“A 2,000-word SEO article optimized for "project management software" with keyword-stuffed H2s and no clear entity definitions might rank #1 on Google but score poorly for semantic similarity in a RAG system.” it says on discoveredlabs’ blog post about AI Citations (https://discoveredlabs.com/blog/ai-citation-patterns-how-chatgpt-claude-and-perplexity-choose-sources).

Marketers have learned to cheat the system and optimize their content for the status quo but seems like the tables have turned to make this type of content obsolete. And people looking for reliable information are understandably turning to LLMs to dig out the actual useful information for them. Almost like an assistant doing the grunt work.

OtterlyAI analyzed more than +100 million AI citation instances over a 30-day period to understand what drives visibility in AI Search. Of all citations observed, 5.54% came from social media and video platforms. Within that subset, YouTube represented 31.8% of social media citations*, 1.8% of all citations. But each LLM acted quite differently.

Perplexity came in the lead with 38.7% of YouTube citations through real-time web crawling, followed by Google AI overviews at 36.6%.

Here is a quick breakdown of how LLMs refer to YouTube videos in their answers:

Source: The YouTube Citation Study 2026 by Otterly* https://otterly.ai/blog/youtube-ai-citation-study-2026/

Google, since it owns YouTube, has direct access to all YouTube videos and all their metadata. It can see transcripts of all videos, their titles, descriptions and already knows how popular they are.

Whereas it is not possible for other LLMs to have access to this information. Perplexity reportedly have been scraping Youtube data, to the chagrin of Google. Using bulk YouTube transcripts to train independent models generally violates YouTube's Terms of Service. But I believe it is a grey zone to use YouTube as a source of truth by LLMs.

Another research done by WEGLOT in June 2026 (https://www.weglot.com/blog/does-googles-ai-favor-youtube) with the setup of 60 distinct queries covering four categories: Tutorials, Niche Product Reviews, Technical Popularization, and News Explanation found that YouTube is genuinely a dominant resource for how-to content, and remains the go-to platform for it.

And even when YouTube is not used as a direct source to build an answer, it is used by Claude and Gemini as a further reading resource. Based on this research, both for Claude and Gemini, YouTube remains as one of the main sources.

These studies are helpful to get a glimpse into how different LLMs interact with YouTube but the truth of the matter is these balances are changing constantly. It is easy to get lost in the weeds of researching which platform cites YouTube the most and which LLM to optimize for. The underlying fact remains, YouTube, just like reddit is a source relied on by most tech-savy internet users to learn, to reference, to understand.

As long as these platforms stay popular, they will be included in the decision making process one way or another. All the popularity research conclude with similar advice; “YouTube remains a high-value platform for AI visibility”, “YouTube citations from AI models are a real channel worth investing in”

YouTube used to be the main channel for education and entertainment used by millions of people, a fact solidified by the months (an in some countries years) under lockdown during the COVID pandemic. But to nobody’s surprise, the way people educate themselves have changed with AI and the rise of the Short form video.

I’ve come across plenty of videos by tech education creators on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZ4mrm6PuII, youtube.com/watch?v=WCGTQBCE3FA&t=8) who’ve become aware of the decrease in the attention they get from tutorial style videos. People are not coming on YouTube to learn anymore, they learn how to do things with LLMs and in most cases they don’t even want to learn anymore. They get LLMs to write their code, skipping some of the most tedious parts. Why learn how to use a Python library if you never end up using it yourself in code anyways.

Now, if you look at how the independent creators have shifted their channels, you’ll see that they’ve pivoted into the thought leadership side of things. Commenting on what happened, discussing how a new upgrade will change things, sharing their opinion on a discussion. Or they’ve fully embraced the “vibe coding” side of things and started covering tutorials over that instead.

Does this mean company accounts should follow suit?

This is where it gets interesting. One thing we need to remember is LLMs are not creative machines coming up with ideas or generating tutorials from scratch. They are built to manipulate information (basically, words) and spurt out the most probably string. Meaning, they need to be fed something.

This is a good opportunity for company accounts to create the most relevant tutorials in their domains and becoming a leader in their field. Especially in their finer niche.

You could even say, the strategy has not changed. You’re catering to your viewers still and you’re catering to the LLMs. You just need a finer balance of targeting both.

Luckily, it is not as hard as it sounds once you understand the building blocks.

Quick fixes:

• Create a transcript, make sure to edit it (correct technical terms, figures, references) and upload it to YouTube.
• Include chapters in your description.
• Actually describe what you’re explaining in the video with a couple of paragraphs.
• Use descriptive titles. Not “You won’t believe the results” but “Performance comparison between X and Y”.

