Madeira Highlights: Toboggan, Garden & Cable Car (All-inclusive)

We took the cable car round-trip, which was unbelievable, the sites were fantastic and reaching the top we decided to take a toboggan ride since that’s a very popular attraction. When we reached the bottom which was about 1 1/2 km we inquired about a taxi ride to the cable car station again and that fee was going to be between 25 and €30 which we thought was a scam since it’s only about a 6 to 7 minute ride. As a protest we walked back up the very steep grades for the kilometer and a half, an Uber ride would have cost about six euros, but they are prohibited, upon mentioning it to a few other tourists within earshot of a taxi driver, he turned around and said if you have money to go down, then you should have money to go back up. The taxi drivers have a scam there so beware. The walk up is not for the faint of heart, luckily, even at my age I’m in great shape and did it solely in protest.

This was one of the highlights of my trip. It was great fun. We paid 20 Euro and the ride lasts about 10-15 minutes. It's a great experience - we laughed all the way down. We had a Poncha at the end. Just remember you go half way down so you need to get a taxi to either take you back up to the cable car or down to Funchal. Highly recommend this it goes at a moderate speed - great fun.

The Driver was excellent, full of information and always waiting for you even in queues. The toboggans was great funny, and cable car ride was very seneic.

Having arrived early after advice from our TukTuk guide the night before walked straight on to the Toboggan’s (Tickets purchased at the ride in cash only €20 per person). The ride is 2 kilometres in length and has a few exciting areas but generally looks more dangerous on film. If your on a guided tour your guide will meet you at the bottom (Not walking distance back to town unless your part alpaca). Your photo will be taken half way down and will be available at the end for €10

We didn’t do the taboggan in the end. Madeira was beautiful, most of the people were friendly. An expensive place to visit, some things were worth the money others not good value for money. A word of caution, be very careful in the farmers market it is very very expensive and you can buy products elsewhere for a 3rd to a quarter of the price. Do not hire a car from Magic Islands car hire, they actually take the deposit from your card and they keep your deposit for months, that’s if you get it back at all. I’m still waiting since 16th May 2026, it’s now 11th August. Plenty of things to do and enjoy. Shop around for best prices and quality before you buy or book

Toboggan ride was great fun very quick and no queue when we went , For two people cost €40 and if you want photo at end another €10 . Either wait for bus (€2:10)or walk back to town (2hrs) taxis are expensive. Or get hop/off bus run every 45-55 minutes to monte Gardens are lovely but steep steps ,walkways on cobblestone so wear trainers .

Another unforgettable experience un Madeira on the toboggan ride. This ride was thrilling, fun and full of laughter. The steep descent, friendly drivers and stunning ride made the whole adventure feel wonderfully unique and truly memorable.

Great fun- had to be done. Walk back into Funchal steep but very do able. Added to the experience.

We took the bus from the terminal up to the Toboggans which was a very steep journey, all credit to the bus drivers of Maderia. When we arrived there was a queue but it moves relatively quickly. It costs 35€ for two people but it’s worth the money for the experience. The journey down hill is approximately 6 minutes with two photo guys taking your pic on the corners which they then try to sell you at the end of your journey, which finishes by a cafe and gift shop. You can then wait for a bus to take you back down or walk down it’s rather steep to the bottom but only takes about 20 mins A must do if going to Maderia for the first time

Today we did the private tour for Tobaggan, gardens with a stop for lunch. Luis is a great guide native to Madeira. Went to Tobaggan ride first to avoid long lines. It is so much fun — great experience! Cable car was in maintenance so missed that experience. Gardens were beautiful & lunch & island tour was lovely. My husband has mobility issue so Luis accommodated the entire day so my husband could fully participate. He is very knowledgeable on history & geography of the island. We recommend Luis for a personalized tour of Madeira - than you 🩷

Originally we were supposed to go on the Cable car and the Toboggan, but the cable car was closed for maintenance. Our guide took us on the Toboggan, then the Botanical gardens, then the Skywalk and finished the trip with a visit to a fishing village. We were extremely happy with th whole experience, it gave us a chance to see what a beautiful island Maderia is.

