ordinary reason a trail that is plainly open shows nothing available on a fine summer morning. In high season, book a few days ahead.

Rescheduling and refunds exist in one circumstance: the trail was officially closed or restricted by the authorities on the date you booked.

IFCN lists what does not count, and the list is blunt. You booked the wrong date. You booked the wrong trail. You would rather go another day. It is raining. Your flight was cancelled. You fell ill. You missed your transport. In all of those the 4.50 euros is gone. A valid claim has to be made within ten working days of the reservation date, and refunds are paid by bank transfer only, against your tickets, the invoice and your bank details.

On a trail with one section already closed and a history of landslide closures, it is worth knowing which way that cuts. A closure on your date is the refundable case, so the money is not really the risk you are carrying. The day is. Losing 4.50 euros matters far less than driving to the north coast and finding the gate shut, so check the status the evening before and again in the morning.

No guide is compulsory. IFCN says so plainly for every classified trail, which is worth knowing if a tour desk implies otherwise.

The tunnels give this walk its character, and they need one piece of kit the trail fee does not cover.

Bring a head torch rather than a phone. The tunnels are unlit and long enough to be properly dark in the middle, and you want both hands free, because the floor is wet and uneven and the ceiling in places is low enough to catch an unbent head. Water drips through the roof throughout, so a waterproof shell earns its place in the bag whatever the forecast says.

The other thing to know in advance is the edge. The path runs alongside the channel on a ledge, and how exposed it feels depends on the state of the railings along each stretch. On a dry day it is a walk rather than a scramble. It is not a route for anyone who dislikes a drop on one side, and not one to hurry on a wet afternoon.

What you get for it is laurel forest at the height it actually grows at, and at the end of the levada a steep rock bowl with water falling into a dark pool. The water is cold. People swim anyway.

By car from Funchal the drive takes somewhere between forty-five minutes and an hour and a quarter, either over Poiso and down through Ribeiro Frio or round the coast and up. The final climb from Santana to the park is narrow and steep.

The car park at Queimadas is small and it fills. There is no overflow worth the name, so on a fine morning in season people leave cars down the access road and walk up. An early slot deals with the parking and the cloud at the same time.

By bus, the honest answer is that nothing reaches Queimadas. Santana itself is well served from Funchal on the SIGA network, on routes renumbered on 9 March 2026, when the old 56 became the 801 and the old 103 became the 850. The park sits above the village, and the last few kilometres are a taxi, about twelve to fifteen euros by recent visitor accounts, with no official tariff published for it. Book the return leg when you are dropped off, because taxis do not wait at the trailhead.

Add the day up before you commit to a slot: bus up, taxi, thirteen kilometres on foot, taxi back, bus home, against a last departure from Santana in the late afternoon. It is possible and it is tight. Our Santana guide has the current route numbers and the last bus time, and the timetables themselves are at siga.madeira.gov.pt.

If this walk is the centre of your trip, a night on the north coast changes the shape of the day. Santana puts you twenty minutes from the trailhead instead of an hour and a quarter, which makes the first slot of the morning realistic, and that is the slot worth having here: the car park is emptiest then.

Most people walk it as a day out from a base further south, and that works too. The drive up over the mountain road is part of the pleasure of it, and if you are choosing a base for a week rather than for one walk, the hills above Funchal put you on that road already, with the rest of the island's network on your doorstep and a view to come home to. Madeira with Views lets apartments in that band, and our where to stay guide compares the areas properly.

There is an official shorter version, and it is not a consolation prize. PR 9.1, signed as Levada do Caldeirão Verde Um Caminho para Todos, a path for everyone, runs from Queimadas to Pico das Pedras: around four and a half kilometres, something like 140 metres of gentle climb, and no tunnels. Same levada, same forest. It is the right answer with small children, and for anyone unsure about walking a ledge.

In the other direction, a hard circular route exists from the levada up to Pico Ruivo and back down to Queimadas, using the mountain paths above the second tunnel. It is long and strenuous, and a different proposition entirely. The usual way to Pico Ruivo is the much shorter path from Achada do Teixeira, the other car park above Santana.

For gentler walks elsewhere on the island, our self-guided levada walks guide starts from what you want out of a day.

Queimadas sits a little under 900 metres on the wet side of the island, and the cloud and drizzle are the mechanism rather than bad luck. The laurel forest grows here because this slope catches the moisture the trade winds bring in, and the levadas were dug to carry that water to where people needed it. The island's microclimates are at their most obvious on this drive, where you can leave sun in Funchal and arrive in mist.

In practice it will be several degrees cooler than the coast, the surface can be wet under a clear sky, and a bright morning in Funchal tells you nothing about Santana. Go early, carry a layer you would not need at sea level, and if the status says closed, let that decide the day.

Do I have to book PR9 in advance? Yes. Since 1 January 2026 every walker needs a reservation with an entry slot, bought online through the SIMplifica portal, and the 2026 fee is 4.50 euros per visitor over 12. Residents, under-13s and visitors with a disability of 60 percent or more pay nothing but still need the booking.

How long does the walk take? About four to five hours for the thirteen kilometres from Queimadas to Caldeirão Verde and back. The official six and a half hour figure covers the full 17.4 kilometre route to Caldeirão do Inferno, which has been closed for most of 2026.

Can I get there by bus? Not all the way. Buses from Funchal reach Santana on the SIGA network, but the trailhead above the village needs a taxi for the last stretch, and a return taxi booked in advance. With a fixed entry slot and a late-afternoon last bus, the walk is much easier with a car.

Do I really need a torch? Yes. Four unlit tunnels, with wet uneven floors and low ceilings in places. Take a head torch so your hands stay free, and a waterproof for the water coming through the roof.

• PR 9 - Levada do Caldeirão Verde, Visit Madeira
• Percursos Pedestres Classificados: list and status, IFCN
• FAQ on trail fees and reservations, IFCN
• Trail booking and payment, SIMplifica
• Bus timetables, SIGA