Tropi Guide Madeira

Madeira, told by the people who live here, in your ear while you drive or walk.

Tropi Guide is self-guided audio tours of Madeira. Download a tour before you set off, put the phone away, and each story starts by itself as you reach the place it is about. Nothing to press at the wheel, no group, no meeting time, and no signal needed. Not just what a building is called, but why it is there.

Every tour has three free samples, so you can hear it before you buy.

THE DRIVES

The Eastern Edge (half day): from Funchal to the end of the road, where Madeira runs out of green and turns to bare red rock with the Atlantic on both sides.

The West Coast (full day): from Câmara de Lobos to Paul do Mar. The glass floor at Cabo Girão, terraces cut by hand over five hundred years, a steam mill still crushing sugarcane, and two villages that had no road until this century.

The Far West (half day): from the lighthouse at Ponta do Pargo onto the north coast, with a waterfall falling into the sea and the steepest cable car in Europe dropping to a vineyard.

The Wild North Coast (full day, either direction): from São Vicente to the pass at Portela. A saint that came in a box, the thatched houses of Santana, and a sugar mill still running on steam.

Porto Moniz, Seixal and more (half day, either direction): a chapel cut into a rock, the only black-sand beach on the north coast, a waterfall you drive under, and at the end a swim in pools the lava made.

THE WALKS IN FUNCHAL

Doors of Funchal (2 hours): the oldest streets of the city, a Jesuit college with cannon towers, a cathedral of volcanic stone, and the painted doors of Rua de Santa Maria.

The Fisherman's Quarter (2 hours 30): how the sea built Funchal, from the fish market to the yellow fort and the pebble beach the boats launched from.

HOW IT WORKS

Buy a tour once and it is yours: it never expires, there is no subscription, and it works on your other devices with the same account. Downloaded, it runs with no signal at all, which matters on a road where the phone loses service for twenty minutes at a time. Stop for lunch and the tour picks up where you left it.

AND, FOR FREE

All 43 official trails on Madeira and Porto Santo with today's status, the free slots and SIMplifica licence booking, and a timer for the walk. The weather for every part of the island and live webcams. Guides to the beaches, waterfalls and viewpoints, and Madeira Basics, written by people who live here.