East Madeira in a day: Pico do Arieiro, Santana and Ponta de São Lourenço

Madeira's east is the part of the island with the most to see and the worst roads to see it from behind a wheel: a mountain road to the third-highest summit, a forest pass, a north coast of steep valleys and a bare peninsula at the end. This tour does it in a day from Funchal. Lido Tours, a Funchal company running its own minibuses since 1996, collects you from selected hotels in Funchal, Câmara de Lobos and Caniço, or from a bus stop near yours, and leaves at 09:00. The operator's minibuses take up to 16 people.

The first stop is Terreiro da Luta above Monte, where a statue of Our Lady of Peace stands on a monument the operator says Madeirans promised after German submarines attacked Funchal in 1917. Then the road climbs to Pico do Arieiro. Visit Madeira gives it as 1,818 metres, the island's third-highest point, with views on a clear day to Ponta de São Lourenço, the Curral das Freiras valley and Porto Santo; it is the highest summit on the island you can drive to. Often the cloud lies below you as a white sea. From there the tour drops through the laurel forest to Ribeiro Frio, at about 860 metres, a trout farm and the start of several levada walks. The laurisilva around it is a relic of forests that once covered much of southern Europe, and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1999.

Lunch is in Santana, a stop of about 90 minutes by the operator's timetable, with a choice of restaurants and cafés. Santana's houses are the island's emblem: triangular, built of wood, thatched with wheat or rye straw, painted white with red doors and blue trim, a steep roof to shed the north coast's rain. After Portela the road runs east to Ponta de São Lourenço, the island's narrow last few kilometres of cliff and scrub, a protected area since 1982, where the north and south coasts are both in view at once. The last stop is the viewpoint over Machico, the bay where the operator says Zarco and Teixeira landed in 1419, and you are back at about 17:00.

On 26 October 2026 GetYourGuide sold it from 38.70 euros, with free cancellation up to 24 hours before and booking at least 10 hours ahead, and scored the guiding 4.8 out of 5, the transport 4.7 and the value 4.7, from about 3,900 reviews. The same tour costs 43 euros on the operator's own site.

This is the most-reviewed east Madeira day on GetYourGuide, about 3,900 reviews at 4.7, from a local firm that owns its minibuses and runs the tour every day. On 26 October 2026 it was 4.30 euros cheaper on GetYourGuide than on Lido Tours' own site, where the price was 43 euros, so booking here costs you nothing extra. Its closest rival, the Eastern Madeira Full-Day Tour with Rum Tasting, was 35 euros, also rated 4.7 from about 1,900 reviews, sold as a small group, and adds the Guindaste skywalk, Ponta do Rosto and a rum tasting at Porto da Cruz. Pick that one if a tasting matters more to you than the extra reviews.

If you would rather walk than look, the Caniçal São Lourenço Hike Transfer, 37 euros and rated 4.8 from about 1,200 reviews, drops you at the start of the PR8 trail along the peninsula and helps you book the required trail slot. For the summit at dawn and the walk to Pedra Rija, our page The sunrise above the clouds covers Pico do Arieiro properly; for a day in the forest above Santana, The forest levada; and for the other half of the island, The west, by jeep. With a hire car you can do every stop on this tour for nothing but fuel and parking; what the 38.70 euros buys is a day without the mountain roads, and someone to explain what you are looking at.