Long term fixes:

• Learn about your audience, what kind of videos are they looking to watch? Both in terms of topics and style.
• Pay attention to your competitors and friends: what are other channels covering?
• Invest in better video and audio quality, make it easier for people to watch your videos once they run into them.
• Improve packaging to make it easier for not only machine but also your audience to understand your message from the get go.

The Tech company YouTube playbook used to be fairly simple. We wanted attention from tech-savy viewers. Developers, CTOs. Within the bounds of developer relations, the main goal was to serve them.

This came in a bunch of different forms; educating viewers on how to use the company’s own tools, education viewers about how to use other popular tech in combination with the company’s offerings, keeping the pulse on the latest developments in the tech world.

In the big picture, I can’t say the principles have changed. Any devrel operation worth its salt should be looking to serve their community before asking them for anything in return. But how we reach the developers have changed.

But what is the implications of this change? How do we need to create/alter a YouTube strategy to find ourselves a place in the new order of the world?

Online consensus on this seems to not have been reached. And information on YouTube’s effects on LLM visibility are a soup.

To maximise the effectiveness, I’d like to share what I found in a structured way. I’ll be sharing my findings in the form of a series as I find the time to piece them together.

Our lives are getting easier by the day, thanks to AI but our jobs are about to get much harder.

Producing content, doing post-production, creating visuals, editing used to be my main headaches. I remember spending hours perfecting a 5-second animation. Now recording is much more forgiving and editing is so much easier.

BUT

I get the feeling that the playing field is shifting considerably. I’m not the only one who has the latest tools. Everyone is leveling up; everyone’s job is becoming easier. And as we live in a capitalistic society, nobody’s going to stop trying to do things better, faster or more efficiently than you and me.

You can use Claude to write your video scripts and suggest video animations, but if you haven’t selected the right topic to cover, it won’t make a difference. You can embed the flashiest animations but if your delivery doesn’t land, they’ll click away.

I think the next differentiator will be the ability to read the audience and understand their needs. What do people want out of you? How do they want it conveyed? How can you come across as real, legitimate, and trustworthy?

The quality-quantity scale is finally tipping back toward quality.

We have been traveling full time for three years and depending on hotels and restaurants for everything other than the clothes on our backs. Transitioning into living in a camper proved to me just how many “things” we need to sustain ourselves. Even when trying to keep it to a minimum, to maintain a level of comfort, all of a sudden you go from a medium sized suitcase and a backpack to quite literally a truck full of things.

Yet everyday I find that I need so very little in life.

I’m not a minimalist and I like my things but my sense of comfort gets so bloated that it becomes difficult to distinguish the actual need or simple want from the insatiable consumerist urge.

Though the more I spend happy days walking around in my shoe with the ever-so-slightly-undone nose, the more I become aware where my happiness actually comes from.

Topic selection is harder than it looks because it requires genuinely understanding your audience's problems at a granular level. A developer-facing company making videos about "AI trends" or "the future of cloud" is competing with every major tech publication and YouTube channel on the internet. But a video that answers a very specific question — one that a developer types into the search bar at 11pm while debugging something — has a real chance of being found, watched, and remembered. Specificity wins on YouTube in a way it doesn't on most other platforms.

Measuring success is the next place teams get lost. The instinct is to watch subscriber counts and view numbers, which are visible and feel meaningful. But a video with 400 views, mostly from people inside your ICP, that generates three inbound conversations is doing more work than a video with 40,000 views from a general audience that never converts. The metrics worth tracking are watch time, audience retention, and what happens after someone watches — not the numbers that look impressive in a slide deck.

Adapting strategy based on what you learn is where the real discipline comes in. Most teams either ignore the data entirely or overcorrect — abandoning a content direction after two videos because the numbers weren't there yet. YouTube rewards patience and iteration. A better approach is to identify which videos outperformed expectations, understand why, and double down on that direction. This is where having defined content lanes matters: rather than making a different kind of video every week, you pick two or three formats or topic areas and get better at them over time. Consistency of direction compounds in the same way the library itself does.

Following trends is the last trap worth naming. When a new framework drops or a viral topic takes over tech Twitter, it's tempting to chase it. Occasionally that's the right call. But trend-chasing without a clear content strategy is just noise — and developers notice when a company is trying to ride a wave rather than saying something genuine. The teams that build real audiences on YouTube are the ones that know what they stand for and make that clear in every video they put out, regardless of what's trending that week.

