One Trail, One Code
Every trail we cover on Madeira and Porto Santo now has a short code that stays with it. Think of it as a house number for the mountains. Easy to say, easy to share, and always the same.
Why Give Trails a Code?
Madeira has hundreds of trails and the vast majority of them have never been properly classified and organized. Existing options from sites like AllTrails, Wikiloc, Komoot, etc. allow anyone to add trails for Madeira; that is helpful in some ways and very confusing to users unfamiliar with Madeira in many other ways. Before the Madeira Fun Route Registry (MFRR), a simple question, "which trail?", was much harder than it should have been.
The MFRR aims to bring organization, categorization and simplicity to the wide spectrum of people who enjoy Madeira's trails. Significant effort went into designing this system, and while it is not perfect, it presents a strong starting point and flexibility for future adjustments. Retaining existing names, historical context and preserving cultural marks and locations were priorities during the entire process. PR trails (IFCN), Caminhos Reais (CR) and locally confirmed trails were given utmost priority when it came to overlaps, naming and decisions. As a hard rule, no PR trail was modified.
One Trail, Many Names
Locals, guidebooks, apps and signs often call the same levada something different.
Which Stretch?
One name can cover a whole channel or just one section of it. Where does yours start?
Hard to Pass On
Long Portuguese names get shortened, misspelled and mixed up when you share them.
Every route gets one code. You'll find it on its trail page and throughout madeira.fun.
Five Families of Routes
The letters tell you what kind of route it is. Each family has its own color, so you can spot it at a glance.
Official Routes
The Pequenas Rotas: marked and looked after by IFCN, Madeira's forests and nature institute. On Porto Santo they read PS PR.
PR 6 Levada das 25 Fontes
Royal Paths
The Caminhos Reais: old stone roads that linked villages and ports long before cars reached them.
CR 23 Caminho Real 23
Levadas
Trails along the island's irrigation channels that aren't on the official list. Our biggest family.
LEV 751 Levada dos Tornos, Stage 1
Paths and Peaks
Old footpaths, shepherds' tracks, summits and waterfall trails. Everything that isn't a levada.
VER 902 Vereda do Pico do Facho, Porto Santo
Canyons
Canyoning routes, for ropes, water and a good guide. Each canyon has one number and its sections get a dot.
CAN 117 Ribeira dos Moinhos
Super Trails: One Journey, Many Stages
Some of Madeira's great levadas are far too long for one day. We call these Super Trails. A Super Trail is one long route split into stages, and every stage is a full trail of its own, with its own code and trail page.
The stages of a Super Trail are numbered together, in order, so the codes show you what comes next. Levada dos Tornos runs from LEV 751 to LEV 756, and Levada Nova da Calheta from LEV 121 to LEV 132.
Read Any Code
Pick a code to see what each part means.
Levada dos Tornos, Stage 1
- LEVLevadaA trail along an irrigation channel.
- 7Strip 7Starts around Funchal and Monte.
- 51Its spot in the stripIt ends in 1, so this is stage 1 of a longer trail.
Ribeira dos Moinhos
- CANCanyonA canyoning route. Go with a guide.
- 1Strip 1You climb in near Ponta do Pargo, at the far west of the island.
- 17Its spot in the stripCounted from the north coast down, like every code in the strip.
Vereda do Pico do Facho, Porto Santo
- VERPath or peakA footpath, summit or waterfall trail.
- 9Porto SantoEvery Porto Santo route in our families starts with 9.
- 02Its spot in the stripThe second number used on Porto Santo.
Levada das 25 Fontes
- PROfficial routeMarked and looked after by IFCN.
- 6IFCN's own numberWe keep it exactly as it is, so it matches the sign at the start.
Caminho Real 23
- CRRoyal pathOne of the old Caminhos Reais.
- 23Its historic numberKept as the Caminhos Reais association publishes it.
West to East, 1 to 8
We cut the island into eight strips, west to east. The first digit of a three-digit code tells you which strip the route starts in. Porto Santo is 9.
Ponta do Pargo, Porto Moniz, Calheta
Rabaçal, Madalena do Mar
Ponta do Sol, Seixal
Serra de Água, São Vicente
Campanário, Jardim da Serra, Ponta Delgada
Câmara de Lobos, Curral das Freiras, Boaventura
Funchal, Monte, Ribeiro Frio, Santana
Camacha, Porto da Cruz, Machico, Caniçal
Porto Santo
Stages and Sections
Levada dos Tornos, Stages 1 to 6
A long trail split into stages gets one run of numbers, in stage order. It keeps those numbers even when later stages cross into the next strip.
Ribeira do Passo, Two Sections
A canyon keeps one number. When it has sections, each one gets a dot, counted in the order the water flows.
Where Trails Meet
When two trails touch, that spot is a junction. Every junction is one of three types, and each trail page lists its junctions.
One trail starts or ends on another.
PR 6.3 begins on PR 6 near Rabaçal.
Two trails cross, and both carry on.
PR 5 crosses LEV 831 on the Levada dos Maroços.
Two or more trails share the same path for a while.
PR 1 and PR 1 Short share the same path from the start.
Next, each junction gets its own code, numbered west to east just like the trails.
Official and Heritage Names Live On
Some routes were numbered long before us. We keep those numbers exactly as they are.
PR routes carry IFCN's own numbers, the same ones on the signs at the trailhead. PR 6 stays PR 6. We never renumber an official route.
Royal paths keep their historic CR numbers, as the Caminhos Reais association publishes them. They're heritage, and we treat them that way.
MFRR was designed, developed and compiled by the Madeira Fun team. It is not an official government system and it doesn't replace any PR/IFCN trail designations. Official signs, closures and IFCN rules always come first.
What It Gives You
One Label to Use
The code sits right on the trail page, next to the name, so everyone means the same trail.
Know Roughly Where
The first digit places the trail on the island before you open a map.
See Where Trails Meet
Each trail page lists its junctions: where another trail branches off, crosses yours or shares your path.
Easy to Share
"LEV 751 on Saturday?" gets your friends to the exact trail, first time.
Room to Grow
New routes take a free number in their own strip, so nobody else's code has to change to make room.
Trail Codes Locked
Once a route has its code, it keeps it. A number only changes if the trail itself changes, say its starting point must move. Such a change would be fully verified.
Note: As time, climate and the island continue to evolve, many trails have been marked with Verified and Unverified designations. On-the-ground verification is an ongoing effort to maintain these designations.
Spotted Something?
A wrong start, a trail we're missing, a name locals use that we don't? Tell us, and include the code if you have it.
mfrr@madeira.funEmail