Trip Report - GR1 - Hiking and Camping the Madeira Crossing in May 2026

3 Jun

Hi All,

Thought I share my experience with hiking the GR1 - Madeira Crossing (West to East) which might help your owns trips.

I starting planning the trip late last year basing the route off the MIUT (ultra marathon). Coincidentally, in early 2026, the GR1 - Madeira Crossing was made official which just so happens to overlap with of what I was hoping to do. One major setback was that they changed the rules where now the PR1 can only be walked in 1 direction (south to north), which of course, does not in my favour. Below are some tips, tricks and observations:

Keen GR1 hikers should definitely based their trip around getting tickets to the PR1 and do it from East to West.
Campsites can be booked 3 months in advance. It is how I managed to secure lucrative spots such Fanal and Ponta de Sao Lourenco.
Camping permits were never checked at any campsite.
The number of people at each campsite when I stayed including myself: Fanal (1), Bica da Cana (3), Chão dos Louros (5), Pico das Pedras (3), Chão das Feiteiras (6), Ponta de São Lourenço (3).
I booked all the trails 2 weeks in advanced. The only ones which had limited spots were for PR 6 - Levada das 25 Fontes and PR 8 - Vereda da Ponta de São Lourenço. All others had plenty of availability at all timeslots.
I was only checked once for my access permits to the trail. This was around Pico Ruivo by a Forestry Guard who was going to lock up the PR1 gates.
I didn't do the PR1 :(
PR 1.3 - Vereda da Encumeada is closed. To get around this, I took a bus from Encumeada to Sao Vincente (2 EUR) and restocked on supplies. From Sao Vincente, I tool a Bolt to Ilha (20 EUR) and walked up PR1.1 towards Pico Ruivo.
PR 10 - Levada do Furado is closed. I hiked an alternative path via the various campsites in the south and then headed towards Mount Suna.
Weather was terrible. I was on the trail for a total of 7 days, 5 of which was just rain. Trails were extremely muddy and the west most tunnel on PR 17 - Caminho do Pináculo e Folhadal was flooded in sections up until the ankles. Hint, just get your shoes wet and plough on through.
Ride sharing services like Bolt and Uber are great to help bridge some of the gaps. They are super reliable during the day and generally, wait times is only about 10-15 minutes. However, at night, it is a different story. Unless you're a big fare (like from Achada do Teixeira or the airport to Funchal), drivers won't take the job.
Google map is not accurate. I found that using RomeToRio more reliable but do cross reference this with the official timetables on the SIGA website.