This is so much a part of Madeira history and unique to the island. Two guides glide you down a slick road in the traditional wicker sled-like toboggan. Keep in mind, the lines can get long (especially if multiple cruise ships are in port) and you cannot go down if it rains. It is on the pricier side of things to do but such a cool experience!

Our experience was really disappointing. We visited on one day and found a two-hour queue, so we decided to return early the next day to avoid the wait—only to discover the kiosk had been shut down for the weekend. There was no signage at the kiosk to indicate this, and the only information available was on their website. This is poor communication, especially considering how easy it would have been to put up a simple sign the day before or even on the day itself to let people know what was happening.

Excellent service from Luigi The toboggan run is fast and fun. The botanical gardens are beautiful but were good walking trainers. The cable car had amazing views

Cancelled just hours before pivmck up time , very poor service costing 260 odd pounds, very quick to take the money , but very slow to refund

It was all absolutely great. I could have spent all day at gardens. They are beautiful. Toboggan was a lot of fun and cable car had a great view. Luis - our driver - was incredible. So very nice, informative and helpful. 5stars for him!!!! Thank you so much for a wonderful day!!

What a wonderful experience. The toboggan ride was fun and a very unique experience. Botanical gardens were a beautiful respite from the heat..

All three activities should not be missed when visiting Madeira. Our guide, Luis, was knowledgeable and focused on us having an enjoyable experience.

We had Luis as our personal guide who picked us up straight from our hotel and took us around all the attractions. He was very friendly, knowledgeable and helpful and made our trip perfect. He sorted all our tickets beforehand so no queuing or waiting around and gave excellent recommendations.

The Monte garden is really beautiful but prepare for a lots of steps. The toboggan ride down was fun! Definitely worth waiting 30 mins. We went up with the cable car around 11am. The queue was short at that time, but I’d still recommend purchasing the ticket up beforehand.

Don't book this trip as it cost £195. 00 for a transfer by taxi. We were over charged as this trip could have been done as a maximum of £45.00 by using the local taxis.. Do this trip by yourself and not through viator.

Excellent trip book for the morning to avoid queuing for too long. Was really good fun the botanical gardens are amazing too.

The taxi driver can leave you and go on other duties even though you think you have paid him for the day.

Great experience and well worth the investment BUT get ready to queue at the toboggan tide but everyone is in good spirits. The cable car is a great way to see as a bird flies. Fisherman village and skywalk is the most 'meh' part for us but it may well be fascinating for others (done it before). Fun going it with others and woudl recommend

This is a must. The cable car to monte is magnificent the views are beautiful, long queue but it soon goes down. The basket tobogganing is a delight to watch, again long queue and expensive. Very disappointed at the end of the ride as the one of the toboganers spoke right into my ear and asked for a tip, I am a tipper but to be asked so sneakily ruined my experience.

From start to finish Luis made everything easy. He made sure we knew where to go and where he'd pick us up after each visit. We we're never rushed and nothing was too much trouble for Luis. Yes you can do the tour cheaper but going with a guide/driver like Luis made the whole experience so much better.

Leonardo gave us an excellent, private tour of Funchal sites, Cabo Girao, and other close-by sites, as described in the tour itinerary. He picked us up at our hotel and drove us to Monte, where we toured the beautiful Tropical Garden and took the popular Toboggan ride. On the day of our visit, these two sites were quite crowded, with up to a two-hour wait for the Toboggan ride. As we toured the garden, Leonardo held our place in line for the Toboggan ride. When we finished our garden tour, we exchanged places with Leonardo in the line, and in short order, we enjoyed the unique, fun Toboggan ride down the hill. Leonardo met us at the bottom of the hill, took a video of us riding down the hill, and then drove us back to Monte for the Cable Car ride down to Funchal (one way). We then drove to Cabo Girao for a fantastic view of the cliff from the glass platform, 600 meters above the ocean. The tour itinerary is well-designed. We don’t think that we could have seen these sites without Leonardo’s excellent driving, guide services, advance ticket purchases, and assistance. As a life-long resident of Madeira, Leonardo shared much with us about life in Madeira, including the people, the history, the culture, and more. Most people in Madeira live on the side of a hill, and they heavily farm the hill-sides from terraces. Leonardo expertly explained this interesting aspect of life in Madeira, which was an unexpected pleasure for us. At the conclusion of the tour, Leonardo returned us to hour hotel. Five Stars! Highest recommendation!

