Strolling and Exploring the Magnificent Island of Madeira

What you get on a Secret Hills Madeira  Holiday

• Transfer from airport to Madeira  hotel and return.
• Bed and Breakfast accommodation= hotel with pool
• Sole Occupancy room
• Packed lunch or cafe lunch
• Guided walking- local Madeiran guides
• Any transport needed on the walks
• The services of a Secret Hills tour guide
• Individual attention
• Our administration and management service

What’s not included

• Flights- you purchase your own
• Evening dinner

Holiday Highlights

Madeira is an island paradise with fantastic walking on the mountains and coast.

• • the sun in winter – always a bonus
  • scenery that is unique some as a World Heritage site
  • stay in a beautiful historic city
  • flowers everywhere, lots of formal and informal gardens
  • walking on the famous levadas, the beautiful coast
  • walking the famous Pico’s walk between Arreiro and Ruivo
  • The magnificent Ponta de Sao Laurenco peninsula
  • The villages of Porta do Cruz, Jardim do Mar, Paul do Mar, Prazares and Camacha
  • two walks to choose from daily
  • our relaxed social approach

Discover the walking paradise of the garden island of Madeira – in the company of walking friends who enjoy good walking, good food, good social chatter and who appreciate the beauty of simply wonderful scenery.

Madeira is an island of fascinating natural beauty, rising steeply in splendid isolation from the Atlantic ocean. Once visited, never forgotten.

This seven night holiday – led by local guides and supported by a UK tour guide- shows off the best of this magnificent island.

Funchal- a bustling city famed for its local Portuguese/Madeiran restaurants, is an ideal base to explore the coast and mountains of the this sun kissed land.

Walking is moderate, some ascending and descending – it has both a coast and the central mountain area after all, and you should be walking fit.

We walk for five days. We use the world famous levada paths as a means of getting about the Madeiran countryside, from area to area, but this holiday is about more than levada’s.

You buy your own flights, and also evening dinner at a different restaurant each night- so the choice of number of courses and diet is yours.

We pride ourselves on how we create a social feel- so join us on this sociable active holiday.

We organise everything for you – from the minute your flight lands to when you arrive back at the airport.

Join us on this sociable active holiday where we meet as strangers and depart as friends.

Our aim by the end is to have given you a true Madeiran experience.

Discover the walking paradise of the garden island of Madeira – in the company of walking friends who enjoy good walking, good food, good social chatter and who appreciate the beauty of simply wonderful scenery. Madeira is an island of fascinating natural beauty, rising steeply in splendid isolation from the Atlantic ocean. Once visited, never forgotten

The price shown here excludes flights but includes a sole occupancy supplement

Join us on a holiday uniquely designed for solos and singles. We provide guided walking in both the UK and Europe. We also design bespoke holidays for specific groups.

Hotels

In November 2026, we use https://www.penhafrancahotels.com//the in the centre of Funchal  en suite rooms are spacious, twin bedded – some with baths and some with showers.. The hotel is an ideal place to host our walking programme, having easy access to restaurants, shops, supermarkets etc surrounds where you can The hotels’ breakfasts are continental, with cheeses and ham, yogurt, fruit and fresh rolls and preserves, with plenty of tea or coffee. A hot buffet is also available.‎

For February 2026, we use the Dom Pedro hotel in Machico-https://madeira.dompedro.com/pt

Your Meals

Madeira has great walking but we also enjoy outstanding food – we eat at seven different atmospheric restaurants, in several areas of Funchal – in the old town, with its family  run businesses, the harbour, around the hotel zone, and in restaurants where locals eat. We also arrange your evening meals as a group, though this is not obligatory. We have spent time selecting the best value for money restaurants in Funchal

What can you expect?  Fish galore – the local espadas, sea bass , bream, sardines, tuna, and a whole bewildering array of other fish. Meat lovers are not left out as the local delicacy is beef on a bay leaf tree spit. The steaks are good, and pork features on most menus. Vegetarians are not left out either. As a complete contrast, we eat Italian on one evening. Local wine is inexpensive and surprisingly palatable. Normally you can expect to pay £20 a head for two courses.

