September 12, 2026
Monserrate is the white church on the mountain that every photograph of Bogotá is taken from or toward, 3,152 meters above sea level and about 500 meters above the streets, and the place we send every guest on their second morning in the city. There are three ways up, a funicular from 1929, a cable car from 1955 and a cobbled trail of 1,605 steps, and the choice between them, the day you pick and the hour you go decide whether you get the view or the cloud. We take guests up every week and run a private birdwatching morning on the summit’s own trail, so this is the visit as it works in 2026: the prices and the hours from the operator’s page, the trail’s rules from the city’s sports institute, the history from the sanctuary’s own account, the altitude in plain terms, what is at the top, and the day and the hour we would choose.
The short version
Go up on a clear morning, early, on your second day in Bogotá rather than your first. From Monday to Saturday and on holidays the round trip by cable car or funicular costs 35,000 pesos in 2026, 21,000 one way, 29,500 for visitors over 62 and 96,500 for a fast pass; on Sundays the round trip is 21,000 and the pilgrims fill the cars. The station runs from 6:30 in the morning to 10 at night from Monday to Saturday, from 5:30 to 5 on Sundays and from 6:30 to 5 on holidays, and until September 25, 2026 the weekday service is by cable car only, with both machines at weekends. The trail is free, opens every day except Tuesday from 5 in the morning until 1 for going up and 4 for coming down, climbs 470 meters in 2,350 meters of steps, and is a real effort at this altitude. At the top there is the sanctuary of the Señor Caído, the view over the whole plateau, seven places to eat from an empanada to a European dinner, and a bird trail with more than a hundred species. Give it two hours by cable, four on foot.
What Monserrate is
By the sanctuary’s own history, the hill was named for the Virgin of Montserrat when Pedro Solís de Valenzuela and other devotees built a chapel to her on the summit in 1640; in 1656 the priest Bernardino de Rojas commissioned the sculptor Pedro Lugo de Albarracín to carve a fallen Christ, the Señor Caído, and the image gradually became the object of the pilgrimage, especially after the hill withstood the two earthquakes of 1743 and 1745 that wrecked much of the town below. The old shrine could not hold the crowds, and the present neocolonial church was completed in 1925. The funicular opened in 1929 and the cable car on September 27, 1955, each described by the operator as the first of its kind in South America, and the trail was cobbled in 1980 by the city’s culture and tourism institute. The Stations of the Cross inside the church use images brought from Italy in the nineteenth century. It is a working sanctuary first and a viewpoint second, which is why the Sunday fare is lower and the Sunday crowd is the city itself.
The numbers: 3,152 meters, and what that means
Bogotá sits at about 2,640 meters and Monserrate’s summit at 3,152, so the cable car lifts you roughly 500 meters in a few minutes into air that holds about 68 percent of sea-level pressure, against 73 percent in the city. That is not dangerous, and the summit is well below the 4,300 meters under which the CDC calls the severe, cerebral form of altitude sickness rare, but it is enough to make the first hundred steps at the top feel like the first flight of stairs after a long illness, and it is much worse on the trail, where you climb the 500 meters with your own legs. The city’s health secretariat asks visitors to give themselves one or two days to adapt, and the CDC’s guidance puts the onset of altitude symptoms two to twelve hours after arrival, which is why Monserrate on the afternoon you land is the classic mistake and Monserrate on the second morning is our rule. Who feels it and what to carry are in our Bogotá altitude guide.
Three ways up: cable car, funicular and the trail
The cable car and the funicular leave from the same station at the foot of the hill, at Carrera 2 Este No. 21-48 on the Paseo Bolívar, above La Candelaria, with a parking lot next to the ticket office and bike parking near the booth; the operator suggests entering “Taquilla Teleférico Monserrate” in Waze or Google Maps. The funicular is the railway that climbs the slope on rails, the cable car the cabin that hangs from the line, and on a normal day both run on the same ticket. Until September 25, 2026 the operator is running only the cable car from Monday to Friday, with both services at weekends. Tickets can be bought online to avoid the queues, or at the booths with any major card or with pesos in cash; children taller than one meter pay, strollers fold to board, seniors show identification for their discount, and pets ride only from Monday to Saturday. Both machines have adapted access for reduced mobility and the summit lends wheelchairs, but the paths at the top are cobbled, uneven and steep, so the operator’s own advice is to come at a quiet hour if walking is hard.
