Achada do Teixeira, 1,592 m

Visit Madeira’s PR 1.2 page, the IFCN fee FAQ and the Câmara Municipal de Santana tourism page do not state a price or a number of spaces for the car park at the trailhead. A space count is unconfirmed, and so is any claim that the car park is free.

Portaria n.º 801/2025 prices the car park at Miradouro do Pico do Areeiro. It does not name Achada do Teixeira, so that hourly rate is not this car park.

Lower on the same ER 218, the IFCN forest park at Pico das Pedras lists public parking. Toilets there are listed as paid. That park is not the start of PR 1.2. The park page was updated on 27 February 2025.

No public timetable read on 7 October 2026 puts a bus at Achada do Teixeira.

The SIGA Santana network names 801 Funchal / Santana (the old 56), 803 Santana / Achada do Cedro Gordo, and 804 to Arco de São Jorge and to Lombo Galego. Achada do Cedro Gordo is a different stop. The timetable tool on that page says it is still being built, so no clocks are copied here.

A search on the Horários do Funchal site for Achada do Teixeira returned no results. Their Pico do Areeiro bus stays on the Areeiro road. SIGA names the operators as Horários do Funchal, SIGA Rodoeste and CAM. Rodoeste’s site does not name this plateau. SAM’s site did not answer, so no SAM timetable is quoted.

The IFCN list, updated 2 October 2026, marks PR 1.2 Vereda do Pico Ruivo as open: 2.8 km, plus 2.8 km back, from Achada do Teixeira to Pico Ruivo.

Visit Madeira’s trail page calls the difficulty Médio and gives 1h30 for the round trip, 2.8 km out and 5.6 km there and back. The same site’s Pico Ruivo page says the PR 1.2 is a walk of about 45 minutes and does not say whether that is one way. Use the trail card for the time, and read both pages again if they still disagree.

Visit Madeira says you pay through SIMplifica to visit this area. 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 PR 1.2 on its own. Residents of the Region do not pay, children aged 12 or under do not pay, and 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 the trailhead.

The trail page names the rock Homem em pé at the start, and shelters along the walk for sudden weather. It also prints an altitude of 1,857 m / 1,852 m, which does not match the 1,862 m summit in the same text. That altitude line is left out.

PR1 Vereda do Areeiro is the crossing from Pico do Areeiro to Pico Ruivo, 6.1 km on the IFCN list. The west route is the one by the tunnels. The east route, by Pico das Torres, is marked closed.

The status line on the 2 October list says the path runs both ways between Pico do Areeiro and Miradouro da Pedra Rija, and the sentence stops there. The fee FAQ still says that from Pedra Rija to Pico Ruivo the path is one way, Areeiro toward Ruivo, and that you leave by PR 1.2 to Achada do Teixeira or by PR 1.1 to Ilha. PR 1.3 is not that exit while it stays closed. Read both pages before you book.

The full PR1 ticket is €10.50. The FAQ says that ticket includes PR 1.2, so you do not pay a second trail fee to walk down to the plateau. The €4.50 ticket that stops at Pedra Rija does not cover the rest. IFCN does not bring you back to the car at Pico do Areeiro. The June FAQ said the full crossing would be open every day from 26 June 2026. The October list does not put a weekend-only limit back on the page.

The still on this page is NetMadeira’s camera on the plateau. It shows whether that ground is in cloud.

Visit Madeira says this walk can put you in a sea of clouds or above it, and that the weather turns fast. A grey plateau means the start of PR 1.2 is in cloud. The picture is not a forecast, and it is not an IFCN closure.