Fanal Forest, Madeira

The Finding On The Open Area

No fee, ticket, booking or paid car park is published on any official page we read for driving to Fanal and walking around the meadow, the Til trees and the viewpoints. Not on the IFCN register, not on the IFCN fee FAQ, not on the Visit Madeira page, not on the Porto Moniz council page. We say this as a finding about what is published, not as a promise that access will always cost nothing.

The region already charges for the classified trails and for the Cabo Girão viewpoint.

• No entry fee published for the open forest area.
• No ticket or booking published for the meadow, viewpoints or picnic area.
• No paid car park published, and no parking capacity or parking rule published either.

The Rule On The Classified Trails

PR13 Vereda do Fanal and PR14 Levada dos Cedros are classified trails managed by IFCN. Since 1 January 2026 every classified IFCN trail needs a prior booking through the SIMplifica portal, and IFCN does not take bookings or payments at its own offices. For non-resident visitors the fee is $5.17 (€4.50) per single trail.

Bookings open only for the same day or the next day, subject to availability, and a full slot is blocked automatically. Around 15 minutes of tolerance is generally allowed around your booked slot. If you plan more walking, combined passes for two or more trails cost $10.33 (€9) for one day or $25.80 (€22.50) for three days, and the booking system applies the most advantageous rate automatically.

Rescheduling or a refund is only granted if IFCN or the authorities closed or restricted the trail on your booking date, requested within 10 working days. Details are on our trail fees and SIMplifica page.

• Exempt from the fee but still needing a booking: Madeira residents, children 12 and under, and people with a disability of 60% or more plus one accompanying person.
• Exempt from booking and fee entirely: only landowners or lawful possessors exercising property rights over land crossed by the trail.

What Each Choice Costs

The table below sets out what you might do at Fanal, whether a booking is needed, what fee applies, and which official source carries that fact. Where no official page states a figure, we say so rather than guess.

Read the two columns side by side. The IFCN register is the legal status source, the council datasheets carry the walking detail. All three trails below are one way, and the council says so plainly.

PR13 Route Notes

The council datasheet says PR13 begins on the ER209 at Pico dos Assobiadouros, on the Porto Moniz and Calheta boundary, and walks downhill to end at the forestry house on the ER209 at Fanal. It passes views over the Rabaçal valley and the Chão da Ribeira waterfalls, a picnic area much used at weekends by Madeiran families, and a viewpoint with 360 degree views over Paul da Serra and Rabaçal. Part of the route crosses ground burned by a 2012 forest fire.

Near the end, a right turn at the last dirt-road junction drops to Fio, where a steel cable once carried supplies up and down the valley. Because it is long and one way, the council tells walkers to organise transport in advance, so plan two cars or a pickup. Cows graze along the way and the council asks you not to disturb them, especially cows with calves.

PR14 Route Notes

The council datasheet says PR14 starts in Fanal on the ER209, where you can park on the side of the road, and begins at an information panel before a descent of several hundred wooden steps to the water channel. The first 400 m run through Seixal parish, the rest through Ribeira da Janela. Turn left along the levada to reach the source and a waterfall.

The path is often waterlogged, especially in winter, so the council recommends waterproof boots. It ends at a staircase down to the ER209, which is also the start of PR15 toward Ribeira da Janela village. As with PR13, this is one way: with two vehicles leave one at the end, otherwise retrace your steps or book a local agency for transport, in the council's words.

Our own suggestion is to combine PR14 with PR15 and arrange a pickup in Ribeira da Janela village.

Driving And Parking

The address is Posto Florestal do Fanal on the ER209, Seixal, Porto Moniz, and the IFCN campsite sheet confirms access is by asphalt road. It also lists parking among the facilities at the Fanal camping zone, alongside water, WC and bins. The Porto Moniz council adds that the PR14 trailhead lies on the ER209 where you can park on the side of the road.

Beyond those two lines, no official page publishes a paid car park, a capacity figure or any parking rule for Fanal. No official source prints a drive time from Funchal or anywhere else, so we will not invent one. If you rent a car, our practical guide is car hire in Madeira, and the wider picture is on getting around Madeira.

