Miyajima Ropeway: Last Car Down, Ticket Prices, and What Happens If You Miss It

The last car up Miyajima Ropeway leaves at 16:00, but the last car down leaves at 16:30 — a different deadline that catches people who think they are fine because they made the first one. Miss it, and the only way down is on foot.

Two ropeways, one transfer

Miyajima Ropeway is actually two connected lines, not one continuous ride, according to the operator’s own site.

You board the small gondola at Momijidani Station, ride it to a transfer station, then change onto the larger cable car for the short final leg up to Shishiiwa Station. From there, the summit of Mt. Misen is still a roughly 30-minute walk away — the ropeway does not go to the actual peak.

The deadline that trips people up

Work backward from 16:30, not forward from when you arrive. If you want to actually stand at the summit of Mt. Misen — not just Shishiiwa Station’s observation deck — you need roughly an hour of walking round trip on top of ropeway time. That means being on a car up well before the 16:00 cutoff, not at it.

Book Miyajima tickets and tours

Ticket prices

One child under 6 travels free per accompanying adult. Reduced fares are also published for visitors with a disability certificate.

The free shuttle bus has a lunch break

This matters more than it sounds. A visitor who plans a short midday trip up the ropeway, assuming the shuttle will be waiting both ways, can lose the better part of an hour to a bus that simply is not running during the lunch gap.

If you miss the last car down

There is no rescue ropeway trip after 16:30. The only way down is one of Mt. Misen’s three hiking trails (Daishoin, Momijidani, or Daisho-in/Daigen), and none of them are fast. Reported descent times vary by source and by hiker, but plan on at least an hour of walking on stone steps and forest trail, and closer to 1.5 hours is common.

Planning the visit

Pair this with your Miyajima overnight decision: if you are staying on the island, the ropeway’s early close (16:30) matters less, since you are not racing a return ferry too. If you are day-tripping from Hiroshima, you now have two deadlines stacked on top of each other — the last car down at 16:30, and later, the last ferry off the island. Plan the ropeway first; it closes hours before the ferries do.

Compare ryokan and hotels on MiyajimaIsland rooms are limited and sell out early for peak dates — check availability before you commit to a Hiroshima-only plan.

Bottom line

Treat 16:30 as the real deadline, not 16:00. Budget an hour for the round-trip walk to the actual summit, check the shuttle bus gap if your visit falls over lunch, and if you are day-tripping from the mainland, close out the ropeway well before you start thinking about your ferry back.