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Cabo Girão is a cape on the south coast of Madeira Island, in the municipality of Câmara de Lobos. Many of these tours stop on a glass-floored platform at the top of the cliff, where you look straight down to the sea. The trips below pair it with a stop in Câmara de Lobos, a walk beside a levada or a drive up into the mountains.
The lookout at the top, the Miradouro do Cabo Girão, is one of the geosites of Madeira and features in the geodiversity inventory of the Autonomous Region of Madeira. The cape itself is a Natura 2000 site.
Câmara de Lobos, the seat of the municipality, is a fishing town, and several of the trips below stop by its bay full of small, brightly painted boats. The municipality is made up of five parishes: the town itself, Curral das Freiras, Quinta Grande, Jardim da Serra and Estreito de Câmara de Lobos. On one side it borders Funchal, the capital of the region; on the other, Ribeira Brava.
Curral das Freiras is another parish of Câmara de Lobos, and part of it is a protected area. The 4x4 routes climb from the coast through the forest to the lookouts of Boca da Corrida and Boca dos Namorados, where the village appears deep in its valley. On the way down they pass the vineyards of Estreito de Câmara de Lobos, whose grapes go into Madeira wine. Madeira wine is a Portuguese fortified wine with its own protected designation of origin (DOC).
The Levada do Norte is one of the irrigation channels that Madeira calls levadas. A guided walk follows its path across the slopes between the Cabo Girão area and Ribeira Brava, with views over Câmara de Lobos, past terraces of bananas, vines and vegetables, and close to the village of Campanário. Ribeira Brava is the neighbouring municipality, and its parishes include Campanário, Serra de Água and Tabua.
The 4x4 tour of Cabo Girão and the mountains passes farm terraces at Ribeira da Alforra, stops on the glass platform, heads up forest tracks to the lookouts over Curral das Freiras and comes back down through the vineyards to the harbour of Câmara de Lobos. It is rated easy. With a 4x4 trip with wine tasting, you are picked up in the Funchal area or in Caniço; after the cliff, the route crosses the Serra de Água valley and the Encumeada pass to São Vicente and ends with a walk among the vines and a tasting at a wine estate.
On two wheels, a guided e-bike ride links Funchal and Cabo Girão, then rolls down winding roads through terraced farmland to the waterfront of Câmara de Lobos and finishes with coffee and cake at a vineyard estate; you should be at ease on a bike. On foot, the guided Levada do Norte walk covers the stretch towards Ribeira Brava and is rated easy.
For a longer day, a private 4x4 day lets you shape the route with your guide: Câmara de Lobos and Cabo Girão, the Paul da Serra plateau, short levada walks in the laurel forest, Santana and, on the way back, Pico do Areeiro if you wish. A two-day island tour covers the east first, with Camacha, Santana, Ribeiro Frio and Pico do Areeiro, and then the west, with Câmara de Lobos, Cabo Girão, Ribeira Brava, Ponta do Sol and the natural pools of Porto Moniz.
Every trip that stops here is also listed on the Cabo Girão destination page.
It belongs to Câmara de Lobos, the municipality next to Funchal on Madeira Island.
Yes. One 4x4 trip adds a vineyard walk and a tasting, and the e-bike ride stops for a coffee break among the vines.
Yes: the levada walk towards Ribeira Brava is rated easy and keeps the coast in view.
Madeira keeps Western European Time, so plan your pickup and your day around local time.
Sources: Wikidata (CC0).
