Nuns Valley Tour

There are places in Madeira that feel genuinely apart from the world. Curral das Freiras — Nuns Valley — is the most extreme example the island offers. Enclosed on all sides by the peaks of Madeira's central mountain chain, the valley floor sits nearly 500 metres below its surrounding ridgelines, invisible from the coast and unreachable for most of its history except by foot through mountain passes. The village at its centre existed in near-complete isolation for centuries — and the story of how it came to be settled is as dramatic as the landscape that surrounds it.

The Curral das Freiras Tuk-Tuk Tour takes you from Funchal into the island's mountainous interior — from sea level to over 1,000 metres, through a landscape that shifts from subtropical coastline to cloud-level mountain terrain — with hotel or cruise terminal pickup included and a local guide who knows the island's interior as well as its coast.

Pico dos Barcelos — The City From Above

Your tour departs Funchal and climbs immediately, reaching the Pico dos Barcelos viewpoint at 355 metres above sea level — the first of several dramatic altitude changes that define this journey. From here, Funchal's characteristic amphitheatre form is fully revealed: the city descending in tiers from the surrounding mountains to the seafront, the harbour and bay opening to the south, and the ocean extending to the horizon. It is the essential establishing perspective before the landscape becomes something altogether wilder.

The Ascent — Funchal to the Mountain Interior

From Pico dos Barcelos, the road climbs further into Madeira's interior, the vegetation shifting with altitude from the subtropical gardens and banana terraces of the lower slopes to the denser, cooler laurel woodland of the higher ground. The temperature drops perceptibly. The light changes. The Atlantic disappears behind the ridgeline. By the time you reach the upper mountain roads, Funchal feels considerably further away than the kilometres suggest.

Eira do Serrado — The View That Silences People

At 1,095 metres above sea level, the Miradouro do Eira do Serrado offers what is arguably the single most dramatic viewpoint on the entire island. From the clifftop terrace, the valley of Curral das Freiras is revealed directly below — a near-circular natural amphitheatre of sheer volcanic peaks enclosing a patchwork of terraced fields, chestnut trees, and the small stone village at the valley floor, nearly 500 metres beneath your feet.

The geological formation that created this valley is extraordinary — a collapsed volcanic crater, its walls eroded over millions of years into the jagged, cloud-catching peaks that now surround it on every side. On clear days, the panorama extends across the entire central mountain chain. On days when cloud fills the valley below, the peaks emerge above a sea of white — an experience of a completely different and equally extraordinary kind.

The Story of the Valley — Why the Nuns Came Here

The name Curral das Freiras — Enclosure of the Nuns — records one of Madeira's most vivid historical episodes. In 1566, when French pirates under the command of Bertrand de Montluc sacked Funchal, burning the city and looting its churches, the nuns of the Convent of Santa Clara fled inland carrying what they could of the convent's treasures. They came here — to a valley so completely enclosed by mountains that no raiding party would think to follow, and no outsider would easily find. The pirates eventually left. The nuns returned to Funchal. But the valley kept their name.

For centuries after, Curral das Freiras remained one of the most isolated communities in the Atlantic islands — no road reached the valley floor until 1959, and the tunnel that now connects it directly to the outside world was only completed in 2000. The village that exists today — its terraced gardens, its chestnut orchards, its stone houses — is the direct continuation of a community that spent four centuries in near-complete geographic isolation.

Into the Valley — Your Choice

From Eira do Serrado, the tour offers a choice that your guide will help you navigate: descend through the mountain tunnel directly into the valley to explore the village of Curral das Freiras up close — its narrow streets, its parish church, its local café serving the famous chestnut soup and chestnut liqueur that the valley produces from its ancient orchards — or return toward Funchal via an alternative route with additional viewpoint stops, taking in further perspectives on the island's dramatic interior landscape.

Either way, the journey back to Funchal descends through the same extraordinary altitudinal range — cloud-level mountain terrain giving way to laurel woodland, then to the subtropical lower slopes, then to the city and the sea — a compression of landscape and climate that few places on earth can replicate in so short a distance.

Private tour. Hotel & cruise terminal pickup included. Expert local guide. Available daily.