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
Museums and animals
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.
Espaço Multiusos do Porto Moniz
Porto Moniz
The municipality's exhibition hall on the Porto Moniz seafront, whose permanent show explains the UNESCO laurel forest the family has just driven through.
- Indoors
- Ages 5-14
- Children free
Museu A Cidade do Açúcar
Funchal
A free, small archaeology museum on Praça Colombo, built over the excavated foundations of a 15th-century sugar merchant's house.
- Indoors
- Ages 7-12
- Children free
Museu de História Natural do Funchal
Funchal
The city's own natural history collection in the Palácio de São Pedro on Rua da Mouraria: Madeiran birds, fish, fossils, monk seal material and a small basement aquarium.
- Indoors
- Ages 3-10
- Children free
Museu de História Natural do Jardim Botânico
Funchal
One room of fossils, minerals, insects and preserved Madeiran vertebrates inside the Botanical Garden, covered by the garden ticket.
- Indoors
- Ages 5-12
- Children free
Museu Quinta das Cruzes
Funchal
A manor-house museum uphill from the cathedral whose romantic garden - stonework, old trees, a small chapel - is free to walk and open to anyone.
- Partly covered
- From 2
- 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.