Why the East Tour Delivers Some of the Island's Biggest Views

Ponta de São Lourenço is the easternmost point of Madeira, a narrow volcanic peninsula that juts into the Atlantic with the sea on both sides and nothing between you and the horizon. Reaching it requires a winding drive through the island's drier eastern terrain, and the contrast with the lush green interior is sharp. The east has its own character, and the tour is built around it.

The route climbs through Camacha, a hillside town known for its wicker craft, before the road opens into longer views. The highland section above Santa Cruz offers a perspective on Madeira's scale that most visitors miss by staying on the coastal ring road. From up here you can see the south coast, the cruise ships at Funchal harbour, and on clear days the outline of Porto Santo in the distance.

Santana is the midpoint with the most iconic imagery. The A-shaped thatched houses (palheiros) are the traditional rural architecture of northern Madeira, and the ones at Santana are the best-preserved on the island. They're not a reconstructed tourist set; some are still in use. Your guide stops long enough to walk among them and explain what the structure is actually for: the steep pitch sheds the heavy rain that hits the north coast.

Ribeiro Frio, high in the laurel forest, is where the route passes through the oldest surviving ecosystem in Europe. The laurisilva, Madeira's ancient laurel forest, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that predates the last Ice Age. The gnarled trees draped in moss, the sound of water in the levada channels, and the complete absence of traffic make for a stop that genuinely slows people down.

The Faial viewpoint, set above a deep valley on the north coast, is where the scale of Madeira's terrain becomes undeniable. The cliff formations below drop hundreds of metres to the sea, and the village of Faial sits below looking impossibly small. The viewpoint rewards the afternoon light, when the sun comes from the west and catches the cliff faces directly.

The end of the route follows the south coast road back through Porto da Cruz and Machico, the island's original settlement, where the first Portuguese explorers landed in 1419. The bay is sheltered and the drive back to Funchal runs along a stretch of coast that earns a slower pace. The east tour covers dry volcanic peninsula, laurel forest, traditional village architecture, and Atlantic cliff faces all in a single day.