Levada das 25 Fontes & Levada do Risco: Madeira's Most Photographed Walk

There's a reason this is the single most-photographed levada walk on the island — it ends at a curved rock amphitheatre with two dozen-plus small springs trickling down moss-covered walls into a pool, and no amount of seeing it in photos first quite prepares you for standing in it.

Both trails start together on the ER105 road in Rabaçal. Levada do Risco splits off first — 1.5km, about 2 hours round trip, easy grade, ending at a tall waterfall dropping off the cliff edge. Levada das 25 Fontes continues further, 4.3km and roughly 3 hours round trip, rated moderate rather than easy mainly because of a couple of narrow, slightly uneven stretches and one short tunnel — nothing technical, just enough to mean proper shoes rather than sandals.

What makes the walk itself worth doing, not just the endpoint, is the path: a narrow channel-side trail cut into the hillside, laurisilva canopy overhead most of the way, water running alongside you the entire route. It's genuinely one of the more atmospheric walks on the island even before you reach either waterfall.

It's also one of the busiest, so an early start matters more here than on most Madeira trails if you want the pool without a crowd around it. Like the island's other classified routes, both PR6 and PR6.1 need a time-slot booking through SIMplifica before you go — worth doing a few days ahead rather than the morning of, since this is one of the trails that fills up fastest.