Madeira Story Centre

• Indoors
• Ages 5-12
• No price published
• Just turn up

The island's story - volcano, discovery, pirate raids, sugar, the flying boats that landed in the bay - told as a walk-through with models, archive film and a smell station.

The most straightforwardly child-facing history museum in Funchal, because it is built as a narrative rather than a set of cases, and the gift of smells - spices, fruit and island flora to sniff - is the exhibit children describe afterwards. It opened in 2005 and parts of the multimedia show it. Families split hard on whether it is an hour or two; with under-eights, plan for one.

Worth knowing: It is open every day, seven to seven in effect, which is rare here - and it is a few minutes from the cable-car station, so the two make an obvious pair. The story that it shut for good in February is from 2015: it changed hands that summer and reopened that December.

Opening hours

Mon

10:00-19:00

Tue

10:00-19:00

Wed

10:00-19:00

Thu

10:00-19:00

Fri

10:00-19:00

Sat

10:00-19:00

Sun

10:00-19:00

Prices

Prices are not published online and the operator's own site carries neither hours nor a tariff, so budget roughly 5-10 € a head and check at the desk. The roof terrace over the old town costs nothing extra once you are inside.

Getting there

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.