The trail connecting Pico do Areeiro to Pico Ruivo will reopen in April 2026.
I believe the exact date for this will be Monday 27th April, after the Madira Island Ultra Trail weekend, and more rules and payments will be applied. Seems like Madeira is one huge money pot at the mo ent, but still the residents see nothing better.
On the sidelines of the 21st Annual GEA Portugal Convention at the Savoy Palace, the Regional Secretary for Tourism, Environment and Culture, Eduardo Jesus, revealed that the Regional Government is working on a new parking and access management model for the main tourist attractions in Madeira, a measure that will be announced “very soon”.
Regarding tourist pressure in natural areas, Eduardo Jesus acknowledged that managing the territory increasingly requires “dynamic management” due to the growing number of visitors. He assured, however, that the carrying capacity of the trails has been studied and has not been exceeded, with the main problem being “traffic and not the number of people,” and that “there will be a significant difference compared to what we have today, regarding parking management and access to parking areas, a measure that I will announce shortly.”
In this regard, he stated that a set of measures are planned for 2025, which will be reinforced in 2026, and that recent interventions by the IFCN, such as the protection and reorganization action in Fanal, are being “well received by the professionals who work there.” He explained that this type of intervention “is never finished,” as it involves the creation of new protection zones and the gradual release of others that were previously isolated, in a continuous process of monitoring the territory.
The regional secretary also mentioned that a new way of using Fanal is being implemented, with a defined circuit, areas with limited access, daily management of carrying capacity, and specific points designated for observation and photography. “This is a very precise management of the territory, but one that seeks to balance the enjoyment of the space with its conservation and the maintenance of the natural heritage,” he stated.
As reported by DIÁRIO in its print edition of October 24th, the Minister also confirmed the reopening of the trail connecting Pico do Areeiro to Pico Ruivo, scheduled for April of next year. The work is already underway, following in-depth fieldwork by the Regional Civil Engineering Laboratory, and will be completed in time for the next edition of the Madeira Island Ultra Trail 2026 (MIUT), restoring “access to Madeira’s emblematic peaks that had been limited in the last edition of the trail”.
The governor was speaking on the sidelines of the convention and highlighted the importance of the meeting for the Region. He recalled that the event returns to Madeira exactly twenty years after it was first held there. “It is an important convention for Madeira, without a doubt. It is the largest national group of travel agencies and it returns to the place where it began,” he stated.
He added that the moment also serves to listen to travel agents, whom he considers “an integral part of the whole system,” recalling the growing contribution of the domestic market to the region’s tourism performance. Eduardo Jesus recalled the evolution of the domestic market, which went through years of decline between 2010 and 2012, but which, from 2015 onwards, reversed the trend and has been “growing consistently.”
“From 2015 onwards, this trend changed and it has been steadily increasing. According to the data from September, we have more than 1.7 million overnight stays in Madeira in nine months, compared to 700,000 overnight stays in 12 months in 2015,” concluded the minister.