SIMplifica Madeira: Trail Fees and Booking (2026)

The portal handles the whole thing in one pass, from trail choice to the ticket in your inbox. Here is the order the official video shows.

• Open the SIMplifica trail fee service. Registering on the portal is not necessary.
• Open Ticketing and choose Payment of Fees for Access to Classified Hiking Trails, then press Request.
• Enter the email address that will receive the tickets.
• Tick the declaration that trail users are personally and exclusively responsible for any damage under article 11 of Regional Legislative Decree 24/2022/M.
• Choose whether you want a NIF tax number on the invoice.
• Enter the number of tickets per category: non-residents over 12, 12 or under, disability over 60 percent, and the same three categories for residents.
• Choose the route and the booking period, meaning your date and entry slot.
• Press the button to add another reservation for more trails, or Following to continue.
• Pick payment by credit or debit card, Multibanco or MB WAY, where MB WAY needs the app on your phone. After payment the email brings the invoice-receipt, the credential and an electronic ticket as a PKPASS.

What Arrives by Email, and What to Show on the Trail

After payment the email brings three things: the invoice-receipt, a credential carrying your tickets, and an electronic ticket in PKPASS format that opens in a phone wallet. Neither IFCN nor SIMplifica says on the pages we read how tickets are checked on the trail or that a printout is needed. Keep the wallet pass and the email on your phone.

Keep the invoice too, because its reference number is what support staff ask for.

When the Portal Fails or Sends a Cancellation Email

A known trap: SIMplifica sometimes emails that a booking was cancelled for inactivity or non-payment even though you already hold tickets and an invoice. The official advice is that this usually refers to an earlier unfinished attempt. Compare the reference numbers on the email and your invoice.

Different numbers mean you can ignore it. The same number means forward the email to IFCN. For anything about the portal itself, the SIMplifica Contact Center works weekdays 09:00-18:00 on free call 800 29 90 90 and WhatsApp +351 926 155 465.

It cannot change or refund a paid booking. IFCN does not run the portal. For fees, closures and refunds, contact IFCN at [email protected] or +351 291 145 590, weekdays 09:00-12:30 and 14:00-17:30.

There is no separate option to buy a day or multi-day pass. You select each trail you intend to walk and at the end the system applies the most advantageous rate for what is in the basket. That means you never have to guess.

It also means the pass only appears once you have stacked enough trails into the window. Here is what that looks like in practice.

A Pass Is Not a Free Run of the Trails

The passes do not give unlimited access. Every trail still needs its own booking and its own entry slot, all subject to availability, even when you hold a 7-day rate. If a slot is full the system blocks it, and a pass does not override that.

A pass also never includes PR1, not even the short Areeiro to Pedra Rija section, which is always priced on its own at $5.17 (€4.50) or as part of the full route. Plan the pass around levada days and treat PR1 as a separate purchase.

The complete route starts at Pico do Areeiro, not at the Pedra Rija gate. There are two tickets. The $5.17 (€4.50) ticket is two-way between Pico do Areeiro and the Pedra Rija viewpoint at km 1.2, and it explicitly does not allow access to Pico Ruivo.

The $12.06 (€10.50) ticket covers the full route to Pico Ruivo, which is one-way in that direction, and it also covers PR1.1 Vereda da Ilha, PR1.2 Vereda do Pico Ruivo and PR1.3 Vereda da Encumeada with no extra fee. An old Pedra Rija ticket cannot be converted to the full route, so decide before you pay. IFCN closes the Pedra Rija to Pico Ruivo section on announced days for scheduled works.

On those days no full-route bookings are sold and the two-way section stays open.

Getting Back From Pico Ruivo

IFCN provides no return transport to Pico do Areeiro, so the full route ends with a decision. Exit from Pico Ruivo on PR1.1 to Ilha or on PR1.2 to Achada do Teixeira, where the transfer vans wait. Alternatively PR1.3 is now walkable from Pico Ruivo to Boca das Torrinhas, about 3.9 km, and IFCN says walkers can continue from there on PR2 Vereda do Urzal toward Curral das Freiras or Boaventura.

Boca das Torrinhas to Encumeada stays closed. Most people solve the return with the Pico do Arieiro sunrise and PR1 hike transfer, which drops you at Areeiro and picks up at Achada do Teixeira, or the transport-only sunrise hiking transfer if you prefer to manage your own permit. More on the summit in our Pico Ruivo guide.

Works Days on the Upper Section

IFCN posts works days for the upper section as notices and on the trail register. The latest ones closed the Pedra Rija to Pico Ruivo section on announced days while a boardwalk was installed, sold no full-route bookings for those days, and kept the Pico do Areeiro to Pedra Rija section open for out-and-back walkers. Check the IFCN register before you pay for the full ticket, because a works day changes which ticket makes sense.

