Levada walks on Madeira, and the permit regime that arrived in 2026

What the rule actually is

Since 1 January 2026 every Classified Walking Route managed by IFCN requires both a paid fee and a pre-booked entry timeslot, reserved exclusively online through the SIMplifica portal. The legal basis is Portaria n.º 801/2025, de 10 de dezembro, as amended by Portaria n.º 48/2026, de 13 de fevereiro.

Booking is compulsory even for people who pay nothing. A resident of the region, a child of twelve or under and a visitor with a qualifying disability all walk free, and all three still have to appear on a reservation.

Where you cannot book

IFCN states directly that no bookings and no fee payments are taken at IFCN premises or at any other physical location. There is no gate, no kiosk and no cash. Each day is divided into entry timeslots, roughly fifteen minutes of tolerance either side of the booked slot is normally allowed, and slots lock automatically once carrying capacity is reached.

What it costs

A single classified trail is €4.50*, source: IFCN, 2026, read August 26, 2026 for visitors over twelve. PR1 is priced separately: the full Pico do Areeiro to Pico Ruivo route is €10.50*, source: IFCN, 2026, read August 26, 2026, and the short out-and-back from Pico do Areeiro to the Miradouro da Pedra Rija is €4.50*, source: IFCN, 2026, read August 26, 2026.

The PR1 full ticket also covers PR1.1 Vereda da Ilha and PR1.2 Vereda do Pico Ruivo with no extra fee, and PR1.3 Vereda da Encumeada — but IFCN attaches a condition to that third one that the ticket page states and this page used not to: PR1.3 is covered when it reopens.

That condition is the whole point of the sentence, because PR1.3 is how a walker would leave Pico Ruivo at the Encumeada end. IFCN’s trail register lists PR1.3 as open except between Boca das Torrinhas and Encumeada, where it states the closure will be maintained — and the Encumeada end is the half that makes it an exit. Today the usable exits from Pico Ruivo are PR1.1 Vereda da Ilha and PR1.2 Vereda do Pico Ruivo. Anyone planning to descend to Encumeada is planning to walk out of a route that does not currently reach the road, past the point where turning back stops being cheap.

The combined rates

Two or more trails in one day are €9.00*, source: IFCN, 2026, read August 26, 2026. Across three days it is €22.50*, source: IFCN, 2026, read August 26, 2026, and across seven days €52.50*, source: IFCN, 2026, read August 26, 2026. All three exclude PR1.

These are not freedom passes. Every individual trail still has to be separately reserved for a specific date and slot, subject to availability, and there is no standalone way to buy the multi-day rate: SIMplifica applies whichever rate is cheapest at checkout. Tour operators holding a valid protocol with IFCN pay different rates set out in the same Portaria. Operators without a protocol pay what everybody else pays.

Who does not pay

Three exemptions are published. Residents of the Autonomous Region of Madeira, on proof by resident card plus citizen card. Children aged twelve or under, resident or not. And people with a disability of 60%*, source: IFCN, 2026, read August 26, 2026 or more, plus one accompanying legal guardian each, on production of proof.

In all three cases the registration and the reservation are still required. The exemption removes the payment, not the booking.

The refund rule, which is stricter than people expect

Rescheduling and refunds are possible only when the trail was officially closed or restricted by IFCN or another competent authority on the booked date. Cancelling for personal reasons, bad weather, illness, a missed flight or a booking mistake means the fee is forfeited.

Requests must be made within ten working days of the reservation date, and refunds are paid only by bank transfer.

This is the single most consequential line in the whole regime, and it is why the rainfall figures matter more here than on any other island. The north coast records roughly 1.97 times*, source: IPMA, The Funchal half of the ratio; the Santana half is summed from the monthly Boletins, read August 28, 2026 Funchal’s rain across January to July. A booking made for a north-coast trail on the strength of a Funchal forecast is a booking made on the wrong information, and it is not refundable.

Not every path is inside the regime

The fee applies only to Classified Walking Routes managed by IFCN. Not every path on Madeira is a Classified Walking Route, and some classified routes are managed by somebody else.

Per IFCN’s own register, PR3 Vereda do Burro, PR3.1 Caminho Real do Monte and PR4 Levada do Barreiro are managed by Câmara Municipal do Funchal, and PR23 Levada da Azenha by the Junta de Freguesia do Caniço. Those four sit outside the IFCN fee-and-booking regime.

What is closed right now

Read at the IFCN register on 26 August 2026, from a page stamped 24 July 2026, 5*, source: IFCN, read August 26, 2026 classified routes were closed outright: PR7 Levada do Moinho, PR20 Vereda do Jardim do Mar, PR27 Glaciar de Planalto, PR28 Levada da Rocha Vermelha, and PS PR3 Levada do Pico Castelo on Porto Santo.

A further five were partly open. The east branch of PR1 via Pico das Torres is closed and the west branch through the tunnels is carrying everything. PR1.3 Vereda da Encumeada is open except between Boca das Torrinhas and Encumeada. PR4 Levada do Barreiro is partially passable. PR12 Caminho Real da Encumeada is passable only from Boca da Corrida to a point a few kilometres in. PR17 is passable between Encumeada, Folhadal, Caramujo and Bica da Cana.

There is no crossing of the island

IFCN states that there is currently no east to west crossing of Madeira, from the Central Mountain Massif to Paúl da Serra, available on Classified Walking Routes. Anyone planning a traverse is planning something that does not presently exist.

Statuses change frequently. The register is the only place they are published, and it is worth re-reading immediately before travelling rather than trusting this page.

Where the official documentation contradicts itself

Two live conflicts are worth knowing about, because both appear on IFCN’s own site.

The fee FAQ, stamped 2 June 2026, describes PR1.3 Vereda da Encumeada as closed. The trail register, stamped 24 July 2026, lists it as open except for one section. The more recent page is used here.

Separately, question 5.14 of the fee FAQ refers to a route it calls PR3 Vereda da Encumeada. IFCN’s own register lists PR3 as Vereda do Burro and PR1.3 as Vereda da Encumeada. That looks like an error on IFCN’s page, and it is recorded here rather than carried forward as fact.

The one-way trails, and the transport nobody arranges

PR1 is one way beyond Miradouro da Pedra Rija. Past that point there is no turning back: the walk ends at Pico Ruivo, and the exits are PR1.2 to Achada do Teixeira or PR1.1 down to Ilha, both on the far side of the mountain from the car park at Pico do Areeiro.

IFCN explicitly provides no return transport. That has to be arranged before setting out. Several other classified routes are also point to point rather than circular: PR10 Levada do Furado finishes at Portela, PR13 and PR14 finish at different places on ER 209, and PR2 crosses the island’s spine entirely.

Full detail for each, with the length, the published walking time and the specific reason each one might disappoint, is in the individual entries under things to do. The order that makes the logistics work is set out in the ten-day route.