PR2 Vereda do Urzal: the Curral-to-Boaventura traverse

We did PR2 for the first time on a November Tuesday because PR1 was socked in and PR6 had a four-hour permit gap. Drove up to Curral das Freiras with two guests, parked at Fajã dos Cardos, walked over the spine to Boaventura through laurissilva almost nobody bothers with. Four and a half hours, 10.6km, three other hikers all day.

PR2 is the trail that crosses the island. South to north, ridge to sea, from the volcanic amphitheatre of Curral das Freiras down through Boca das Torrinhas and into the Urzal laurel forest above Boaventura. One of the old paths people used before the roads. Now a permit hike almost nobody books because it isn’t on the top-10 lists. Four years living in Ponta do Sol. Here’s how we do it.

The trail in three sentences

PR2 runs 10.6km one-way from Fajã dos Cardos in Curral das Freiras to Lombo do Urzal in Boaventura, climbing from 519m to 1,450m at the Boca das Torrinhas pass before descending through laurissilva to the north coast. Around 4 hours 30 of walking, moderate difficulty, mostly downhill after the pass. It’s a linear traverse, so you need a car shuttle or a taxi back, which is the main reason most visitors skip it. (Full island context lives in our Madeira hiking guide. This post zooms in on PR2 alone.)

Where it starts: Fajã dos Cardos, Curral das Freiras

The trailhead sits at Fajã dos Cardos, on the upper side of Curral das Freiras, the village inside the near-vertical bowl of rock you can see from Eira do Serrado. From Ponta do Sol it’s 50 minutes by car: VR1 to Câmara de Lobos, then up the ER-107 through chestnut country to Curral. Park at the small turnout, signed with the green-and-yellow PR2 marker.

The trail climbs hard from the start. You gain almost 1,000m in the first 4km, up through terraces and exotic vegetation, then into open mountain at altitude. By the time you hit Boca das Torrinhas at 1,450m you’ve done the hard work. From there it’s two-thirds downhill through forest. Phone signal goes intermittent around the pass. Tell someone where you’re going. Standard north-coast levada rules.

What you actually see

The pass at Boca das Torrinhas is the headline. It sits on the central ridge with PR1.3 branching off east toward Pico Ruivo. On a clear day you can see both coasts from the saddle: south back into Curral, north down the green throat of the Boaventura valley. We’ve eaten lunch up there in February with cloud sea below us on the north side and bright sun on the Curral side. Twenty metres of footpath separating two completely different islands.

After the pass the trail drops into the Urzal forest, a stretch of UNESCO laurel forest most visitors never see because PR13 Fanal hoovers up the laurissilva attention. The Urzal section is denser, less photographed, more closed-in. Til trees, hanging lichens, mossy boulders, the kind of forest that feels older than the trail. You walk through it for the better part of two hours.

The ending matters too. Most Madeira hikes drop you at a car park. PR2 drops you in Lombo do Urzal, a hamlet above Boaventura where someone’s chickens will probably watch you walk past. No café, no shuttle stand, just the road and the smell of woodsmoke. We always feel like we’ve actually been somewhere.

The permit and the logistics

PR2 needs a permit through simplifica.madeira.gov.pt. €4.50 per person over 12, free for kids under. The official portal is the same broken flow we cover in our Madeira hiking permits 2026 guide. Madeira.fun/hiking finishes the transaction in English without crashing. Book 24-48 hours ahead in shoulder season. We’ve never seen PR2 hit its cap, but the system still wants the booking.

The bigger question is the return. PR2 is a one-way traverse, so you finish an hour’s drive from where you parked. Your options:

• Car shuttle. Two cars in the group: drop one at the Boaventura end before the hike, drive the second to Curral. Costs a morning, gives full control.
• Taxi back. Call from Boaventura when you finish. Around €60-70 back to Curral, more to Funchal or Ponta do Sol. Less reliable in late afternoon on the north coast.
• Public bus. Possible via SAM Rodoviária through Funchal, but it’s a 3-hour return that turns a 4.5-hour hike into an 8-hour day. Skip it.
• Hike it with Alex. Alex at mountain-alex.com runs PR2 in his Sunday community rotation. Easiest fix to the shuttle problem.

