Guide
Levada do Caldeirão Verde: Tunnels, Waterfalls and Madeira's Greenest Walk
A long, genuinely wild walk from Queimadas Forest Park through four rock tunnels to a waterfall dropping into an emerald pool — Madeira's laurisilva at its most dramatic.
Bring a headlamp. That's the first thing anyone who's done this walk will tell you, and it's not an exaggeration — the route passes through four unlit tunnels cut through the mountainside, some long enough that you genuinely can't see the far end without a light.
The trail starts at Queimadas Forest Park near Santana, on the north side of the island, and runs 17.4km round trip — most people take 5 to 7 hours, so this is a full-day walk rather than a half-day add-on. The path follows the levada the whole way, narrow in places with a drop on one side, through some of the densest laurisilva forest left on Madeira.
The payoff is Caldeirão Verde itself — the 'green cauldron' — a circular rock amphitheatre where a roughly 100-metre waterfall drops into a deep, genuinely emerald pool. Some people swim; the water is cold enough that most don't stay in long. Either way, it's worth the walk in on its own.
This is one of the trails now covered by Madeira's SIMplifica reservation system — €4.50 per person, booked online in advance, with the usual rule that entering without a valid slot isn't allowed. Given the length and the tunnels, this is a trail we'd point most guests toward a guided outing for rather than going self-guided on a first visit — ask us and we can help arrange it.
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