Skate Park de Aveiro (Parque da Cidade)

Aveiro’s skate park is in the Parque da Cidade, the city park, in the stretch known as the Parque dos Amores. The council opened it on 18 June 2021 after about a year of building work, at a cost of around €158,000. It chose the site partly because so many young people pass by: there are primary and secondary schools nearby and the University of Aveiro is close by.

The design came out of meetings between the council and Aveiro’s own skateboarders and BMX riders, which shows in the layout. There is something for a complete beginner, a street course for improving riders and a bowl for confident ones.

The council’s descriptions set out three parts.

The beginners’ area is the city’s original, smaller skate park, which was kept on purpose when the new one was built. The council describes it as a space for learning, linked to the new park by a corridor so the two work as one. For children, this is the key detail: a child can find their feet away from the busiest ramps and still be a few metres from the rest of the family.

The street section copies things you find in a town: low walls and rails, benches, sloping banks, ‘eurogaps’ (a gap to ride or jump across) and ‘corners’. This is where improving skaters practise tricks.

The transition section is for riders who like curves and air, with larger quarter-pipes and a bowl the council rates as advanced. It’s for experienced teenagers and adults, and younger children should stay out of it unless they’re with a coach.

The park was built to competition standard for beginner, amateur and professional categories. It hosted a stage of the national championship, the Liga Skate Pro run by the Portuguese roller sports federation, on its opening weekend in June 2021, with around 200 skaters expected from youth categories to professionals, and the council paid for a second stage there in June 2022.

Aveiro’s first skate school, the Giancarlo Skate School, grew up around this park. Its founder, Pedro Rodrigues, told the Diário de Aveiro in March 2025 that he started it about five years earlier, after the new skate park was built, because the local skate scene was shrinking and new riders weren’t coming through. The paper describes dozens of people of all ages now skating with the school, and the founders appeared on Terra Nova’s sports podcast in September 2026.

The articles don’t give prices, ages or lesson times, so contact the school directly. A few lessons are the quickest way for a beginner to learn to fall safely, push and stop, which makes the park far more fun.

• Ages 4 to 7 can try the beginners’ area on a scooter or skateboard at quiet times, with an adult close by.
• Ages 8 to 12 who can push and turn will like the beginners’ area and the easier street obstacles.
• Teenagers get the whole park, including the bowl.

Toddlers are better off in the rest of the park. The council’s descriptions of the skate park don’t mention a playground.

The council pages don’t publish rules, so kit children out as you would anywhere: a helmet, knee and elbow pads, and wrist guards for beginners. Teach them to wait their turn and to stay out of the landing area at the bottom of a ramp. After school and at weekends the park fills with older riders, so a weekday morning in the holidays is gentler for a first visit. In summer, concrete gets hot by midday.

The skate park is free and open-access. The council says the neighbouring Parque Infante D. Pedro, the historic part of the city park laid out from 1862 with lakes, a bandstand and a tea house, has picnic tables and public toilets. Bring water.

Walk through the city park to the Parque Infante D. Pedro and on to the centre. Aveiro’s salt pans and the Oficina do Doce, where children make the town’s egg-and-sugar sweets, are both in the city, and Confeitaria Peixinho sells the classic ovos moles. Riders who want a pump track can try the Malhada pumptrack in Ílhavo or the Águeda Bike Park.

Is the Aveiro skate park free?

Yes. It’s a council facility in the public city park.

Is it OK for beginners?

Yes. The old skate park was kept as a beginners’ area, linked to the new park.

Can you take a BMX?

The park was designed after consulting both skateboarders and BMX riders. Check signs on the day for any rules.

Are there skate lessons in Aveiro?

Yes. The Giancarlo Skate School teaches people of all ages. Contact the school for times and prices.

Are there toilets?

The council lists public toilets in the adjoining Parque Infante D. Pedro.