Public Transport

No public bus to Fanal is listed on the Porto Moniz council transport page. That page lists only Rodoeste routes 80 and 139 to Porto Moniz village, so reaching the forest by bus would mean arriving in the village and finding your own way up, for which no official option is published. A guided day trip solves the problem: the West Madeira Waterfalls and Fanal Forest tour and the Skywalk, Porto Moniz, Seixal and Fanal 4WD tour both include hotel pickup from the Funchal area.

More options sit on the tours hub.

The Council's Warnings

The Porto Moniz council states that mist and fog are very frequent at this altitude because of the height, and warns that visitors can lose their way, so keep to the trail and keep warm, because temperatures drop fast. No official climate figures exist for Fanal itself in our sources, so we cannot print averages for the site. Our practical advice is on Madeira weather and safety and health.

• Keep to the marked trail when mist closes in, the council's own advice for avoiding getting lost.
• Do not disturb the cows, especially cows with calves, per the PR13 datasheet.
• Fires are allowed only in the proper places, per the IFCN campsite sheet.
• Take your litter away and do not collect plants, per the IFCN code of conduct.

Emergency Contacts

The IFCN campsite sheet lists the emergency number 112, the Forest Police on +351 969 086 465 and Civil Protection on +351 291 700 112. Save them before you drive up, because mobile coverage in the fog is not something any of our sources describe.

• General emergency: 112.
• Forest Police: +351 969 086 465.
• Civil Protection: +351 291 700 112.

Fanal is a forest area between the Seixal and Ribeira da Janela mountains, in the words of Visit Madeira, and part of the Laurissilva, inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1999 and also part of Natura 2000. It is classified as a Rest and Quiet Reserve of the Madeira Natural Park, which is why the code of conduct matters here. The main sights:

• Centuries-old Til trees, Ocotea foetens, which Visit Madeira says date from before the discovery of the archipelago. These are the twisted trees in the photographs.
• The winter lake, born from an old volcanic crater, which fills after heavy rain, per the Porto Moniz council.
• The Fio viewpoint and the old cable installation that once sent firewood down to Chão da Ribeira, described by the Porto Moniz council.
• A leisure area with a public barbecue and picnic tables, listed by Visit Madeira.
• The camping zone, where overnight stays need an IFCN licence bought through SIMplifica.

If this taste of the laurel forest makes you want more, our levada walks and hikes hubs rank the routes worth a day.

None of these change your ticket, but each one changes how you plan the visit.

• The whole site sits at 1135 m above sea level, which is why fog and a fast temperature drop come with the territory (IFCN campsite sheet).
• The Til trees predate the discovery of the Madeira archipelago, so you are walking among trees older than the island's recorded history (Visit Madeira).
• The PR13 datasheet maps a section that was burned by a 2012 forest fire, still visible as you cross it (Porto Moniz council).
• The steel cable at the Fio viewpoint once carried firewood down the valley to Chão da Ribeira, a working relic of the old forest economy (Porto Moniz council).
• PR28 Levada da Rocha Vermelha, which also starts at Fanal, is listed as closed on the IFCN register, so do not plan a hike from Fanal on that route (IFCN register).

Our sums are rough by nature, because no official source publishes how long a visit to the open meadow takes. Use them as planning anchors, not promises.

Our pick for a first visit is the short stop with a flexible schedule. The fog arrives and leaves on its own clock, and a self-drive visitor can simply wait it out over a picnic. That is a freedom no guided day can give you.

The natural shape of the day is simple. Drive up in the morning, spend one to two hours among the trees, then head to the coast for lunch and a swim. Seixal's free black sand beach and the Porto Moniz pools, open until 19:00 in summer, both belong to the same municipality and make the afternoon. If you would rather walk, start PR14 from Fanal in the morning with a car waiting at Curral Falso or Ribeira da Janela, and give the council's 2h30min-3h window plus time for the pickup.

Without a car, the same shape exists as a guided day. The West Madeira Waterfalls and Fanal Forest tour runs 8 hours as listed by the operator and builds in an optional 30 minute walk at Fanal. The Skywalk, Porto Moniz, Seixal and Fanal 4WD tour adds Seixal, Porto Moniz and Ponta do Sol with a lunch break. Both are honest ways to see the trees when you cannot or do not want to drive the ER209 yourself.