What the Monte Tamaro gondola costs with the Swiss Travel Pass
The gondola from Rivera-Bironico up to Alpe Foppa is half price with the pass, and there's nothing to book or reserve. You turn up, show the pass, pay the difference.
| Ticket | Full price | With the Swiss Travel Pass |
|---|---|---|
| Adult return | CHF 34 | CHF 17 |
| Child 6 to 15, return | CHF 17 | CHF 8.50 |
| Under 6 | Free | Free |
| One way from the intermediate station | CHF 10 | CHF 10 |
| Dog | CHF 6 | CHF 6 |
If you somehow end up living here, the annual pass is CHF 385. For everyone else, CHF 17 for a ride to 1,530 metres is one of the better deals in Ticino.
The rope park, coaster and zip line all cost extra
The pass halves the gondola and does nothing at all for the activities that made you come. Adventure Park entry is CHF 46 for an adult and CHF 14 to 23 for a child, charged separately at the top. So the CHF 46 adventure park ticket costs an adult nearly three times the CHF 17 gondola ride.
- Adventure Park: CHF 46 adult, CHF 14 to 23 child, on top of the gondola
- Coaster Bob, the mountain coaster, runs 08:30 to 17:00, and to 18:00 in July and August
- The zip line, also separate from your gondola ticket
None of that is a reason not to go. It's a reason to know the number before your eight year old sees the rope park from the gondola window.
When Monte Tamaro is open, and when everything is shut
The full season runs 1 April to 8 November. From 10 November to 31 March the cable car runs weekends only, and every activity closes: no adventure park, no coaster, no zip line. A winter Saturday buys you the gondola, the view, the chapel and lunch, which is a perfectly good morning but not the mountain most people are picturing.
Getting to Rivera-Bironico by train
- Take the train to Rivera-Bironico, which sits between Bellinzona and Lugano. From Zurich it's roughly 2 hours 30 minutes.
- Walk to the valley station, right by the stop.
- Ride the gondola to Alpe Foppa at 1,530 metres.
It's an easy half day from Lugano, Bellinzona or Locarno, which is why it fills up on warm weekends. Allow at least two hours up top, and considerably longer with children, because you will not be leaving the coaster after one run.
Mario Botta's chapel at Alpe Foppa
Santa Maria degli Angeli sits at the top station. Botta also built Fiore di Pietra on Monte Generoso, which makes the two summits a pair worth doing in the same trip if you care about buildings at all.
What you see and what you do at Alpe Foppa
The view is the Ticino valleys and Lake Maggiore, which is a lot of Italian-feeling Switzerland for CHF 17. There's a small lake just below the restaurant terrace, and walking trails run off the summit, including the long ridge route across to Monte Lema.
- The ridge walk to Monte Lema, a full day and a serious one
- Short loops around Alpe Foppa and the little lake
- The rope park, mountain coaster and zip line, all paid separately
- The Botta chapel at the top station
Food and wet weather at the top
There's a restaurant at Alpe Foppa with a terrace looking over the lake, and that plus the chapel is your entire indoor plan if the weather turns. Down at the valley station, Splash and Spa Tamaro is a water park open 365 days a year, which is the fallback that saves a rained-out family day here.
Ticino Ticket or Swiss Travel Pass for Monte Tamaro
If you're staying overnight anywhere in Ticino you'll be handed a free Ticino Ticket. It's excellent, but not here.
| Ticino Ticket | Swiss Travel Pass | |
|---|---|---|
| Discount | 20% | 50% |
| Adult return | CHF 27.20 | CHF 17 |
So use the pass at the ticket window and keep the Ticino Ticket for everything else. If you're weighing regional cards more broadly, the comparison with the Lucerne Travel Pass covers how these regional deals stack up against national ones.
How Monte Tamaro fits with the other Ticino mountains
This is the family one. Monte San Salvatore above Lugano and Cardada-Cimetta above Locarno are the other two. See the full mountain coverage list for what the pass does elsewhere.