The third way is the trail, and it is a different visit. The city’s sports institute, the IDRD, manages it: 2,350 meters long, 1,605 steps, 470 meters of climb, open from 5 in the morning until 1 in the afternoon for going up and until 4 for coming down, closed on Tuesdays for maintenance, no registration needed and the capacity controlled at the gate. The rules are strict: no children under one meter tall, no pets, no pregnant women, no alcohol, no bicycles, strollers or walkers. In Holy Week 2025 the institute counted close to 250,000 people on it in a week, with the city’s risk-management institute, the police, the civil defense and the Red Cross posted along the way; on an ordinary weekday morning it is runners and pilgrims, we budget two hours for the climb at this altitude, and the return by cable car for 21,000 pesos is the sensible plan. Start by 6 or 7 to be down before the cloud, carry water, and treat the closing hours as real: the gate for going up shuts at 1.
Prices and hours in 2026
| Ticket | Monday to Saturday and holidays | Sunday |
|---|---|---|
| Round trip | 35,000 pesos | 21,000 pesos |
| One way | 21,000 pesos | Not listed |
| Over 62, round trip | 29,500 pesos | 16,500 pesos |
| Fast pass | 96,500 pesos | Not listed |
| Trail | Free | Free |
Hours: Monday to Saturday from 6:30 in the morning to 10 at night, with ticket service until 10; Sundays from 5:30 in the morning to 5 in the afternoon; holidays from 6:30 to 5, in each case with the last car leaving at closing time. The trail runs from 5 in the morning to 1 for the climb and to 4 for the descent, every day except Tuesday. The prices are the operator’s published 2026 tariff and change without notice; we check them the week before each tour. A one-way ticket is the trail walker’s friend: up on foot, down by cable.
At the top
The church is the reason the hill exists, and a Sunday Mass with the plaza full of families who climbed on foot is the truest version of the place; the Señor Caído is inside, and the Stations of the Cross line the approach. The view is the other reason: from the terrace the whole city is legible, the colonial grid straight below, the strip of the visitor’s Bogotá running north along the hills, the savanna flat to the west with the airport on it and, on the clearest mornings, the mountains of the central range far beyond. Behind the church the Paramuno bird trail, by the operator’s count, has more than 115 species with more than 15 kinds of hummingbird, which is what our private birding morning is built on. And there is food at every price: Casa San Isidro for European cooking with the view, Casa Santa Clara for Colombian dishes from the Caribbean to the Amazon, the Mercado Monserrate for grilled meat and a traditional menu, Café Bistro for coffee and cakes, Postres Pecaditos for Colombian sweets, La Tienda for Bogotá empanadas and El Kiosko for popcorn at sunset, all by the operator’s own descriptions. Medical staff and the Red Cross are on site, and for the ride down to the city at night the operator’s advice is to use the white vehicles at the exit rather than a taxi from the street, which is our rule for the whole city.
The right day and the right hour
Monserrate is a morning. Bogotá’s rain comes in the afternoon, usually from about three, and the eastern hills, which Monserrate is the front of, get about twice the rain of the west of the city and sit in cloud through many afternoons from June to August, when the airport station below is having its driest weeks; the month-by-month detail is in our Bogotá weather guide. So the rule is early, on a clear morning, in the dry months of December to February if you can choose, and never as the first thing after landing. The day of the week matters too: Sunday is the cheapest fare and the fullest cars, the pilgrims’ day, which is either the reason to go or the reason not to; Tuesday is the day the trail closes; and the station’s long hours from Monday to Saturday, until 10 at night, make a clear evening the second-best time, when the lights of the plateau come on below and the restaurants are the reason to stay. During the cable-car-only weeks until September 25, 2026, and on any holiday, the online ticket page is the place to check before you set out.
