Restaurants, bars and museums in Porto · Page 166

Teleférico de Gaia

Gaia · Sights & Landmarks

The Teleférico de Gaia is a gondola cable car on the south bank of the Douro River, in the Gaia neighbourhood of Vila Nova de Gaia. Its lower station sits on the riverside promenade, at the level of the port wine lodge waterfront, while the upper station is at Jardim do Morro, a garden on the bluff above, level with the upper deck of Ponte Dom Luís I. The address is Largo de Miguel Bombarda, 4400-222 Vila Nova de Gaia. The line is 572 metres long and climbs 62 metres. It opened in 2011 and was designed mainly as a tourist amenity rather than a working transport link, since the same route can be walked, using the iron staircase on the bridge side, or driven. The system uses monocable detachable gondola technology, the kind common at ski resorts. Unlike a funicular, the cabins circulate continuously instead of following a fixed up-and-down schedule. Each cabin holds around 8 to 10 passengers. The walls are glass panels in a metal frame, so there is no open-air element, but the views are unobstructed in every direction. There are no seats, so passengers stand or hold the handrails. One guide puts the ride at 4 to 5 minutes, while another says about 6 minutes. Going down from Jardim do Morro, the Porto side is in front of you: the Ribeira buildings, the coloured houses climbing the hill and the arch of Ponte Dom Luís I. Going up faces the Gaia hillside, the WOW cultural district buildings, the cable car tower and, on clear days, the landscape extending toward the Douro Valley. Because Porto is behind you on the way up, most visitors ride down. A ticket costs around 6 € single or 9 € return per adult. Allow 20 to 40 minutes in total including the queue; going before 10:30am or after 4pm helps avoid waiting. From Porto, you can walk across the upper deck of Ponte Dom Luís I. Opening hours are 10:00 to 20:00 from Apr 26 to Sep 24, 10:00 to 19:00 from Mar 24 to Apr 25 and Sep 25 to Oct 24, and 10:00 to 18:00 from Oct 25 to Mar 23. It is closed on Dec 25. Jardim do Morro is free to enter, Serra do Pilar Monastery is a 5-minute walk from the upper station, and WOW World of Wine is a 10-minute walk from the lower station.

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