City: Albuquerque, NM

Category: Tours & Attractions

Telephone: (505) 856-7325

Description: From a distance the cable cars on the world’s longest aerial tramway look like shiny UFOs as they glide up to Sandia Peak. Inside, it feels like you’re flying, too, on the 15-minute ride up to the 10,378-foot summit, with spectacular views over 11,000 square miles. Children can look out for wildlife in the canyons below and at the top explore the trails in the Cibola National Forest. Take your own picnic, buy snacks to take up from Sandiago’s Deli by the ticket office at the base station, or eat at the High Finance restaurant on the peak. Full details on this feat of engineering are in the Attractions chapter, but suffice it to say that kids will be thrilled. Be sure to take a sweater or jacket no matter how warm it is in the city when you set off, as temperatures are substantially cooler at this altitude.Children under 5 years ride free accompanied by an adult. In addition to tram tickets, a fee of $1 is charged to cars at the entrance to the tramway base terminal between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. The tramway is open seven days year-round, except for two 10-day maintenance periods in April and November. There are also very occasional stoppages for bad weather or high winds. The Sandia Peak Tramway is at the east end of Tramway Road, where it dead-ends in the parking lot. Tramway Road intersects at the north end of Tramway Boulevard, and the turnoff from Tramway Boulevard is clearly signed. By interstate it’s approximately 9 miles north from I-40 exit 167, or follow Tramway Road east from exit 234 on I-25.