Getting there, and the rule for the way back
The station sits above the eastern edge of La Candelaria. By day it is a walk from the Plaza de Bolívar and the Gold Museum, up through the streets around the Quinta de Bolívar and the university, and every tour of ours does it that way with a car waiting; by night the walk is not the plan, and the rule from our guide to whether Bogotá is safe applies in full: a car ordered through an app or the operator’s white vehicles from the exit, never a taxi hailed on the street, and nothing on foot up toward the hills after dark. From El Dorado the station is a direct run along Calle 26 and then south, which is what our five-hour layover tour does with a guide waiting in arrivals and a fast-entry ticket at the top. How to move around the rest of the city is in our getting-around guide, and the city itself, neighborhood by neighborhood, is in our Bogotá guide.
What we do differently, and what we cannot promise
We go up on the second morning, early, with the ticket bought, and we read the sky from the car on the way: if the summit is in cloud we do the museums first and come back, because a view you cannot see is not worth the queue. Our guides walk the summit at the pace the altitude asks for and know which side of the terrace has the light at which hour; our birding morning starts at dawn on the Paramuno trail with a guide who can tell a sword-billed hummingbird from the others. What we cannot promise is a clear summit on a July afternoon or an empty car on a Sunday; what we can promise is that Monserrate, done on the right morning, is the moment the city makes sense.
Questions travelers ask
How high is Monserrate?
The summit is at 3,152 meters above sea level, about 500 meters above the city, which sits at roughly 2,640. The air at the top holds about 68 percent of sea-level pressure.
How much does Monserrate cost in 2026?
The round trip by cable car or funicular is 35,000 pesos from Monday to Saturday and on holidays, 21,000 on Sundays, with a 21,000-peso one-way ticket, a 29,500-peso senior fare and a 96,500-peso fast pass on weekdays. The trail is free.
How many steps is the Monserrate trail, and how long does it take?
1,605 steps over 2,350 meters, climbing 470 meters, by the IDRD’s figures. We budget two hours for the climb at this altitude; the gate for going up closes at 1 in the afternoon and the trail is closed on Tuesdays.
Is Monserrate safe?
Yes, with the ordinary Bogotá rules. The summit has medical staff and the Red Cross, the trail is run by the city with police and rescue services on the busy days, and the risk is the way back at night: take a car from an app or the operator’s white vehicles at the exit, not a street taxi, and do not walk toward the hills after dark.
Cable car or funicular?
The same ticket and the same view; the funicular is the railway on the slope and the cable car the cabin on the line. Until September 25, 2026 only the cable car runs on weekdays, with both at weekends.
What time does Monserrate open?
6:30 in the morning from Monday to Saturday, until 10 at night; 5:30 to 5 on Sundays; 6:30 to 5 on holidays. The trail opens at 5.
Is Monserrate worth it?
On a clear morning it is the best two hours in Bogotá, because it is the only place the whole city is visible at once. In cloud it is a church and a cable car ride; check the sky first.
Plan it with us
Monserrate is in our Perfect Day in Bogotá, in our layover tour from El Dorado and in our private birding morning on the summit. Write to us on WhatsApp with your dates, or start with our Bogotá tours page.
Sources
The facts on this page were checked on September 12, 2026 against the following sources: the Monserrate operator’s schedules and prices, its visitor information, its history and its description of the summit, with the temporary cable-car-only notice from its homepage; the IDRD’s Monserrate trail page and its Holy Week 2025 bulletin; the CDC Yellow Book 2026 chapter on altitude illness; the Secretaría Distrital de Salud’s advice for visitors; IDEAM’s 1991 to 2020 climatological normals for the rain on the hills; and our own tour pages for the tours named. The pressure figures are the standard atmosphere for the altitudes given.
