Zoos with animals from all over the world, amusement parks, adventure, science, football stadiums… Madrid is a family-friendly city, with a range of activities for parents and kids. Find out how to plan a tour of the city that your little ones won’t forget.

Zoo Aquarium

A visit to Madrid with kids can start off at the Madrid Zoo Aquarium, located in the Casa de Campo Park, which can be accessed by the Madrid Teleférico. You can watch around 2,000 animals belonging to more than 500 species. The Atlas lion, whose roar can be heard 8 kilometres away, the emperor scorpion, the white rhinoceros or the Nile crocodile are some of the Zoo’s inhabitants.

Madrid Parque de Atracciones

Casa de Campo Park is also home to Madrid Parque de Atracciones, an amusement park where the little ones can burn off some energy gathered after visiting Madrid’s top sights.

Faunia

Located in Madrid’s Barrio de Valdebernardo, Faunia is a wildlife park featuring 13 areas where you’ll learn everything about the countless animals you can see close up: king penguins, African tigerfish, common cranes or lynxes, among others.

Parque Warner Madrid

In the town of San Martín de la Vega, less than 30km away from central Madrid, fun is guaranteed at Warner Park. Your children will be greeted by their favourite characters and enjoy the large collection of thrilling rides and fun attractions like the Scooby-Doo Adventure interactive ride, where guests chase the ghosts that dwell in a haunted mansion.

For football fans

Your child is in luck if he/she likes football. ln Madrid, you can visit the legendary Santiago Bernabéu (which is currently being refurbished, so that the ground’s main new feature will be the retractable roof) and Cívitas Metropolitano stadiums, which are home to museums devoted to Real Madrid and Atlético de Madrid respectively.

The Bernabéu tour is an interactive experience. You’ll see two new spaces, the ‘Best Club Ever’ hall and the room dedicated to Atlético Madrid’s legend Alfredo Di Stéfano, showcasing more than 100,000 items, documents, videos, trophies, and all kinds of memorabilia. A tour which is celebrating its twentieth anniversary in 2019 and brings together more than 100,000 objects, documents, videos, trophies, takes you through the First team and visiting team’s changing rooms. In sum, a visitor experience you won’t forget if you’re an Atlético Madrid fan or just a football enthusiast.

The new Atlético de Madrid stadium offers a tour which visits areas such as the changing rooms, the press room or the mixed area, where the manager and footballers appear after each match. It is possible to go onto the pitch through the tunnel used by the players. Visits are on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays (provided that it is not a match day). Inside the Cívitas Metropolitano stadium, you will also be able to visit Atleti Territory. It is a meeting place where you will be able to enjoy diverse leisure activities and discover the team’s history through interactive and immersive experiences. It is a space that has a new museum, where you can run through the club’s centenary of history in a fun and interactive way.

Other ideas

Madrid has plenty of fun and activities for kids, even on rainy days. In spring and summer, El Retiro and other green spaces like Campo del Moro Park, or Madrid’s water parks, make great plans. In fall or winter, whatever the weather, children will be delighted at such museums as, the Wax Museum, the House of Pérez Mouse (Ratón Pérez is Spanish equivalent to the Tooth Fairy), the National Museum of Natural Science, Railway Museum, Naval Museum or the Museum of Illusions Madrid. Or enjoy the Magic Forest, the Kinépolis Madrid children’s park (an enormous commercial centre with 25 cinema halls close to Casa de Campo) where the little ones can play, sliding down many slides, hiding in never-ending labyrinths or climbing gigantic plants. 

Visit the Autocine Madrid Race, an experience for all ages, where the films, food, music and cars are combined with an atmosphere that dates back to the 1950s; or visit the revamped Plaza de España with a children’s play area and a beautiful pedestrian walkway to the Temple of Debod. Another interesting proposal is IKONO, a peculiar interactive art gallery that invites visitors to develop their senses through immersive activities, colours, smells and textures.

Proposals on the outskirts of Madrid include the Windobona Indoor Skydiving Madrid, a wind tunnel to practice skydiving in the Carabanchel neighbourhood.  On the other hand, Sambil Outlet Madrid offers an extensive space of more than 1,000 m2 made up of trampolines in the Fortuna neighbourhood, in Leganés. You can also visit Parque Europa, the largest green leisure area in Torrejón de Ardoz. It has reproductions of the most emblematic monuments in major European cities as well as different leisure and multi-adventure areas.

The children’s theatre is another good way of spending free time in Madrid, when the weather is fine.Teatro Sanpol, Teatros Luchana with its special children’s billboard, LuchanaKids or the Sala Mirador are just some of the places to do so. And if the weather is good, Puppet Theatre in El Retiro Park has a permanent annual programme, which is outdoors and free of charge.

Another interesting option is to travel back in time at the Andén 0, the former Chamberí metro station, which was reopened a few years ago after being closed since 1966. Open to the public at weekends, the station which was built in 1919 still has the original ticket booths and the platform with its tiled advertising panels and period furniture. The visit is accompanied by audiovisual documentation on the history of the Metro. Don’t forget Andén 0. Nave de Motores de Pacífico which was build to resolve potential shortages in the electricity power supply and offer a better service to the Metro network.   

A plan that is all the rage is going to the escape games or Escape Rooms. The city has a wide variety of establishments designed for children. The Replay Boardgame Outlet Café is a lively restaurant that offers a wide variety of board games, beers and other simple dishes.

If you prefer a 'plan at a height', you can visit the Faro de Moncloa lookout, whose huge glass windows offer views over the Royal Palace, Almudena Cathedral, the Telefónica Building on the Gran Vía, the Cuatro Torres Business Area or the peaks of the Sierra de Guadarrama mountain range; Or ride the Madrid Teleférico that links Paseo de Rosales and Casa de Campo.

Recommendations must include a visit to the ABC Serrano commercial centre, which offers fun activities and spaces to visit with children.   This is the case of The Robot Museum, where the past, present and future of robotics can be discovered,  by playing and interacting with robots; the Sweet Space Museum, which offers an interactive tasting adventure in which sweets are the main feature; and the free interactive space, ABC Arcade, an authentic period arcade, where you can play.