Serralves Park and Treetop Walk

Serralves is best known as Porto’s museum of contemporary art, but for most families the 18-hectare park around it is the real reason to go. The French architect Jacques Gréber designed the gardens in the 1930s, and Serralves says the park now has more than 100 years of history. About 200 species of tree and shrub grow here, a mix of native Portuguese plants and ornamental ones from abroad.

The park is made of lots of small worlds joined by paths. Serralves lists formal parterres, a 19th-century arboretum, a rose garden, a lake, woods, a meadow, ponds, the Maria Nordman garden, an aromatic herb garden, a vegetable plot, greenhouses and the Treetop Walk. At the far end is the Quinta de Serralves, a traditional farm with its own sheep. At Easter 2026 children on the holiday workshop dyed wool from those sheep with colours made from roots, leaves and flowers found in the park.

The Treetop Walk is the highlight for most children. It is a walkway about 250 metres long, designed by the architects Álvaro Siza and Carlos Castanheira and opened in September 2019. The clever part is that the path stays completely level while the ground falls away beneath it, so you start 1.5 metres up and end up to 25 metres above the woodland floor, walking among the upper branches. Observador reported that it is built from recycled and recyclable wood, that you can reach out and touch the treetops, and that from some points you can see the sea.

Because it has no steps, it works for toddlers on foot and for buggies, and Visit Porto includes it in its Accessible Porto listings. Children who are nervous of heights can take it slowly: the rise is so gradual that many don’t notice how high they are until they look down. Visit Porto says the park ticket includes the walk.

Sculptures from the Serralves Collection sit permanently along the paths, and finding them turns a walk into a treasure hunt. The education team’s own description of its sculpture route mentions a giant garden trowel and mirrors that multiply the space around you, and names artists including Anish Kapoor, Richard Serra, Maria Nordman, Dan Graham and Rui Chafes. Older children who say they don’t like art often change their minds about a trowel the size of a tree.

The rose garden has more than 1,800 rose bushes of about 30 European varieties, best in spring and summer. The herb garden at the farm is good for smelling and touching. The Gardeners’ House, a former machinery shed restored by Álvaro Siza, is used for education and shows the tools and vehicles that gardeners and farmers use.

When we checked in September 2026, a park-only ticket cost €15 and a ticket for every Serralves space (museum, Álvaro Siza wing, park, Treetop Walk, Casa de Serralves and the Casa do Cinema Manoel de Oliveira) cost €24. Portugal residents pay €12 and €20, but only at the Serralves box office, not online. Children under 12 go free, and ages 12 to 17, students up to 25 and over-65s pay half. Everyone gets in free on the first Sunday of the month, which is also when it is busiest.

In summer 2026 Serralves ran a family ticket (two full and two reduced tickets) and a cheaper late-afternoon ticket from Monday to Thursday, both ending on 30 September. Check the site to see whether they come back next year.

From October to March the park opens 10:00 to 18:00 on weekdays and 10:00 to 19:00 at weekends and on holidays. From April to September it stays open an hour longer. It is closed on 25 December and 1 January and shuts at 16:00 on 24 and 31 December.

Picnics are not allowed in the park, which catches many families out. Instead there is a restaurant open at lunchtime (its terrace was closed until at least the end of 2026), the Casa de Chá tea house, open only at weekends from 10:00 to 18:00 and liable to close on rainy days, and the auditorium bar, open all day.

The rules are worth reading before you set off. Tricycles and non-motorised scooters are allowed if they are small and ridden by children under 12. Ball games are not allowed, you can walk on most lawns but not the two main parterres, and nobody may go into the lakes or ponds. Pets are not allowed, except guide dogs. Children under 12 must stay with an adult, and bags go to the cloakroom.

In the school holidays Serralves runs themed day workshops for children aged 4 to 9, based at the farm and using the park, the museum, the Casa de Serralves and the cinema house. Each day has a different theme: contemporary art, cinema, architecture, environment, biodiversity or landscape. At Easter 2026 children built a museum out of cardboard boxes, went looking for pond creatures with magnifiers and microscopes, and dyed sheep’s wool with plant colours.

At Easter 2026 a single day cost €40, a four-day week €140 and a five-day week €180, with 10% off for Amigo Família card holders. A snack is included but not lunch. Staff receive children from 08:30 and hand them back between 17:30 and 18:30 at the farm entrance on Rua Bartolomeu Velho, and you need your ID to collect. Groups are capped at 20 and places go in order of booking, so sign up as soon as dates appear on the agenda.

Serralves also runs occasional family workshops at weekends; one on 3 October 2026 was listed when we checked.

Take the metro to Casa da Música (lines A, B, C, E and F), then STCP bus 201, 207, 502 or 504, or the metrobus, to the Serralves stop. The park is on the Boavista side of the city, a short bus ride from the sea.

Serralves is a quiet place to wander. If your children need to shout, climb and kick a ball, pair it with Parque da Cidade, Porto’s huge free park, which runs from the far end of Avenida da Boavista down to the beach. SEA LIFE Porto is on the seafront nearby for a wet afternoon, and the Planetário do Porto is another indoor option across town.

Is Serralves free for children?

Yes, under-12s go free. Ages 12 to 17 pay half price, and everyone gets in free on the first Sunday of the month.

Can you take a buggy on the Treetop Walk?

Yes. The walkway is level with no steps, and Visit Porto lists it as accessible. Parts of the wider park are gravel and woodland paths, so a sturdy buggy helps.

Can you have a picnic at Serralves?

No. The rules say picnics are not allowed in the park. Eat at the restaurant, the tea house (weekends) or the auditorium bar, or picnic afterwards in Parque da Cidade.

How long do you need at Serralves?

Serralves’ own guided visits last 90 minutes for the park and another 90 for the Treetop Walk, which is a fair guide to a half day. Add more time for an exhibition in the museum.

Can I leave my child at Serralves?

Only on the holiday workshops for ages 4 to 9, which you book in advance. On an ordinary visit, under-12s must stay with an adult.