Monte, Madeira: the Funchal cable car, the toboggan ride and Monte Palace garden

Monte in one minute: what to do and what it costs

Monte is the parish on the hill directly above Funchal, about 550 metres up, and for most visitors it is one morning built from three things: the cable car up from the old town, the Monte Palace Tropical Garden at the top, and the wicker toboggan ride back down. Add the white church that watches over the whole bay, a square with a fountain and a bandstand, and a second cable car that crosses the valley to the Botanical Garden, and you have a half day that can be lovely or rushed, depending almost entirely on how you plan it.

I have done each piece of it myself, the Funchal cable car in May 2022, the garden and the church in April 2023, the toboggan in June 2024 and the Botanical Garden cable car in September 2024, and I have since gone back to the garden because it deserves a second, slower visit. What follows is the version I give guests who ask, with the 2026 prices checked against each operator.

• Cable car up: €16 one way, €22 return, every day 08:45–17:45.
• Monte Palace Tropical Garden: €18, museum and a Moscatel wine tasting included, children up to 14 free with an adult.
• Monte church: free.
• Toboggan down: €30 for one person, €40 for two, €60 for three, Monday to Saturday only.
• Back from Livramento: bus 19 for €2.05 on board, or a taxi or Bolt.
• Time to allow: half a day at least, a full morning if you want the garden without watching the clock.
• The one thing to know: the toboggan does not take you back to Funchal, it stops in Livramento, about halfway down the hill.

The Funchal cable car to Monte

The Funchal cable car (Teleférico do Funchal) is the easy way up and the best view of the city you will get without a car. The lower station sits on the seafront at the edge of the Zona Velha, the old town, next to the Almirante Reis garden, and the line climbs 3.2 km over rooftops, banana terraces and the João Gomes valley to Largo das Babosas in Monte. The ride takes 15–18 minutes, long enough that the city shrinks into a map of the bay below you.

The line closed from January to the end of March 2026 for works and reopened on 2 April with 44 cabins, five of them with a glass floor. The glass-floor cabins cost €10 more and depend on availability at the station, so treat them as a bonus, not a plan. Children up to 6 ride free, and tickets bought online are valid for 60 days, which lets you skip the ticket queue and go straight to boarding.

When I rode it in May 2022 I went up and did not come back the same way, which is the choice I still recommend: a one-way ticket up, then the toboggan or a walk through the garden, then the bus or a taxi down. A return only makes sense if you are skipping the toboggan.

If you are staying at our Downtown villa, facing the Municipal Gardens on Rua Ivens, the old town is about a 20-minute walk from the front door, and the lower station is at its edge. From the Beachfront penthouse in the Lido, buses from the stop at the gate reach the seafront Avenida do Mar in about 20 minutes, and the station is a walk east along the water.

• Where: lower station on the seafront by the Zona Velha, map; upper station at Largo das Babosas, Monte.
• Cost: €16 one way, €22 return for adults; €8 and €10 for children 7–14; glass floor €26 and €32, as of 2026.
• Hours: every day 08:45–17:45, closed on 25 December.
• Time needed: 15–18 minutes each way.
• Best time: at opening; queues build from mid-morning, worst when cruise ships are in port.
• Book: online e-tickets on the operator's site, valid 60 days.

Monte Palace Tropical Garden

The Monte Palace Tropical Garden is the reason I would go up to Monte even without the toboggan. It covers about 70,000 square metres of steep hillside, by the garden's own figure, around the former Quinta do Prazer, which became a hotel in 1897 and was remade as a garden by José Berardo from 1987. What you walk through today is part botanical garden, part open-air gallery: an Oriental garden with red bridges, pagodas and koi lakes, cycads and native laurel forest species, around 40 tile panels telling the history of Portugal, a long tiled panel on the Portuguese in Japan, and a garden of contemporary Zimbabwean stone sculpture among the cycads.

The ticket also covers the museum at the top of the garden, with a mineral collection on the ground floor and two floors of modern and contemporary art from the Berardo Collection, and a Moscatel wine tasting at the Bluehouse Café.

This is the part of Monte that everyone underestimates, and I did too. When I first visited in April 2023 I had it in my head as a quick stop between two cable cars. Between the gardens, the lakes, the art and the climbs back up, it is nothing of the sort: I would set aside at least two hours, and I went back later precisely to see it without hurrying. The garden's own advice is between an hour and a half and two and a half hours.

There are three entrances, and the most practical is the ticket office right at the cable car exit. The museum and the café are at the highest point, so entering at the top and working your way down saves your legs, and the one rule worth knowing is that there is no re-entry on the same ticket.

