Thirteen and up is the age when a museum needs a pitch and a beach day needs waves. These are the plans we'd put to a teenager: climbing walls, escape rooms and laser tag, surf beaches, castles and palaces a short trip out of town, viewpoints over the river, and events aimed at older kids rather than toddlers.
9.8 Gravity is a bouldering gym with 600 square meters of climbing walls and problems for every level, from first-timers to competition climbers. Kids can join weekly children's classes or book a one-hour first session with climbing shoes included.
Upstairs there is a fitness gym, and the café serves toasties, soups, salads and cakes. It sits in Prior Velho, next to Lisbon airport.
Calouste Gulbenkian's private collection, around 1,000 pieces on show, runs along one route from Ancient Egypt through the Islamic world, China and Japan to Europe: a pharaoh's head, an Assyrian palace relief, paintings by Rubens and Rembrandt, and René Lalique's Art Nouveau jewelry.
The museum stands in the Gulbenkian Garden, which is free and open daily, so a gallery visit pairs easily with time outside.
Climb a 12-meter outdoor wall built into the 25 de Abril Bridge. Boulder and auto belay introductions suit first-timers, with sport climbing for kids who already know the basics. Beginner classes run in groups of up to 8, and sport climbing in groups of 2 to 6. The climber pack includes gear; a day pass does not.
Mission To Escape runs escape rooms across Portugal, and this is its Lisbon branch. A team of two to six is shut in a themed room and has an hour to solve its way out, with a Game Master watching throughout. The three rooms here are Wizard School: The Tournament, Space Wars and AXN Prison Robbery, each played in Portuguese or English.
Birthday groups finish in a private party room.
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.
MAAT has two buildings joined by a riverside garden. MAAT Central is the old Tejo power station, built in 1908, where the permanent Electricity Factory exhibition keeps its boilers and turbines.
Next door, the curved MAAT Gallery holds changing contemporary art shows, and its roof is open to walk on, with views of the Tagus and a footbridge over the railway. The garden has a pebble beach and terraces by the water.
Portugal's largest video game fair fills the FIL halls with playable demos of upcoming games and consoles, gaming competitions, special guests and plenty of cosplay. Kids move from booth to booth trying new titles, watch tournaments on the big stage and spot favorite characters in costume.
Best for school-age gamers and teens. The halls get loud and crowded, which is hard going for toddlers.
Login Laser Tag fills a 1,000 m² warehouse near Alfragide and bills itself as the largest laser tag arena in Portugal and Spain. Players wear wireless vests and battle in teams through a dark arena in 12-minute games. Up to 20 play at once, so bigger groups rotate tournament style.
Between rounds there are arcade machines (air hockey, Sega Rally, a Star Wars Battle Pod) and a café-bar with a terrace.
Vertigo Climbing Center fills a former riverside warehouse, converted in 2014, with walls of colorful holds. Kids climb in guided sessions and at birthday parties, and beginners can sign up for courses.
There's a café with a riverside terrace where parents can wait, plus gear rental and a shop selling climbing equipment.
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.
Built from the early 1500s in pale lioz limestone, Jerónimos is the showpiece of Portugal's Manueline style, with knotted ropes, armillary spheres and sea motifs carved into the stone. Look closely and the stone itself is full of fossils.
The two-story cloister is the main visit, with arches kids can walk around on both levels. The church holds the tombs of explorer Vasco da Gama and poet Luís de Camões.
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.
Pillar 7 holds up the Lisbon end of the 25 de Abril Bridge, and the visit starts outside around its base before heading in. Kids follow a quiz trail past a scale model of the bridge, a mirror room and a cable room.
The top is a glass-floored viewpoint over the Tagus, and a virtual reality ride covers parts of the bridge closed to the public.
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.
The former Madre de Deus convent, founded in 1509, holds painted tiles from the 15th century to today. The route starts with how tiles are made, then runs in date order past cloisters, a gilded baroque church and chapels.
The standout is the Great View of Lisbon, a long tile panel of the waterfront around 1700, before the 1755 earthquake. It suits kids who like hunting for details.
