Crypticroom
Funchal
Three escape rooms at Vale da Ajuda where a team of two to five has an hour to get out - and two of the three are horror.
- Indoors
- From 12
- No price published
Madeira with children
What there is to do with a child on an island sold on levadas, cliffs and wine.
Everything here was checked against the operator's own source rather than a guidebook, and the awkward facts are kept: which museum shuts on Monday, which levada a pushchair survives, which lava pools have a lifeguard and which identical-looking ones next door do not, and how old a child has to be before an operator will take them. Where nobody publishes a price or an opening time, this page says so instead of guessing.
Places built for children rather than merely tolerant of them: indoor play, trampolines, soft play and the one theme park on the island.
Go Kart Madeira
Machico
A covered 400-metre kart circuit at Água de Pena by Machico, where children drive their own kart from seven and smaller ones ride belted in beside a parent.
- Indoors
- From 7
- Children from 13 €
Karting Porto Santo (Dune Karts)
Porto Santo
Porto Santo's kart track at Penedo do Sono, and the only motorised attraction of its kind on the smaller island.
- Outdoors
- Any age
- No price published
Lava pools, sea-water lidos, calm beaches and the water park - with which ones have a lifeguard and which of the identical-looking pools next door do not.
Piscinas Naturais do Porto Moniz
Porto Moniz
Lava pools the Atlantic fills and refreshes, fenced and lifeguarded, with a separate children's pool and a playground on the terrace.
- Outdoors
- Any age
- Children free
Aquaparque Madeira
Santa Cruz
The island's only water park: five slides, racing lanes, two seawater pools including a shallow one, a lazy river, and a birds-of-prey session included in the ticket.
- Outdoors
- From 3
- Children free
Complexo Balnear do Lido
Funchal
Funchal's municipal lido: two seawater pools, one of them shallow with play equipment, plus ladders straight into the Atlantic, for five euros a head.
- Outdoors
- Any age
- Children free
Whales, monkeys, sharks in a tank, sugar under a glass floor and science you are allowed to touch - the wet-weather half of the island.
Museu da Baleia
Machico
Whaling history, life-size whales and stereoscopic 3D films in a purpose-built museum at Caniçal - the island's best museum for children by a distance.
- Indoors
- From 4
- Children free
Cinemas NOS Fórum Madeira
Funchal
Six screens inside the Fórum Madeira mall on Estrada Monumental, and the one place on the island where a children's film reliably runs dubbed into Portuguese.
- Indoors
- From 3
- No price published
Casa Colombo – Museu do Porto Santo e dos Descobrimentos Portugueses
Porto Santo
The house Columbus is said to have lived in, with ship models, period maps, navigation instruments and finds from the Slot ter Hooge wreck - Porto Santo's one real museum.
- Indoors
- From 6
- Children from 3 €
Karting, climbing, escape rooms, surf schools and riding lessons, with the minimum age each operator actually enforces.
Madeira Climbing Center
Funchal
The island's only indoor bouldering gym - low walls, thick mats, no ropes - in a basement on Rua Conde Carvalhal, taking children from about six.
- Indoors
- From 6
- Children from 8 €
Arquivo e Biblioteca da Madeira - "BORA LER!"
Funchal
A free story session every Saturday at 11:00 for children of four and up, with no booking and no ticket - the best recurring free thing for children on the island.
- Indoors
- Up to 14
- Children free
Aroundfreedom Surf School
Machico
Surf lessons out of Machico, from the sheltered end of the island's surf coast, for children of eight and over who can swim.
- Outdoors
- From 8
- Children from 60 €
Cable cars, toboggans, tuk-tuks, catamarans and the pirate ship - the outings that are the ride itself.
Teleférico do Funchal
Funchal
Fifteen minutes in a glass cabin from the Funchal seafront up 560 metres to Monte, which most small children treat as the attraction rather than the transport.
- Indoors
- Any age
- Children free
Carreiros do Monte
Funchal
Two men in white push a wicker sledge with your family in it two kilometres down a public road from Monte to Livramento, in about ten minutes.
- Outdoors
- From 3
- Children from 30 €
Beluga Submarine
Funchal
Two and a half hours east from Funchal marina to the Garajau reserve on a small trimaran with eight underwater windows, so a child sees fish without getting in the water.
- Partly covered
- From 3
- Children from 10 €
Playgrounds, gardens, picnic parks and the levadas a pushchair survives, nearly all of them free.
PR11 Vereda dos Balcões
Santana
A kilometre and a half each way, flat, along a levada through laurel forest to a railed balcony facing the island's highest peaks - the walk that actually works with a five-year-old.
- Outdoors
- From 4
- Children free
Fanal
Porto Moniz
Flat open pasture at a thousand metres, scattered with twisted centuries-old til trees, where children wander between the trunks instead of walking a path.
- Outdoors
- From 2
- Children free
Jardim Municipal Adelino Amaro da Costa
Funchal
A small shaded garden on Avenida Arriaga, ten minutes of bench and old trees between the cathedral, the market and the marina.
- Outdoors
- Any age
- Children free
Prices and opening times change without notice, and on this island they change often. Everything here carries the date it was checked in our research notes; if a place has moved or closed, tell us and we will fix it.