Ribeira Brava

Built into the seafront that runs the length of the town, this free-access complex combines pools (one for children), a lounger area, toilets, changing rooms, a bar and a restaurant, and a beach of pebbles and black sand. Works in 2021 improved access to the sea and added walkways for people with reduced mobility, who reach the sun deck directly by the car-park lift. Water known for its quality — Blue Flag 2026. Bathing season 2026: 1 June – 22 September, a supervised beach with lifeguards assured. In a swell follow the flags: red = no bathing.

A pebble cove at the foot of the Campanário cliffs, renowned for the quality and clarity of its water, mild all year. You get down by a steep path on the cliff — closed shoes essential — or arrive by boat; on one side the bare walls that shelter the beach, on the other the vivid blue of the Atlantic. The regional tourism board reports the site temporarily closed: check before you go. No services on site. Bathing season 2026: 1 June – 22 September, but lifeguard cover not yet confirmed; classified as a limited-use beach. In a swell follow the flags: red = no bathing.

An Eden squeezed between the sea and a 250 m cliff: a narrow strip of land where mango, banana and avocado trees enjoy a microclimate and fertile soil. The pebble beach and its little pier, with showers and loungers, face a turquoise sea so clear you can see the bottom, and which tops 24 °C in summer. You reach it by the cable car down the cliff, or by boat. Bathing season 2026: 1 June – 30 September, but lifeguard cover not yet confirmed. In a swell follow the flags: red = no bathing.

Geosite in the parish of Serra de Água (Ribeira Brava). of the regional inventory: the best place to see the volcanic and sedimentary layers of the Encumeada Formation, whose reference section it is. About 600 m on foot along the road: mind the traffic.

Madeira's only plateau, at about 1,500 m, in the municipality of Ponta do Sol: on clear days the south and north coasts can be seen at once, otherwise the greens of nature dominate. High-altitude flora with endemics such as the thyme Thymus micans, important birdlife; it is the island's most important aquifer-recharge area, from which levadas and trails set out — to Rabaçal (PR 6.5, 13.1), Fanal (PR 13), Folhadal (PR 17) — with wind farms, forestry posts, leisure areas and shelters. Bica da Cana (1,620 m) and Pico Ruivo do Paul (1,640 m) are its high points; PR 27 (closed) reads the traces of the plateau glacier that covered Paul da Serra about 25,000 years ago. Fog, wind and cold possible in any season.

Ribeira Brava has long been a trading point on the west coast: produce from the neighbouring settlements has been sold and bought here for decades. The market has stayed at the centre of the town's daily life, with the fruit and vegetables the island's subtropical climate grows.

The west coast's knowledge centre on Madeiran culture, in a building that belonged to Funchal's Santa Clara convent in the early 17th century, converted into an industrial unit in 1853 — an animal-drawn cane mill and an aguardente still were installed in 1862 — then sold to the Junta Geral. The Regional Government created the museum here, opened on 15 June 1996 to a design by the architect João Francisco Caires, with the mission of researching, documenting and promoting the expressions of Madeira's culture and ethnography: fishing, farming, levadas, wine, crafts, transport, domestic life. Regional Directorate of Culture

On Ribeira Brava's seafront, the small round tower ordered in 1708 by the governor Duarte Sodré Pereira to protect the coast and the anchorage in the days of pirate and corsair attacks. The flood of October 1803 left it in ruins; restoration works begun in 1916 produced the present monument: a terrace with a sentry box, a round-arched doorway topped by an inscription and the national coat of arms on the north side, a niche with the image of St Benedict on the sea side. A landmark of the west coast's military heritage, to be seen with the São Bento church and the ethnographic museum.

The west-coast town, raised to that rank on 26 May 1928 and named after the "wild" stream that crosses it: a municipality of 65.1 km² and about 13,000 inhabitants, with Campanário (and its Fajã dos Padres), Serra de Água and Tábua, where farming — sweet potato, sugar cane, vines, bananas, exotic fruit — remains the main activity thanks to the privileged climate. On the seafront, the Blue Flag bathing complex, the São Bento fort of 1708 rebuilt in 1916 after the 1803 flood, the São Bento church and the Madeira Ethnographic Museum (1996) in a former sugar mill and distillery of 1862. The São Sebastião viewpoint overlooks it; the Encumeada road climbs its valley.