• Where: next to the cable car exit at Largo das Babosas, map.
• Cost: €18 for adults, children up to 14 free with an adult, museum and Moscatel tasting included, as of 2026.
• Hours: 09:00–18:00 from October to March as of 2026, last entry 17:15; 09:00–19:00 from April to September, last entry 18:15; museum 09:00–17:30.
• Time needed: two hours at least.
• Best time: straight off an early cable car, before the cruise groups arrive.
• Book: online tickets are valid for a year and have a fast-track lane at the ticket office by the cable car and at the Belvedere entrance.

Monte church and the village around it

A few minutes' walk from the garden, at the top of a long flight of around 70 steps, is the Church of Our Lady of Monte (Nossa Senhora do Monte), the white and grey façade you can see from almost anywhere in Funchal. The present church was consecrated in 1818, and it is the island's main pilgrimage site: on 14 and 15 August the feast of the Assumption fills the square and the steps with pilgrims from all over Madeira. Entry is free.

Inside, in a side chapel, is the tomb of Charles I (Karl I), the last Emperor of Austria. He was exiled to Madeira after the First World War and died of pneumonia at the Quinta do Monte on 1 April 1922, and he was beatified in 2004. When I visited in April 2023 it was this, more than the view, that stayed with me: a Habsburg emperor buried on a hillside above Funchal, a few steps from where the toboggans start.

Below the church, Largo da Fonte is the village square, with a bandstand from 1890, the fountain of the Virgin and a couple of cafés. Monte Station, a small free interpretation centre on the square, tells the story of the rack railway that ran up from Funchal between 1893 and 1943, before roads and the cable car replaced it; check its hours before you go, as it does not open every day. The Monte municipal park next to it is the highest municipal park in Portugal and a quiet place to sit. The Quinta Jardins do Imperador, the estate where Charles I died, is closed as of autumn 2026, with no reopening date announced.

• Where: above Largo da Fonte, a few minutes on foot from the cable car, map.
• Cost: free.
• Time needed: 20–30 minutes for the church and the square.
• Best time: just before the toboggan, since the ride starts below the steps.

The Monte toboggan ride

The Monte toboggan (the carros de cesto, or Korbschlitten to German visitors) is a wicker sledge on wooden runners, pushed and steered down the public road by two drivers, the carreiros, dressed in white with straw boaters, who brake with the rubber soles of their boots. Tradition dates it to around 1850, as a quick way down from Monte to the city; today it is the island's most famous ten minutes.

The ride starts just below the church steps and runs about 2 km down the Caminho do Monte to Livramento in roughly ten minutes. It is fast, noisy and genuinely fun. When I did it in June 2024 that was exactly my reaction, and also the reaction of half the people around me at the bottom when they realised they were not in Funchal. This is the single thing I would tell a friend: the toboggan is great, but it ends in Livramento, not in the city centre, and you still have a steep hill to get down. The next section is about exactly that.

Tickets are sold on the spot, for the same day, with no online booking. A photographer shoots you on the way down and offers the print at the finish, and the carreiros may ask for a tip; both are optional. Three-person sledges do not run when the road is wet.

The run uses a public road, and accidents, while rare, do happen: on 7 October 2026 a sledge crashed and its two passengers, a British couple, were injured; some Portuguese outlets described the injuries as serious. The ride is in its usual operation as of the date of this guide; if it worries you, the cable car and the bus get you down just as well.

• Where: below the steps of Monte church, map; finish in Livramento.
• Cost: €30 for one person, €40 for two, €60 for three, as of 2026.
• Hours: Monday to Saturday 09:00–18:00, last departure from Monte at 17:45; no rides on Sundays, 14 and 15 August, 25 December, 1 January, Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
• Time needed: about ten minutes of ride, plus the queue.
• Best time: early, and never on a morning with several cruise ships in port, when the queue can run to hours.
• Book: not possible; buy on site, same day.

Getting back to Funchal from the toboggan finish in Livramento

"And after the toboggan, how do I get back to Funchal?" is the question our guests ask most about Monte, so it gets its own section. Livramento is a residential stretch of the same hill, and from the finish there are four ways down.

• Bus: line 19 stops near the finish (Livramento stops) and runs down to the city centre at Praça da Autonomia; €2.05 paid on board in cash, €1.45 with a pre-bought Giro card, as of 2026.
• Bolt: usually the cheapest door-to-door option when a car is free nearby.
• Taxi: taxis wait at the finish; agree the fare before you get in, since visitors report flat quotes of around €20–25.
• On foot: 30–45 minutes, all steep downhill on narrow streets with patches of cobbles.

