Long-distance route
The GR1 Madeira Crossing
The government funded this crossing, built it, and has not put it on its own list of trails. Every section you walk is governed by a different trail's rules.
In short
- IFCN's list of classified walking routes, updated 24 July 2026, contains no Grande Rota. Every classified route on Madeira carries a PR code.
- The same institute funded and built the linking sections, under a European rural development project with a file number and an amount.
- The only distance the government has published is "more than 30 km", from a September 2024 statement by IFCN's president.
- There is no ticket for a crossing. You book each classified trail you actually set foot on.
Is the GR1 an official Madeira trail?
No. IFCN's list of classified walking routes carries PR codes only, and no Grande Rota appears anywhere on it.
That distinction is not paperwork. A code is where a route acquires a price, a booking and an authority that publishes its status. The fee regime charges per classified route, so a route with no code sits outside it, and so does any statement that the route as a whole is open.
The register itself is public: classified walking routes. The fee regime is Portaria 48/2026, which republishes the 2025 rules in full.
Who built the crossing, and with what money?
IFCN built it, with European rural development funding.
The project reference is PRODERAM20-4.3.1-FEADER-002543, approved on 29 August 2022, worth EUR 399,580.50 from FEADER, with works running from 13 May 2024 to 31 March 2025. Its stated aim was to implement the region's first Grande Rota.
The project record is published by the institute itself: Grande Rota project.
How long is the Madeira crossing?
The only figure the government itself has published is "more than 30 km".
It comes from a September 2024 statement by IFCN's president, Manuel Filipe, made while visiting the works. He described the route as one that may be made up of several of the existing short routes, which is why a single number is hard to pin down: the crossing is an assembly, not a new path.
The statement was reported at the time by Funchal Notícias.
Much larger totals circulate on hiking sites and route-sharing platforms. We found four other published figures for the same crossing and no two agreed. That count measures what our own search returned rather than how many exist, and none of the four carries a source anyone can check, so none is repeated here.
Which sections has IFCN actually named?
Two linking sections, in its own 2024 announcement.
Levada dos Cedros to Vereda do Fanal
The new stretch joins two classified routes in the north west that previously ended near each other without connecting. PR14 Levada dos Cedros, PR13 Vereda do Fanal.
Vereda do Pico Fernandes to Bica da Cana
The second runs across the Paul da Serra plateau by way of Estanquinhos and Fontes Ruivas. PR6.5 Vereda do Pico Fernandes.
Those are the sections the institute named while the works were under way. No official stage list exists, so any day by day itinerary you find, including any we could write, is somebody's interpretation. We publish none.
What can actually be drawn
We hold the mapped line for 13 of the classified trails this route runs through, 96.2 km of them. Put end to end they look like this.
The dashed breaks are the honest part. 7 of the joins are too far apart to walk between on anything we hold, 25.2 km in total, and most of that is exactly where the new linking work went in. We leave them open rather than draw a line we do not have.
Is there an official GPX or stage list to download?
No. IFCN publishes no GPX, KML, GeoJSON or shapefile for any route it classifies.
The official artefact for a classified trail is a photographed information panel at the trailhead. For a walk that crosses the island over several days and links routes that were never designed to be walked in sequence, that puts navigation entirely on the walker.
Per trail, tracks do exist: Download free GPX tracks.
What we can give you instead
We assembled one. A single file holds all 13 mapped sections, 96.2 km, each as its own track. Where the corridor breaks, the file breaks with it: 7 joins are left open instead of being drawn across. It is our reading of the corridor, not an official route.
One file, every mapped section as its own track. Nothing is joined where no mapped path exists on the ground.
What restrictions does IFCN publish on the trails it crosses?
The crossing runs through classified trails, and a restriction on any one of them applies to the crossing whether or not anyone says so. These are the ones IFCN currently publishes a qualifying note for, in the institute's own words.
IFCN lists the ways this route can be walked, and marks one of them closed. The route as a whole is officially open, so this restricts a variant rather than closing the trail. IFCN's own wording, in Portuguese:
IFCN, LOCAIS DE PASSAGEM: “Vereda este (pelo Pico das Torres) - Encerrado”
IFCN reports the stretch between Boca das Torrinhas and Encumeada closed.
IFCN's wording, in Portuguese: “entre a Boca das Torrinhas e a Encumeada”
PR12 Caminho Real da Encumeada
IFCN reports this route walkable from Boca da Corrida, only as far as km 3.5.
IFCN's wording, in Portuguese: “desde a Boca da Corrida até ao km 3,5”
PR17 Caminho do Pináculo e Folhadal
IFCN reports this route walkable between Encumeada Folhadal and Bica da Cana, by way of Caramujo.
IFCN's wording, in Portuguese: “entre a Encumeada Folhadal – Caramujo - Bica da Cana”
IFCN's own status page is dated 24 Jul 2026.
For the current state of every classified trail, see the Madeira trail status page.
Do you need a booking to walk it?
There is no ticket for a crossing, because there is no classified crossing. You book each classified trail you set foot on, separately, for the day you will be on it.
That is the practical consequence of the missing code, and it is the part most itineraries leave out: a multi day walk through classified ground is a sequence of separate reservations, each with its own capacity.
For what a slot costs and how to reserve one, see what SIMplifica costs and how to book. Not every trail on the way is charged: Which trails are free.
What this means if you are planning several days
A route assembled from classified trails inherits every restriction any one of them carries. That is the mechanism worth understanding before anything else, because it changes where the risk sits.
A classified trail has an authority that announces when it shuts. The assembly does not. Nobody publishes that the crossing is broken, because no institution recognises the crossing as a thing that can break. The failure mode is therefore not a closure notice you can read the night before. It is a junction you reach on day three.
So the useful preparation is not finding a stage list. It is checking each classified trail the route uses, on the dates you would be on it, and knowing which of them need a reservation.
Questions about the GR1 crossing
Is the GR1 waymarked?
The classified trails it uses are waymarked as themselves, with their own PR codes. IFCN publishes no waymarking scheme for the crossing as a route, and no Grande Rota appears in its register.
Can I walk it in four days?
There is no official stage definition, so there is no official answer. Day counts you see quoted come from walkers and tour operators, not from the institute that built the linking sections.
Do I need one permit for the whole route?
No. Charges and reservations apply per classified trail, under the fee regime of Portaria 801/2025 as amended by Portaria 48/2026. A route with no classification has no charge of its own and no reservation of its own.
Where does the crossing start?
No official terminus is published, because the route is not classified. Both ends and both directions are walker convention rather than a stated rule.
Is it the same as the island ultra trail race route?
No. The race has its own organiser, its own route and its own dates, and the two are unrelated.