What is Madeira Wander?
Madeira Wander is an independent travel guide to Madeira and Porto Santo: hikes and levadas, regions, viewpoints, beaches, food, activities and practical planning. We are not part of the regional government, the tourism board or any tour operator, and no one pays to be included or to be ranked.
How are the pages made?
Every page follows the same process:
- Research from official and reputable sources. We start from the official source wherever one exists — the Instituto das Florestas e Conservação da Natureza (IFCN) for trail sheets and trail status, SIMplifica for bookings and fees, Visit Madeira, municipal websites, operators' own websites — and use reference works such as Wikipedia for history and geography. The sources used are listed at the bottom of each page.
- Drafting with the help of AI tools. Pages are drafted with the help of AI writing and translation tools, working from those sources.
- Checking every fact. Each number, date, distance, fee and rule is checked against the listed sources before publication. If we cannot verify a value, we leave it out rather than guess. When sources disagree, we use the official one.
- A visible date. Each page shows the date its facts were last checked ("facts checked on"). Things change after that date, so treat it as a snapshot.
All six language versions — English, Portuguese (European), Spanish, French, Italian and German — carry the same facts.
Have we walked these trails ourselves?
Do not assume so. Our pages are researched, not first-hand trip reports, and we do not claim to have personally walked a trail or visited a place unless a page says so explicitly. That is why we cite sources rather than personal impressions, and why we point you to the official status pages.
Why should you check trail status before you go?
Trail conditions in Madeira change daily: rockfalls, storms, fire damage and maintenance can close or restrict a route at short notice. Classified PR trails also require a paid time-slot booking. Before every walk, confirm the current status on the IFCN website and your booking on SIMplifica — ideally the evening before and again in the morning. See trail booking and fees for how it works. A page on this site is never a substitute for the official status.
Where do the photos come from?
Photos come from Wikimedia Commons and are used under free licences (public domain, CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA). Each page credits the photographer, names the licence and links to the original file. Where no suitable free photo exists, we publish the page without one rather than use an image we have no right to.
Do we use affiliate links?
Some links — for example to accommodation or activity bookings — may be affiliate links, which means we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Affiliate links are marked as such. They do not change what we recommend: places and activities are chosen on editorial grounds, before any commercial link is considered.
How can you report a correction?
Corrections are welcome via the site. If you spot a fact that is wrong or out of date — a closed trail, a changed fee, new opening hours — tell us the page, what is wrong and, if possible, the source that shows the correct information. We check the report against the official source, update the page and its "facts checked on" date when we confirm the change.