Fanal: the walk and the forest stop

No public timetable read on 7 October 2026 puts a bus at Fanal.

The SIGA index does not name Fanal, Seixal or Ribeira da Janela. The only Paul on that index is Calheta to Paul do Mar, a coastal village, not this plateau.

The Câmara Municipal de Porto Moniz transport page names Rodoeste lines 80 (Porto Moniz) and 139 (Santa, via São Vicente). Those are the buses to the town. The page does not name Fanal.

Rodoeste’s locality sheets for Seixal, Ribeira da Janela and Porto Moniz, linked from the timetable page on 7 October 2026, do not contain the word Fanal. They name coastal lines 6, 80, 139 and 150. The file dates on those PDFs are 17 August 2022. No clocks are copied from them. A bus to the coastal village is not a bus to the forest.

Horários do Funchal’s career list does not name Fanal.

On 9 September 2025 Diário de Notícias reported Quercus Madeira: the two car parks fill, and hire cars and off-road vehicles then line the verges. The same report described people walking the reserve with no defined path, perched on the til trees, with bare compacted soil and roots left exposed. It does not quote a fine. The IFCN pages read on 7 October 2026 do not list a parking charge.

Park in a marked car park. The verge is the overflow that report describes.

On 14 November 2025 the same paper reported the regional secretary, Eduardo Jesus, saying a defined circuit, limited-access areas, daily capacity management and points for looking and for photographs were being put in at Fanal. On 29 August 2026 it reported ADN-Madeira saying visits had passed a stated maximum of 3,000 a day, and asking IFCN to publish the numbers. Those are reports. Visit Madeira’s Fanal place pages do not publish a ticket, a gate or opening hours for the drive up to the trees. An IFCN page that sells a ticket for that stop was not found on 7 October 2026.

A taxi uses the regional meter. The second amendment to Convenção n.º 1/2019, in force on 6 February 2026, sets the flag at €4.00 by day and €4.80 at night for a 4-seat car. The flag covers the first kilometre. After that it is €0.10 every 65 m by day, or every 52 m from 21:00 to 06:00 and all day on Saturday, Sunday and holidays. That document does not publish a fixed price to Fanal. Waiting, luggage (€1.50) and an empty return are extra.

Visit Madeira places the forestry post in Porto Moniz, between Ribeira da Janela and Paúl da Serra, and also between the mountains of Seixal and Ribeira da Janela. The Laurissilva has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since December 1999. The same pages put this ground in the Natura 2000 network. The Madeira Natural Park classes the crater as a Rest and Quiet Reserve. The trees are til, Ocotea foetens, and some are older than the settlement of the island. There is a small volcanic crater, viewpoints, a leisure area with a public barbecue, and a lake in the crater in winter.

PR13 ends here. PR14 Levada dos Cedros starts here. On the IFCN list updated 2 October 2026, PR 28 Levada da Rocha Vermelha, from Fanal to Lombo da Atouguia, is closed.

The IFCN conduct list on the classified-trails page, updated 8 August 2025, says: stay on the trail; do not collect or damage plants; do not leave litter, bring it back; do not make fires, there are proper places for that; do not drop cigarette ends; do not feed wildlife; do not damage the signs; keep the noise down; respect other people.

Visit Madeira lists a public barbecue at the leisure area. The conduct list does not name that barbecue, so it is not cited here as the permitted fire place.

That conduct list does not say “do not climb the trees” in those words. The 9 September 2025 report described people perched on the tils. A drone is not banned in a Fanal-only sentence. SIMplifica’s unmanned-aircraft service says flying over a protected-area plan or a Natura 2000 site is conditioned by IFCN, and the request is listed at no cost. The service page does not name Fanal. Visit Madeira puts Fanal in Natura 2000.

Visit Madeira calls the til wood a mystical landscape. It does not publish a best hour or a fog clock.

The same IFCN safety block says wear suitable clothes and shoes, and do not start in heavy rain, strong wind, hail or snow. Check the official status of the trail and the weather first. The fee FAQ, updated 2 June 2026, says a weather warning does not by itself close every classified trail.

This site’s Fanal fog check uses other cameras and a weather estimate. It is not a picture of the trees, and it is not an IFCN closure.

The IFCN list, updated 2 October 2026, marks PR 13 Vereda do Fanal as open: 10.8 km, Paúl da Serra to Fanal, managed by IFCN. The fee system on that page has been in force since 1 January 2026.

Visit Madeira calls the difficulty moderate and gives 4 hours, from Assobiadores on the ER 209 at 1,420 m to Fanal on the same road at 1,130 m. The page read on 7 October 2026 said open, and said to pay on SIMplifica. It did not print the euro amount.

The IFCN fee FAQ, updated 2 June 2026, sets an individual classified trail other than PR1 at €4.50 in 2026 for a visitor without a protocol. That is the figure for PR13. Residents of the Region do not pay if they show the resident card and the citizen card. Children aged 12 or under do not pay. A person with an incapacity of 60% or more, plus one accompanying legal tutor, does not pay. The FAQ says they still book. Booking is only on SIMplifica, not at an IFCN office.

PR14, which starts at Fanal, prints €4.50 for a visitor over 12, with the exemption for 12 and under. Visit Madeira gives 7.2 km, moderate, 3 hours, from the ER 209 at Fanal to the ER 209 at Curral Falso. Two or more of these trails on the same day, not including PR1, are €9.00, and SIMplifica applies the cheaper of the two. Each trail is still its own booking. Rain is not a refund. A new date or a refund is only when IFCN closes or restricts the trail you booked.

Visit Madeira lists viewpoints, a leisure area with a public barbecue, and a lake in the crater in winter. Toilets, a café and drinking water are not listed on the Fanal pages read on 7 October 2026. The IFCN safety lines say carry some food and water.

Picture from NetMadeira. We display it. We do not operate their camera.

Picture from Madeira-Web Beaches Live. We display it. We do not operate their camera or the beach.

There is no Fanal camera on this site. The Rabaçal picture looks across the plateau. The Seixal picture looks at the north coast under it. Neither frames the trees.