Levada dos Tornos

The hard part comes first. From the car park above the village a steep stair climb of 15 to 20 minutes takes you up to the water channel, and at a signed junction the gradient simply stops. From there the levada runs level along the hillside, through trees and ferns, with the river below and the valley opening out to the side. Turn right and the channel goes upstream, over several stream crossings, to a waterfall roughly 2.5 km along; in December it comes down heavy. The whole of that branch is 4 to 5 km from the car park. It stays empty, too — one walker covered 15 km here and met two other couples all day.

• Left branch closed — in April 2026 the left-hand levada was shut off, and PR2 itself was blocked about 6 km along.
• The climb is front-loaded — 15 to 20 minutes of steep stairs from the car park, and then the levada runs flat.
• Stream crossings — the upstream branch crosses several streams; they are easy enough to step across.
• Nothing at the trailhead — no toilets, no drinking water and no information board within 800 m of the start.

Drive up through Boaventura to the end of the road above the village, or stop lower down at the PR2 sign; from either, the way in is a steep flight of stairs, 15 to 20 minutes of climbing, before the path reaches the levada and levels out. An offline map app is worth having on the way up — the junction at the top is signed at the source of the levada.

Better: clear days in December and through the winter, when the waterfall on the upstream branch carries the most water.

Avoid: grey, low-cloud days. What the level section gives you is the view down the valley and the sound of the water, and cloud takes the first of those away.