Outdoors and free

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

The three or four thatched A-frame houses beside Santana's town hall, free to walk round and about twenty minutes of a family's day.

• Outdoors
• Up to 10
• Children free

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

Thirteen thousand square metres of central garden with a playground and a café terrace, ten minutes' walk from the cathedral - and shut every weekend.

• Outdoors
• Ages 1-12
• Children free

A small neighbourhood garden with a playground in the hotel belt west of the centre, and the one municipal garden that advertises shade.

• Outdoors
• Ages 1-12
• Children free

A rebuilt clifftop garden on the rocky headland in the middle of Câmara de Lobos, with a lighthouse-shaped climbing structure and a view along the coast to Cabo Girão.

• Outdoors
• Ages 2-10
• Children free

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

A broad, level, compacted levada path above Camacha that a pushchair genuinely handles, walkable for twenty minutes or four hours with a turn back wherever the children have had enough.

• Outdoors
• Any age
• Children free

Funchal's main city park: 36,000 square metres of lawn above the harbour with a playground, a lake with fountains, two cafés, public toilets and real shade.

• Outdoors
• Ages 1-12
• Children free

A thatched forest house with picnic tables, toilets and laurel woods around it, four kilometres up a narrow road from Santana.

• Outdoors
• From 2
• Children free

A laurel-forest picnic ground directly off the Encumeada pass road, with tables, benches, fountains and barbecue stands a few steps from the car park.

• Outdoors
• From 1
• Children free

A rebuilt seafront plaza a short walk from Praia da Calheta, split into a giant ship-shaped climbing structure for six- to twelve-year-olds and a protected corner for two- to five-year-olds.

• Outdoors
• Ages 2-12
• Children free

A municipal playground on the flat Machico promenade, beside the old fort and a short walk from the town's sand beach.

• Outdoors
• Ages 2-12
• Children free

A thousand square metres of playground and outdoor gym on the same plaza, opened in September 2024 in a dense residential part of Ribeira Brava.

• Outdoors
• Ages 2-12
• Children free

The largest of the Santa Cruz municipal playgrounds, on Rua da Praia right on the seafront promenade.

• Outdoors
• Ages 2-12
• Children free

The high mountains without the walk: you park at 1,818 metres and a short paved path takes a small child to the top of the island.

• Outdoors
• From 3
• Children free

Porto Santo's drive-up viewpoint over the whole island and its nine-kilometre beach, planted with pine, with picnic tables and an old cannon at the top.

• Outdoors
• From 4
• Children free

A former Blandy estate ten minutes from the airport with fallow deer, Garrano ponies, peacocks and guinea fowl, wide lawns to run on and a viewpoint over the Machico valley.

• Outdoors
• From 2
• Children free

Thirty-five thousand square metres behind the hotel zone: old trees, open lawn, a playground, a café and the public tennis, squash and padel courts.

• Outdoors
• Ages 2-12
• Children free

The trout hatchery, picnic ground and restaurant in the forest on the ER103 - the stop at the Balcões trailhead, not the walk itself.

• Outdoors
• From 2
• Children free