This is the compounding effect that most companies miss. Every video you put out adds to a library that grows in value over time. A tutorial you recorded eighteen months ago is still showing up in search results, still getting watched by developers trying to solve that exact problem, still introducing your company to someone who's never heard of you. Social media asks you to keep feeding it. Done right, YouTube keeps paying you back.

The implication is simple but easy to overlook: a smaller, well-positioned YouTube presence will quietly outperform a much louder social media operation over a long enough timeline. You don't need volume. You need videos that match what your audience is already searching for — and the patience to let them accumulate.

Soon we'll be trekking towards the highest mountain in the world. That's awesome. The feeling on unpreparedness slowly sets in, but I revel in it. Oh it's a great feeling. Uncertainty ahead. It's fueling!

We only have one day and two evenings to prepare before we leave Kathmandu and start out journey to the Khumbu region. Not much time for sightseeing. Let's begin.

…

Today was the day we conquered Everest Base Camp. Compared to the other parts of the trek, this is actually a relatively easy walk. The path is clear, it's well trodden, it's relatively flat. The only challenge is the altitude, but not much else. It doesn't feel like a big achievement right now. But it's a name that all people will recognise when they ask where we went in Nepal. We did the 3 passes trek. "The what? Did you go to everest?" Well, yes, we went to everest base camp as well. "Oh cool!! How was it?"

I think I will lie and say it was really tough. Sounds cooler.

…

Right now, it's 21:45, we're lying in our tent on a ledge up a mountain, overlooking the town of Ölüdeniz. Unfortunately for us, this particular town is full of British tourists, which means that even on a Monday night there is a large amount of clubs playing terrible music - and we hear them all! Will it be a sleepless night? We didn't make it high enough up the mountain before the sun set. Up there, probably another hours walk, is a better, more protected ledge. Protected from British laughs and noisy, drunk yelling.

Last night we arrived in Fethiye, tired. Checked into a nice hotel. Had a burger. Slept. Spent a couple of hours getting our last things in order. Started walking with our backpacks. Were offered a ride by a local turk in his huge Ram truck (the guy's first wife was Russian and he has 7 kids spread across 4 countries, how about that). He dropped us in Kayaköy, where we walked through the old Greek village of Kayaköy that was abandoned when Turkey and Greece had a big population exchange back in the early 1900's. The village remains, abandoned, long a ghost town. We walked on. We met Russians. We walked more. I bought some watermelon, which soon after prompted a Russian running to exclaim "where did find it?!" We started scaling the mountain. We stopped at dark. Pitched tent. Ate watermelon. We're now suffering, because the brits keep yelling.

We're not officially on the Lycian way yet. Tomorrow.

Sweating a lot today. No shower. Just washed face & feet with some of our drinking water. I probably smell.

Girlfriend just hid all our food in a bag outside because "what if a bear comes". I think there are too many Russians around for bears to dare visit this area..

Day 2

Walked today: 20 km (total: 28 km)

Time on road: 8.5 hrs

Total ascent: 1,078 m

It's night again. We walked the whole day. I still haven't showered. Now I surely smell bad. Woo!

At some point last night the partying brits finally went back to their caves to hibernate before next day's hangover. Sleep wasn't great, so our morning started a bit later.

Read on at Polarsteps

We take a so many things for granted when living in our own homes in the big cities. Not even take them for granted, we find so many ways to complain about them too. Nothing seems ever to be perfect and it bothers us. But now that I’ve been on the go and without a home of my own for more than a year, here are things I find that I appreciate the most when I do get to have them in a rental home.

1. A couch (+ points if it’s also comfortable)

Right now, I’m sitting on our surprisingly comfortable couch in Popoyo, Nicaragua. This is the couch that inspired me to to write this. We don’t think of couches at all since they’re such standard items in a home. But it’s been very common for me to have no were to sit comfortably. Generally, there are dining table chairs or a bed. Just to have a comfortable couch I can be half sitting and half lounging always makes me happy.

2. Dishwasher

This is a bit of a no-brained and I know some people might not even have a dishwasher in their homes butI’ve always had one since I graduated university and without a dishwasher I always find myself washing dishes, pots and pans. They are not commonly found in holiday rental type of apartments so when I see them I’m happy beyond words.

3. Space

It’s a bit of a luxury to have your own empty space to walk around in. And when I say space, I mean a small floor area with nothing on it. Maybe one square meter or two. Most holiday rentals are designed to use the space as well as possible so you don’t get free roaming space; just enough for a bed and your bags. But only when you don’t have it for a long time, you realize how valuable it is to be able to stretch, do a little yoga or just exist in that little empty corner of the room.

