A wet day still needs somewhere to go. These are the roofs we head for when kids need to climb, bounce, experiment and burn off energy: sharks circling a giant tank, a city run by kids, trampoline halls and a tram ride between museum halls. Here's what we checked, from the Lisbon Oceanarium to KidZania Lisbon.
Built around one central tank holding five million liters of saltwater, where sharks and rays glide past, with four marine habitats around it that read as part of the same aquarium.
The route runs on two levels, so kids see each habitat from the surface and then from underwater. Around 8,000 marine creatures live here, from coral reef fish to sea otters.
KidZania is a kid-scale city with its own streets, buildings and vehicles, where children try more than 60 grown-up jobs in copies of real places: an airport, a supermarket, a theater, a police station, a fire station, a newspaper and a TV studio.
Kids are paid in kidZos, the city's own currency, and decide for themselves how to spend or keep them. It suits kids who enjoy role play.
Pavilion of Knowledge is the Ciência Viva science center on the old Expo 98 site, and every exhibit is made to be touched. TCHARAN! is a science circus with a mirror maze, a musical floor and the Unfinished House, where kids in hard hats work cranes and pulleys. In Fishanário, a child's drawing of a sea creature is scanned and swims into a projected ocean.
JumpYard Lisbon is an indoor trampoline and activity park in Carnaxide. Beyond the trampoline courts, kids can climb the Clip 'n Climb walls, run the Ninja Warrior course, play Valo TV interactive games and fly on the SkyRider. Toddlers get their own soft play zone, miniJumpYard.
It suits kids who need to burn off energy on a rainy day, and birthday parties run here too.
Quantum Park Lisboa is a large indoor adventure park in Cacém, west of Lisbon. The trampoline arena includes a ninja course, a jump tower, foam pits and trampoline football. Alongside it, 23 Clip 'n Climb walls up to 10 meters high run on auto-belay, with a speed wall and a face-to-face race. Older kids can play two-floor laser tag, and toddlers have a small playground of their own.
The University of Lisbon's science and natural history museum fills the old Escola Politécnica building in Príncipe Real. The standout for kids is Among Dinosaurs, built around Allosaurus fossils dug up near Pombal, with skulls, bones and dig-site displays.
Other halls cover Portugal's wildlife and landscapes, and the 19th-century Laboratorio Chimico teaching lab is part of the visit. The Lisbon Botanical Garden sits next door.
Quake is a walk-through museum about the earthquake, tsunami and fires that leveled Lisbon on November 1, 1755. Visitors move through ten themed rooms, from a recreated street of the lost city to a simulator where the seats shake while fire and the tsunami play out on the walls.
Interactive stations explain how earthquakes and tsunamis start, and what to do when one hits.
The Carris Museum tells the story of Lisbon's trams and buses inside the old Santo Amaro depot. A 1901 tram drives visitors between its three spaces. The first covers the company's history, with a model of the Santa Justa Lift built in 1892. The second fills 2,000 m² of former workshop halls with horse-drawn cars, yellow trams, buses and a ticket printing shop. The third holds vehicles waiting for restoration.
Portugal's sea history, told through scale models of ships used since the 15th century, from caravels to modern warships, plus navigation instruments, maps and paintings. The museum sits in the west wing of the Jerónimos Monastery.
A modern annex holds the big pieces: full-size royal barges with carved, gilded prows, the Santa Cruz seaplane that crossed the Atlantic in the 1920s, and the navy's first aircraft, a flying boat.
Anima Park covers 1,500 m² under one roof. Kids climb two 7-meter walls on auto-belays, cross a 25-meter rope-bridge course, ride a 20-meter zip line and tackle a 175 m² play structure with a maze and ball pit. Trampolines, a tube slide, mini soccer and a pretend-play mini city fill the rest. Parents watch from a mezzanine lounge with snooker, pinball and pizza.
Toyland Park, in Feijó on the Almada side of the Tagus, is built around a multi-level play frame with giant slides, a ball pit and mazes, plus a kids' disco and face painting.
Parents can climb in and play alongside their babies at no extra cost. Birthday parties and groups of ten or more can add laser tag, which suits kids from 7.
Dotylandia is a covered play park built around birthday parties, with seven party rooms beside the play floor. Kids climb a three-level soft-play frame with ball pits, a maze and spiral slides, then move on to inflatables, a trampoline, a padded mini soccer field, a dollhouse and a disco with mirror balls. An indoor ropes course with four bridges ends in a zip line (paid extra).
Feijão Verde Fun Park is a 1,000-square-meter indoor play park in Abrunheira, on the edge of Sintra. Toddlers get ball pools and a pretend-play town with a kitchen, school, grocery and a dress-up salon. Older kids head for the trampolines, air bungee, inflatables, soccer cage and slides that drop from the first floor.
Most of the equipment takes adults too, so parents can join in.
The Portuguese Air Force's aviation museum fills the old hangars at the Granja do Marquês air base near Sintra. The main hangar lines up 42 aircraft in date order, from early biplanes to jet fighters. Three hangars from the 1920s hold small civil planes, a multimedia auditorium, aircraft flown in the Portuguese Colonial War, and early jet trainers.
