Booked 21 times yesterdayMount Etna: Trek to 3000m with cable car and 4x4
- Meet on the mountain
- Cable car paid on the day
- 4x4 paid on the day
From €55 per personSee dates
Two tickets, one station: how a cable car day runs
Everything on the south side starts at one car park. Rifugio Sapienza sits at 1,923 m at the top of the road from Nicolosi, and the lower station of the Funivia dell’Etna is on the same square. It is the only cable car on Etna. Without a car, AST’s daily bus leaves Catania’s Piazza Giovanni XXIII at 8:15 and arrives about two hours later; it goes back down at 16:30, €6.60 return (astsicilia.it, October 2026).
At the ticket office there are two choices. The 2500 Cable Car ticket, €54 return, takes you to the upper station at 2,500 m: a terrace with a bar and a view of the summit and the coast, boarding from 8:30 to 16:45, last ride down at 17:15. The Tour 3000, €82, adds a 4x4 bus (a snowcat in winter) up the operator’s private track to about 2,800 m, which the operator calls the highest altitude the authorities allow, and an alpine or volcanological guide who walks the group toward 3,000 m. It passes Torre del Filosofo and the 2002 craters and shows the summit craters from their base. It takes about two and a half hours and is sold until 15:15. Children of 4 and under ride free with a paying adult, and children of 5 to 10 pay less. Tickets bought online skip the queue but are personal, for the day booked, and not refunded, even when the volcano or the weather shuts the line (operator’s terms, October 2026).
Up top it is a mountain day. The ground is black sand and cinder, the wind is cold, and the operator asks for hiking shoes and a windproof jacket; windbreakers, boots and poles can be rented at 2,500 m.
Two GetYourGuide listings sell the same Funivia tickets. Visit Etna sud’s cable car and 4x4 bus ticket with a guide and its cable car ticket with a guide each have a ticket-only option, which the listings call the €82 and the €54 ticket, with a meeting point at the Funivia building. The other options add a 7:30 pickup in Catania and a guide for the whole day. GetYourGuide shows them from €80 and €52 (October 2026). The difference that matters is the cancellation: these listings refund up to 24 hours before, the operator’s own counter never.
Most guided tours in this list work the other way round. They sell the guide and collect the transport on the day: Etna Guides asks €45 a head in cash for the cable car and 4x4, a guide group’s rate rather than a public fare, and several summit treks ask €54 to €82.
The north side has no cable car
From Piano Provenzana, above Linguaglossa, only 4x4 vehicles go up. SAT Group’s north upper craters tour drives to the observatory at Pizzi Deneri, 2,818 m, with short walks on the way and the 2002 craters on the way down, transport included. ALTERNATIVETNA’s ascent to 2,800 m by 4x4 is the same idea at €69 (October 2026).
When INGV or Civil Protection raise the alert, the operator’s terms say only the cable car ride to 2,500 m may be allowed. A Tour 3000 day then ends at the terrace, and the operator refunds nothing for closures ordered by the authorities.