4. A wardrobe

Doesn’t have to be fancy or doesn’t even have to have doors, a couple of shelves and maybe a hanger with (hopefully 🤞) more than 4 hangers makes a big difference. Having no storage space for clothes and some itsy bitsy things like toiletries dooms me to leave everything in my bags. And in places I stay for more than 10 days, living out of my luggage is the fastest path to chaos and feeling overwhelmed.

5. A clean sponge

How many times have I stood there with a dirty piece of cutlery in my hand, having realized my mistake of using an item in the kitchen, trying to hype myself up to touch that sponge that seems to have been in use for more than a decade? Probably two or three times. Now I know better. I check to see what the dish washing situation is before using anything in shared kitchens. No one wants to touch a wet cold piece of discolored bacteria mansion.

6. Pillows

Hotel and airbnb pillows are so hit and miss. In one stay I would get the best pillow I ever had and in the next one just a thin layer of cotton imporsenating as a pillow. Depending on the length of stay there could be solutions to this problem like buying a cheap pillow to use in the meantime or using the throw pillow from the couch. You learn to be adaptable while travelling. But having a nice consistent pillow experience every night is for now a thing of dreams.

There is probably plenty more.

I’d love to say “once I go back to living the city life I will be more aware of the everyday gifts I have and will not complain about small details” but I know that’s not true. Very likely I will forget to be grateful for the fact that I can get a new sponge out of the 5 pack of sponges to replace the old one or that my clothes are sitting nice and organized for me in my own wardrobe and complain how I’m missing just one more shelf and how this certain type of dish soap smells a bit too lemon-y. Maybe not… We’ll see.

The journey started by taking the cable car to the top of Funchal towards an area called Monte. It was a fairly clear day so once we made it to the top, we caught a nice glimpse of the city at our feet. This must have been either our second or third weekend on the island and it was the day after the clocks were moved back an hour. The same morning we had joined a group workout organized by the nomad community on the seaside which reminded me how much I am not a HIIT workout person. Because of the workout and many other delays (laziness to some extent), we started the day quite late.

It was already 3 pm by the time we reached the top of the cable car. We had heard from a friend we met the week prior that the cafe at the top of the cable car was pretty good, so we sat there and made a quick plan for the afternoon as we sipped our coffee. The decision was to walk up a path that went pretty much straight up the hill to a viewing point. We could have instead stayed to walk around the botanical garden that was level with where we were, but where is the fun in that? (There is actually a lot of fun in that. We never managed to visit, but apparently, the Monte Palace botanical garden is very big and beautiful.)

Starting to walk up, we realized that the path was pretty much stairs all the way up, wet and slippery from prior heavy rainfall. This might be familiar if you've ever been to Madeira: mostly round stairs that you see everywhere, made from small stones. Very many of them. Up, up and up. It seemed endless. Every 500 meters or so there were Jesus checkpoints, letting you charge up on spirits to help get you to the top (okay, these were simply small shrines dotted all over the path). Some unknown source (Jesus is that you?) gave me the power to put my head down and just keep going up. One foot in front of the other.

Our goal was to reach Pico Alto, which was supposed to have amazing views over Funchal as the highest vantage point this close to the city.

Thinking back now, it wasn't surprising to see no one else going in the same direction as us. It was a wet and cloudy day, the path was quite steep, it was already afternoon and Pico Alto was reachable by car. But if they did go there by car, would they see the falcon we admired, halfway up, resting on a dead tree? I doubt it.

The view when we were on Pico Alto.

And a photo from a sunny day from visitmadeira.com. Would have been a nice view.

After an hour or so of climbing, we reached Pico Alto. The sky was completely obstructed by the low-hanging clouds. The visibility was around 2-3 meters. But on the bright side, when we started walking up we didn't even know that Pico Alto was a place where one could admire the city from up high. So I can't say we felt too betrayed by the weather.

There are 3 peacocks in this image. They are very well-camouflaged.

By this time it was around 4:30 pm. Oblivious to the fact that clocks were moved one hour back the night before, we thought we had 3 hours of daylight until the sunset. In reality, we only had 2. So we took our sweet time, walking on, eventually reaching a place that very randomly had these beautiful peacocks roaming the grounds. And not a person in sight.

