Things to Do in Madeira: Trail Fees, Cable Car Prices and Opening Hours

MADEIRA · THINGS TO DO · PRICES & HOURS

The island is chosen. What’s left is the arithmetic of a day: which gate opens at 08:45, which ticket cannot be bought online at any price, and what the ground underfoot now costs to walk on. Madeira changed that last one on January 1, 2026. Every classified walking trail, each PR-numbered levada and vereda, charges an access fee and requires a booking made in advance. That one rule reorders a Madeira week more than any forecast does.

The rest is reassuringly fixed. The Funchal cable car runs 08:45 to 17:45 and closes one day a year. The wicker sledges at Monte work Monday to Saturday, 09:00 to 18:00, and cannot be reserved at all. Monte Palace asks EUR 18 for an adult. Two of the island’s most photographed tickets, the Cabo Girão skywalk and the serviced pools at Porto Moniz, cost EUR 3 apiece. Every figure here comes from the operator’s own page, read in September 2026.

On this page

• Levada trail fees and booking rulesEUR 4.50 per person, booked on SIMplifica
• Which PR trails are open or restrictedStatus trail by trail, PR 1 to PR 6.1
• Funchal cable car prices and hoursEUR 22 return, 08:45 to 17:45
• Monte toboggan priceEUR 30 / 40 / 60, closed Sundays
• Monte Palace and Botanical Garden ticketsEUR 18 and two seasonal timetables
• Cabo Girão skywalk entry and hoursEUR 3, 08:30 to 20:00 in season
• Madeira wine tasting in FunchalBlandy’s Premium Tour, EUR 23, 45 minutes
• Porto Moniz pools and the free onesEUR 3 serviced, Cachalote for nothing
• What a day of attractions costsThe price table and two costed days
• Things to do in Madeira in the rainWhat stays open when the ground is wet
• The best month to visit MadeiraMadeira month by month

For weather by month, sea temperatures and the case for one month over another, the Madeira calendar and the individual month pages carry the work. One caution travels into every plan on this island: the official normals come from IPMA station 522 at Funchal, 58 m above the sea on the south coast. High ground is colder and much wetter, and the far side of a coast keeps its own weather.

Do you need to book a levada walk in Madeira? Fees and the 2026 rules

Yes, and since January 1, 2026 there is no informal way around it. Every classified walking trail in Madeira, each PR-numbered levada and vereda, charges an access fee and requires a booking. The published rate is EUR 4.50 per person for the general public, and the same EUR 4.50 applies if you walk with a tourism company that has no protocol with the IFCN. Walk with a company that does hold one and the rate drops to EUR 3. No child rate appears in the rule as published.

Booking happens in one place only: online, through SIMplifica, the Regional Government’s digital services portal. It covers individual visitors, groups, and people walking with a company alike. You choose an entry time from 30-minute slots, which turns the drive to the trailhead into part of the reservation rather than an afterthought. Pick 08:30 at Rabaçal and the alarm, the breakfast and the parking hunt all have to fit behind it.

A booked slot also decides the order of the day, not the light. Two trails mean two bookings and two arrival windows, and the second one dictates how long you can linger at the first. Plan the walk first and the sightseeing second: the cable car, the gardens and the skywalk all sell at the door on the day, while the trail does not.

Only residents of the Autonomous Region of Madeira are exempt. For a party arriving from the United States that means nobody at the desk is: budget EUR 4.50 a head, per trail, for every walker in the group, and ask at the booking stage how children are counted, since the rule text names no reduction. It is a small sum that behaves like a ticket, with a name and a time attached to it.

How many slots exist depends on the month, because the windows run from sunrise to sunset. On January 15 the sun rises at 08:08 and sets at 18:25 in Funchal, about 10 hours 17 minutes of daylight. On July 15 the day stretches to roughly 14 hours 08 minutes. A winter walking day therefore holds close to four hours fewer of bookable time than a July one, and the late-afternoon slots vanish first.

Which levada trails are open, and which are restricted

Status is published trail by trail, and on September 8, 2026 the list read as follows. Open: PR 1 Vereda do Areeiro, PR 1.2 Vereda do Pico Ruivo, PR 6 Levada das 25 Fontes, PR 6.1 Levada do Risco, and PR 3.1 Caminho Real do Monte. Restricted that same day: PR 1.3 Vereda da Encumeada and PR 4 Levada do Barreiro. Two neighbors on the same mountain can carry opposite verdicts.

