5 of the world's best cable car rides
Mérida cable car, Venezuela
After years of closure, the world’s highest and second-longest cable car reopened earlier this year. This epic piece of engineering was built in the 1960s to take passengers on the 12.5km journey from Mérida to 4,756-metre Espejo Peak. It was closed in 2008, but modernisation works did not begin until 2011. In April this year it came back into operation and passengers can take a vertigo-inducing ride to its final station above the clouds.
• telefericodemerida.travel
Mi Teleférico, Bolivia
While many cable cars (especially those of the 360-degree rotating variety), are designed as a tourist novelty, some provide vital transportation. This is the case in La Paz, which launched its ambitious cable car system in 2014 in response to the city’s overwhelming traffic problems. The route, which travels from La Paz to the even-higher-altitude city of El Alto (at 4,150 metres), affords passengers an impressive view of the city and the Andes. Gliding above the rooftops, the red, yellow and green gondolas are a great – and affordable – way to see the cities from a different perspective, while it’s also worth thinking about the cable car’s role in the lives of the citizens who use it.
Cabrio, Switzerland
Want to feel the wind in your hair as you ride through the sky? A bit like the cable car equivalent of an open-top bus, the Cabrio cable car has two decks, with the roofless upper deck providing unbeatable photo opportunities of Lake Lucerne below, unobstructed by glass panes or even the cables themselves, which are connected to the sides of the car. The route up to the 1,900-metre Stanserhorn starts on an 120-year-old funicular railway; the Cabrio makes the final trip to the summit, where the panoramic theme can continue with dinner at the Rondorama revolving restaurant.
• stanserhorn.ch
Tianmen mountain, China
There’s a certain intensity to the mountains in Hunan province, which rise from the ground in steep, dramatic columns. There’s lots of opportunity for visitors to test their fear of heights, with a 1,400-metre-high cliffside walkway and three glass skywalks, the most recent of which opened last month (and then promptly closed down again to undergo “an internal system upgrade”). It also has the world’s longest cable car ride, which takes 30 minutes to travel 7km and concludes with an incredibly steep 37-degree drop. Passengers look down across the forest-covered valley and can see the notorious 99 bends road – a winding mountain route leading to Tianmen cave, a gaping hole in a rock wall, better known as Heaven’s Door.
Sugarloaf mountain, Rio de Janeiro
Few cities can match the epic, scene-stealing geography of Rio de Janeiro, where the neighbourhoods and favelas are dwarfed by lush green-coated peaks, ocean bays and long sandy beaches. If ever there was a city you’d want a bird’s eye view of, it’s this one. No surprise, then, that the Sugarloaf Mountain cable car is one of Rio’s most popular attractions, visited by more than 37 million people since opening in 1912 (it has been modernised since then). It has also proved an attractive site for stunts: it features in a fight scene in the Bond film Moonraker, and has been walked by tight rope walkers – something to think about as you glide safely to your destination.
• visit.rio
