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Madeira Adventure: Cable Car, Sea Pools, and Fanal Forest
5.0
22 Ratings
Funchal
Experience a thrilling cable car descent, explore natural sea pools, black sand beaches, and a fairytale forest in Madeira’s Westside.
Experience a thrilling cable car descent, explore natural sea pools, black sand beaches, and a fairytale forest in Madeira’s Westside.
Duration:
9 hours
Cancellation:
24 hours
Highlights
-
Teleférico das Achadas da Cruz - Prepare for an exhilarating experience as the journey begins with a 600m descent on Europe’s steepest cable car, featuring a 98% gradient.
Cable Car Ride subject to weather or maintenance conditions - Porto Moniz - In Porto Moniz, natural sea pools nestled among black volcanic rocks await exploration.
- **Posto…
- Teleférico das Achadas da Cruz - Prepare for an exhilarating experience as the journey begins with a 600m descent on Europe’s steepest cable car, featuring a 98% gradient.
Cable Car Ride subject to weather or maintenance conditions
- Porto Moniz - In Porto Moniz, natural sea pools nestled among black volcanic rocks await exploration.
- Posto Florestal Fanal - The final stop leads to Fanal, known as Madeira’s “magic forest.”
- Ilheus da Ribeira da Janela - The main attraction here is the striking rock formation emerging from the sea, with an opening resembling a window.
- Praia do Porto do Seixal - Keep cameras ready, as the scenery of beach, sea, and waterfalls is truly spectacular!
What's Included
- Insurance by local law
- Cable Car Entrance fee Achadas da Cruz
- One coffee (bica or garoto)
- In-vehicle air conditioning
- One local drink (Poncha, beer or soft drink like a Brisa Maracujá)
- One small bottle of water (on the ride in the van)
- Local Driver/Guide
- Insurance by local law
- Cable Car Entrance fee Achadas da Cruz
- One coffee (bica or garoto)
- In-vehicle air conditioning
- One local drink (Poncha, beer or soft drink like a Brisa Maracujá)
- One small bottle of water (on the ride in the van)
- Local Driver/Guide
What's Not Included
- Lunch
- Entrance fees
- Lunch
- Entrance fees
Additional Information
Begin your adventure with an exhilarating 98% gradient cable car ride down to Achadas da Cruz**. Afterwards, enjoy the invigorating natural sea pools at Porto Moniz. Following this, venture into the magical forest of Fanal Park, a fairytale setting with misty trees and unexpected visits from local cows. Explore the scenic Ribeira da Janela, known for…
Begin your adventure with an exhilarating 98% gradient cable car ride down to Achadas da Cruz**. Afterwards, enjoy the invigorating natural sea pools at Porto Moniz. Following this, venture into the magical forest of Fanal Park, a fairytale setting with misty trees and unexpected visits from local cows. Explore the scenic Ribeira da Janela, known for its breathtaking sea rock, and uncover the beauty of Seixal’s renowned black sand beach.
**Cable Car Ride is subject to weather conditions or maintenance
- The remaining hours are allotted for the transportation.
- The Pickup time might vary depending on your pickup location. We will contact you to inform you before your tour starts.
- The cable car can be closed due to weather conditions or maintenance that could be carried out.
- Times are approximate and may vary depending on traffic and/or weather conditions.
- There could be a waiting time during the cable car activity at Achadas da Cruz, we have no control on it. Some stops might get shorten time to arrive on time to the cable car before its closure.
- Minimum Age to Participate is 12 years old
Location
Hotel Porto Mare
Rua Simplício dos Passos Gouveia
Cancellation Policy
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
Customer Ratings
5.0
(22 Ratings)
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Kara_m
Aug 18, 2025
Absolutely amazing tour... - Absolutely amazing tour of the beautiful west of Madeira island. Richard was a fantastic and attentive guide with a rich knowledge of madeira and the local history. We managed to see everything we hoped for in the west, but the day felt relaxed and there was plenty of time for breaks and opportunities to enjoy the surroundings. Richard is an absolute gentleman and even dropped us back to our accommodation after our day. The whole journey with Richard felt like travelling with a friend and the small tour group allows for camaraderie with the other passengers. I cannot recommend this tour enough to anybody staying in funchal as it would be extremely difficult to see this much in one day without the experience and expertise of Richard & Katrin.
Review provided by Viator
Katarina_l
Jul 29, 2025
Beautiful tour - Fabulous guide - Great and amazing places visited and learn a lot about the island. I would book it again and again.
Review provided by Viator
Wayne_t
Jul 2, 2025
This tour should not be missed. - This tour should not be missed and has earned our highest recommendation. Richard is an excellent, attentive guide with great historical and cultural knowledge of Madeira. My wife and I enjoyed some of the most unique and picturesque locations on the island with enough time to explore, take pictures, and sample local food and drink. The itinerary includes Fanal’s mystical forest, which was one of the locations used in Star Wars: The Acolyte - a must-see for any photographer. We thoroughly enjoyed the day. You will not be disappointed.
