Day 15: The South Coast with Waterfall, Skywalk & Cristo Rei

July 30, 2025

Today's Highlights:

• Cascata dos Anjos
• Cabo Girão Skywalk
• Cristo Rei do Garajau

Today we have to say goodbye - my daughter's vacation ends today, her flight home is this afternoon, and the next university exam awaits 🥹

Once the suitcase is packed, we head towards the airport with a few short stops along the way.

The first stop is the waterfall above the old coastal road Cascata dos Anjos.

We find a parking spot at the end of the access road (there are not many tourists around yet) and walk the last 100m behind the barrier to the waterfall. There are already some photo enthusiasts taking pictures in front of and under the waterfall.

We join the line and take pictures too, before a car (!) drives through the closed road by the waterfall...

We continue through the old tunnels back to the main road and on to the Cabo Girão Skywalk.

Here we are incredibly lucky as a car is just parking right in front of us. It’s an absolute parking chaos here. The entrance fee for the Skywalk is paid at the machine (€3 / person), and with the ticket, we go through turnstiles.

The Skywalk is quite busy and I dare not step on the glass platform, but from the side, you can also enjoy a great view - and my daughter can take photos from the front 😃😅

It has gotten really hot now...

We quickly stop by the souvenir shop, where they have those funny-looking Poncha mixing sticks again 🤣

We continue past Funchal to Miradouro Christo Rei do Garajau. In the scorching sun - wow, it’s hot - we walk the path to the viewpoint, past the cable car that takes sun-seekers and water lovers down to the beach Praia do Garajau, all the way to Cristo Rei. We skip the last part - too many steps - to the actual viewpoint today. It’s too hot!

Next to the cable car, there’s a small bistro/cafe where we enjoy delicious Bolo do Caco bread with cheese and mozzarella. For dessert, we have super tasty Pastel de Nata and a cappuccino.

At a sweltering +33 degrees, we drive to the Miradouro do Rosario, where we watched my daughter’s flight land last week. According to Flightradar, two flights are about to land, one Ryanair and one TAP. After a short wait, we see the Ryanair aircraft approaching the island, it takes the same curve as the Discover last week and lands without any issues. So hopefully there won’t be any wind-related delays today 🙏🏻

At the airport, I jump out of the car with my daughter and lead her to the line at the check-in desk, which is not open yet.

As fate would have it, a few vacationers are standing in front of us, including our neighbors and their kids in line!!! I can’t believe it! After greeting them and knowing that my daughter doesn’t have to be bored alone at the gate 🙏🏻, I leave the airport.

We drive through the many tunnels back to Calheta, later see on Flightradar that my daughter took off safely, and we chill by the pool.

Then it’s also time for us: pack the suitcase and slowly say goodbye, because we’re continuing tomorrow!

For the statistics:

Walked: 5 km

Drove: 118 km

Overnight stay: Villa Cró in Calheta

Weather: Plenty of sun, up to 33 degrees