It was an amazing experience. The guide was so nice and helpful and explain a lot about what we saw. Even though there was a lot of fog in the beginning, rhe hike went wonderfully and the weather ended up being in our favour. I couldn't recommend this more. ????????????
The tour was very well organised & the tour guide was excellent. My only disappointment was the fact they would have known the weather was awful & could have pre warned us how bad it was to allow us to cancel if needs be. Yes we’ve climbed the highest mountain in Madeira, yes we had suitable clothing for the weather but did we see anything No which the tour guides would have been aware of prior to the trip taking place.
Having booked the tour with viator, due to the option of having walking poles, I was most disappointed to find that they had transferred my booking to a different company without informing me! So, no walking poles were available as the company I was now with didn’t provide these.
I tend to use walking poles on the Scottish Munros, as I find that they ease the strain on my (not so young) knees, esp when descending. To be fair though, the lack of poles wasn’t the problem I thought it might have been on the walk, and actually they may have been a hindrance at some points, esp the steep steel stair cases!
The ‘new’ guide was not particularly talkative, and only twice did we stop for him to point something out. Now, all we saw all day was the inside of a cloud, so it wasn’t the panoramic views I would have hoped for, but as the weather can’t be guaranteed I had no issue with that (it just means I may have to do it again to try and get the views). Maybe on a clear day, the guide may have spent more time pointing out the sights.
However, leaving the cafe at the start of the walk, we weren’t informed we weren’t going to the very top of Pico do Areerio, but heading away on the PR1 route. If we had known that, we could have taken this in, during the 10 minute ’toilet break’ we had before beginning, so as to at least get the photo opportunity.
So while the walk was good, at no point was it unsafe, plenty of steel rods fixed into the rock with wire hand holds, and was enjoyable.
The walk is described as ‘difficult’ , but there are a few places where it is steep. I mean really steep, both ascending and descending, and we had 2 folk who turned back within 10 minutes of setting off as they didn’t seem to understand what the walk entailed.
It was an enjoyable walk, shame about the views, but such is life, but I am really disappointed with viator for not informing me that they had transferred me to a different company without any consultation.
Don’t book the tour based on having poles, you really don’t need them, as you have the handrails to help you up and down the steep bits.