Location

THE Vasco da Gama Aquarium It is located in Dafundo, in the municipality of Oeiras, in the district of Lisbon, and is a super pleasant walk for children and adults. It is inside a large yellow house with a parking lot next to it, and is close to the Algés Promenade and Algés train station.

A summary

With five rooms, around 90 aquariums and tanks, a vast oceanographic collection from King Charles I of Portugal, more than 300 live marine species and thousands more in the museum, the aquarium receives an average of 70 thousand visitors per year.

Since 1901, the aquarium has belonged to the Portuguese Navy, which provides a budget for the maintenance of the equipment, with the remaining operating costs covered by its own revenue from ticket sales.

The Vasco da Gama Aquarium is made up of two parts. One is the king's oceanographic collection and the other is the aquarium itself, with animals from the Portuguese coast, as well as turtles and water birds.

Our tour

We went in May 2023 – me, the kids and 3 grandparents – while Marcelo was in the Netherlands. We bought the tickets on the spot and paid 5 euros (adult), 2.50 for each grandparent, 2.50 euros for Patrick and Ju went for free. No queues, no stress, and inside it was relatively empty.

We saw many aquariums with fish, seahorses, octopuses, and other interesting creatures, and then we played in the interactive area, stepping on sea creatures and drawing a fish that would later appear swimming in the film projected on the wall.

The kids loved it and we loved seeing them happy, of course! It's much smaller and simpler than the Oceanarium, but it's such an easy and cheap trip to do that I think it's definitely worth it.

After that, we went to eat Brazilian pastel at the restaurant right next door and we loved it!

Our photos