{"id":19983,"date":"2025-09-03T15:10:33","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T15:10:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thetjoy.com\/?post_type=trip&p=19983"},"modified":"2026-05-11T11:34:25","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T11:34:25","slug":"madeira-island","status":"publish","type":"trip","link":"https:\/\/thetjoy.com\/es\/trip\/madeira-island\/","title":{"rendered":"Isla de Madeira"},"content":{"rendered":"

Madeira is an archipelago part of Portugal, in the northeastern part of the Atlantic Ocean, 520 km west of Morocco and 800 km southwest of Portugal.
\nThe archipelago includes two inhabited islands, Madeira and Porto Santo Islands<\/strong><\/a>, and the Desertas Islands which are declared Nature reserve and requires a license to visit them.
\nThe Madeira Island was claimed by Portugal in 1419 and few years later it was inhabited by Portugues settlers. The Island is the top end of a 6 km high Volcano rising from the ocean floor, 55X22 km in size, with Funchal <\/strong><\/a>its capital having half of its population. The rest of the island is populated with small towns and villages scattered along the island’s 150 km coastline. In the island\u2019s inner land, mountain ranges, valleys and canyons, water streams and waterfalls, all partially covered with magnificent prehistoric forests, the Laurissilva Forest<\/strong><\/a>. Most of the island\u2019s 150 km coastline is bordered by high basalt cliffs, where the mountain slopes fall into the ocean, hence, surprisingly, the island has only a total of 1 km long small beaches<\/strong><\/a> covered with black pebbles or sand.<\/p>\n

The island\u2019s divers\u2019 landscapes offer numerous outdoor activities<\/strong> opportunities to experience and enjoy the beautiful nature, either hiking, running or biking its trails, rock climbing, canyoning, paragliding, bird watching, and more.<\/p>\n

Madeira has a beautiful network of dozens of Trails of all levels and length, from the coastal trails through to subtropical forests trails, to viewpoints and mountains\u2019 tops.\u00a0 Unique in Madeira are the \u2018Levadas<\/strong><\/a>\u2019, a network of trails that run parallel to water collection open air channels that leads water for irrigation from the northern mountains to the lower southern grounds.
\nVisiting Madeira\u2019s capital Funchal<\/strong> TheTjoy.com recommends enjoying its attractions and consider making it your home base for traveling the island. Stroll the town\u2019s European like avenues and the old city narrow streets and admire its magnificent offerings:<\/p>\n