Parting with our newly found friends who seemed more interested in pecking at the ground, we continued to a cafe that was close by to grab a bite. And a poncha, the most Madeiran alcoholic beverage. Because alcohol when hiking is a great idea. Made by locals, from citrus and honey, using a little penis. Worry not, that’s just the name of the wooden stick they use to mix the ingredients together. Why they called it that... to this day we don’t know.

Once we started walking again, it didn't help that half an hour later we ran into the cutest family of donkeys. We spent as long just feeding and petting them. So many new non-human friends were made on that day.

By then it was 6 pm, with the sun about to set in 30 minutes, although we thought we had longer. Based on the plan we had made earlier while having our tomato soup and beverage made with the help of a little penis, we had another hour and a half before it even started getting dark. We started heading into a path that was not marked or annotated on any map we could find, but it looked kinda cool and like an actual path.

As the sun made its way lower and lower and the day started getting darker, we were still chatting away and comforting each other about how on schedule we were and how we'd make it back home before it got dark. Being the smart little cookies we are, it took us just a while longer to realize that it was getting dark right there, at that very moment. The plan had been to find our way to a road and hitchhike back home. What was not part of the plan was to do the next couple of hours of walking in the dark… with no headlamps… as our batteries got closer and closer to the danger zone.

From where we were, we could see where the top of the hill was. We agreed to use the last bit of sunlight to get to the top just to see the view up there. Even though I get easily stressed by uncertainty and things not going according to plan, I was feeling fine and even slightly excited about the potential of trying to make it out of the woods in the dark. As we pushed on with a combination of walking and running, we reached the top and lo and behold, the sunset Gods had not forsaken us. The last rays of the sun were piercing through the clouds upwards, leaving a pinkish-orange trace all over the sky. The clouds looked like they were left there to hang in stillness by someone, just to create this view. Just perfection. We could have rushed, we could have disregarded this view and just pushed on trying to find our path. But we didn't. There is a life lesson there somewhere.

At the top, there were some man-made structures, a well, a small shed and (not sure whether it was natural) no trees, only thigh-high shrubs. That's why we were able to see the sky so clearly.

We moved on. On this one app we were using a lot, it looked like the best path to take us to where we needed to be was going down the hill we were on. We could see it in the app, but it was impossible to find on the ground. Where is this path? We run to and fro in confusion. For some reason, which could be natural disasters, landslides or other plants growing over it, the path was nowhere to be found. Just lots of prickly bushes and intimidating, steep drops. Not the most comfortable place to be in the twilight. We decide to put technology aside and use common sense instead, tracing our steps back where we came from, however now in near complete darkness, stepping in invisible, cold puddles of water.

Slightly cold, running out of battery and faced with the uncertainty of finding a safe way to get home, I still felt quite calm. The only challenge left between us and the road was a few minutes more walking and passing a river. Of course, my brain was working overtime to try to find another reason as to why I should be scared. The only thing I could come up with, given the lack of wild animals in Madeiran forests, was very hungry stray dogs that lived in the forest who might see us as easy prey. The river was nearly dry, no dogs decided to attack us and we made it to the road. It was a nicely paved road, but not one of the main arteries of the island. This meant that first of all, the road was not lit up, and secondly, not many people had a reason to be driving there after dark.

The few people who were driving would probably see us a bit too late to make a decision to let us into their car or not. Doning my awkward smile that clearly shows that I’m not used to asking for favors from strangers, I put my thumb up, shyly, for the oncoming traffic to see.

The first couple of cars that passed us slowed down enough to give us slight hope but were in reality likely trying to make sure that they don’t run us over. Nice enough… I started thinking “Well, maybe we will need to walk a good chunk of the way home”. After a couple more attempts we started walking in the direction of Funchal. Walking the whole way was not really an option, because it would have taken us a good 5-6 hours, if not more, on an unlit road with cars speeding past every now and then.

A few minutes down the road, the curb disappeared, at which point we were very exposed. I have to confess, at this point, I did start feeling a bit of dread. Worst case, we would have needed to sit somewhere in the dark until morning, but I wanted to return home rather than spend the night outdoors. Luckily, after walking in dread for a while, a car that had yet again passed us actually decided to stop a couple of meters ahead of us. Doing my little thankful run towards the car I was practicing what to say when I reached it. But, in the end, all we needed was “Hi, are you going to Funchal?”. Luckily they were and we hopped in.

It was an Austrian family who were on holiday in Madeira. They said they were used to people hitchhiking in the mountains back home and it did not feel scary or sketchy to them. In the backseat, it was me, Aleksei and their two young kids. Going down the windy roads, me and the youngest kid both got car sick. I was somewhere in between gratefulness and nausea.

