Funchal cable car and the Monte toboggan: prices, hours, and the way back

The usual day is three separate tickets, not one package. Ride the Funchal cable car up to Monte, walk to the botanical garden cable car if you want that valley, then take the wicker toboggan (carros de cesto) down to Livramento and come back by foot, bus, or taxi. Prices, clocks, and the place the sled stops were read on 19 October 2026 from the operators and from Funchal’s tourism page. Where two official pages disagree, both figures are given. A combined cable-car-and-toboggan fare is not on those pages.

The operators are Teleférico do Funchal (Teleféricos da Madeira), the Teleférico do Jardim Botânico (MTA), and the Carreiros do Monte. Closure days for the sled are also on Visit Funchal.

The three rides

Those are the headline figures. The sections below are the exceptions, the child fares, and the pages that do not match.

Nobody on these sites publishes a single price for “cable car up, toboggan down”. The Funchal price page has a one-way fare and a return fare. The Carreiros price page sells the sled on its own. The online shop at tickets.madeiracablecar.com did not include a product list in the page fetched on 19 October 2026, so this guide does not quote a fare from it. Add the tickets you actually buy. Do not treat a sum as an official package.

Funchal cable car

From the price and schedule page, and repeated on the homepage:

The page prints “-50%”. It does not print a child price in euros, so this guide does not either. The homepage says the ticket is valid for 60 days after purchase. It does not say the return ride has to be the same day.

About us gives the ride itself: 39 cabins, 7 seats each, 18 minutes average travel time, 3.2 km of cable.

Hours do not match across the operator’s own site. The price page and the homepage say 8:45 to 17:45, open every day except Christmas Day. The how to get there page prints opening 9:00 and last boarding 17:45. The FAQ is in Portuguese on the English URL. It says the service runs in the hours posted at the entrances, the ticket offices, and in their communications, and that the last boarding time before the daily close is posted at the stations. It also says the hours can change for very bad weather, extra maintenance, a break in the public power supply, or an extraordinary flow of passengers. Use the posted clock at the station if the two web pages still disagree on the day you go.

The same FAQ says each cabin takes at most 7 people, and that when people are waiting a cabin does not board with fewer than 6. An e-ticket does not change that. The price page’s line is “Buy an e-ticket and head straight to boarding.” That is about the ticket desk. It is not a published waiting time.

If bad weather, a power cut, or a breakdown stops the return journey, the FAQ says holders of a valid ticket are entitled to transport back to the station they started from by another means, or, instead, a refund of 50% of the fare paid.

The lower station is described twice, and not the same way. The homepage splits the ends:

• Funchal–Monte: Rua Dom Carlos I, 9060-190 Funchal
• Monte–Funchal: Largo das Babosas 8, 9050-541 Funchal

The how-to page, in Portuguese, puts the lower station in the Jardim do Almirante Reis, by the Zona Velha, near the Mercado dos Lavradores and the Forte de São Tiago. The address block on that same page, and both direction blocks on the price page, then print Largo das Babosas 8. That is the Monte address from the homepage. The company address on the price page is Teleféricos da Madeira, S.A., Caminho das Babosas nº 8, 9050-541 Funchal. Phone 291 780 280, fax 291 780 281, info@madeiracablecar.com.

The operator’s Monte map prints a walking time beside the places at the top: 3 minutes for the botanical garden cable car, 4 minutes for the wicker sledges, 5 minutes for the Monte church. The map does not say which door those minutes are measured from.

Botanical garden cable car

This is a second cable car, from Monte (Babosas) to the botanical garden, or the other way. It is not a cabin on the Funchal line. The Funchal operator’s homepage lists it as a point of interest and gives the phone 291 210 290. The ride times and fares below are from the botanical garden cable car prices page, read the same day.

Children under 7 ride free. The timetable is 9:00 to 17:00, last boarding 16:50, every day except 25 December. Tickets are valid for 12 months. The main station has free parking. A one-way ride is about 9 minutes. A return is about 18 minutes of riding, and you can get out, look around, and board again later. The same page says a visit to the garden takes about 1 hour 30 minutes to 2 hours.

The garden ticket is the combination they actually sell. A joint ticket with the Funchal cable car is not on this price page, and it is not on the Funchal price page.

Their English homepage says the botanical garden station is about 10 minutes by car from Funchal, and the Monte station about 15 minutes. Those are car times, not cable times. You can also buy tickets at their booking office on Avenida do Mar. That page does not give the office a clock. The company line is MTA – Transportes Alternativos da Madeira, S.A., Caminho das Voltas 15, 9060-329 Funchal, +351 291 210 290.

Same homepage, two bus sentences that are not the same list. The English paragraph names Horários do Funchal routes 29, 30, 31 for the botanical garden and 22 for Babosas. The link text under it names 29, 31, 31-A and 22. The SIGA conversion table, in force from 9 March 2026, maps the Horários do Funchal routes like this:

Route 30 is in the English sentence and is not in that Horários do Funchal table. This guide does not invent a new number for it. The SIGA notice of 20 March 2026 says the new numbering changes the route number and, in some cases, the name, that every route becomes three digits, and that the itineraries and timetables do not change. The change is gradual: digital signs and sites first, stop posters later. Check SIGA or Horários do Funchal on the day. This guide does not copy a departure time.

