Practical book guide · Updated 24 September 2026
How to use a Madeira walking book when trail access changes
A route description helps you decide where to walk. A current official notice tells you whether you may walk there today. Madeira visitors need both kinds of information.
First decide what job the book must do
If walking is the focus of your holiday, compare route collections rather than general travel guides. Paddy Dillon’s Walking on Madeira describes 60 day walks on Madeira and Porto Santo. The English Rother guide lists 70 levada and mountain walks, with route maps, height profiles and downloadable GPS tracks. The Sunflower guide combines 100 long and short walks with six car tours. Those numbers measure different selections. Pick for the places, difficulty and travel style you need, rather than the largest count.
A separate Tour & Trail Map serves another purpose: it shows a wider area than a route paragraph can. A map helps compare neighbouring valleys, roads and paths, but it does not tell you whether a route is currently restricted. If you are mixing sightseeing drives with shorter outings, the Sunflower combination may avoid carrying two general books. If Porto Santo is on your itinerary, Dillon’s explicit coverage of that island is a meaningful difference.
Match the edition before using its route details
Publishers revise walking guides on different schedules. The listed Sunflower book is its 16th edition from 2026; the English Rother volume on this site is a 2025 edition; Dillon’s listed Cicerone edition is from 2018. Check the ISBN and language on the seller’s actual offer. A German Rother edition, an English Rother edition and an ebook can have different contents or update dates. A newer publication can contain fresher route descriptions, but its publication year is never proof that a trail is open today.
Downloadable GPS tracks also need judgment. They can help locate a route, but a track does not override a closure, a changed path, weather or the official booking requirement. Keep a way to navigate without a phone connection, and use the guide’s route description to understand terrain and exit options, not just to follow a line on a screen.
Check the official route before you go
Madeira’s tourism authority publishes a live list of classified walking routes with open, restricted and closed status. Its current guidance also explains the reservation system for classified PR routes. Find the route’s official PR code, read its current notice and complete any required reservation before setting out. Rules, fees and access can change, so use the official Madeira hiking page rather than a fee or opening claim printed in a book.
This matters even for a famous walk. A guidebook may accurately describe the landscape and still be out of date on a temporary closure or access condition. A sensible sequence is: select a walk from the book, identify the corresponding official route, check its status and access rules, then review the weather and your own ability. If you cannot match a book route to a current official notice, do not assume the route is an open classified trail; ask the appropriate local authority or choose a route whose status you can confirm.
A two-book decision
For a walking-led trip across both islands, start by comparing Dillon with the English Rother guide; add a separate map only if you want a broader island view. For a holiday split between drives and walks, compare Sunflower with a pocket travel guide instead. This is a way to avoid buying overlapping route books while still covering the kind of days you actually plan. Our walking-book comparison shows where the individual titles differ.
Sources and scope
Book coverage and edition details were checked against Cicerone, Rother and Sunflower. Trail status and reservation rules come from Madeira’s official tourism site. This guide compares published information; it is not a first-hand review of every route or a live safety notice.