Monte Toboggan

Ticket Prices Per Sledge

The price depends on how many people share one sledge. One person pays $34.38 (€30). Two people in one sledge pay $45.84 (€40), which works out at $22.92 (€20) each.

Three people in one sledge pay $68.76 (€60), or $22.92 (€20) each. You cannot book online and you cannot buy a ticket for a future day. Payment happens at the rank on the day you ride.

May close early for demand or bad weather, so a 18:00 closing time is not a promise of a ride at 17:50 on a busy or wet day.

Opening Hours And Closed Days

The toboggan runs Monday to Saturday from 09:00 to 18:00. It closes on Sundays and on public holidays: Good Friday, 14-15 August, 25-26 December and 1 January. The 14-15 August closure lines up with the main festival days of Nossa Senhora do Monte, the parish's own feast.

Plan around a Sunday visit by going up another day, or by enjoying Monte itself, which does not close.

Three Realistic Routings

The walking there-and-back option is the cheapest but the hill is steep and the return up on foot is hard work. The cable car and Monte Palace option is the classic full day. The tuk-tuk tour option compresses everything and hands the transport problem to somebody else.

What You Actually Sit In

The sledge is a hand-made basket of wicker mounted on wooden runners, sat on two parallel paved streets that fall gently but constantly towards Funchal. You climb in, the two carreiros take their places at the back and on the sides, and you start to move. The departure point sits beside the Monte Church steps at Caminho do Monte, Entrada 151, Porta 4.

Speed, Comfort And The Wet-Day Rule

The carreiros control the pace with their boots, so the run mixes short bursts of speed with slower stretches. The 2 km route takes about 10 minutes. It is a paved public street, not a track, which surprises most first-timers.

The one hard rule to know before you queue: when it rains or the ground is wet, no 3-person rides run at all. The operator gives no refund rule for this situation, so treat it as a real risk on a wet day. Go early on a dry morning if the sledge is the reason you came.

Where You Start And Where You Finish

You start at Caminho do Monte, Entrada 151, Porta 4, beside the Monte Church steps, GPS 32.67561, -16.90254. You finish at Caminho do Monte 82/84 in Livramento, GPS 32.66435, -16.90452. That arrival point is a different place from the departure point.

It sits partway down the hill towards Funchal, but it is not central Funchal. You cannot walk back to the start in a couple of minutes and you cannot step out of the sledge into the old town.

No Published Way Back

Here is the plain fact. The operator, the Associação dos Carreiros do Monte, publishes no bus line, no taxi fare and no shuttle for the leg from Livramento back to central Funchal or back up to Monte. No city or regional body publishes one either.

So this page will not print a bus number or a fare for that leg, because none exists in any official source. Visitors arrange their own way back. That is the whole truth of it.

The Three Practical Options

First, walk. Livramento is partway down the hill and the distance to central Funchal is walkable, though the descent to Monte was the easy part and streets are steep in places. Second, use a ride-hailing or taxi app on your phone from Livramento and take whatever the app quotes on the day.

No published fare exists to compare it against, so the app quote is the price. Third, sidestep the problem entirely by buying a tour that includes the ride back. The guided tuk-tuk tour to the toboggan and old town carries you on by tuk-tuk after the ride, and the Monte toboggan and old town tour by tuk-tuk does the same as a private trip with hotel drop-off. If solving Livramento matters to you, the third option is the cleanest.

The List

• It began as a bus, not a ride. The carros de cesto were created in the 19th century as everyday public transport for Monte parish residents travelling down to Funchal [Visit Madeira, Monte sledges page].
• The brakes are the carreiros' shoes. There is no braking mechanism on the sledge itself. Two carreiros in white with straw hats brake using the thick rubber soles of their own boots [Visit Madeira, Monte sledges page].
• The sledge is handmade every time. Each basket is hand-made from wicker and wood, which is why the fleet is not uniform [Visit Madeira, Monte sledges page].
• Paying per sledge halves the price for two. The $45.84 (€40) two-rider fare works out at $22.92 (€20) per person, well under the $34.38 (€30) solo fare [operator site, carreirosdomonte.com].
• The arrival point has its own address, and it is not where you started. The ride ends at Caminho do Monte 82/84 in Livramento while it begins at Caminho do Monte, Entrada 151, Porta 4, and no official transport is published between Livramento and Funchal or Monte [Visit Madeira and the operator's site].

From The Funchal Cable Car

The cable car's upper station sits at Largo das Babosas 8, GPS roughly 32.6761, -16.8991. From there it is a short walk along Caminho das Babosas towards the Monte Church. The toboggan departure is at Caminho do Monte, Entrada 151, Porta 4, right beside the church steps, GPS 32.67561, -16.90254.

If you plan to sledge down, buy a one-way cable car ticket at $18.34 (€16) rather than the $25.21 (€22) return, since you will not ride the cable car back down. Full details in our Funchal cable car guide.

From Monte Palace Tropical Garden

Monte Palace's entrances sit along Caminho das Babosas, including one next to the cable car exit, and the short walk from any of them to the toboggan rank exists at all only because Monte Church, the garden and the sledge departure grew up together within the same small parish centre rather than being planned as one tourist route. From any entrance, walk towards the Monte Church and the departure point at Entrada 151, Porta 4. The garden and the toboggan rank sit in the same compact upper-Monte area, which is why the cable-car-plus-garden-plus-sledge day works so well, and why moving between them costs a few minutes, not a special trip.

Garden details in our Monte Palace guide.

By Bus Up To Monte

Buses 20, 21, 22 and 48 serve Monte. These are the lines that reach the upper area where the church and the toboggan rank sit. No bus fare for these lines is published in the sources for this page, so we print none.

Once in Monte, follow the signs to the Monte Church. The departure point is beside the church steps.