There are 20+ local-recommended routes. These are numbered with PR . These are frequently maintained, have thorough signage on the path, have parking spaces at their trailheads and are easy to navigate and get information on thanks to the government website.

But these are not the only possible trails you can follow. There are plenty of other paths you might stumble upon if you go exploring. But since Madeira is an island of heavy rain which makes the soil very soft and prone to landslides and there are scary cliffs everywhere, it is recommended to not be too reckless when exploring.

The local-recommended trails list: https://ifcn.madeira.gov.pt/atividades-de-natureza/percursos-pedestres-recomendados/percursos-pedestres-recomendados.html

Due to heavy rains, rock falls or maintenance some trails might be closed. It is a good idea to check whether the trail you want to walk is open on the government website linked above. These closures are serious. People have gotten stranded in tunnels, got injured badly or even lost their lives when they ignored the warnings. So please don’t attempt closed trails.

Example trail guide.

If you click the small icon to the left of the PR number of the trail, you will get a helpful info sheet with a map, gradient and a description of the trail like the one below. These maps are also found at the trailheads. Save these maps to your phone before starting the hike. Navigating might get tricky.

Trails I recommend

I have not been to all the trails on Madeira. So there definitely are trails that are worth visiting outside of this list. But, based on all the trails I’ve hiked/run, these are my favorites.

These are also some of the more challenging hikes. The island offers plenty of routes for all levels.

• Vereda do Larano: My absolute favorite. After walking through a forest you end up on a cliff with amazing views of the Ocean. I recommend doing this one as a trail run with GoTrail Madeira if you feel like challenging yourself.
• PR 1 - Pico to Pico: Definitely recommend making this a sunrise hike. So you can beat the crowds and enjoy the magnificent sunrise from the trail. You need to get lucky with the weather though. The second time I went there for sunrise the trailhead was covered in clouds. You can check the webcam to get an idea of the weather before you head out. P.S.: There are webcams for many other locations on the island. While it’s pouring rain on one side, it might be cloudless skies on the other so they really come in handy. A quick Google search will suffice to find these webcams. Keep in mind you need to park your car and walk 15-20 mins to the trailhead for this hike. So arrive with enough time. There is a viewing point ~1km into the hike that everyone goes to watch the sunrise. We opted to go even further than that and found a spot another kilometer or so in where we were alone and could watch the sunrise in peace.
• PR 6 - Levada das 25 Fontes: Has a bunch of waterfalls, including (in my opinion) the most impressive waterfall in Madeira.
• PR 9 - Levada do Caldeirão Verde: Only partially done. Includes a bunch of tunnels and it is a very green path.
• PR 13 and/or 14 - Vereda do Fanal: Fanal forest is amazing and unique. Definitely visit it before you leave.
• Encumeada (e.g. PR 17): Encumeada is the name of the area in the middle of Madeira. It is very impressive to even drive through it. We did a trail run there with GoTrail which was super fun, going in and out of many tunnels, ending up in magical views covered by clouds which corresponds mostly to PR 17.
• PR 2 - Vereda do Urzal: First proper hike we did in Madeira. Great views of the surrounding rock formations.
• Ponta de São Lourenço (or PR 8 if you want to make it harder): More like a stroll than a hike (unless you walk the whole way), I would recommend going to the eastern tail end of Madeira for a sunset walk to take in the views as you watch planes fly over you right before landing on the runway.

Navigation apps

If you use the All Trails App, you will also find most of the trails there with their respective maps. It is slightly inconvenient because some of the recommended paths have multiple entries for their name and they do not always reflect the truth. So take what All Trails says with a grain of salt.

Maps.me is another app that we used which was helpful in times of making our own path and exploring. It is a GPS app that shows you all the paths around you. It does not have any pre-drawn paths in there but you define your own path and see where you are on the map. Great for getting out there and exploring. Very occasionally some of the paths it claimed to exist, did not. So again, be careful while using it.

