Kids who light up at animals have plenty of choice, from a free morning with donkeys and goats to a full day on a tractor safari. Indoor aquariums cover the rainy days, and open-air parks and boat trips the sunny ones. Here's what we checked, from the Olivais teaching farm to the wild dolphins of the Sado estuary.
Lisbon Zoo is laid out by world region: Sumatran tigers in the rainforest, lions, giraffes and elephants on the African savanna, gorillas, chimpanzees, okapis and lemurs. Dolphin Bay hosts the dolphin presentation, and pelican feedings run between the Africa and Asia areas.
A cable car passes over the enclosures, a small train loops the grounds, and the Children's Farm introduces domestic animals.
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.
A teaching farm run by Lisbon City Council, set among the apartment blocks of Olivais. Kids can see donkeys, cows, sheep, goats and chickens, walk through the vegetable gardens and orchard, and find out how bread is baked in a wood-fired oven.
It suits toddlers and early school-age kids best, and a playground sits around the corner for a run afterward.
Quinta do Pisão is a 380-hectare nature park inside the Sintra-Cascais Natural Park, with meadows, woodland and farm fields crossed by walking and cycling trails.
Kids can meet woolly Miranda donkeys (a rare Portuguese breed), Sorraia horses and Campaniça sheep, ride a donkey on a booked outing, and pick vegetables at the organic farm garden. The Casa da Cal visitor center has toilets, exhibits and a farm shop.
One of the world's oldest aquariums, opened in 1898 and run by the Portuguese Navy. Downstairs, five rooms hold around 90 tanks with more than 300 live species, from Portuguese coastal fish to tropical reef fish, seahorses and freshwater species. The Window to the Ocean room has a giant interactive screen for young kids. Upstairs, King Carlos I's collection of preserved sea creatures fills the Noble Hall.
Tapada Nacional de Mafra is a walled forest that began as the royal hunting ground of Mafra's palace. Fallow deer, red deer and wild boar live free inside, and a guided electric-car tour climbs from the main valley to one of the highest points. Kids can also walk or bike marked trails, watch a birds-of-prey flight demo and learn about the forest's bees. It sits about 40 minutes' drive from Lisbon.
Badoca is a large animal park in the Alentejo countryside, built around a 45-minute tractor-trailer safari across open savanna where giraffes, zebras, ostriches, buffalo and several kinds of antelope roam.
Between safari runs, kids watch eagles and hawks fly in a birds of prey show, see lemurs and a reptile talk, visit Primate Island, and walk forest paths past a small farm, meerkats and kangaroos.
Two-hour guided boat trips from Setúbal head out into Setúbal Bay, where the Sado estuary meets the sea, to find a resident community of about 30 wild bottlenose dolphins that live there year-round. Each dolphin is known by name from the shape of its dorsal fin.
On the way, the boat passes the Arrábida coast, the Tróia peninsula, the Outão fortress and small white-sand islands.
Kids who light up at animals have plenty of choice, from a free morning with donkeys and goats to a full day on a tractor safari. Indoor aquariums cover the rainy days, and open-air parks and boat trips the sunny ones. Here's what we checked, from the Olivais teaching farm to the wild dolphins of the Sado estuary.
Lisbon Zoo is laid out by world region: Sumatran tigers in the rainforest, lions, giraffes and elephants on the African savanna, gorillas, chimpanzees, okapis and lemurs. Dolphin Bay hosts the dolphin presentation, and pelican feedings run between the Africa and Asia areas.
A cable car passes over the enclosures, a small train loops the grounds, and the Children's Farm introduces domestic animals.
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.
A teaching farm run by Lisbon City Council, set among the apartment blocks of Olivais. Kids can see donkeys, cows, sheep, goats and chickens, walk through the vegetable gardens and orchard, and find out how bread is baked in a wood-fired oven.
It suits toddlers and early school-age kids best, and a playground sits around the corner for a run afterward.
Quinta do Pisão is a 380-hectare nature park inside the Sintra-Cascais Natural Park, with meadows, woodland and farm fields crossed by walking and cycling trails.
Kids can meet woolly Miranda donkeys (a rare Portuguese breed), Sorraia horses and Campaniça sheep, ride a donkey on a booked outing, and pick vegetables at the organic farm garden. The Casa da Cal visitor center has toilets, exhibits and a farm shop.
One of the world's oldest aquariums, opened in 1898 and run by the Portuguese Navy. Downstairs, five rooms hold around 90 tanks with more than 300 live species, from Portuguese coastal fish to tropical reef fish, seahorses and freshwater species. The Window to the Ocean room has a giant interactive screen for young kids. Upstairs, King Carlos I's collection of preserved sea creatures fills the Noble Hall.
Tapada Nacional de Mafra is a walled forest that began as the royal hunting ground of Mafra's palace. Fallow deer, red deer and wild boar live free inside, and a guided electric-car tour climbs from the main valley to one of the highest points. Kids can also walk or bike marked trails, watch a birds-of-prey flight demo and learn about the forest's bees. It sits about 40 minutes' drive from Lisbon.
Badoca is a large animal park in the Alentejo countryside, built around a 45-minute tractor-trailer safari across open savanna where giraffes, zebras, ostriches, buffalo and several kinds of antelope roam.
Between safari runs, kids watch eagles and hawks fly in a birds of prey show, see lemurs and a reptile talk, visit Primate Island, and walk forest paths past a small farm, meerkats and kangaroos.
Two-hour guided boat trips from Setúbal head out into Setúbal Bay, where the Sado estuary meets the sea, to find a resident community of about 30 wild bottlenose dolphins that live there year-round. Each dolphin is known by name from the shape of its dorsal fin.
On the way, the boat passes the Arrábida coast, the Tróia peninsula, the Outão fortress and small white-sand islands.