Weather and maintenance move those verdicts, so read the official trail list the evening before you book rather than the week before you fly. A paid slot does not override a restriction, and PR numbers are how the notices are worded, which is why it pays to write the number, not the pretty name, into your notes.

The Funchal cable car: prices, hours and how it pairs with the toboggan

The Funchal to Monte cable car charges EUR 22 return and EUR 16 one way. Children up to 6 ride free and those aged 7 to 14 pay half. The e-ticket stays valid for 60 days from purchase, so it can sit in your phone before you leave home, bought at leisure rather than in a queue on a warm morning at the Zona Velha station.

Cabins run 08:45 to 17:45, every day of the year except Christmas Day. That single annual closure is the whole calendar. It also means winter riders lose the last of the light on the way down rather than at the top: in mid-January the sun sets at 18:25 in Funchal, forty minutes after the last cabin has run.

The one-way fare exists for a reason. Buy up at EUR 16, spend the morning in Monte, then come down in a carro de cesto instead of paying for a return leg you never use. The sledge starts at EUR 30 for one passenger, so the pairing costs more than the EUR 22 return: it buys a different descent, not a cheaper one.

The Monte toboggan: what it costs and when it does not run

Monte’s wicker sledges are priced by the number of passengers: EUR 30 for one, EUR 40 for two, EUR 60 for three, steered by two carreiros in white. Split three ways that is EUR 20 a head, against EUR 30 for anyone riding alone. The rate is per sledge, not per person, which is the only discount mechanism on offer.

They work Monday to Saturday, 09:00 to 18:00. Sunday is closed, full stop. Tickets are sold on site and for the same day only, with no reservation of any kind, so the sledges cannot be locked into an itinerary the way a garden ticket can.

Three things shut them: the Sunday closure, an office that can close early when the queue is long or the weather turns, and rain or wet ground, which cancels the three-passenger ride outright. Winter is when all three bite together. At the Funchal station, an average January records 6.2 days with at least 1 mm of rain (0.04 inch) and 2.3 days with 10 mm or more, against 0.3 days in July. A wet January Sunday is simply not a sledge day.

Monte Palace and the Botanical Garden: prices and opening hours

The Monte Palace Tropical Garden sits at Caminho das Babosas, beside the cable car’s upper station, which is why it so often ends up in the same morning. Adults pay EUR 18. Children up to 14 enter free with an adult, and school groups go free. Inside are 70,000 square meters (roughly 17 acres, est.) of exotic planting, tile panels and a sculpture museum. Aggregator sites still print EUR 12.50 for this ticket; the garden’s own page says otherwise.

Two timetables govern it. From April to September the gates are open 09:00 to 19:00. From October to March they close an hour earlier, at 18:00. The museum indoors shuts at 17:00 all year, with last entry at the same hour, and the garden is closed on December 25. Arrive at 16:45 in January and you get the museum in a hurry plus one dimming hour of paths.

The Botanical Garden Eng. Rui Vieira is a separate outing on a separate hill: Caminho do Meio, at Bom Sucesso, with more than 2,000 exotic species. It is a collection rather than a stage set, and it is not reachable from the Monte station on foot the way the Monte Palace is. We could not read an official admission price for it, so treat the fare as unknown and ask at the ticket window.

One more thing about Monte that catches people out: the walk down, PR 3.1 Caminho Real do Monte, is itself a classified trail. It was open on September 8, 2026, and like every PR route it now needs the EUR 4.50 access fee and a booked 30-minute entry slot. Deciding to skip the sledge and walk instead is a decision made the night before, on SIMplifica, not at the top of the hill.

Cabo Girão skywalk: price, hours and what the glass floor shows

The Cabo Girão skywalk, a glass platform bolted over the sea cliff above Câmara de Lobos, charges EUR 3. Children of 12 and under go free, and so do registered residents of Madeira, meaning a visitor pays and the neighbor beside them does not. We reached no institutional page for the tariff, only concordant sources, so carry coins and confirm the amount at the turnstile.