Brilliant trip with Our guide Luis who was informative, knowledgeable and got the best out of our trip avoiding the crowds. Highly recommended.,

A well organised and friendly guide, he managed to work around the queues genereated by 3 cruise ships worth of passengers converging on the venues. A great introduction to Funchal and the local area.

We loved our time in Madeira, thanks to Luis. From pick up to drop off every minute was great. He was knowledgeable, accommodating, and flexible. So many highlights but as my wife shared, “if we lived here, I’d ride the Toboggan every day.”

We did the tour with our two kids. Luis is a totally nice guy. He is doing all his best to make a tour with him unforgetable and just amazing. He is kind, polite, helpful. A local that knows all about his Island and wants to make you fall in love with Madeira aswell. Great service. Highly recommended!

We wanted to do this tour having done similar years ago but this time had friends and family with us too. Found this tour on trip advisor which matched what we needed and more and after confirming they picked up from port went ahead and booked it. Luis the guide kept in touch before trip and he met us right outside our cruise ship in the port. His car was plenty room enough for the four of us to sit in comfort. In order to miss all the queues Luus recommended doing toboggan first. We arrived there greeted with no queue at so got straight in toboggan. Was great like last time and surprised to receive photos Luis had taken of us all as we arrived at bottom. Luis gave us all time we needed for drinks and souvenirs then picked us up and drove us to gardens. He said we could have time we wanted and after arranging our admission into gardens showing us best route round on maps aldongave us passes for cable car saying he would collect us from bottom if we messaged him as we got on it. Sure enough he was waiting with car when we got down. We then went tk famous local viewpoint called sky walk with a platform nearly 600 metres up and out from top of cliff. Magnificent views of islands and city of funchal. We then went to lovely small fishing port and place where Winston Churchill stayed and painted. We asked if he would drop us in old town rather than cruise ship which he was happy to do. On way back he then said he would come back for us later and take us back to ship an offer wd gratefully accepted. He arrived as arranged after we had done our sightseeing and took us back to end a perfect day in Funchal. All admissions etc included anc no extras plus a great personal service and lots of local knowledge. Couldn't recommend highly enough.

Loved the tour. It was fabulous. I can’t wait to go back. Madeira is one of my most favorite places in the world. The monte was beautiful. The toboggan was so fun. Long line but it moved fast.

We had a great trip with the fantastic help of Luis who made everything so easy and smooth for us ensuring we got the most of our time without having to wait in any of the blistering queues. Toboggan ride was the standout activity and Luis made sure we had some additional memories by sending us some photos he took of our journey down the hill as part of his excellent service. Would highly recommend Luis and these activities as he made sure we were comfortable and well looked after throughout

Our guide Luis was excellent and he went out of his way to make our trip informative, comfortable and memorable. Madeira has so much to offer and is a stunningly beautiful island. The tour was a lovely blend of sight seeing and fun and we felt it was very good value. I would highly recommend this tour!

Don’t hesitate to book this tour. We felt so spoiled with white glove concierge service. Communication was excellent. Everything was so fast and easy and we got to do even more than we hoped with our too-short visit. Luis picked us up and had our tickets already. We had no lines as he took care of all that. Straight on to the cable car, gorgeous gardens, thrilling toboggan ride, beautiful skywalk, drinks in the quaint fishing village we would have never found on our own, shopping and snacks in the old town - with Luis’ expert driving and sharing a little local life, history, and culture along the way. So easy and a super fun afternoon on this beautiful island. Highly recommend.

