The central region of Portugal offers many exciting options for families and children: toy museums, biological parks, live science centres, caves, a Portugal in miniature and even a dinosaur park! You name it: this is the place to be when you want to spend an amusing time with the little ones!
While in Aveiro do not miss the opportunity to learn how to make the mouth-watering “ovos-moles” – soft eggs – at Oficina do Doce or to pay a visit to the live science centre Fábrica – Centro de Ciência Viva. Engaging on a moliceiro boat trip across the Aveiro lagoon or using the free bikes of Aveiro are also cool ways of exploring this city of light!In the surroundings of Aveiro, the playing museum – Museu do Brincar – is a true must with approximately 22.000 pieces! In Ílhavo, everybody will be amazed by the colourful stripped houses of Costa Nova, a worldwide phenomenon, that look like doll houses or by the codfish aquarium of Ílhavo Maritime Museum, learning a lot about the history of cod fishing in the Newfoundland by the brave Portuguese!
The city of Coimbra was the first capital of the Portuguese kingdom and the former Royal Palace was housed in the building of the University of Coimbra. A visit to this icon of Portuguese history is absolutely mandatory with its absolutely breath-taking Joanine Library, where books are protected from the insects by a colony of bats, as well as the dazzling Botanical Garden! And the jewel of the Crown is without any doubt the theme park Portugal dos Pequenitos, located on the other bank of the river, depicting the monuments and the typical Portuguese houses.In the region surrounding Coimbra do not miss the chance to visit the amazing Biological Park of Serra da Lousã or the one-of-a-kind Schist Villages, as well as the Roman ruins of Conímbriga.
This is Portugal’s highest peak and also a magical place with landscapes from the beginning of times: glacial valleys, snow white mountains, never-ending views and inspiring lagoons ! Visit the bread museum or the toy museum, both of them located in Seia, and discover these absolutely unique places of memory and entertainment!
In the south region of Center of Portugal there are many exciting spots to explore, such as the caves Grutas da Moeda. These caves are located in S. Mamede, in the council of Batalha, only 2 km away from Fátima. The caves can be visited to an extent of 350 meters and they are 45 meters deep beneath the entrance height. Temperature inside the caves is around 18.º C all year round.
The Monks Park is located in the Nun’s Estate in Alcobaça and it is built mainly as an Environmental and Cultural Park, offering visitors unique experiences through a range of activities and events, aiming to recreate the lives of the monks of the Order of Cistercians.
The works of the major Portuguese sculptors can be seen at the Park of Contemporary Sculpture in Vila Nova da Barquinha, an absolutely one-of-kind location in Portugal ! Walking, jogging, playing with children, riding a bike, playing football or simply marvelling at the riverside landscape are some of the activities that this park offers within a setting of unrivalled beauty.
The recently opened Dino Park is the only park in Portugal dedicated to dinosaurs with more than 120 real-scale models. Dino Parque is an outdoor museum, in an area of 10 hectares, including 4 tracks corresponding to some of the most important epochs in the history of the Earth: the end of the Paleozoic, the Triassic, the Jurassic and the Cretaceous. Learning and playing hand in hand!