Some vocabulary

• Levada: Irrigation channel that used to be the main way of carrying water from wetter parts to drier parts of the island. They are accompanied by walking paths.
• Vereda: Means path in Portuguese. So any trail that is not a levada is a Vereda.
• Pico: Means peak. But not the absolute peak. All higher points in Madeira have names starting with Pico.
• Pico Arieiro: Start point of the famous PR1 (Pico to Pico) trek.
• Pico Ruivo: Highest point of Madeira.
• Poncha: A local favorite cocktail. Made with aguardente de cana, honey, sugar, and citrus fruit. Many people love to have it after a long day of hiking.
• Caralhinho: The tool Madeirans use to make Poncha. We learned later from Daniel (our trail running guide and the founder of GoTrail Madeira) that it literally translates to “little penis”. Crucial piece of information. 😄

What you might need

• Water bottle: there are occasional stations to fill water bottles on trails. As tempting as it might be, it is not recommended to drink the water in the levadas. Our guide Daniel said some drink from them, but they also get periodic parasite shots.
• Headlamp: there are tunnels on plenty of trails in Madeira. Some of which are very long. Even if it’s a bright day out, you might find yourself in darkness in a tunnel. We found that it is helpful to have a headlamp with us to not waste the precious battery power of our phones and to not have to hold our phones in darkness while trying to not fall into the Levada inside the tunnel on a narrow path.
• Layers: even on the sunniest days, higher points in Madeira might feel cold. It’s always a good idea to bring an extra sweater with you.
• A dry outer layer: it rains a lot on Madeira. Better be prepared and have a waterproof layer with you.
• Trail shoes: I only brought a trail running shoe which is basically a running shoe that has a good grip on rough/muddy surfaces. I did not feel the need for hiking boots but the trails still get tricky with rocks, roots and mud. So use your best judgment.
• Knee brace/support: If you already have any knee issues, you might want to bring your knee bands. Madeira has a lot of climbs and descents.
• Some first-aid supplies: If you like running around on the trails, you will likely take a few falls here and there. It’s smart to carry around sterile wipes. And for peace of mind, make sure your tetanus shot is up to date, so you don’t need to spend a whole afternoon going from one emergency service to another. [Been there done that. However, they have great hospitals on the island so the experience was overall positive.]

Camping

Camping is only allowed in designated areas and only with a tent. The camping sites I’ve seen do not allow cars to drive to the camping ground since the camping ground is covered by wooden fences. But there is always space to park your car.

Camping spaces need to be pre-booked. Although some on the internet say you can just go camp at a camping site since someone who booked will likely not show up (it’s free to book) and they rarely check people’s camping permits.

This has one exception which is the camping site at Pico Ruivo. Pico Ruivo is the endpoint of the most popular hiking trail and is the highest point in Madeira and its camping spot is always full (or at least that’s what we heard) because it is a desirable place to camp.

You can also take your chance to wild camp but I’ve heard that sometimes the police use drones to control known camping areas to catch “illegal“ campers. Even if you do wild camp, make sure to not leave a trace. No one wants to run into poopy toilet paper while hiking.

Car rental (and getting around)

I definitely recommend renting a car. It’s very easy to do so and it is affordable. Many of the companies accept debit cards too (rather than credit card only). Getting around the island with public transport or taxis is not very feasible. If you need a quick ride though, you can use Bolt. There was no Uber when I was there.

• Vanscape: small company that has great customer service. Their cars are not the most powerful. There are plenty of steep inclines in Madeira. So you should be okay with going a bit slower on some of them. Their location is not at the airport but they can bring the car to wherever you (incl. the airport) are for a fee.
• RentX: Corporate company, professional rather than friendly feel. They have good and powerful cars.

Trail running

• GoTrail Madeira: Found and run by Madeiran locals, you can book guided trail runs with them. You get to run trails that are not on any online guide or map. Very nice local touch to trail running.

Other activities

For canyoning: FastRope Madeira. We went canyoning on one of our last days in Madeira. It was a heavy rainfall day and other companies deemed it too dangerous to go. But these guys were up for the challenge! Felt very safe the whole time and we had an amazing time. You can reach them on WhatsApp. They respond really fast.

Our first rental car in Madeira.

We arrived on a rainy day to Madeira. It was not cold or scary. Just slightly windy with the rain spattering enough to slightly make the shoulders of my sweater wet. Every Madeiran we came across was intent on telling us that "this is not normal, the weather is better here normally."

The next day did not prove their claims either. With our rental Smart car, we traveled along the west coast of the island, during which the rain clouds never stopped chasing us. Stopping to take in the magnificent views of the Madeiran cliffs, we were only spared 10 seconds or so at a time, after which we had to run to our car to take shelter.

One of the famous waterfalls that flows right into the ocean. There are many waterfalls all over Madeira. Especially after a rainy day, you will spot them all over the cliffs as you’re driving.

Not the most reliable car, being a seemingly ancient one, it refused to start one time, putting me in a very awkward position since I parked right behind the car of a family who were also enjoying the view. Much to Aleksei’s amusement I got flustered trying to start the car while simultaneously gesturing to the other car my apologies. But, like he said, we could have easily pushed the car out of the way, if needed.

