As a big film buff, I always enjoy checking out filming locations during my travels and on our recent trip to Madeira, Stefanie and I dropped by the places where the Disney+ Star Wars show ‘The Acolyte’ was filmed.

The majority of the series was shot on the island, which stood in for four different planets in the show. Even if you’re not a big Star Wars fan, most of these places are just beautiful and well-worth checking out in their own right. Here’s my guide on how to visit the Acolyte Locations on Madeira.

Spoiler Warning: This post contains some major spoilers for the show. Continue at your own risk 🙂

This post may contain affiliate links, and I might earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. For more info, click here.

How to Get Around on Madeira

Madeira has a pretty good bus network, but some of the filming sites are quite remote and can’t be reached by public transport, so the easiest way would be to rent a car, which is what we did. We went in the off-season and it was super cheap (less than 10€ a day for a Fiat 500, including insurance).

You can search for the best current offer in the box below.

Visiting the Acolyte Locations on Madeira

Most of the filming locations are in the northern half of the island, and I’ve tried to order them roughly from West to East, so you could technically visit them on a road trip along the northern coast, with a few side trips along the way.

Porto Moniz Pools – The Stranger’s Bath

Coordinates: N32°52.082 W17°09.984

Let’s start near Madeira’s northwestern tip in the small town of Porto Moniz. Like many places on the island, it has some natural swimming pools near the Ocean, but these are by far the prettiest we’ve seen on Madeira.

In the show they stand in for the place where the stranger has a bath with Osha watching. One of the establishing shots was filmed from the nearby promenade and you can see the base of the small islet Ilheu da Cima in the background.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t check out any of the other spots, as the entire area was closed because of the rough seas. If you come here in the summer, when the sea is calmer, you have a swim and try to find some of the other spots where they set up the camera.

The pools are at the north-eastern end of Porto Moniz, near the old Forte de São João Baptista, which holds a cute small aquarium with local fish.

Ribeira da Janela – The Stranger’s Cave

Coordinates: N32°51.324 W17°09.182

The Stranger’s Cave on the Unknown Planet was filmed on the beach of Ribeira da Janela, a tiny village just east of Porto Moniz. There’s a famous viewpoint called Miradouro Ilhéus da Ribeira da Janela, which looks out over the tall rock stack and little islets just off the coast, which are featured prominently in the show.

The little balcony from the show actually exists, albeit with a less futuristic-looking railing, but if you turn around, you won’t find a cave (and no lurking Darth Plagueis) but a little narrow corridor leading through the rock back to the road.

If you walk down to the pebbly shore, you can also find the shots of Mae walking along the sea to meet the Stranger (although the encounter itself was filmed at Seixal Pools – see below). We found it pretty easy to match up the shots, as there are plenty of characteristic rocks and boulders in the picture.

A word of warning: When we were there, we saw lots of beached Portuguese Man-‘o-War jellyfish between the rocks. They were dead, but even then, they are still highly venomous, so if you see something resembling a blue plastic bubble, make sure not to touch it.

To get to the filming sites, you’ll have to drive off the VE2 on a short stretch between two tunnels on the way from Porto Moniz to Seixal. You can park your car close to the viewpoint near the tunnel entrance to the old, now closed ER101 coastal road, somewhere around these coordinates: N32°51.288 W17°09.219.

Fanal Forest – Arrival on Khofar

Coordinates: N32°48.714 W17°08.457

In my opinion, the Fanal is one of Madeira’s must-see sights. It’s a magical forest of ancient, gnarled laurel trees, which are usually shrouded in fog. This gives the place a super mysterious and enchanted atmosphere, but it also made finding the filming locations from the show pretty hard.

We drove past the place several times, but never managed to see it not shrouded in fog. By sheer chance, we came across the most easily recognizable place, which is the small trail that Sol, Yord, Jecki and the other Jedi are taking on their way to Kelnacca’s hideout on Khofar.

To get there from Ribeira de Janeila, you’ll just have to follow the ER209 into the mountains for about 10 minutes. From the big parking spot at the eastern end of the Fanal Forest (at N32°48.518 W17°08.648), you’ll have to walk roughly in a north-easterly direction and up a steep slope. At some point, you’ll see the characteristic rock outcrop that’s in the background of the scene.

There should be some other filming sites around here, too, like the plateau where the spaceships land. We thought we could make that area out, when we walked a little further to the west in the direction of the small pond, but we weren’t sure with all the fog around and in any case it was impossible to snap a decent picture to get a comparison.

If you find any of the other places around, feel free to let me know in the comments.

Seixal Natural Pools – Mae Meeting the Stranger

Coordinates: N32°49.632 W17°06.634

Back on the coast, there are some more natural rock pools on our agenda, this time in the small village of Seixal, which is just a few kilometres east of Ribeira de Janeila. This is the place where we see the Stranger for the first time at his meeting with Mae on the Unknown Planet.

Mae stands in front of the eastern pool – the Poça do Mata Sete, which is easy to match up with the distinctive cliff in the background. A few metres to the west are the easily recognizable smoothed out rocks that the Stranger is standing on. We weren’t allowed to climb around the rocks, so the angle is slightly off, but it’s easy to see that the site fits.

