Pico do Arieiro
5,965 feet, reachable by car, and often above the clouds.
Duration
1 hr – 6 hrs
Difficulty
●●●○○
Best time
At sunrise
Open
Every day
Entry price
Free
Pico do Arieiro is Madeira's third summit at one thousand eight hundred and eighteen metres, and the only one reachable by car: a road climbs to the summit car park.
At that height you are generally above the cloud layer covering the island — the mar de nubes, the sea of clouds, out of which the other summits rise. The trail to Pico Ruivo, the highest point, starts here: seven kilometres of ridge with tunnels and steps cut into the rock, one of the finest walks in Europe and one of the most exposed.
Getting there
Thirty minutes' drive from Funchal on the ER202. The summit car park is small and full well before sunrise.
What to bring
- Walking shoes
- Wetsuit
- Headlamp
- Windbreaker
Rules on site
It is ten to fifteen degrees colder than Funchal and the wind is bitter at first light: a proper jacket. The Pico Ruivo trail is exposed, partly closed by landslides, and needs a head torch for the tunnels.