If you still want the toboggan afterwards, the botanical car’s last boarding is 16:50 and the sled’s departure point closes at 17:45. Those are the two clocks. Neither operator publishes a combined “last safe connection”.

Monte toboggan

The Carreiros do Monte price page prices the sled, not a seat:

No child fare is published. No online reservation is accepted. Tickets are bought on site, for the same day only. They may close early because of the number of people already waiting with tickets, or because of bad weather. In rain, or on a wet road, they do not run the 3-person sled. The page does not say the 1-person or 2-person sled is cancelled for the same reason.

Schedule on that page: Monday to Saturday, 9:00 to 18:00. The Monte departure location closes at 17:45. The Livramento arrival location closes at 18:15. The homepage states Monday to Saturday, 9:00 to 18:00, and the same prices and the same rain rule. It does not repeat the 17:45 and 18:15 clocks. Use the price page for those.

Closed days on the price page: 14 and 15 August (the festivities of Our Lady of Monte), 25 December, 1 January, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday. Running days are Monday to Saturday, so Sunday is not an operating day. Visit Funchal says the same hours and names Sunday in the closed line, plus those holiday dates. The municipal page’s schema marks it modified on 18 March 2026. Its first phone number is printed as “+351 783 919”, without the 291 the operator uses. Call the numbers on the Carreiros contacts page:

• Departure, Monte: +351 291 783 919, carreirosdomonte.cont@gmail.com
• Arrival, Livramento: +351 291 712 765, cestos.monte@sapo.pt

The locations page says Monte is about 500 metres above Funchal, and that the ride starts below the 74 steps of the Monte church. It takes about 10 minutes to reach Livramento, on a 2 km run that can reach speeds of up to 40 km/h. Visit Funchal describes the same trip as around 2 km and approximately 10 minutes. The Funchal cable car’s Monte map also says the sleds cover 2 km between Monte and Livramento. None of those pages prints a minute-by-minute timetable.

Two start addresses are in print. The locations page gives Caminho do Monte, Entrada 151, Porta 4, 9050-288 Monte, GPS 32°40'31.32"N, 16°54'9.67"W. Visit Funchal, and the cable car’s points list, print Caminho do Monte, 4. This guide does not fold those into one doorway.

Where the sled stops, and how you get back

The ride ends at Livramento, not in the centre. The locations page and the contacts page both give Caminho do Monte nº 82/84, 9050-288 Livramento, GPS 32°39'51.58"N, 16°54'16.33"W. Visit Funchal prints the arrival as Caminho do Monte, 82-84.

From there, the locations page says you can walk down to Funchal or take a short bus or taxi ride. It does not publish the walking time, the walking distance, or a taxi fare. Visit Madeira’s how to move around names taxis and the ride-hailing apps and does not publish fares either. Our car guide is that choice for the rest of the island. This particular day does not require a hire car.

Buses printed on the Carreiros locations page, and the three-digit numbers from the same SIGA table:

The Carreiros page still shows the short numbers. Stops may too, while the change is gradual. The SIGA notice says the route and the times were not what changed. Confirm the bus on SIGA before you count on the last one. Horários do Funchal’s phone, from their own site and from the SIGA notice, is 291 705 555.

PR 3.1, Caminho Real do Monte, is a classified walk that finishes at Monte. It is not the sled road, and the Carreiros page does not name it as the walk down from Livramento. For a different day on foot, the beginner levada guide is the starting point. Back in town, the Funchal food map is the neighbourhoods, not a stop at the sled terminus.

Cruise days and queues

Neither operator publishes a waiting time in minutes, a cruise-ship timetable, or a rule such as “arrive this long before boarding”.

What they do publish is enough to lose the sled on the wrong day:

• The toboggan runs Monday to Saturday only, and it is closed on 14 and 15 August, 25 December, 1 January, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday. A ship alongside on one of those days does not get the ride.
• There is no advance booking. If the ticket desk has already closed because too many people are holding tickets, or because of the weather, a later arrival does not buy a seat.
• The departure point closes at 17:45, earlier than the “until 18:00” line.
• A wet road means no 3-person sled. Our winter weather guide is the season around that rule. It is not a forecast for the road.

The cable car is the piece with an e-ticket, and the piece that is open on Sunday. On the price page it is closed on Christmas Day and not on the sled’s other closure days. The botanical car is closed on 25 December only. On 25 December all three are closed. On 1 January the published closure is the sled, not the two cable cars.

A busy day still meets the cabin rule: no more than 7 people, and not fewer than 6 when a queue is waiting. The FAQ allows the hours to move for an extraordinary flow of passengers. The last boarding time is the one posted at the station, and the website already prints two versions of the clock.

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Written with AI assistance from official and cited sources. Report an error: hello@madeirajournal.com.

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