Valparaíso Funiculars and Street Art 2026: Lifts and Murals

Booking choice: The street art and wine day, from $125 per person. Check dates Compare the options below

Valparaíso once had more than 30 funiculars, built between 1883 and about 1916 to carry people from the port up to the hills. Only a handful run today, and the list changes as lifts close for repairs and reopen. The murals came later, and now spread over whole streets of Cerro Alegre, Concepción and Bellavista.

Here is which lifts you can ride, what to pay, where the best walls are, and how La Sebastiana fits into a walk on Cerro Bellavista.

The quick answer

El Peral and Reina Victoria are the lifts the tours use to reach Cerro Alegre; both are run by the city, and a ride costs a few hundred pesos in cash. The famous Concepción lift, the oldest, has been out of service for years and was picked in 2026 as the first for state restoration. For murals, walk Pasaje Gálvez, Paseo Gervasoni and the Piano Staircase, then Cerro Bellavista’s open-air museum. The street art and wine day ($125) covers both hills with eight guests at most.

Two funicular cabins with red, white and blue painted ends on steep twin tracks up a green slope, the upper station and houses at the top — Two cabins on the same cable: one goes up as the other comes down.

Which funiculars in Valparaíso are running?

El Peral and Reina Victoria are the ones visitors use. San Agustín and a few others run too, while Concepción is closed and Barón has been under repair.

The city runs four lifts: Barón, El Peral, Reina Victoria and San Agustín (El Mostrador, April 2025). In August 2026 Barón was under repair, and the state chose Concepción, the oldest lift in the city, opened in 1883, as the first of ten it will buy and restore (Sitio Andino, August 2026). Lifts close for maintenance at short notice, so treat any list as provisional.

El Peral: from beside the Palacio de Justicia on Plaza Sotomayor up to Paseo Yugoslavo and Palacio Baburizza on Cerro Alegre.
Reina Victoria: from Avenida Elías up to Paseo Dimalow on Cerro Alegre, where the Still Travelling walk ends.
Concepción: some tour listings still name it. Expect your guide to use another lift until it reopens.

Want the lifts and the murals without the guesswork? The Famous Valparaíso walk includes rides on Reina Victoria and El Peral, from $40.

Check dates for the Famous Valparaíso walking tour

How much does a funicular ride cost?

A few hundred pesos per ride, paid in cash at the station. Several tours include the fare.

Keep small coins and notes for the ticket window or turnstile. A ride lasts barely a minute, and the view from the top station is part of the point.

Tours that include rides: Stamp’s Tour (one ride), Best Trip Chile (El Peral), the Famous Valparaíso walk (two lifts and a trolleybus), the Still Travelling walk (lift fees and alfajores), Julio’s private day (lift tickets) and Valpo in One Day.

A mural of a blindfolded man in a blue shirt pulling at a tie painted like the Chilean flag, ears of wheat behind him, signed Giova 17 — A mural signed Giova on a Valparaíso wall. Many pieces carry a political edge.

Where is the best street art in Valparaíso?

Cerro Alegre and Concepción for density, Pasaje Gálvez for whole walls of colour, Cerro Bellavista for the open-air museum.

Pasaje Gálvez and the lanes around it: the most photographed walls, with murals on every façade and stairway. The Still Travelling walk gives it fifteen minutes.
Paseo Gervasoni: a terrace walk at the top of Cerro Concepción with the bay below, near the old Concepción lift.
The Piano Staircase: a flight of steps painted as piano keys, on the route of Best Trip Chile.
Paseo Atkinson and Paseo Yugoslavo: viewpoints rather than walls, with Palacio Baburizza at the top of El Peral.
Cerro Bellavista: the Museo a Cielo Abierto, about 20 murals by Chilean artists along the lanes, inaugurated in 1992.

The scene changes all the time. Walls are repainted, and new pieces appear after festivals.

A huge mural of a face drawn in swirling orange and red lines covering a wall beside a staircase with painted steps and a red handrail — A face spread across a wall beside a stair. Many murals wrap round corners and onto steps.

Street Art in Valparaíso and Wines in Casablanca

Want a guide who knows the artists, and a walk planned downhill? The street art and wine day spends about five hours on the hills, eight guests at most.

★ 4.9 148 reviews · 9 hours · from $125

Explore the street art and wine day

Can you visit La Sebastiana, Neruda’s house?

Yes, Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00 to 18:00. Buy your ticket at the door; the Fundación Neruda lists a general ticket at CLP 11,000.

La Sebastiana stands at Ricardo de Ferrari 692 on Cerro Bellavista. Neruda liked to see in the New Year there, watching the fireworks over the bay. Entry needs no reservation and runs first come, first served; in January and February it stays open to 19:00. Audio guides come in Spanish, English, Portuguese, French, German and Italian. The reduced CLP 4,500 ticket is for students and Chilean-resident seniors with ID (Fundación Neruda). It is closed on Mondays.

Of the day trips here, only the Turistik tour ($111) goes inside. The house is a short walk from the open-air museum, so a visit pairs well with the Bellavista murals.

La Sebastiana, a tall house of stacked floors in orange, blue and cream with curved windows and a lookout at the top, a brick pergola beside it and coloured houses on the hill behind — La Sebastiana on Cerro Bellavista. Neruda built his study at the top, for the view of the bay.

Are street art tours worth it?

Yes. Without a guide you see colour; with one you hear who painted what, and why, and you do not get lost.

Guides know the artists, the stories behind the political pieces and the lanes that connect. A Still Travelling guest in April 2026 praised a guide "who explained the stories and meaning behind the street art and neighborhoods". On the Famous Valparaíso walk, a guest in August 2026 enjoyed "the art, architecture and murals focus of the tour".

From Santiago, Progressive Tours is the day built round murals. On the coast, the two-hour walk ($34) is the quickest way in.

A mural of a woman with a green face and long blue hair on a pink house corner, a steep lane with more murals and stairs beyond — Every corner on the hills is a canvas, and the lanes keep turning.

Already in Valparaíso with two hours to spare? The street art and funiculars walk covers Pasaje Gálvez, Paseo Gervasoni and two lifts, from $34.

Check dates for the street art and funiculars walk

How do you plan a walk with the lifts and murals?

Go up by El Peral, wander Cerro Alegre and Concepción, then go down by Reina Victoria. Add Bellavista on a second visit.

Start at Plaza Sotomayor. Ride El Peral to Paseo Yugoslavo and Palacio Baburizza, follow the lanes to Pasaje Gálvez and the murals, cross to Cerro Concepción for Paseo Gervasoni, Paseo Atkinson and the Lutheran church, and come back to Paseo Dimalow for the Reina Victoria lift down. Two to three hours at an easy pace, with a coffee stop.

Bellavista is a separate hill to the east. Combine the open-air museum with La Sebastiana and go down on foot through the stairs. Keep to busy lanes in daylight; see the safety guide.

Is it hard to walk the hills?

It is steep, with stairs and cobbles, but most people manage with breaks. The lifts save the worst climbs.

A Best Trip Chile guest in October 2026 found the day "not physically demanding" with "a few staircases, but they are not long". A guest on the whole-coast tour in June 2026 called the walk "not senior friendly" because of the steep stairs. Guides walk slowly and wait.

The street art and wine day plans its route downhill only, the gentlest choice. Wear shoes with grip: painted steps are slippery when the sea fog is in.