Awesome tour. Luis was a great guide. Accommodated a meeting spot that was more convenient and more parking spots. He was very knowledgeable of the area, the history and gave a great background of the local economy, agriculture and fishing. He was even kinda of enough to leave us at a wonderful restaurant he suggested for lunch. I highly recommended this tour. Of course the highlight was the toboggan and he waited in line while we visited the gardens. A cruise ship was in port and this saved us at least an hour wait.

We had an excellent packed informative day with Luis . Luis is pleasant helpful and full of useful information for visitors . I would highly recommend his services.

Great tour of Monte, including Tropical Gardens with wine tasting plus a trip on the toboggan. Very helpful to have a private driver, no need to wait virus queue anywhere. Well worth it.

This trip was fantastic! Our guide Luis was brilliant! He gave us lots of information and tickets for all the attractions were available at the pint they were needed. We skipped the line in the cable car and the Monte tropical gardens. He then kept a place ready for us for the tobaggan ride. Sky walk was amazing and trip to fishing village. Air conditioned vechile and a small group worth every Penny! Made our holiday. Throughly recommend!

Our tour guide Luis was amazing! On time, friendly, thorough with his instructions and described sites as we drove. He even stayed in contact with us in the afternoon/evening to make sure we got home safely. Highly recommended this company!

Private tour, great driver who had everything arranged. We didn’t have to do a thing. At the end of the tour we wanted to try some Poncha so he took us to an excellent place to get Poncha and a bite to eat. Great day!

Well worth the private family tour. Our guide was fantastic and went above and beyond! He even held our place in the toboggan queue so we could explore the gardens at our leisure and not have to wait in the 2 hour line.

It was amazingly wonderful to visit those tourist attractions. From porto moniz way up to pico areeiro. Going up with the cable car. Down to the toboggan ride.

We enjoyed sight seeing from the cable car. The tobaggan ride was fun, annd our tour guide waited a long time in line, while we waited at a cafe, for our turn to take that ride. Our tour Guide Miguel was GREAT. The Botanical Garden tour was a fiasco ( not Miguel’s fault ), We terminated it after a half hour of carefully finding a way to make it safely to the nearest exit because of the dangerous walkways, which were composed of wet slippery volcanic rock's most all STEEP SLOPES!!!, creating countless places where A YONE could suddenly and easily slip and fall. There was NO WARNING of these problems with the Botanical Garden tour on the Viator INFORMATION about it. If there were, we would not have taken that tour. To add insult to injury NOTHING WAS IN BLOOM!!! It’s winter, although the beaches are hot, everything in the park is dormant, waiting for spring and summer. They had absolutely no business selling this expensive tour! When we brought this problem to the attention of Viator requesting the park fee refunded they refused to refund the cost of that terrible tour to us— disgusting!

When we arrived, we were a bit disheartened at the length of the queue to get a toboggan. We decided to stick it out and played games with the children. The queue took well over an hour. However, the ride on the toboggan was fun and lasts a few minutes. An unusual but fun experience. Just be warned the guys controlling the toboggan will be asking for tips afterwards.

The cable car and toboggan ride were as described and our guide, Luis, made sure we knew exactly where to go and be met afterwards

We had a fantastic tour by Luis,he Quedgeley for us to save time and very prompt,he made Madeira our favourite port of the cruise cannot say how amazing it was and that was all down to our tour with viator

Beautiful gardens, a large range of exotic plants from all over the world Some quite steep paths and steps. We did use the cable car which is expensive, you can catch a bus bus which is far cheaper. The toboggan is fun but also expensive. They only accept cash and they only take you part way down and expect a tip and you are presented with a photo for 10 euros. If you are not good at walking you may need to find alternative transport for the remainder of the journey as it is steep and about a mile to the centre of Funchal.