The east branch via Pico das Torres stays closed.

Each day is divided into entry slots. After you enter, you complete the trail in an appropriate time, which IFCN does not define further and no official page publishes as a duration. Slots have separate capacities for visitors, residents and economic operators, and places cannot move between categories, so a busy visitor slot can be full while resident places remain.

A full slot is automatically blocked. Same-day and next-day bookings are possible subject to availability. If you are late, the tolerance is about 15 minutes, and a little more for hikers doing trails in sequence.

No official page publishes how far ahead the calendar opens.

Children, Residents and Disability Exemptions

Free does not mean no booking. Registration is mandatory for everyone, including the exempt, so an exempt walker still goes through the form and still needs a slot. Only landowners exercising their rights and essential public services skip booking entirely.

• Residents of the Autonomous Region of Madeira enter free with the resident card, which can be obtained on SIMplifica, plus the citizen card.
• Children aged 12 or under are free, resident or not.
• People with a disability of 60 percent or more enter free, plus one legal guardian with documentary proof.
• Everyone exempt still books a named slot on SIMplifica.

Two more rules are worth knowing. A guide is not mandatory on any classified trail, so a self-guided booking is fully legitimate. Walking companies that hold a protocol with IFCN book and pay under their own separate system, so ask your operator whether the fee is already covered before you buy a slot yourself.

IFCN refunds or reschedules a paid booking only when IFCN or the authorities officially closed or restricted the trail on your booking date. That is the only case. Not for rain, not for the wrong date or the wrong trail, not for illness, a flight cancellation or missed transport, and weather warnings do not automatically close all trails.

Requests go within 10 working days from the booking date by email to [email protected]. A reschedule stays on the same trail, though a switch may be considered after a prolonged closure, and for the same group size, so a no-show in a smaller group gets nothing back and a larger group pays extra. Refunds are only paid by bank transfer.

• For a reschedule, send the tickets, the invoice, and the new date and slot.
• For a refund, send the tickets, the invoice, and a bank document with IBAN and SWIFT/BIC plus the account holder's full name and address.
• Send the request within 10 working days of the booking date, or it is out of time.

None of the four trails below appears on the SIMplifica booking list. A trail missing from that list is either not managed by IFCN or closed, which is the official rule of thumb. PR4 is only partially passable, so check its status before setting out.

Closed Trails You Cannot Book

The register also lists trails that are closed outright, and closed means no booking exists to buy. PR7 Levada do Moinho, PR20 Vereda do Jardim do Mar, PR27 Glaciar de Planalto and PR28 Levada da Rocha Vermelha are all closed, as is PR3 Levada do Pico Castelo on Porto Santo. PR12 Caminho Real da Encumeada is passable only from Boca da Corrida to km 3.5.

On Porto Santo itself, the island's open trails include PR1 Vereda do Pico Branco e Terra Chã and PR2 Vereda do Pico do Castelo, both bookable like any other IFCN trail.

• How far ahead the calendar opens. The FAQ only confirms that same-day and next-day bookings are possible when places remain. When IFCN reopened PR1 every day of the week, it put those dates on sale more than three weeks early, so the window is not limited to tomorrow (IFCN notice on the PR1 reopening).
• A fine or penalty for walking without a booking. None of the fee pages, the FAQ or the service page states one (IFCN FAQ and SIMplifica service page).
• How tickets are checked on the trail. The pages describe the tickets you receive, not the check itself (SIMplifica tutorial video).
• A walking time or a difficulty grade for any trail. The register gives distance, route and status only (IFCN trail register).
• A parking rule or a parking fee at the trailheads. The trail slot governs entry to the path, not the car park (IFCN FAQ).
• The fare of the shuttle van down to Casa do Rabaçal, where the last road section is closed to private cars (Calheta municipal trail page).

What That Means for Your Plan

Book the slots you care about as soon as your dates are firm and the calendar shows them, rather than waiting for the day before. Treat any walking time you read, including on tour cards, as that operator's estimate. And if a trailhead has a car park that fills, arriving early is the only official-sounding advice there is, because nobody publishes more.

The hikes hub lists every route with its register distance, and the costs page puts the fees beside the rest of a Madeira budget.

Because every trail needs its own slot, a walking week is a small scheduling exercise. Put PR1 on the clearest forecast day and use the Madeira weather page to pick it. Stack cheaper levada trails into a 1-day or 3-day rate on the other days.

For the trails that finish far from their start, solve the return with a transfer or a second driver using our getting around guide. If you want a ready framework, our five-day Madeira itinerary slots the bookable trails into a sensible order.