The Monte toboggan: what it costs, and where it actually drops you

Two men in white, straw boaters on their heads, standing on the back runners of a wicker basket on wooden skids, steering you down a public road with the soles of their boots. It is the photograph everyone brings home from Madeira, and the question worth answering before you join the queue is a narrow one: is ten minutes of this worth 30 to 60 euros, and do you understand where you will be standing when it ends?

Because that last part catches people out. The toboggan does not deliver you to Funchal. It stops at Livramento, well above the city, and getting down from there is your problem.

The carts were invented in 1850, when Monte was still a village and its residents wanted a fast way down to Funchal. They have no engine, no brakes and no seatbelts. Two carreiros ride the back, push off, and then control the descent by dragging their rubber boot soles on the tarmac, leaning the basket into the bends.

The run is about two kilometres of narrow residential road. Wikipedia puts the descent at just over five minutes at around 38 km/h; Visit Madeira describes the same stretch as roughly ten minutes. Both are honest, because the time depends on the queue of carts ahead of you and how much the carreiros play to the camera. Either way it is short, and it is faster than it looks in photographs.

The operator's own price list:

• One person: 30 euros
• Two people: 40 euros
• Three people: 60 euros

So two sharing is by far the best value, and a solo rider pays the most per seat. There are no online reservations and no advance bookings of any kind. You buy at the kiosk by the start, the ticket is valid that day only, and the carreiros will expect a tip on top.

Three-person rides are not offered in rain or on wet ground, which matters if you turn up as a family of three on a damp morning.

Monday to Saturday, 09:00 to 18:00. There is no Sunday service, and that catches out more visitors than anything else on this page. If Sunday is your only free day in Funchal, plan something else.

The operator also warns it may close early when too many people are waiting with tickets, or when the weather turns. Rain closures are routine rather than exceptional: the run was shut for rain on 21 October 2026, and a closure in October 2025 was lifted the following morning at the usual hours. In a wet week, treat the toboggan as a plan you attempt rather than a slot you book.

Monte sits a few hundred metres above the seafront, and you have two sensible ways up.

The cable car from the Funchal old town is the scenic one: 16 euros one way, 22 euros return, free for children up to six and half price for ages seven to fourteen. It runs 08:45 to 17:45, every day except Christmas Day. If you intend to ride the toboggan down, buy the one way and save six euros.

The bus is the cheap one. Lines 020 and 021 climb from Alfândega on the seafront up to Largo da Fonte in Monte, a few minutes' walk from the church and the toboggan kiosk. On the 2026 regional tariff a single is 1.45 euros loaded on a GIRO card in advance, or 2.05 euros bought from the driver, who takes cash only. Published timetables for both lines are currently marked as withdrawn pending a review, so check the live times with SIGA or simply ask the driver rather than trusting a printed schedule.

The cable car costs about eleven times the bus fare and is worth it once, for the view over the João Gomes valley. If you are counting euros, ride the bus up and spend the difference on the toboggan.

Monte is a reminder of something about Funchal that first-time visitors work out too late. The city climbs steeply, and a few hundred metres of altitude buys cooler nights and a view down over the harbour, at the cost of needing the bus or a car for anything at sea level. If that trade appeals, the hill quintas above the centre are where to look, and Madeira with Views specialises in exactly those properties.

The toboggan finishes on Caminho do Monte at numbers 82 to 84, in Livramento. You are still above Funchal, on a road, with no station and no cable car.

Three ways down:

• Walking takes twenty to thirty minutes downhill into the city, on a gradient gentler than the one you just slid down. In decent weather this is the obvious choice.
• Line 020 has a stop at Livramento, so the same cheap city fare that brought you up will take you back.
• Taxis wait at the finish, and the warning in every guidebook is the right one: agree the fare before you get in.

There is a fourth option if you walked up to Babosas instead. The Botanical Garden cable car crosses the valley from Largo das Babosas on a 1,600 metre line, takes 18 minutes and lands you at the top of the Botanical Garden, from where buses run into town. First boarding is 09:00 and the last is 16:50, which is earlier than most people expect.

There is no official public register of toboggan accidents. The Madeiran daily DNOTICIAS went through press reports in October 2026 and counted eleven over the previous twelve years, found no fatal accident in that period, and set that against ridership it estimated at roughly 200,000 passengers a year, from 154 carreiros making seven or eight descents each on a working day. On those numbers the rate is low.

It is not zero. On 7 October 2026 a cart skidded at Monte and two British passengers off a cruise ship, aged 61 and 65, were seriously injured and taken to the hospital in Funchal. No suspension of the service was reported afterwards.

This is an open vehicle with no restraints, descending a public road on human braking, so a bad outcome is unlikely but possible. If you have a back or neck problem, are pregnant, or would rather not be in something you cannot stop, skip it without embarrassment and ride the cable car both ways. Small children are a judgement call that belongs to you, not to a website.

If you want the photograph and the story, yes, once. It is genuinely strange, it has been running since 1850 rather than being built for visitors, and the carreiros are good company.

Set against other spending, though, 40 euros for two buys a short ride, and the same money covers two walking days on the island's levadas with change left over. Most people are glad they did it and have no urge to do it twice.

Best way to do it: bus or cable car up in the morning, Monte church and a garden first, toboggan down before lunch, then walk into Funchal. That sequence costs the least, avoids the afternoon queue, and leaves you in the city for the rest of the day. Monte's paid gardens are covered separately in what each of Funchal's three gardens costs.

How much is the Monte toboggan in 2026? 30 euros for one person, 40 for two, 60 for three, bought at the kiosk on the day. No online booking, and the carreiros expect a tip.

Does the toboggan run on Sundays? No. Monday to Saturday only, 09:00 to 18:00, and it closes in rain.

Does the toboggan go all the way into Funchal? No. It ends at Livramento, above the city. From there it is a twenty to thirty minute walk down, a line 020 bus, or a taxi whose fare you should agree first.

Should I buy a return cable car ticket? Only if you plan to come back down by cable car. If the toboggan is the plan, the 16 euro one way is the right ticket and saves you six euros.

• Carreiros do Monte for the 2026 prices, the Monday to Saturday hours, the start and finish addresses, the no-booking rule and the wet-ground restriction on three-person rides.
• Teleférico do Funchal for the 16 and 22 euro fares, the child discounts and the 08:45 to 17:45 hours.
• Teleférico do Jardim Botânico, Visit Madeira for the 1,600 metre line, the 18 minute crossing and the 09:00 and 16:50 boardings.
• Madeira Bus, line 020 and line 021 for the Monte and Livramento stops and the 2026 fares of 1.45 and 2.05 euros.
• Carros de cesto do Monte for 1850, the two kilometre run and the braking method.
• DNOTICIAS, 8 October 2026 for the accident count and ridership estimates, and DNOTICIAS, 7 October 2026 for the October 2026 crash.