Thirteen and up is the age when a museum needs a pitch and a beach day needs waves. These are the plans we'd put to a teenager: climbing walls, escape rooms and laser tag, surf beaches, castles and palaces a short trip out of town, viewpoints over the river, and events aimed at older kids rather than toddlers.
9.8 Gravity is a bouldering gym with 600 square meters of climbing walls and problems for every level, from first-timers to competition climbers. Kids can join weekly children's classes or book a one-hour first session with climbing shoes included.
Upstairs there is a fitness gym, and the café serves toasties, soups, salads and cakes. It sits in Prior Velho, next to Lisbon airport.
Calouste Gulbenkian's private collection, around 1,000 pieces on show, runs along one route from Ancient Egypt through the Islamic world, China and Japan to Europe: a pharaoh's head, an Assyrian palace relief, paintings by Rubens and Rembrandt, and René Lalique's Art Nouveau jewelry.
The museum stands in the Gulbenkian Garden, which is free and open daily, so a gallery visit pairs easily with time outside.
Climb a 12-meter outdoor wall built into the 25 de Abril Bridge. Boulder and auto belay introductions suit first-timers, with sport climbing for kids who already know the basics. Beginner classes run in groups of up to 8, and sport climbing in groups of 2 to 6. The climber pack includes gear; a day pass does not.
Mission To Escape runs escape rooms across Portugal, and this is its Lisbon branch. A team of two to six is shut in a themed room and has an hour to solve its way out, with a Game Master watching throughout. The three rooms here are Wizard School: The Tournament, Space Wars and AXN Prison Robbery, each played in Portuguese or English.
Birthday groups finish in a private party room.
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.
MAAT has two buildings joined by a riverside garden. MAAT Central is the old Tejo power station, built in 1908, where the permanent Electricity Factory exhibition keeps its boilers and turbines.
Next door, the curved MAAT Gallery holds changing contemporary art shows, and its roof is open to walk on, with views of the Tagus and a footbridge over the railway. The garden has a pebble beach and terraces by the water.
Portugal's largest video game fair fills the FIL halls with playable demos of upcoming games and consoles, gaming competitions, special guests and plenty of cosplay. Kids move from booth to booth trying new titles, watch tournaments on the big stage and spot favorite characters in costume.
Best for school-age gamers and teens. The halls get loud and crowded, which is hard going for toddlers.
Login Laser Tag fills a 1,000 m² warehouse near Alfragide and bills itself as the largest laser tag arena in Portugal and Spain. Players wear wireless vests and battle in teams through a dark arena in 12-minute games. Up to 20 play at once, so bigger groups rotate tournament style.
Between rounds there are arcade machines (air hockey, Sega Rally, a Star Wars Battle Pod) and a café-bar with a terrace.
Vertigo Climbing Center fills a former riverside warehouse, converted in 2014, with walls of colorful holds. Kids climb in guided sessions and at birthday parties, and beginners can sign up for courses.
There's a café with a riverside terrace where parents can wait, plus gear rental and a shop selling climbing equipment.
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.
Built from the early 1500s in pale lioz limestone, Jerónimos is the showpiece of Portugal's Manueline style, with knotted ropes, armillary spheres and sea motifs carved into the stone. Look closely and the stone itself is full of fossils.
The two-story cloister is the main visit, with arches kids can walk around on both levels. The church holds the tombs of explorer Vasco da Gama and poet Luís de Camões.
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.
Pillar 7 holds up the Lisbon end of the 25 de Abril Bridge, and the visit starts outside around its base before heading in. Kids follow a quiz trail past a scale model of the bridge, a mirror room and a cable room.
The top is a glass-floored viewpoint over the Tagus, and a virtual reality ride covers parts of the bridge closed to the public.
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.
The former Madre de Deus convent, founded in 1509, holds painted tiles from the 15th century to today. The route starts with how tiles are made, then runs in date order past cloisters, a gilded baroque church and chapels.
The standout is the Great View of Lisbon, a long tile panel of the waterfront around 1700, before the 1755 earthquake. It suits kids who like hunting for details.
