As our one year anniversary of living in Lisbon approaches, I thought it was about time I wrote a blog post on what to do and see in Lisbon. I know there are a ton of posts out there telling you what you should see when visiting this amazing city, but on this post I want to share places our family enjoys visiting. These are places we continue to go back to because we always have fun there. Some are the popular sites, though most are a bit less known. So here’s my list of what to do in Lisbon with (or without) kids:
Parque Eduardo VII
This park is right off the Marquez de Pombal metro station, and a short walk downhill from El Corte Ingles. There is so much to do in this park and I just love that! During Christmas time they host Wonderland Lisboa, a fun celebration with food and carnival rides. In late May/Early June, they host A Feira do Libro (book fair), where you can find an incredible variety of books, along with author talks and many other literary activities. This was our first year visiting it, and we all loved it!
Another reason why I love this park is because it is home to Estufa Fria. Estufa Fria is a lush, tranquil greenhouse garden, featuring exotic plants from around the world. It offers a peaceful escape with winding paths, waterfalls, and tropical vegetation in the heart of the city. My kids really enjoy going there. There are so many paths to follow, and the plant diversity is amazing! Inside Estufa Fria, there is also Estufa Quente, where you’ll find hot-climate plants.
Right by Estufa Fria there is a very fun playground featuring an awesome zip line for older kids, and a smaller structure for the little ones. Like all playgrounds in Lisbon, there is an adjacent cafe/restaurant where you can get food and drinks while your kids have a great time in the playground!
Museo Nacional de História Natural e da Ciencia
This Museum includes the Botanical Gardens of Lisbon, and the Museum of Natural History. You can choose to pay to visit both, or just one of them when buying tickets.
The Botanical Gardens in Lisbon offer a peaceful retreat in the heart of the city. It showcases a wide variety of exotic plants and trees from around the world. The gardens also include a rich and diverse palm collection from all over the world. The garden has a high number of Arecaceae palms, which are a threatened species in the wild. It’s a perfect spot for nature lovers to appreciate efforts to protect global biodiversity! Our family loves coming here! When you enter, try to find the cactus shaped like a heart!
The Museum of Natural History in Lisbon is a wonderful place to spend a full day with kids! It features fascinating exhibits on geology, paleontology, and zoology. It also has an impressive fossil collection, as well as a wonderful variety of taxidermied animals. There are also several hands-on exhibits and lots of educational activities for kids. I’d recommend packing lots of snacks to be able to spend as much time as possible exploring the museum!
Castelo de Sao Jorge at Sunset
Fine, this is a total touristy thing to do when visiting Lisbon, but it’s so worth it! I know that the lines to enter the castle get long in the afternoon, but you won’t regret it once you see the sun setting over the city. The light is just spectacular! Ask all the friends I’ve brought up there for sunset if you don’t believe me!
Miraduoro de Graça
A good alternative to watching the sunset at Castelo de Sao Jorge is to head to the Miraduoro de Graça instead. I personally love this neighborhood, so you should check it out anyways. If you make it to the Miraduoro, grab a drink at the kiosk and enjoy the sunset from there. If the kiosk is full, you can buy drinks at one of the nearby stores, and bring them to the overlook. It is totally legal, and cheaper too!
Monsanto Park
Lisbon’s biggest green space, Monsanto, has so much to offer! There are several well-marked hikes to do in the park if you are looking for a quick break from the city. We did this hike and loved it!
If you are looking for kid-oriented activities, check out Hello Park. This adventure park is perfect for kids ages 4 and up. It is fully fenced and it combines indoor inflatables, ball pits, art workshops, and even a disco! My kids love the ninja training course, canopy course and the pirate boat. This is a great place to enjoy some nature-based play in a supervised environment! The park is open 9am to 8pm in summer (closes at 6pm in winter), and it includes a cafe area.
If you don’t feel like paying an entrance fee, you can visit Alto de Serafina, which is right by Hello Park. This park features several playgrounds, picnic areas, and a beautiful miraduoro overlooking Lisbon and the Tejo River.
Another wonderful playground inside Monsanto Park is Alvito Park. This spacious and well-equipped playground spreads across three terraced levels with climbing towers, swings, a wooden train, and a pirate ship. There are also sports courts (basketball and football), picnic spots, a snack bar, ponds, and restroom facilities. It really is a great place to visit with kids when in Lisbon!