That day was our first appreciation of the Madeiran coastline and the cliffs towering over it. We drove through Ponta do Sol, Jardim do Mar and Porto Moniz. All popular tourist destinations on the island. Ponta do Sol is a tiny town, and I mean truly tiny, famous for its attempts at becoming a nomad hotspot. We learned that a couple of years ago after the pandemic hit, a group of people tried to turn this small town into a haven for digital nomads by opening up a bunch of co-living and co-working facilities. Even though it was a hit at first, most people started preferring Funchal over Ponta do Sol for its convenience. There is still an active community of digital nomads in Ponta do Sol, but it seems to not be as vibrant as described.

Jardim do Mar is yet another tiny town tucked in between huge cliffs by the water. The only way to get to Jardim do Mar is through a tunnel. This made us question how people got there before the tunnels were dug. Maybe using narrow paths on those cliffs or maybe just by boat? It used to be a fisherman's town so the boat option might not be far fetched. Jardim do Mar still has a heavily local vibe. And while we were staying there for couple couple of weeks later on this trip, our favourite local was this little puppy poking his head out of the balcony he lived in to get pets. (People seems to lock their dogs on the balconies all day here. Doesn’t seem like a great way to treat your pet, but that’s a story for another day.)

Lastly, Porto Moniz is another coastal town, but it is a bit bigger than the last two. Its claim to fame is its natural pools made of volcanic rock. On the day we visited, the storm that was underway made any chance of swimming in these pools impossible. When we got back to Porto Moniz the next time though, we were able to enjoy swimming in the public pool together with its local fishes.

After 4-5 hours of driving, we had only seen half of the coast of the island. But it felt like we’ve been in and out of many different worlds with varying rock formations, climates and flora. As it is the beauty of this island, nothing prepares you for what else it has to offer.

Volcanic rock creates a natural formation of many sub-pools and varying depths.

Being the over-ambitious little pricks we are, on our 2nd morning in Madeira, on Monday, a workday, we woke up before sunrise to go for a trail run. As a testament to the tiny amount of reason left in us, we planned to run a close-by levada which was 13 kilometers round trip.

Levadas are artificial waterways with an accompanying path next to them. The system of levadas was made on the island to carry fresh water from the mountains down to the residential areas. They are maintained by the government, (some more than others) in the form of a bunch of guys with shovels, saws, and other equipment cleaning out dead plants and fallen over trees. The levadas are not in use anymore. The maintenance is done for the convenience of tourists and I have to admit they make for nice and flat scenic walkways.

Walking on a levada. Most are bigger than this with a wider path alongside it.

After a good climb with the car, we arrived at the parking lot of a small stadium, got our gear on and headed for the trailhead. Even though the trail was not particularly scenic or impressive, it still felt good to be outside. We had the option to just get out and exert ourselves in the wild before starting to work.

First trail run in Madeira. After this one, we had to take a nice long break for our knees to recover.

We chose Madeira because we wanted to enjoy its nature. But I can’t say most of our days were spent outside. Both of us have full-time jobs so we spent most of our time, during the week, living the central town life. That looked like going to the local coworking to get work done, take meetings and sometimes record videos during the week, followed by occasional walks around town to get coffee to get a little treat (a.k.a. pastel de nata), some dinner at a restaurant after work, watching TV and sleep.

The food scene, in Funchal at least, was unfortunately not my favorite part about Madeira. The island itself is frequently visited by cruises, and it is apparent in the type of restaurants, cafes and shops you find. Food tends to be low quality and over-priced. And on top of that, sadly for me, it is very meat and fish-driven town with an occasional cafe that wants to cater to the younger nomad crowd. So the options sometimes boil down to (if you feel like eating vegetarian or healthier): side salad and fries or overpriced okay-tasting Asian fusion dishes. It's safe to say I had a lot of fries and tomato soup during my time in Madeira, with wildly varying levels of tastefulness.

The weekends were a different story though. It's very easy to rent cars in Madeira, and apart from the popular season around the holidays, it is quite affordable. That's why even though the island itself is not too big and driving back to Funchal is always an option, we opted to stay the weekend nights away from Funchal. Most of our weekends were spent driving to one side of the island, finding something to do or somewhere to go, committing to it, getting lost, getting into minor trouble, finding a way to get out of the said trouble and making our way to the car and looking for a place to stay.

Our first experience with that was when we took the cable car to the top of Funchal towards the area called Monte… The story continues in Making friends in Madeira.