Portugal scenic viewpoint
Balcões
You can see 115 km from here, looking north.
Calculating the panorama…
Drag to turn around. The relief is drawn 2.2 times taller so the ridges can be read; far ridges are paler, as in the real air.
The view
Up to 115 km away.
Calculated on the relief one degree at a time, up to 250 km, with the curvature of the Earth and the refraction of the air: what stands above the horizon from here.
Our own rating, from the relief and the climate only: open horizon (35 points), how far you see (25), sea and named peaks in view (20) and clear months (20).
- 115 kmFarthest ridgelooking north
- 86%Open horizonof the circle where the horizon is below your eyes
- 14%Seaof the circle where the horizon is the sea
- 10Peaks in viewnamed summits that rise above the relief in front
- 898 mAltitudeabove the sea, at the highest point of the viewpoint
The 10 peaks you can name from here
From west to east as you turn around: height, distance and direction. Each one links to its guide on Peakyas, our mountain atlas.
From the relief only: buildings, trees and haze are not in the model. On a hazy day you see much less; 250 km is the limit of our calculation.
The sun
The best sunsets are from June to September.
When the sun really disappears from this viewpoint — behind the relief or into the sea — and in which direction, on the 15th of each month, in local time.
- Jansouth-west94 min before the sea-level sunset42%
- Febsouth-west66 min before the sea-level sunset44%
- Marwest66 min before the sea-level sunset44%
- Aprwest42 min before the sea-level sunset48%
- Maywest56 min before the sea-level sunset50%
- Junwest54 min before the sea-level sunset55%
- Julwest52 min before the sea-level sunset56%
- Augwest54 min before the sea-level sunset60%
- Sepwest64 min before the sea-level sunset57%
- Octwest66 min before the sea-level sunset51%
- Novsouth-west76 min before the sea-level sunset44%
- Decsouth-west100 min before the sea-level sunset42%
- Time: when the sun goes behind the horizon you see from here.
- Minutes: how much earlier the relief hides the sun.
- %: share of clear sky that month (NASA, 2001–2020).
The highlighted months are the clearest. Golden hour starts about an hour before.
The place
Balcões.
Balcões is a scenic viewpoint in Portugal, 898 m above the sea.
On a clear day the farthest ridge you can see is 115 km away, looking north.
The sea fills 14% of the horizon.
10 named peaks rise above the relief in front; the most prominent is Pico Ruivo (1,862 m), 5 km away.
The horizon is open, below your eyes, over 86% of the circle.
The skies are clearest from June to September.
Get there and stay
- Ribeiro Friocampsite · 1.0 km · 18 within 10 km
- Refúgio das Caméliasplace to stay · 4.8 km · 108 within 10 km
- Porto da Cruznearest town · 6.0 km in a straight linePlaces to stay in Porto da CruzBooking.com · sponsored link↗
- Cristiano Ronaldo International Airport (FNC)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 12 km in a straight lineCar hire at FNC airport (Funchal)Discover Cars · sponsored link↗
Plan the visit
A guided tour, a bed nearby, a car.
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
From above
The viewpoint and its surroundings.
The satellite image of the 6 × 6 km around the viewpoint, with what OpenStreetMap shows nearby.
Around, in OpenStreetMap
- 92other viewpoints within 5 kmPico do Arieiro, Penha de Águia, Balcões and 89 more
- 30named peaks within 5 kmTorres, Curral Martinho, Achada do Teixeira and 27 more
- 13marked trails within 3 kmPR 1.2 - Vereda do Pico Ruivo, PR 11 - Vereda dos Balcões, PR 10 - Levada do Furado and 10 more
- 19shelters and huts within 5 kmChão das Aboboreiras and 18 more
- 15car parks within 3 km
- 2visitor centres within 5 kmCentro da Freira da Madeira - Doutor Rui Silva, Centro de Recepção do Parque Ecológico do Funchal
- 9restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- 18campsites within 10 kmRibeiro Frio, Unofficial large area of flat grass with some tree shelter, Chão do Pasto/Cruzes de Baixo and 15 more
- 108places to stay within 10 kmRefúgio das Camélias, Casa da Quinta, Residencial o curtado and 105 more
- cable car and funicular stations within 5 km
Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet.
In our other atlases
What you see from Balcões, and what is near.
Everything around this viewpoint — mountains, water, forests, birds, caves and the night sky — in the family's atlases.
Peakyas42 mountains within 25 km
Coastya3 beaches within 10 km
Darkskyas4 dark-sky places within 30 kmFigures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, OpenStreetMap, GBIF). Links open when each site is online.
Photographs
The view, as people saw it.
Other viewpoints nearby.
Balcões
Portugal
- 69Viewyas Score
- 115 kmFarthest ridge
- 10Peaks in view
- 898 mAltitude
Pico Ruivo
Portugal · 5 km
- 82Viewyas Score
- 164 kmFarthest ridge
- 5Peaks in view
- 1,825 mAltitude
Boca dos Namorados
Portugal · 10 km
- 72Viewyas Score
- 125 kmFarthest ridge
- 2Peaks in view
- 1,060 mAltitude
Cabo Girão
Portugal · 14 km
- 70Viewyas Score
- 94 kmFarthest ridge
- 2Peaks in view
- 597 mAltitude
Where these figures come from
| Name and type | Wikidata (Q19296457) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Sun | J. Meeus, Astronomical Algorithms |
| Peaks in view | Peakyas (Wikidata, CC0) |
| Panorama and altitude | Copernicus DEM GLO-90 / GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| Clouds | NASA POWER (CERES SYN1deg, 2001–2020; MERRA-2) |
| What is around | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Sister atlases | Peakyas, Islandyas, Coastya, Forestyas, Birdyas, Darkskyas, Cavernyas |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers, canyons, caves, dark skies, viewpoints, birdwatching or forests?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, in seven languages.
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Every canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Visit 
caves
Every cave with its real depth and length: the rock above, the temperature inside all year, and how to visit.Visit dark skies
Where the night is still dark: the sky of every place, the Milky Way month by month, the Moon, eclipses and auroras.Visit 
viewpoints
Every viewpoint with its real 360° panorama: the peaks you can name, how far you see and where the sun sets.You are here
birdwatching
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Every forest with its land-cover rings, what grows and lives in it, and the best months to walk it.Visit