A wet day still needs somewhere to go. These are the roofs we head for when kids need to climb, bounce, experiment and burn off energy: sharks circling a giant tank, a city run by kids, trampoline halls and a tram ride between museum halls. Here's what we checked, from the Lisbon Oceanarium to KidZania Lisbon.
Built around one central tank holding five million liters of saltwater, where sharks and rays glide past, with four marine habitats around it that read as part of the same aquarium.
The route runs on two levels, so kids see each habitat from the surface and then from underwater. Around 8,000 marine creatures live here, from coral reef fish to sea otters.
KidZania is a kid-scale city with its own streets, buildings and vehicles, where children try more than 60 grown-up jobs in copies of real places: an airport, a supermarket, a theater, a police station, a fire station, a newspaper and a TV studio.
Kids are paid in kidZos, the city's own currency, and decide for themselves how to spend or keep them. It suits kids who enjoy role play.
Pavilion of Knowledge is the Ciência Viva science center on the old Expo 98 site, and every exhibit is made to be touched. TCHARAN! is a science circus with a mirror maze, a musical floor and the Unfinished House, where kids in hard hats work cranes and pulleys. In Fishanário, a child's drawing of a sea creature is scanned and swims into a projected ocean.
JumpYard Lisbon is an indoor trampoline and activity park in Carnaxide. Beyond the trampoline courts, kids can climb the Clip 'n Climb walls, run the Ninja Warrior course, play Valo TV interactive games and fly on the SkyRider. Toddlers get their own soft play zone, miniJumpYard.
It suits kids who need to burn off energy on a rainy day, and birthday parties run here too.
Quantum Park Lisboa is a large indoor adventure park in Cacém, west of Lisbon. The trampoline arena includes a ninja course, a jump tower, foam pits and trampoline football. Alongside it, 23 Clip 'n Climb walls up to 10 meters high run on auto-belay, with a speed wall and a face-to-face race. Older kids can play two-floor laser tag, and toddlers have a small playground of their own.
The University of Lisbon's science and natural history museum fills the old Escola Politécnica building in Príncipe Real. The standout for kids is Among Dinosaurs, built around Allosaurus fossils dug up near Pombal, with skulls, bones and dig-site displays.
Other halls cover Portugal's wildlife and landscapes, and the 19th-century Laboratorio Chimico teaching lab is part of the visit. The Lisbon Botanical Garden sits next door.
Quake is a walk-through museum about the earthquake, tsunami and fires that leveled Lisbon on November 1, 1755. Visitors move through ten themed rooms, from a recreated street of the lost city to a simulator where the seats shake while fire and the tsunami play out on the walls.
Interactive stations explain how earthquakes and tsunamis start, and what to do when one hits.
The Carris Museum tells the story of Lisbon's trams and buses inside the old Santo Amaro depot. A 1901 tram drives visitors between its three spaces. The first covers the company's history, with a model of the Santa Justa Lift built in 1892. The second fills 2,000 m² of former workshop halls with horse-drawn cars, yellow trams, buses and a ticket printing shop. The third holds vehicles waiting for restoration.
Portugal's sea history, told through scale models of ships used since the 15th century, from caravels to modern warships, plus navigation instruments, maps and paintings. The museum sits in the west wing of the Jerónimos Monastery.
A modern annex holds the big pieces: full-size royal barges with carved, gilded prows, the Santa Cruz seaplane that crossed the Atlantic in the 1920s, and the navy's first aircraft, a flying boat.
Anima Park covers 1,500 m² under one roof. Kids climb two 7-meter walls on auto-belays, cross a 25-meter rope-bridge course, ride a 20-meter zip line and tackle a 175 m² play structure with a maze and ball pit. Trampolines, a tube slide, mini soccer and a pretend-play mini city fill the rest. Parents watch from a mezzanine lounge with snooker, pinball and pizza.
Toyland Park, in Feijó on the Almada side of the Tagus, is built around a multi-level play frame with giant slides, a ball pit and mazes, plus a kids' disco and face painting.
Parents can climb in and play alongside their babies at no extra cost. Birthday parties and groups of ten or more can add laser tag, which suits kids from 7.
Dotylandia is a covered play park built around birthday parties, with seven party rooms beside the play floor. Kids climb a three-level soft-play frame with ball pits, a maze and spiral slides, then move on to inflatables, a trampoline, a padded mini soccer field, a dollhouse and a disco with mirror balls. An indoor ropes course with four bridges ends in a zip line (paid extra).
Feijão Verde Fun Park is a 1,000-square-meter indoor play park in Abrunheira, on the edge of Sintra. Toddlers get ball pools and a pretend-play town with a kitchen, school, grocery and a dress-up salon. Older kids head for the trampolines, air bungee, inflatables, soccer cage and slides that drop from the first floor.
Most of the equipment takes adults too, so parents can join in.
The Portuguese Air Force's aviation museum fills the old hangars at the Granja do Marquês air base near Sintra. The main hangar lines up 42 aircraft in date order, from early biplanes to jet fighters. Three hangars from the 1920s hold small civil planes, a multimedia auditorium, aircraft flown in the Portuguese Colonial War, and early jet trainers.
