We used to just go: how mass tourism changed hiking in Madeira for locals

We used to just go.

That's the sentence I hear most from friends when we talk about the mountains. You'd look out the window on a Saturday, see the clouds sitting low over Funchal, and know that up at Pico do Arieiro you'd be above them. Twenty minutes later you were in the car. No plan, no booking, no queue. We'd sit on the wall at Balcões with a bolo do caco (our garlic-butter flatbread), stop at Cabo Girão on the way home just because the light was nice, or drive out to Achadas da Cruz on a whim.

Some of that is still possible. A lot of it isn't, and this post is about what changed.

The short answer: visitor numbers have grown fast, so Madeira's official trails now need a booked time slot, even for locals who don't pay, and the busiest viewpoints and trailheads regularly run out of parking. For residents, the biggest loss is spontaneity.

The numbers behind the feeling

It isn't just nostalgia. According to the regional statistics office, Madeira's tourist accommodation welcomed about 2.5 million guests in 2025, up 8.9% on the year before, with almost 13 million overnight stays. For comparison, the same report says international tourist arrivals in Europe as a whole grew 5.0%. For an island our size, that's a lot of people heading for the same handful of views.

On the trails, the regional government counted about 60,000 trail uses between 1 and 22 January 2026 alone. Residents were only around 1.4% of them, and most people arrived between 9 and 11 in the morning.

Booking a walk in our own backyard

We wrote about the fees and the booking system in our earlier post Loving Madeira's trails without loving them to death. For locals, the key detail is that we don't pay, but we still have to register. The IFCN FAQ says registration on SIMplifica, the regional government's online services portal, is mandatory "for all users, including those who benefit from an exemption".

When the full PR 1 reopened this year, slots filled so quickly that IFCN had to reassure residents that their quota wasn't sold out. Madeirans can still get in by showing their Cartão de Cidadão (Portuguese ID card) and SIMplifica card at the trail, or by registering in advance. It's good that a resident quota exists. But the fact that it needed a press notice says a lot.

The Regional Secretary for Tourism, Eduardo Jesus, called it, in Times of Madeira, "a change of habit here in Madeira, not only for residents". He's right. Spontaneity is the habit we lost.

The parking problem

If you ask any local what's really changed, they won't start with the trails. They'll start with the car parks.

In 2025 the PSP (the public security police) told RTP Madeira they were focusing patrols on Pico do Areeiro, Ribeiro Frio and Cais do Sardinha, near the end of the São Lourenço walk (PR 8), plus Monte and Cabo Girão, because of irregular parking and blocked traffic. In May 2025, guides and drivers quoted by Madeira Island Direct described the scenes at São Lourenço and Cabo Girão as "unsustainable", with rental cars on verges and pavements and buses, including public ones, stuck for long stretches. In March 2026 JM Madeira reported that the coach bays at Cabo Girão were once again taken by cars, mostly rentals, pushing coaches onto the roadside.

Up at Pico do Arieiro, the top car park holds about 70 cars, according to the Extra Madeira guide, and in my experience it fills before sunrise on busy mornings. The government has said, according to Madeira Island News, that a new parking and access model for the main sites is coming, and admitted that the main problem is "traffic and not the number of people." As of October 2026 I haven't been able to confirm it has started.

The places we used to have to ourselves

Fanal was our misty secret: the old til trees, cows in the fog, a flask of tea. It now has a planned cap of about 3,000 visitors a day and a single official route after warnings about erosion (our PR 13 Vereda do Fanal page covers the walk in). At 25 Fontes (PR 6), a reader sent the local site Funchal Notícias photos of crowds, litter and damaged plants (as Madeira Island Direct reported), along with "chaotic" parking at Paul da Serra and Achada do Teixeira, the start of the Pico Ruivo path (PR 1.2).

This isn't only about the mountains. In 2025, an opposition councillor in Funchal said the city is "suffocated by unregulated tourism" (quoted by Times of Madeira), pointing to traffic, parking and housing. As far as I've seen, we haven't had the street protests seen in other places. What we have is a lot of quiet frustration and a growing number of complaints.

We want to be clear: most of us don't want fewer visitors. Tourism pays a lot of our salaries, and we love sharing this island. We just want to keep a little of the spontaneity.

How to be a good guest

• Go early or late. The 9 to 11 rush is real. A 7 a.m. or mid-afternoon slot is quieter, and the light is better.
• Leave the rental at the hotel when you can. The PSP itself asks visitors to avoid peak times and use public transport. The Extra Madeira guide lists a public bus up to Pico do Arieiro from Funchal, and a guided tour or a shared car means one less car on a verge.
• Never park in coach bays or on verges. If the car park is full, come back later or try somewhere else.
• Pick a quieter alternative. For every Cabo Girão there are a dozen viewpoints you'll have to yourself, and our trail pages list plenty of less famous routes, like Balcões (PR 11) early in the morning.
• Leave Fanal the way you found it. Stick to the route and the photo stops, and take your rubbish home.
• Say bom dia (good morning). You'll be sharing the path with someone whose grandmother walked it to school.

FAQ

Do Madeira residents need to book trails? Yes. Residents don't pay, but must register a slot on SIMplifica like everyone else (IFCN FAQ).

Where is parking worst? Police and local press have singled out Pico do Areeiro, Ribeiro Frio, Cais do Sardinha (São Lourenço), Monte and Cabo Girão.

When are the trails busiest? Between 9 and 11 a.m., according to the regional government's January 2026 figures.

See you up there. Maybe a bit earlier than everyone else.