Hours run in two seasons: 08:30 to 20:00 from March to October, and 08:30 to 19:00 from November to February. In December that 19:00 closing falls well after dark, so the last hour offers lights on the water below the glass rather than the terraced fields you came for. Morning gives the floor its actual purpose.

Madeira wine tasting in Funchal: tours, times and prices

Blandy’s Wine Lodge, on Avenida Arriaga in central Funchal, sells its Premium Tour at EUR 23. It lasts 45 minutes and finishes with a tasting of three Madeira wines. A shorter 30-minute version also runs, though the lodge does not publish its price where we could read it, so ask when you book rather than budgeting a guess.

English departures go Monday to Friday at 10:30, 14:00, 15:00 and 16:00, with extra Sunday slots. The lodge advises booking ahead and allows free cancellation up to 24 hours before, which makes it the rare Madeira ticket you can hold loosely while the weather makes up its mind.

Funchal has other wine houses, and we are not putting numbers on them. No readable tariff sheet exists for the rest, so any price you see quoted for them elsewhere, including the EUR 18 that aggregators still attach to Blandy’s, deserves a phone call first. For the wider drinking context, our food and drink guide covers what fortified Madeira actually is.

Porto Moniz natural pools: entry, hours and the free alternative

The volcanic pools at Porto Moniz, on the north coast, come in two versions. The serviced complex costs EUR 3 and includes changing rooms, a children’s pool, a bar and a first-aid post. It opens 09:00 to 19:00 in summer and 09:00 to 17:00 in winter, so the cold months take two hours off the end of a swimming afternoon.

Next door, the Cachalote pools are free and open at all hours. Nothing comes with them: no changing rooms, no bar, no attendant, no closing time. That suits an early swim or a late one, and it suits nobody who wants a shallow pool for a five-year-old or a shower afterward. The EUR 3 buys the infrastructure, not the water.

Month matters more here than at any garden. Sea surface off Madeira averages 68.6°F in January and 75.0°F in July, measured as the mean of daily maxima over 2015 to 2024, which sits a shade above a 24-hour mean. Add the 17:00 winter closing and a January visit becomes a midday swim or none at all. See July or January for how the rest of those days feel.

One caveat about the numbers people pack by. Funchal’s normals, average high 68.0°F and low 57.7°F in January, 77.7°F and 67.5°F in July, are taken at 58 m on the south coast. Porto Moniz faces the other way, into the Atlantic. Those figures are a reference point for the island’s mild range, not a forecast for the north shore on the day you drive up.

How much do Madeira’s attractions cost in a day?

Read down the price column and the island looks cheaper than its reputation. The dearest single ticket here is Monte Palace at EUR 18, the sledge aside. Two of the best-known stops, the skywalk and the serviced pools, ask EUR 3 each, and the free Cachalote pools ask nothing. The expensive part of a Madeira day is rarely the entry fee.

Two costed days show the spread. A Monte day for one adult, cable car one way at EUR 16, Monte Palace at EUR 18, sledge down at EUR 30, totals EUR 64. A trail and north-coast day comes to EUR 10.50: EUR 4.50 for the booked PR slot, EUR 3 at Cabo Girão, EUR 3 at the Porto Moniz complex. Same island, same twelve hours, a sixfold difference in tickets.

Then the bed adds its own line. Funchal levies a Taxa Municipal Turística of EUR 2 per person per night on every paid overnight stay in the municipality, whatever the booking channel, capped at 7 consecutive nights, so EUR 14 per guest at most. Two adults for a week: EUR 28. Interrupt the stay and the count starts again. Children of 12 and under are exempt on production of an ID, as are guests with a disability of 60 percent or more and regional residents with proof of tax address.

What this page cannot price, it will name. There are no verified figures here for car rental, flights, hotels, boat trips or restaurants, no admission for the Botanical Garden, and no rate for Blandy’s 30-minute tour. The Cabo Girão EUR 3 rests on concordant sources rather than an official page. For the wider budget frame, use what a week in Portugal costs and the car guide.

