The highlands are the region that explains the rest of the island. This is where the clouds get stuck, where the water falls that the levadas carry downhill, and where Pico Ruivo stands at 1,862 metres as the highest point on Madeira.<\/p>\n
Pico do Arieiro at 1,818 metres is the only summit of that order you can drive up to \u2014 50 minutes from Funchal, car park at summit level. From there the PR1 trail leads to Pico Ruivo: about 7 kilometres one way, several tunnels in which a head torch is a prerequisite rather than an accessory, and roughly 1,350 metres of ascent and descent for the round trip.<\/p>\n
Paul da Serra in the west is a different thing altogether: a plateau at around 1,400 metres, flat, treeless, with wind turbines and free-roaming cattle. From its rim you descend to Raba\u00e7al and the trail network of the 25 Fontes and the Levada do Risco.<\/p>\n
Temperature: count on 10 to 15 degrees less than on the coast. With 22 degrees in Funchal, 8 degrees plus wind on Arieiro is a realistic combination.<\/p>\n
Access: the mountain roads close in storms, ice or high wildfire risk. Check the road status before you leave, not at the barrier.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pico do Arieiro, Pico Ruivo, Paul da Serra, Raba\u00e7al: the roof of Madeira at 1,862 metres \u2014 50 minutes and 10 to 15 degrees from Funchal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":75,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[22,19,25],"class_list":["post-21","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hiking-levadas","tag-calheta","tag-camara-de-lobos","tag-santana"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonmadeira.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonmadeira.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonmadeira.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonmadeira.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonmadeira.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonmadeira.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonmadeira.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonmadeira.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonmadeira.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}