Teleférico das Achadas da Cruz

The ride is the attraction. The cabin goes over the lip of the cliff and down the rock face, with the ocean below the whole way. At the bottom is a fajã: abandoned farm plots, dry levadas and houses under the cliff. It is run-down, and the sea there is not safe to swim in. What is worth the time down below is the path along the water and the café at the end of it. The upper station has a viewpoint over the same drop, and a buffet behind it serving light food. When the queue is long, the view from the top gives much of what the descent gives.

• Come early. The car park fills up and cars end up along the road above. Queues build at both stations.
• Six per cabin, one cabin every five minutes. A queue at the bottom means a second queue for the way back up.
• Use the handbrake. When the car park is full, you park on the road above the station.
• Nothing to swim in below. The shore at the bottom is unsafe for swimming, and the village there is run-down.
• The cable car does break down. It has shut with people already standing in the queue.

The station stands on the clifftop and you drive right up to it. The car park is at the entrance, and when it fills, cars line the road above — set the handbrake there. Everything below the top station is on foot or in the cabin. The cable car drops to the fajã, and a footpath runs down the same cliff for anyone who would rather not queue.

Best: early, at opening, before the car park and the queue fill up. Avoid: arriving late in the day, when the wait is long at both stations.

The capacity here is fixed and the crowd is not: six people per cabin, one cabin every five minutes. The queue at the lower station stands in the open sun, with no announcements and no one managing it.