Review provided by Viator
Noah_a
Apr 8, 2025
Great guide, great scenery, and great experiences - Richard was truly amazing, couldn’t ask for a better guide of Madeira. He has extensive knowledge of the history and the locations he takes you, somehow he’d bring us somewhere before it got busy and each place we’d leave and see the crowds forming. Can’t recommend this enough if you’re in Funchal.
Review provided by Viator
Heather_c
Mar 25, 2025
A wonderful tour of the west side of Madeira Island - Definitely go on this tour! Richard was an amazing guide and he knew loads of beautiful spaces to take us too. The walk in Fanal forest in the mist was such a highlight, like nowhere I’ve ever been before. We were also dropped off in Porto Moniz to get lunch and see the natural pools. It was a very relaxing tour and never felt rushed and Richard adapted to the needs of the guests with drop offs etc. We loved this experience!
Review provided by Viator
Mireillet352
Mar 8, 2025
One of our most beautiful trip thanks to Heartbeat Madeira ! - Based on the first spots we had selected, Richard and Katrin built a tailor-made itinerary for us. Both were incredibly kind, extremely attentive, generous, funny.
Everything was top : choice of routes, return airport pick-up, zero waste picnic (with homemade cakes by Katrin), electric vehicle, and little surprises punctuated our stay.
We learned a lot about the island and discovered lots of details (history, nature, etc.) to which we would not have had access without Richard and Katrin's explanations.
We felt like we were traveling the island with friends 🙂
A travel that we will not forget! And the opportunity to work with a local and experienced team! Katrin and Richard made our heart beat for Madeira
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Jcomments
Jan 14, 2025
Excellent tour! Highly recommend. - Richard (and Heartbeat Madeira) were excellent - why?
1. Comprehensive - Went to everything on the schedule (I read some reviews and they didn't get to everything and I particularly wanted to go to Fanal. The tour went on a bit longer because of this but I wouldn't have been happy if we missed Fanal which was at the end of the day.
2. Awareness of "the comforts". Provided water in the car, two breaks for local drinks, and pointed out good toilet facilities to use. Note for those who don't drink alcohol - there is a local drink Nikita which is outstanding imho - like a milkshake with pineapple and passion fruit. Richard also pointed out good places for lunch in Porto Moniz.
3. Only 8 people! Some tours take a lot more. We had four couples and we are keeping in touch with one of them.
4. Extremely knowledgeable with a great command of the English language. We learned a lot about the island and my husband also asked about politics, etc. Richard was able to answer everything!
5. Great communication - you will get a thorough email explaining everything.
6. Kindness - Richard dropped people off at the end of the tour at their accommodations. He goes out of his way for people to have a great experience. He translated what was said in English to Spanish as one couple was Spanish.
We enjoyed this tour so much, we booked a private tour for another day to see some of the places we wanted to. That was fantastic as well - so ask if you have particular items you want to see (a bit more expensive but if you have limited time like we did you might consider it...).
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Shaneh2103
Nov 23, 2024
Amazing small group tours of Madeira! - I had absolutely incredible 2.5 days with Richard and Katrin’s Heartbeat Madeira. I did three different tours: the west, the east, and the south. All three tours were nothing, but excellent!
Unlike other companies, Richard’s tour has a max of 8 people per tour in a comfortable van vs. jam packed jeeps. I got lucky and had one day of just myself and other two days with another person. I got personalized attention throughout the trips.
As a Madeira native, Richard showed thorough understanding of the island and every location we visited. He knew backgrounds and history of every place. I highly recommend Hearbeat Madeira to anyone who wants to have small group tours of the island!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Louise_t
Nov 15, 2024
Great day Fabulous tour guide - What a great day we had. Richard from Happy Tours was truly exceptional! When faced with unfavorable weather, he chose new routes. Even though this was our sixth visit and we had seen a lot already, Richard revealed some fascinating new spots we hadn’t encountered before. He is not only knowledgeable but also a wonderfully friendly and charming person. Will definitely be booking again next year, so see you November 2025 Richard and thanks again for a great day.
Review provided by Viator
Karin
Sep 29, 2024
Best decision - Simply indescribably warm, very informative and unique. Whether it's a poncha course at a local, dinner at a paradise spot , Westside tour , São Lorenço... there are no better guides than Katrin and Richard to explore this beautiful island. The additional extras like homemade picnic, a typical pastry in between or a bica or poncha .. we have not had that yet with any other provider .. we have seen a lot and yet there was time for self-exploration in between or a refreshing dip in the sea or natural pool.
Your concept is great.. keep it up 👍🏼😎🫶🏼
Review provided by Tripadvisor