If you can’t sort the return, do the PR13 Fanal loop instead. Different forest, same vibe, no shuttle headache.

When to go

PR2 is a year-round trail, but the experience changes hard with season. For the full month-by-month picture across the island, our best time to visit Madeira breakdown sits next to this one.

• January, February: the pass at 1,450m can have ice on cold mornings. The descent into laurissilva is wet and dripping in the best way. Pack thermals and a proper shell. We’ve done PR2 in February with frost crunching on the pass and steam coming off the forest floor 200m down.
• March to May: prime. Wild flowers on the south-facing climb, dry trail underfoot, the laurissilva at its greenest. An 8am start gives you the whole day.
• June to September: the climb out of Curral is brutal in summer heat. Start at 6:30am or skip to October. The south-side ascent is exposed and gets into the 30s by 11am.
• October, November: our favourite. Crowds drop, light goes golden in the laurissilva. We’ve had the Boca das Torrinhas saddle to ourselves on a Wednesday in late October.
• December: north-coast storms occasionally close the lower forest sections after rockfall. Check the IFCN trail status page the morning of.

Status as of June 2026: open. We checked the night before writing this.

After-hike: where to eat on the north coast

You finish in Boaventura with a hiker’s appetite. Two food stops we use:

• Santana, 20 minutes east. Restaurante O Colmo. Espetada on a bay-laurel skewer, bolo do caco with garlic butter, the local poncha. The casas de colmo (thatched A-frame postcards) are a 5-minute walk after lunch if you want the tourist photo.
• São Vicente, 25 minutes west. Cantinho da Serra if you have time, Restaurante Encumeada on the spine road if you’re heading back to Ponta do Sol. Mountain food: caldo verde, picado, espetada.

If you did the car shuttle and you’re picking up the second car in Curral on the way home, As Vides in Estreito de Câmara de Lobos does the best espetada on the south coast. Worth the 25-minute detour.

FAQ

How hard is PR2 compared to PR1? Different hard. PR1 is exposed ridges, tunnels, cable sections, real fall risk in bad weather. PR2 is a long sustained climb followed by a long descent, no exposure, no tunnels, no scrambling. PR2 is endurance, PR1 is nerves. A fit hiker finds PR2 manageable. A hiker with knee issues finds the 1,000m descent into Boaventura punishing.

Can I hike PR2 as a loop? No. PR2 is a linear traverse from Curral das Freiras to Boaventura. No loop option that doesn’t add hours on tarmac. If you want a quiet out-and-back through laurel forest instead, look at PR18 Levada do Rei.

Is the permit actually checked? Sometimes. Rangers run spot checks at trailheads in high season, less in November. Either way the trail is in a protected area and €4.50 is the price of doing it properly. Book it.

Can I hike PR2 with a dog? Yes, on a lead. No tunnels, no cable sections, friendlier than most peak hikes. Bring water for them. Nowhere to refill across the 10.6km.

What about water and food? 1.5L minimum per person. The climb is exposed and there are no fountains. Pack proper lunch: we bring bolo do caco, sardines, a banana, dark chocolate. Eat at the pass with the view.

Which weather forecast should I check? Two of them. Curral das Freiras for the climb, Boaventura for the descent. They’re often completely different. Cloud at Boaventura is fine because the forest catches it. Cloud on the pass means no view from Boca das Torrinhas, but the trail itself is safe.

The bigger picture

PR2 is what Madeira hiking looked like before the Instagram tilt. A real crossing, not a viewpoint loop. A pass where you see both coasts. A laurel forest descent that feels like nobody’s been through in a week. The shuttle logistics keep the crowds off. That’s the trade. If you want to chain PR2 into a north-coast weekend, the full hiking pillar has the other PR routes worth stitching in.

Stay a month and the spine trails open up

A week in Madeira is a PR1 permit and a flight home. A month is PR2 on a Tuesday in October with the laurissilva to yourself, espetada at O Colmo for lunch, a swim at the pier before sunset.

We run Banana House year-round, one-month minimum. Seven private rooms in Ponta do Sol, 50 minutes from the Curral trailhead, an hour from the Boaventura end. The kind of base where you can sort the shuttle properly, wait for the right Tuesday, and walk over the island instead of around it.

Pick a month. We’ll see you at the pass.