Fanal: the fog forest on the plateau, and when to catch it

What is here

A wide green bowl on the plateau above Seixal, grazed short, with old til trees standing in it. Some of them were here before the island was settled.

This is Laurisilva, the laurel forest that has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since December 1999, and the natural park lists Fanal as a Rest and Quiet Reserve. In practice that means a forest post, a car park and silence.

The fog

The trees look ordinary in clear weather and remarkable in fog, which is why every photograph you've seen of Fanal is grey. The cloud comes over the plateau and goes again.

There's no way to book it. If you're on the west of the island and the cloud is low, turn up the hill and go.

Our nearest station sits at Porto Moniz, on the coast a thousand metres below. It tells you about the sea, not about the plateau.

What you get at the site

Water, toilets, fireplaces, parking and bins, at the forest post. No gate and no ticket.

Camping is the one thing that needs paperwork. The forest service licenses it. The permit comes from the same SIMplifica portal that sells the walking fees, under service 8-25-101.

Walking from here

Two marked routes touch Fanal and one starts here, and their status today is in the list below.

PR 13 crosses the plateau from Paul da Serra and ends at the forest post. PR 14, the Levada dos Cedros, drops from Fanal towards Curral Falso and is the one to pick if you want the forest rather than the open moor.

Getting there

By road only: the ER 209 across Paul da Serra, or up from the north coast through the hairpins. No bus serves the plateau. The last stretch is narrow, so a big car is a nuisance.

Most people arrive on a west-coast day, between the Porto Moniz pools and the drive home. The trips we've published give the forest post between 15 and 45 minutes. One of them instead walks the marked route across the plateau, which is five hours of the day.

Tours that stop here, and for how long

The trips we've published with a stop here, the longest first. The time is what the operator books for the stop, so on a walking trip it is the walk itself rather than time standing about.

3 more published trips have timed stops of 30 minutes or less. Prices and ratings as of 21 September 2026. Ratings combine Viator and Tripadvisor. All 4x4 jeep tours of west Madeira → · All west Madeira day tours from Funchal → · All small-group tours in Madeira → · All Madeira tours that pick up outside Funchal →

Marked routes that start here

Status from the IFCN table of classified routes, re-read at every build and again in your browser. All routes with today’s status.