Things to Do with Kids in Central Lisbon

Filipe La Féria's musical follows Pocahontas, daughter of chief Powhatan, as English ships arrive looking for gold and she meets John Smith. Songs, dance, humor and romance carry the story from North American forests to the English king's court.

Performed in Portuguese, it suits kids who follow the language or know the story. Themes of cultural difference and respect for nature give families something to talk about afterward.

Outra Coisa is a family art workshop at Cossoul, the Sociedade de Instrução Guilherme Cossoul. Kids and their adults work side by side, using drawing, lines and simple materials to make sculptural and textile shapes that don't fit neat categories.

It suits kids who enjoy open-ended making more than a set craft with one right result, and parents who want to make something too.

A hands-on dinosaur workshop at Lisbon's pharmacy museum, held to mark Portugal's Science Culture Day. Kids step into a "Jurassic Park" to learn about the creatures that lived on Earth millions of years ago.

Then each child makes their own fossils in a playful, creative session built to spark curiosity about science. A good fit for dinosaur-mad kids who like to keep their hands busy.

Jardim do Príncipe Real (officially Jardim França Borges) is a leafy garden square at the top of the Príncipe Real area. Its centerpiece is a huge old cypress whose branches are trained over an iron frame into a wide, shady canopy.

Around it are a children's playground, a pond with a fountain, and café kiosks with outdoor tables. A 19th-century water reservoir lies under the garden.

A weekly organic farmers' market under the trees of Jardim do Príncipe Real, where producers from across Portugal sell fresh fruit, vegetables and other produce from their own farms.

Kids can choose fruit at the stalls and taste what's in season, then head to the garden's playground a few steps away. It suits a slow morning outing; there are no rides or kids' activities.

A short, modern funicular that climbs the steep hill between Mouraria and Graça, from Rua dos Lagares up to the Miradouro stop. The yellow cabin carries 14 passengers and looks out over the rooftops toward the castle.

The line opened in 2024 and won the Prémio Valmor architecture prize that year. It turns a hard uphill walk with a stroller or tired kids into a short ride.

The Linha de Cascais is the CP suburban train from Cais do Sodré to Cascais. For most of the ride the track runs right beside the Tagus and then the Atlantic, so kids watch the 25 de Abril Bridge, Belém Tower and the waves slide past the window.

It doubles as a beach shuttle: Carcavelos, the Estoril beaches and Cascais bay are a short walk from their stations.

The Communications Museum tells five centuries of Portuguese post and telecoms history in a 1940s building near the river. The main exhibition runs from the first public post in the 16th century to the internet, with a stamp collection.

Kids walk through a life-size mail-coach station staffed by costumed figures, try a telegraph, and use interactive screens to see how a submarine cable is loaded onto a ship and laid on the seabed.

Time Out Market fills the old Mercado da Ribeira hall at Cais do Sodré with 26 restaurant counters, 8 bars and a handful of shops set around long communal tables. Each person orders from a different stall and the family eats together, so a picky kid can have pasta while the adults try seafood.

Tables can't be booked, and the hall gets loud and crowded at peak meal times.

The cacilheiro is the commuter ferry that crosses the Tagus between Cais do Sodré and Cacilhas, on the Almada side of the river. From the windows, kids can watch the 25 de Abril bridge, the Cristo Rei statue and the Lisbon waterfront go by.

Cacilhas has a riverside promenade lined with fish restaurants, and a short bus ride runs up to Cristo Rei.

Feira da Ladra is a flea market that dates back to 1272 and now fills Campo de Santa Clara, behind the São Vicente de Fora monastery. Stalls sell secondhand and vintage goods, from azulejo tiles and tram souvenirs to plain bric-a-brac.

Kids can hunt for a small treasure with their pocket money. The National Pantheon and São Vicente church are a short walk away, so it pairs easily with a monument visit.

Tram 28 is a regular Carris city line run with the small yellow historic trams. It climbs streets too narrow for buses, from Martim Moniz up through Graça, past the Portas do Sol and Santa Luzia viewpoints, down by the Sé cathedral, then through Chiado and Estrela to Campo de Ourique (Prazeres).

For kids the draw is the ride itself: steep hills, tight corners and house fronts passing inches from the windows.

A mostly dedicated walking and cycling path along the Tagus, running about 7 km between Cais do Sodré and Belém with almost no climbs. Kids can scooter or bike past the Alcântara docks, under the 25 de Abril Bridge, past the MAAT museum and the old Tejo power station.

It ends at the Monument to the Discoveries and Belém Tower. Some stretches detour around roads and buildings.

A public garden laid out in 1864 on two terraces at the edge of Bairro Alto. The upper terrace is the viewpoint: a long balustrade looking east over the Baixa to São Jorge Castle, the Sé cathedral and the south bank of the Tagus, with a blue-and-white azulejo tile map that names the landmarks.

The lower terrace has a small pond.

A terrace garden beside the Santa Luzia church, with a pergola, a small pond and tiled walls. Two azulejo panels by António Quaresma show Praça do Comércio before the 1755 earthquake and the taking of the castle from the Moors.

From the wall, kids can spot the dome of Santa Engrácia, the church of Santo Estevão and the two towers of São Miguel above Alfama's rooftops, with the Tagus behind.

A hilltop terrace beside the small Senhora do Monte chapel, founded in 1147, where Portugal's first king, Afonso Henriques, gathered his troops before taking Lisbon. From the railing, kids can pick out the castle and the Graça church on the left, the Baixa rooftops and the Carmo ruins below, and the Tagus beyond. It is one of the calmer city viewpoints, close to the Miradouro da Graça.

Castelo de São Jorge is a Moorish-era fortress on the city's highest hill, with walls and towers to walk and views over the rooftops to the Tagus. Around 40 peacocks roam the gardens and nest in the stone pines.

The ticket includes a guided tour of the archaeological site, with the remains of 11th-century Moorish houses, and a camera obscura in Ulysses Tower that projects live views of the city.

Set in the former São Julião church, the Bank of Portugal's museum traces money from the first Western coins to modern banknotes. Kids can touch a 12.6 kg gold bar behind an old vault door, virtually mint a coin and print a banknote with their own face, and look at banknote fibers under a microscope.

A stretch of King Dinis's medieval city wall is preserved inside.

Lisboa Story Centre tells Lisbon's history through sets, films and multimedia rooms in the east wing of Praça do Comércio. An audio guide (with a Portuguese version for kids) leads from early myths and a 16th-century trading warehouse to a full-room re-creation of the 1755 earthquake. Upstairs, kids explore an interactive scale model of the Baixa and use a digital table to plan the city's future.

Jardim da Cerca da Graça fills the old grounds of the Graça convent, the largest public green space in the historic center. Wide sloping lawns leave room for ball games and picnics, and there is a playground, picnic tables, an orchard and a kiosk café with a terrace. Three viewpoints look across to São Jorge Castle and down over Mouraria.

Ribeira das Naus is the stretch of riverfront where the old royal shipyard once built ships. Today it is a long lawn and a run of broad stone steps that slope straight down into the Tagus, linking Cais das Colunas at Praça do Comércio with Cais do Sodré.

Kids can run on the grass, watch the ferries cross the river and sit on the steps by the water. Swimming is not allowed.