Hiking Trail from Vila to Praia Formosa Competed!!

It was amazing!! From the main town, to the best beach, it is about 3-4 hours on the trail.

DO NOT go when it is a hot & sunny day, or if you have to, go early in the morning. I am here to report that I survived, even though we left at 3:30.

There is No Shade.

Also, as a person who hates bugs & poison ivy, I had a great time. No bugs (except flies in the caves) and no poison ivy, just a few vines with thorns here & there.

The trail is not well traveled, except by cows or goats. Make sure you go with people (and a GPS), even though we were well prepared-there were many points on the trail where we thought we were lost or that seemed like dead ends. I crawled under barbed wire at one point (beware of the caca de vaca!!) and at the end, we gave up and went to the road/miradouro-viewpoint (and saw to our surprise that the trail markets were indicating a trail along the road!)

All in all, it was hard but amazing! (Again, hard going uphill in direct sun but most of the trail was flat-ish)