Families get a slightly different sum. Two adults and one twelve-year-old riding up at EUR 16 plus EUR 16 plus EUR 8 pay EUR 40 in one-way cable car fares, then EUR 36 at Monte Palace, since the child enters free, and EUR 60 for a three-person sledge. That is EUR 136 for the morning, with the child’s city tax waived on presentation of an ID, and the sledge leg conditional on dry ground.

What to do in Madeira when it rains

Rain leaves a real list. Blandy’s Premium Tour is 45 indoor minutes on Avenida Arriaga, with English departures at 10:30, 14:00, 15:00 and 16:00 and free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead. The sculpture museum and tile panels inside Monte Palace hold up too, provided you are through the door before its 17:00 closing rather than the garden’s. The cable car’s only published closure all year is December 25.

What rain takes away is specific. No three-passenger sledge runs in wet weather or on wet ground, and the ticket office can close early when conditions turn, with no reservation system to fall back on. Trail status shifts with weather and works, as PR 1.3 Vereda da Encumeada and PR 4 Levada do Barreiro showed on September 8, 2026, and a paid slot does not lift a restriction. The glass floor at Cabo Girão, in cloud, shows cloud.

The last word

One decision outranks the others: fix the trail slot first, because it is the only thing on this island you cannot buy at the door, and let the cable car, the gardens and the EUR 3 tickets arrange themselves around it. The rest is weather arithmetic. Funchal’s gauge at 58 m logs 2.64 inches of rain in an average January against 0.07 inches in July, which is why a winter week wants two indoor mornings held in reserve and a summer one wants the 08:00 slot before the heat.

Sources & data for this guide

• Trail access fee of EUR 4.50 (EUR 3 with a protocol company), resident exemption, mandatory booking · Visit Madeira, Hiking, Access Conditions · checked Sep 13, 2026
• SIMplifica booking, 30-minute slots from sunrise to sunset · Visit Madeira, Hiking FAQ · checked Sep 13, 2026
• Trail status by PR number as of Sep 8, 2026 · Visit Madeira official list of classified trails · checked Sep 13, 2026
• Cable car fares, child rates, 60-day e-ticket validity, 08:45 to 17:45 daily except Christmas Day · Teleférico do Funchal official site · checked Sep 13, 2026
• Sledge prices EUR 30 / 40 / 60, Monday to Saturday 09:00 to 18:00, on-site same-day sale, no three-person ride in rain · Carreiros do Monte, Preços page and notes · checked Sep 13, 2026
• Monte Palace EUR 18, free entry to 14, 70,000 square meters, both seasonal timetables, museum closing at 17:00 · Monte Palace Tropical Garden official site · checked Sep 13, 2026 · several aggregators still print EUR 12.50, contradicted by the garden’s own page
• Botanical Garden Eng. Rui Vieira, Caminho do Meio, 2,000+ species · Teleférico do Funchal points-of-interest map · checked Sep 13, 2026 · no official admission price we could read
• Blandy’s Premium Tour EUR 23, 45 minutes, three wines, English departure times, 24-hour cancellation · Blandy’s Wine Lodge official Tours page · checked Sep 13, 2026 · the EUR 18 quoted by aggregators is not the lodge’s figure
• Porto Moniz serviced complex EUR 3 with summer and winter hours, free Cachalote pools · Visit Madeira fact sheet, corroborated by concordant guides · checked Sep 13, 2026
• Cabo Girão skywalk EUR 3 and seasonal hours · concordant sources only, no institutional page was reachable · confirm the amount on site · checked Sep 13, 2026
• Funchal Taxa Municipal Turística, EUR 2 per person per night, 7-night cap, restart after interruption, exemptions · Câmara Municipal do Funchal official FAQ (TaxaMunicipalTuristica_FAQ.pdf) · checked Sep 13, 2026
• January and July normals, rain-day counts at IPMA thresholds, station 522 Funchal at 58.0 m · IPMA 1991-2020 · checked Sep 13, 2026 · south-coast readings, not island-wide
• Sea surface 68.6°F in January and 75.0°F in July, mean of daily maxima 2015-2024 · Open-Meteo Marine API · checked Sep 13, 2026
• Daylight length and sun times on the 15th of each month · sunrise-sunset.org · checked Sep 13, 2026
• Prices, hours and trail status change without notice · check the operator’s own page on the day you book.