I would not count on walking the rest of the way without looking at the distance and, above all, the gradient first. It is not a long walk on a map, but it is steep enough that knees and sandals feel it, and in the midday sun it is not the gentle stroll down it looks like from the top. If you are with children or anyone who is not used to hills, take the bus or a car.

The Botanical Garden cable car

A second, separate cable car leaves from the same square in Monte, Largo das Babosas, and crosses the João Gomes valley to the Botanical Garden cable car station by the Madeira Botanical Garden. The line is 1,600 metres long and the ride takes about nine minutes each way, a quieter crossing than the main cable car.

I rode it in September 2024, and it is the right add-on for anyone who prefers gardens to toboggans: Monte Palace in the morning, the crossing, then the Botanical Garden with its carpet-bedding parterre and views over the bay, and a bus or taxi back down from there. It is a separate company with separate tickets, and it only pays off if you are going to visit the garden at the other end; the Botanical Garden needs about an hour and a half to two hours of its own.

• Where: Largo das Babosas in Monte to the Botanical Garden station on Caminho das Voltas, map.
• Cost: €11 one way, €16 return; with Botanical Garden entry €19 and €24; children 7–14 €6 and €9; under 7 free, as of 2026.
• Hours: every day 09:00–17:00, last boarding 16:50, closed on 25 December.
• Time needed: about nine minutes each way, plus the garden.
• Book: online, with a 10% discount.

A half day in Monte, step by step

The most common mistake I see is trying to fit the cable car, Monte Palace, the church, the toboggan and the Botanical Garden into one tight morning. You can combine a lot in the same day, but Monte is far more pleasant when you are not looking at your watch all the time. Here is the order that works, with realistic times for a weekday out of the cruise rush.

1. 08:45, cable car up: be at the lower station at opening, one-way ticket bought online.
2. 09:15, Monte Palace: enter at the cable car gate and walk down through the garden; two hours, coffee included.
3. 11:30, church and Largo da Fonte: climb the steps, see the emperor's tomb, a drink on the square.
4. 12:00, toboggan: ten minutes down to Livramento, then bus 19 or a car into town for lunch.

On a Sunday or one of the toboggan's closed days, when it does not run, swap it for the Botanical Garden cable car and the Botanical Garden, then go down by bus or taxi from there. On a day with several cruise ships in port, check the port's ship movements the evening before; if it is busy, go to the toboggan first while the queue is short, and do the garden afterwards. If you would rather keep it to an hour and a half, take the cable car up and down and spend the time in the garden only.

For lunch afterwards, the old town is the natural landing point, and our Funchal food guide has where to eat there. Monte also appears in our list of the best things to do in Madeira, if you are building a whole week.

Weather, crowds and accessibility

Monte is about 3–5 °C cooler than the seafront and often sits in cloud when the coast is sunny, so bring a light layer even in summer; the garden itself suggests a light jacket. Strong wind can suspend the cable car, and wet cobbles and steps get slippery. If the forecast is grey, the garden is still worth it, the toboggan less so. Our guide to the best time to visit Madeira covers the island month by month.

Crowds come from the port more than the season. Ships usually dock early in the morning and leave in the late afternoon, and a day with two or three in port fills the cable car from mid-morning and turns the toboggan queue into a wait of hours. Early starts fix most of it.

For reduced mobility, the cable car operator says its boarding areas and cabins are easily accessible, with staff on hand to help and one wheelchair per cabin. The Monte Palace garden is steep, with a paid trolley (€5 per adult per trip) between the central lake and the Caminho das Babosas no. 4 entrance, and there are places to leave pushchairs (ask at the ticket office). The church steps and the toboggan are not suitable for wheelchairs. Buses 20, 21, 22 and 48 run from the centre of Funchal up to Monte if you would rather skip the cable car altogether.

Monte FAQ

How much is the toboggan ride in Madeira?

€30 for one person, €40 for two and €60 for three, as of 2026, paid on the spot. Many sites still show the old prices of €27.50 and €35.

Where does the Madeira toboggan end?

In Livramento, about 2 km below Monte and still well above the city centre. From there take bus 19, a taxi or Bolt, or walk 30–45 minutes downhill.

How much is the Funchal cable car?

€16 one way and €22 return for adults, €8 and €10 for children aged 7 to 14, free under 7, as of 2026.

How long do you need for Monte Palace Tropical Garden?

At least two hours. The garden recommends between an hour and a half and two and a half, and the climbs between levels take longer than the map suggests.

Does the toboggan run on Sundays?

No. It runs Monday to Saturday, and also closes on 14 and 15 August, 25 December, 1 January, Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

Can you walk up to Monte from Funchal?

You can, but it is a long, steep climb on streets and old paths; most people take the cable car or buses 20, 21, 22 or 48 up and save their legs for the garden.