To get here, you’ll have to drive off the VE2 at the western end of Seixal and ideally park your car at the main road (somewhere near N32°49.571 W17°06.675 ) to walk down the steep approach to the signposted rock pools.

When we were there, we had to pay an entrance fee of 2€ for the pools, which was the only time we had to pay to access any of the filming sites.

Seixal Beach – Leaving the Unknown Planet

Coordinates: N32°49.389 W17°06.147

At the other end of the town is Seixal’s little beach, which was actually one of only very few (natural) sand beaches that we came across on the island. At the northern end of the beach is yet another natural swimming pool and the eastern wall stands in for the pier that Osha and Qimir walk along to get to the spaceship when leaving the Unknown Planet.

Once again, the area was off-limits because of the rough seas, but it’s still easy to see that this is the actual location from the show. Just drive once across town to the eastern end of Seixal and park your car at the northern end of the beach. If you’re not allowed to go down, the best view is from behind the little chapel near the car park.

Poço dos Namorados – Mae and Qimir Arrive on Khofar

Coordinates: N32°47.319 W16°58.353

The next spot is about 20km further east near the pretty village of Boaventura. The pretty Poço dos Namorados (Lover’s Pool) with its small waterfall lies in the canyon south of the village and the whole area stood in for the place where Mae and Qimir landed to find Kelnacca on Khofar.

Thanks to the riverbed and the mountain peaks in the background, it’s easy to match up the shots (although it was a little cloudier when we were there). The little bridge over the river was updated to look more futuristic for the show, but it’s very easy to recognize.

There are also some terraces with stone retaining walls, that are clearly visible in the background in the scene where Mae and Qimir pack up their stuff. If you follow the path up the western flank of the valley, you’ll pass some spots that the two walk along on their way to the forest.

The first is somewhere around N32°47.317 W16°58.377, which we could make out thanks to the slopes and mountains in the background, although there was a lot more vegetation compared to when they filmed the series a few years ago.

Another spot is on the way back to the road at N32°47.350 W16°58.378, where the path makes a little bend. It started raining pretty heavily when we were there, so my picture is far from perfect, but you can make out the characteristic rock next to Mae on the left-hand side of my photo. The tall trees in the background were added digitally for the show.

To get to the area, you’ll have to follow the Estrada Regional 220 south from Boaventura proper to the Falca de Baixa neighbourhood. We parked our car near the bus stop at N32°47.476 W16°58.441 and followed the path south through the houses for about 10 minutes until we reached the Poço dos Namorados. The bridge is easy to spot from the trail, so you can’t really miss it.

Alice Peak – Olega City

Coordinates: N32°45.154 W16°44.510

The last two spots are areas where they filmed establishing shots for different planets. Both of them are near Caniçal at the north-eastern point of the island. The first spot is on the cliffs north of town near a viewpoint called Alice Peak.

From here, they filmed some shots of the little Ponta do Bode Peninsula, which stands in for Olega City in the show. We couldn’t get the angle quite right and I assume they might have used a drone to film the coast from a little farther down, but once again, the little rocky islets off the coast make it easy to recognize the spot.

To get there, you’ll have to follow the Rua des Feiteirinhas north from central Caniçal. We parked our car near the cemetery at N32°44.896 W16°44.445 and then walked to the filming spot through the otherworldly landscape to the north-east for about 10 minutes. It’s pretty steep and the ground was quite slippery when we were there, so take it slowly.

Ponta de São Lourenço – Arrival on Ueda

Coordinates: N32°44.838 W16°41.857

A little further east is the long Ponta de São Lourenço peninsula, which appears as Ueda in the very first scene of The Acolyte. The stone causeway that Mae supposedly uses to get to the city was added digitally (as were the houses atop the peninsula), but because of the distinctive shape of the headland and the little sea tunnel in the rock, it’s easy to recognize.

After checking a few places along the path, we worked out a spot around N32°44.838 W16°41.857 as the most likely place from where the scene was filmed. You can park your car near the small roundabout at N32°44.580 W16°42.094, from where it’s a walk of 15 minutes or so to the spot.

I also highly recommend continuing the hike to the tip of the peninsula, as there are some amazing views of the cliffs and a few very impressive, tall sea stacks along the way. It’s one of Madeira’s most popular hikes, so it’s worth coming either in the late afternoon or early morning (we started at sunrise) to avoid the worst of the crowds.

Pico de Arieiro – Khofar Mountains

There’s at least one more filming location from the show on the island, but we weren’t able to access it on this trip: Some of the establishing shots of Khofar were apparently filmed from Pico de Arieiro Mountain, but the entire time that we were on the island, this area was always shrouded in clouds, plus the famous trail from there to the Pico Ruivo was closed for maintenance, so we didn’t have a chance to check it out.

We drove up the mountain once, but we just arrived in an impenetrable white cloud, so we’ll just have to come back another time to check out this area. We came across something else that’s quite unusual on Madeira, though (especially in March, when we were there) and that is some serious patches of snow.

Map of the Acolyte Filming Sites

You can find all of the filming locations that I’ve described in this post on this map of Madeira. The pins all show the locations, where I think the scenes were shot from (or at least the closest we got to them), except for the pin on Pico do Arieiro, where we couldn’t access the trail to the viewpoint and also couldn’t see anything, as it was far too foggy.

See Also