Packed lunch

We provide a simple –  locally produced at the bakery opposite the hotel – a filled  roll and piece of fruit for packed lunch. You may need to supplement this with your own energy bars/chocolate etc. Because of the nature of our walks there is little opportunity to stop for lunch at a cafe or similar on the walks.

Flexibility

We offer you the opportunity to stay additional nights, and many people extend their weekend as they wish. Just reserve what nights you need.

This is an escorted holiday with UK tour guide supporting the local Madeiran guides. We walk for five days with one free day in the middle.

If you want a holiday that is adventurous and romantic, that’s completely unique and different, and yet one that’s totally unforgettable and exotic, Madeira’s just the place. With fuchsia Bougainvillea, scarlet Poinsettias and lilac Jacaranda trees blanketing the landscape in quilts of exotic blooms throughout the year. Located in the Atlantic Ocean, just north-west of the Canary islands and a little further away from Africa, it is famous for its’ balmy summers and warm winters making it the ideal holiday destination all year. Madeira has two sides, north and south, separated by a mountainous spine. The south warm and sunny, whilst the north a little cooler. A walking paradise –  Madeira will surprise and enchant you.

Join us for a truly unique Madeiran experience.

The Climate

It has a splendid climate, rarely getting above 28 degrees and below 15 degrees, and that means excellent walking conditions. It’s a haven for those who seek a relaxing walking holiday in close proximity to nature. The levadas banks and the surrounding countryside are planted with hydrangeas, lilies and agapanthus. Its mountains are rugged and inspiring with generally good sea views. Gardens and parks are everywhere – planted with all manner of exotic trees shrubs and blooms.

On this holiday, the strolling and exploring option works as follows.

We walk at a steady, strolling pace for a couple of miles, then take a break with a coffee. Dependent on the activity for the day- visiting sites of interest/gardens/ villages – we sometimes add another couple of miles in the afternoon. Lunch is either packed or at a local cafe. Each day’s activities will be discussed during the evening before.

Underfoot conditions are generally excellent with well maintained and waymarked footpaths. Distances covered vary according to the terrain and are between 3 and 4 miles.

The walking on this tour is easy and taken at a strolling pace. There may be some slight ascents and descents.

You need good walking footwear, preferably waterproof walking boots with good soles for protection. You may find that walking poles will aid your enjoyment of this land.

Exclusions

Although our leaders are well trained and experienced in dealing with different capabilities of our walking clients, if they have any concerns about any clients ability or suitability to undertake safely any walking activity we plan or they feel that participation of an individual may affect the groups safety and cohesion, then they have full permission to exclude that client from an activity.

They will try at all times to provide an alternative suggested activity, though this may involve the client in additional local cost.

We rarely have to enforce this above recommendation, but it is a sensible and necessary protection for the individual client, the group and the leaders.

The island of Madeira was discovered by Tristão Vaz Teixeira, Bartolomeu Perestrelo and João Gonçalves Zarco, two Portuguese explorers, in 1419, which dubbed the island ‘Madeira’ (“wood” in English) due to the abundance of this raw material.

Noticing the potential of the islands, as well as its strategic importance, the colonization of the islands began in 1425.

At the beginning of its settlement, some agricultural crops, such as cane sugar, were introduced, which quickly afforded the Funchal metropolis frank economic prosperity. This meant that, in the second half of the fifteenth century, the city of Funchal became a mandatory port of call for European trade routes.

The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were marked by the emergence of a new culture that would boost the Madeira economy again: wine.

Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Madeira flourished for the birth of the tourism sector, quickly becoming a mandatory reference for the European aristocracy that has set temporary residence here, attracted by the natural therapeutic qualities of the island.

The island abounds with flowers and trees – many that have landed here naturally but most brought in from the rest of the tropical world. Its famous Laura Silva forests – similar to the Canaries- are a delight. The wet north provides water, power and vital agriculture sustinance to the drier south and west. The  means of transporting the water – via water channels called levadas -is unique to the island.

In 1976, Madeira became an Autonomous Region of Portugal, thus having the power to legislate.