Complexo Balnear do Lido

• Outdoors
• Any age
• Children free
• Just turn up

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.

The separate children's pool is what makes a whole day possible - the four-year-old and the ten-year-old can be in water at once, which no beach in Funchal allows. Reviewers single out how many lifeguards there are and that they visibly watch rather than sit. The water is pumped seawater, cold in June and pleasant by September, and there is very little natural shade: the sunbeds that provide it are an extra charge and go early.

Worth knowing: Buy the day pass rather than the reloadable card unless you are staying a fortnight - the card itself costs 2.35 € before you have swum anything. The pass is valid at Barreirinha, Ponta Gorda and Doca do Cavacas too, so it is not wasted if you move along the coast.

Opening hours

Mon

08:30-20:00

Tue

08:30-20:00

Wed

08:30-20:00

Thu

08:30-20:00

Fri

08:30-20:00

Sat

08:30-20:00

Sun

08:30-20:00

Prices

Adult 5 €, youth 1.80 €, children free, 1 € for the unemployed on proof. A sunbed is about 2.50 € on top; parasols and lockers extra. Two different free-child cut-offs circulate - under 10 on the widely reproduced tariff, under 6 on the municipal tourism page - and the operator publishes no tariff table on its own site, so ask at the gate which applies.

Season

The 08:30 to 20:00 block is the bathing season, 1 June to 30 September. The complex does not shut outside it, but the hours shorten and are posted on signs rather than online, so the winter closing time has to be checked on the day.

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.