Kotor Cable Car: Tickets, Hours and What Waits at the Top

The operator publishes its fares openly.

The operator publishes its fares openly, which is more than some Kotor attractions manage. A return ticket costs €25 ($28.53) for an adult. Children aged 2 to 12 pay €7 ($7.99) return. A disabled visitor pays €12 ($13.69) return. If you plan to walk down or to continue over the ridge rather than ride back, the one-way fares are €14 ($15.98) for an adult and €4 ($4.56) for a child. Nobody pays for infants under 2 as far as the published list goes, but the operator does not state a free tier, so check at the gate if you travel with a baby.

Everything at the top station is priced separately from the ride. The Alpine Coaster costs €12 ($13.69) for a standard run on its 1,056-metre track, which takes three to five minutes. The Falcon Fly, a zipline-coaster hybrid, costs €15 ($17.12). The Aerobar, a ride that lifts and spins you over the edge of the ridge, costs €15 ($17.12) for adults and €5 ($5.71) for children. A family of four that rides up, takes one turn each on the coaster and shares the Aerobar is looking at roughly €25 ($28.53) plus €7 ($7.99) in gondola fares and about about €20 ($22.82) each way in top-station rides, so the mountain day adds up faster than the ticket office sign suggests. Budget the whole visit before you go, and see our Kotor costs page for how this fits into a day's spending.

Two practical notes on paying. Montenegro uses the euro even though it is not a member of the eurozone, so you need euros in cash or card at the station, not dinars or kuna leftovers. And online tickets skip the line, which matters between late morning and mid afternoon in the main season when cruise groups stack up at the gate.

The gondola runs from 09:00 to.

The gondola runs from 09:00 to 20:00. On Tuesdays it opens late, at 10:30. The last ride up is at 19:30 and the last ride down at 20:00, so the operator gives you the final half hour at the top rather than stranding you. The ride itself takes eleven minutes each way.

The operator does not publish separate summer and winter timetables in the material we checked, and it does not state fixed closed days. What it does state is the thing that actually ruins plans: the gondola closes for wind or maintenance with little notice. A ridge line on an exposed mountain is hostage to the weather, and the bay's bora wind can shut it without warning. The operator's site and its Facebook page carry same-day status. Make the cable car the first thing you check each morning, not the thing you discover closed after lunch.

The late Tuesday opening is the single most useful scheduling fact on this page. If you arrive on a cruise call or a short visit and your only free morning is a Tuesday, do not stand at the lower station at 09:00. Plan the old town or a coffee on the Square of Arms until 10:30 instead, or invert the day entirely and ride up for the afternoon light. Sunset from the top terrace is the best light of the day on the bay, and the 19:30 last ascent leaves room for it in the long summer evenings. For how the light and weather shift through the year, see our Kotor weather and best time to visit Kotor pages.

The honest answer depends on which.

The honest answer depends on which version of the day you are buying. The ride is eleven minutes each way. The terrace wants thirty to sixty minutes if you skip the rides, more if you eat.

The coaster and its siblings each take minutes but queue. Here are the three realistic shapes of the visit.

The lower station is not in.

The lower station is not in the old town. It sits at Dub, above the Skaljari district on the mountainside south of the centre, and the walk up from town is a hot, steep road climb that almost nobody should attempt before a mountain visit. Three ways up exist, and one of them is free of driving decisions.

Taxis charge about €20 ($22.82) each way from town. That is about €20 ($22.82) each way return on top of your €25 ($28.53) ticket, which is the number that makes the guided tours look reasonable. Agree the fare before you get in, as we advise on our getting around Kotor page. No official source publishes a local taxi or bus fare table for Kotor, so treat the €20 figure as the reported rate rather than a tariff.

The hop-on hop-off sightseeing bus reaches the lower station by road, and its one-day ticket also folds in a free guided old-town walk plus discounts in town, which makes it the cheapest structured way up if you also want the viewpoints on the serpentine. Tours solve the problem wholesale: both the Lovćen cable car, Njeguši and Cetinje day tour and the Lovćen 25-turns downhill bike ride include road transport to and from the gondola, so you never think about the Dub road at all.

If you have a car from our Kotor car rental page, the Dub road climbs from above Skaljari and the station has parking, though the operator does not publish its capacity or any fee. Arrive before 10:00 in July and August.

First, the gondola closes for wind.

First, the gondola closes for wind. This is the single most common way plans break. A ridge cable line on an exposed mountain stops running when the wind picks up, with little notice, and the operator says so plainly. Check the official site or its Facebook page the morning of your visit and have a fallback, like the fortress climb or a bay cruise.

Second, Tuesdays open late. The gondola starts at 10:30 on Tuesdays instead of 09:00. Visitors who do not know this stand at a locked lower station for ninety minutes. Either plan your Tuesday morning in the old town or choose another day.

Third, the Alpine Coaster track is 1,056 metres long and takes three to five minutes. It is a genuine mountainside coaster, not a fairground loop, and it is priced separately at €12 ($13.69). Families routinely underestimate both the length and the extra cost.

Fourth, you can buy a one-way ticket for €14 ($15.98). This matters if you want to continue on foot over the ridge toward the Ladder of Kotor country or down the old mule tracks, or if you are meeting the bike descent. Most people do not notice the one-way fare exists.

Fifth, you do not need a taxi. The hop-on bus reaches the lower station at Dub by road, and the guided tours include the transfer. The €20 ($22.82) taxi is the default because it is the most obvious option, not the only one.

Do check the wind forecast and.

Do check the wind forecast and the operator's same-day status before you commit the day. Do book online to skip the line, since the operator says online tickets do exactly that and the queue at the Dub gate is the slowest part of the whole visit. Do go early in the morning for the clearest air and the shortest lines, or late for the sunset light, which is the best of the day on the bay. Do budget for the top-station rides separately if you have coaster-mad children.

Do not arrive before 10:30 on a Tuesday expecting to ride. Do not plan the whole day around the gondola in unstable weather, because a wind closure with little notice can erase it. Do not try to walk to the lower station from the old town in August heat. The road up from Skaljari is exposed and there is no published footpath the operator recommends. Do not assume the ride is included in anything else. Every guided tour that mentions the gondola handles it differently, and the operator's own fares apply at the gate regardless.