Monte Toboggan & Funchal Cable Car: How to Do It (2026)

The Monte toboggan is a wicker sledge on wooden runners that two men in white cotton and straw boaters steer down the public roads from Monte to Livramento, braking with the soles of their boots. It covers about 2 km in roughly 10 minutes and has been running since the 1850s, when it was genuinely how people got off the hill.

From 1 May 2026 it costs €30 for one rider, €40 for two and €60 for three, cash on the day, with no online booking. The classic way to do it is the cable car up and the sledge down.

How the toboggan works

The carro de cesto is a two-seater wicker basket mounted on greased wooden runners. Two carreiros stand behind and beside it, push off, and then steer and brake with rubber-soled boots as the sledge slides down polished tarmac.

There is no engine, no track and no harness. The run happens on ordinary public roads with ordinary traffic on them, which is most of the charm and all of the chaos. Speed peaks somewhere well short of alarming.

It started as transport in the nineteenth century, a fast way down the hill for people who lived up it, and survived by becoming the thing everyone photographs. The carreiros stop at the bottom to sell you the picture, which is part of the ritual rather than a hard sell.

What it costs in 2026

The carreiros raised their fares on 1 May 2026, so any guide published before then quotes too little.

The toboggan is cash only, bought at the rank on the day, and cannot be booked online, so bring notes rather than relying on a card. Doing it independently comes to roughly €46 for one person: a one-way cable car up and a solo sledge down, before the taxi back into town.

The Funchal cable car

The Teleférico do Funchal climbs from the Zona Velha on the seafront to Monte in about 15 minutes, floating over rooftops, gardens and terraced valleys with the bay opening up behind you. It runs daily from 08:45 to 17:45 and closes only on Christmas Day.

Take it up rather than down. The view improves as you rise, and it leaves the sledge as the finale rather than the warm-up.

Note there are two cable cars in Monte. The one from Funchal is the one you want; a separate line runs between Monte and the Botanical Garden on the other side of the valley, which is a different ticket and a different trip.

Where the toboggan finishes, and getting back

The run ends at Livramento, partway down the hill, not in central Funchal. This surprises people every day.

From there you have three options: a taxi down to the seafront for around €10, a city bus, or a walk of roughly 20 minutes downhill. The carreiros point you at the taxi rank as you get out.

The fourth option is to walk back up to Monte and take the cable car down, which people regret about a third of the way up. Keep a little cash or a ride app to hand and factor the return leg into your timing.

Is the Monte toboggan worth it?

Honestly: yes, once, and not for the thrill. It lasts about ten minutes, it is unashamedly touristy, and anyone expecting speed will find it tame.

What makes it worth doing is that nothing else is like it. Two men in cotton and straw hats steering a wicker basket down a public road on greased runners is a genuine survival of nineteenth-century transport, not a ride built for visitors.

Treat it as a piece of living history with a good story attached and it delivers. Treat it as an adrenaline activity and €40 will feel steep. The setting carries a lot of it too, so give Monte itself an hour: the Monte Palace tropical gardens, the church and the viewpoints turn a ten-minute novelty into a proper half-day.

Is the Monte toboggan safe?

Yes. The carreiros are licensed, most have done this for decades, and the sledge moves at low speed on tarmac with two people braking it by boot. Serious incidents are very rare.

What it is not is a controlled environment. You share the road with cars, the sledge slews on the corners, and it feels slightly unruly in a way a theme-park ride never does. That is the experience rather than a fault in it. Children ride it routinely, and there is no harness because there is nothing to be harnessed against.

Independently or on a guided trip?

Doing it yourself is cheapest and gives you your own pace: cable car up, an hour at the gardens, sledge down, taxi home. Queues at both the cable car and the sledge rank build through the morning and get bad on cruise days, so go early.

The guided alternative removes the queueing and the transfers. A tuk-tuk trip drives you up through the painted old town, includes the toboggan ride, and picks you up and drops you at your hotel, which bundles the whole thing into a bit over an hour. It costs about the same as doing it alone once you count the cable car and the taxi.

Either way, it is the centrepiece of a day in the capital. Our things to do in Funchal guide covers the rest of the city, a Madeira wine tasting works well down the hill afterwards, and half-day tours to Curral das Freiras often bolt Monte and the sledge onto the same morning. If you would rather eat your way round instead, the Funchal food tour is the other classic half-day.