LX Factory In the Alcântara
The LX Factory is a trendy creative hub in Lisbon, set in a former industrial complex filled with colorful street art, quirky shops, cozy cafés, and art studios. It’s a great place to explore local design, grab a bite, or just wander through a lively mix of old and new.
Last time I was there, I walked up to the Miraduoro and the Capela de Santo Amaro. This Renaissance gem was built in 1549 on a hilltop in Alcântara. The chapel features a rare circular layout topped by a small dome and framed by a graceful semicircular porch of beautiful azulejos. The 17th‑century tiles inside depict miracles of Saint Amaro—especially healing limbs—and its terrace offers a hidden viewpoint over the Tejo River and the 25 de Abril Bridge. This is definitely a hidden gem in the city!
Museo de Lisboa: Palacio Pimenta
The Museo de Lisboa is truly beautiful and you should definitely check it out, but what we really enjoy doing is visiting the adjacent (and free!) Jardim de Buxo or Jardim Bordalo Pinheiro. This garden is more of an art exhibit inside a manicured park. The beautiful fusion between Portuguese ceramics and nature offers a true cultural and visual experience! The gardens celebrate one of Portugal’s most beloved artists: Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro.
After checking out the ceramics that are scattered all throughout the gardens (find the trees with the hanging monkeys!), you can sit in the nearby cafe to enjoy the peaceful garden. You are guaranteed to see lots of peacocks when you are there. Go in the summer time and you’ll probably see some adorable baby peacocks too!
If you still have energy after this outing, head down to Campo Grande to go for a walk in the shade of this beautiful park. Not far from the Palacio Pimenta in Campo Grande, you’ll find an awesome playground with super cool climbing structures, and a kiosk onsite… of course!
Aqueducto das Águas Livres
My kids joke that I’m obsessed with the Aqueduct, and they are not wrong!
Built between 1731 and 1799, this aqueduct was used to transport clean spring water over 58km into Lisbon using gravity alone. My favorite feature of the aqueduct are the monumental arches, especially the super tall ones (65m) that soar over the Alcântara valley.
One cool fact is that you can walk atop the aqueduct! The walk starts at the Water Museum in Campolide, and you can walk about a kilometre along the elevated walkway across to Monsanto Park and back. The views of Lisbon’s red rooftops and green spaces are great!
If you want to see more of the aqueduct, then you should visit the Mãe d’Água reservoir in Amoreiras. This reservoir was built in 1834, and it can hold 5 500 m³ of water. It now forms part of the Water Museum and offers a cool, cavernous interior plus a rooftop terrace with panoramic city views. You can also choose to visit when they are doing the immersive light show. We bought tickets to go see Monet/Klimt immersive show and it was beautiful! For more information, check out Epal’s website.
If you end up at the reservoir in Amoreiras, make sure to stop at the Jardim das Amoreiras. This beautifully shaded park has a cute playground and a kiosk that serves food/drinks, all with a backdrop of the aqueduct arches. To make it even more quintessential Lisbon, the tram goes by next to the arches, every so often!
There are even more sites related to the aqueduct, but I’m currently allowing my family to take a break from it!
Feira de Ladra
If you are visiting Lisbon on a Tuesday or a Saturday, and you enjoy a good flea market, then you should definitely visit Ladra! This market is a mix of really cool antiques, some second hand clothes, vintage toys and knickknacks, original art, and some just plain clothing stands. My kids love going there for the really unique (and authentic) Pokemon cards, as well as for the vintage Lego. My son once bought an X-wing ship for €30! The price online was over €150!
Ladra runs from 9am until 5pm on Tuesday, and from 9am until 7pm on Saturday. You can easily combine this outing with a visit to the National Pantheon. If you visit the Pantheon, make sure you make it all the way to the terrace. The view of Lisbon, and of Ladra Market, are pretty cool from up there! When we visit Ladra, we enjoy grabbing lunch from Focaccia in Giro, or a snack from one of the vendors at the Mercado de Santa Clara. Our kids enjoy stopping by Jardin Botto Machado to play, and we usually sit down and grab a coffee or beer at the kiosk onsite.
There is honestly so much to see and do in Lisbon, this is just a small sample. Most of the places I’ve included here are never crowded, like many of the more popular attractions in the city, but they are so worth a visit! Check out this other post for other less visited sites in Lisbon!
To learn more about our adventures in Portugal, visit this page. For all of our other travels, visit this page.
