Walking on Faial: the Levada trail, Castelo Branco, Rocha da Fajã and which official trail to pick

Faial has eleven official walking trails, and most visitors only hear about two of them, the Caldeira rim and the Ten Volcanoes route to Capelinhos. Both are covered in our Capelinhos and Caldeira guide. This article is about the rest: which of them fits a half day, which need a whole one, and how to get to the start and back when a trail does not end where it began.

All figures below come from the official register at trails.visitazores.com, checked in September 2026. Trails close for repairs and after storms, so look at the trail page on the morning you go.

• One easy morning with good views: Morro de Castelo Branco, 3.7 km.
• A flat walk in forest, even on a grey day: the Levada trail, 7.6 km.
• Something steeper, with a coast at the bottom: Rocha da Fajã, 5 km.
• The quiet east of the island and its oldest ground: Ribeirinha, 8.3 km.
• A long day with a lift waiting at the end: Caminhos Velhos or Baleeiros.

This is the walk for a day when the top of the island is in cloud and the Caldeira rim is pointless. It follows a water channel along the high ground of the Capelo peninsula at around 680 metres, and the path barely climbs: the register grades it easy and gives two and a half hours for 7.6 km.

The channel was opened in 1964, after eleven years of planning and building, to carry water to a small hydroelectric plant at Varadouro. A two-kilometre stretch was restored in 2013. Most of the way runs through laurel forest, which looks fine in damp weather too.

It starts near Cabeço dos Trinta, in the parish of Capelo. Take the marked detour at the beginning: a short tunnel leads through the side of the cone into its crater, now filled with native scrub. The trail ends at Alto do Chão above Cedros, some distance by road from where it began. Arrange a taxi back to your car, or leave one car at each end.

This is the one to fit into your first or last day, because it starts not far from the airport at Castelo Branco. The Morro is a dome of trachyte that sticks out of the south coast as a small peninsula. It is a nature reserve, and the cliffs are a nesting site for Cory's shearwaters and terns.

The circuit is 3.7 km, easy, about an hour and a half. It starts at Lombega, just off the regional road, where there is a café, and follows a farm track and then the cliff edge through heather and fayatree. From the top you look west to Capelinhos and across the channel to Pico.

A circuit on the north-west coast, down to the Fajã da Praia do Norte and back up. The fajã is a shelf of flat ground at the foot of the cliff, largely buried by the Cabeço do Fogo eruption of 1672. The cliff above it is a fossil cliff, an old sea cliff the waves no longer reach, and the register lists it as a geosite of its own. The shelf's microclimate let people grow vines and keep cellars down there. The shelf also has the chapel of Nossa Senhora da Penha de França, built in 1787, and the beach of Praia do Norte.

It is 5 km and graded medium, with two and a half hours in the register. The hard part is the descent: the register warns that the way down the cliff is on dirt tracks that need careful footing, and rain makes them slippery. The trail starts near the regional road in Praia do Norte.

Short, 2.5 km, but the register gives it two hours and a medium grade because it winds up and down between volcanic cones on the Capelo ridge. The ridge has about twenty of them in a line, running out to Capelinhos. The trail starts near the access road to Cabeço Verde and passes the Furna Ruim, a lava cave 55 metres deep. You look down into it from the edge; you do not go in. Cross the gravel road on the ridge with care, as the register asks.

Cabeço do Canto and the Levada trail both start on the Capelo ridge, so they fit into one day: the short circuit in the morning, the levada after lunch.

The trails above are all in the west of the island; this circuit is in the east. The Ribeirinha volcanic complex, at about 800,000 years, is the oldest part of the island. The village was hit hardest by the 1998 earthquake, and the trail passes the ruins of the church of São Mateus, built in 1934, as well as the lighthouse of 1919, also damaged in 1998. It goes down to the small harbour at Boca da Ribeira.

It is 8.3 km, easy, two and a half hours, starting in the village centre. Part of it uses the regional road, where the register asks for care with traffic.

Three trails take a whole day and end far from where they start.

• Caminhos Velhos (PR07FAI), 17.5 km, hard, seven hours. Old village paths from Ribeirinha up the Graben of Pedro Miguel, a fault trench and one of the archipelago's main geosites, to the Caldeira, which you enter by a tunnel. It meets the Caldeira rim circuit and the Ten Volcanoes route at the top.
• Baleeiros (PR10FAI), 26 km, hard, seven hours. From the church at Cedros round the north and west to the old whaling station at Varadouro, which has natural pools to finish in. On the way are two lookouts, Cabeço da Vigia and Alto das Concheiras, still used to spot whales for the whale-watching boats.
• Faial Costa a Costa (GR01FAI), about 37 km and twelve hours in the register. Walk it over two days.

None of them has a bus you can count on at the far end. Faial's buses do not run on Sundays and are timed for school and work, as our getting around Faial guide explains. Book a taxi for a fixed time before you set off.

• Look at the forecast and at the top of the island from Horta. Trails above about 600 metres, the Levada included, can be in cloud when the coast is clear.
• Tell someone your route and when you expect to be back. The official safety page points out that mobile coverage can be weak away from the start and end points.
• Markers stand about every 500 metres. The posts are numbered; note the last one you passed, as rescuers use them to find people.
• Emergency number: 112.
• Download the trail map or use the official iTrails app before you leave Horta.
• The official trail pages for these routes list no fee (checked September 2026). Check again before you go, as rules in the Azores change.

What is the easiest walk on Faial? Morro de Castelo Branco, 3.7 km in about an hour and a half, starting at Lombega near the airport. The Levada trail is also easy, but at 7.6 km and one way it needs a lift back.

Which Faial trail works in bad weather? The Levada trail. It is almost level and runs through forest, so cloud costs you less than on the Caldeira rim. Avoid the Rocha da Fajã descent when it is wet.

Do I need a car to walk on Faial? For most trails, yes, or a taxi. The starts are spread round the island and the buses do not run on Sundays. The Entre Montes circuit in Horta is the exception.

Which trail has whales? The Baleeiros trail passes two whale lookouts still in use, Cabeço da Vigia and Alto das Concheiras, and ends at the old whaling station at Varadouro.