Lisbon Oceanarium | Plan your visit to the Oceanário de Lisboa. Here are all of the details you need to plan your visit, including information on location, tickets, permanent and special exhibitions.
The Lisbon Oceanarium, Oceanário de Lisboa in Portuguese, is one of the two largest oceanariums in Europe and has more than one million visitors per year.
General Information
Esplanada D Carlos , Parque das Nações
GPS: 38.763761006958056, -9.0937415
T: 351 218 917 000
Hours: Summer 10 am – 7 pm, Winter 10 am – 6 pm
Accessibility
The aquarium is accessible to both wheelchairs and strollers and wheelchairs may be loaned for your visit.
All videos have subtitles in English.
All displays have text available in Portuguese and English.
Audio guides are available in Portuguese, English, French, Spanish, German, and Italian.
How to get to the Lisbon Oceanarium
The Lisbon Aquarium is located at Doca dos Olivais, Parque das Nações.
Take the metro redline to Oriente East Station. The oceanarium is a ten-minute walk from the station.
Lisbon’s Carris Buses also stop at Oriente station.
- Bus 705 from the airport to Oriente station
- Bus 708 from Martim Moniz to Oriente station
- Bus 725 from Prior Velho to Oriente station
- Bus 728, direction Portela, with stops at Jerònimos Monastery, Cais do Sodré station, and Santa Apalonia train station on the way to to Oriente station
- Bus 744 from Marques de Pombal roundabout and later Saldanha station to Oriente station
- Bus 750 from Alges and Colombo shopping center to Oriente station
- Bus 759 from Restauradores Square, Rossio Square, Praça do Comércio, and Santa Apolonia station to Oriente station
- Bus 782 from Cais do Sodré, Praça do Comércio, Santa Apolonia to Oriente station
- Bus 794 from Praça do Comércio, Santa Apolonia to Oriente station
Parking
There are several lots nearby.
- Oceanarium park has 274 spaces (closest to the aquarium)
- Doca park has 700 parking spaces
- FIL is 832 parking spaces
- Vasco da Gama Tower Park has 250 parking spaces
- Oriente East Station Park has 2000 parking spots
Admission
- Ages 0-3 free
- Ages 4 to 12 pay €10.
- Ages 12 to 64 pay €19.
- Ages and older pay €13
You can buy tickets online at https://www.oceanario.pt/visita/bilhetes
Family tickets are available, but can only be purchased at the box office.
They are €50 and allow for two adults and two children under twelve. Each additional child is €6.70.
There is a 15% discount on admission if you use the Lisboa Card.
The Lisboa Card also allows for the free use of public transportation for a period of 24, 48, or 72 hours.
About the Lisbon Oceanarium
The Oceanarium was built under the direction of architect Peter Chermayeff, who also built the Osaka Oceanarium Kaiyukan, formerly the world’s largest aquarium.
The Lisbon Oceanarium opened in 1998 as the centerpiece of the World Fair. The building originally housed the Oceans Pavilion at Expo 98.
The building resembles an oil drilling platform, or others say an aircraft carrier, sitting on the open water.
You access the aquarium by crossing a footbridge, and you enter on the second floor.
From there, you are looking down and through the surface of the 1000 square meter main tank, which is the size of four football fields. From this vantage point, you get a great view of the animals that live closer to the surface.
Downstairs you have views of the deep-sea dwellers.
The tank holds both temperate and tropical fish, featuring:
- Sharks
- Rays
- Tuna
- Barracuda
- Grouper
- Moray eels
- Giant Sunfish
Very few aquariums keep giant sunfish (mola mola), as they are hard to care for.
The sunfish, from Portugal’s Algarve Coast, eats gelatin with vegetables, fish, and crustaceans.
Then there are four other large tanks that make up the permanent display. Major ecosystems featured in the 49 square meter tanks are:
- North Atlantic rocky coast
- Tropical Indian Coral Reefs
- Temperate Pacific Kelp Forests
- Antarctic Coastline
Feeding Times at the Lisbon Oceanarium
- Shark feeding – Monday and Friday at 10:30 am
- Rays and moonfish feeding – Monday and Friday at 11:15 am
- Mantas – Monday and Friday at 3:30 pm
- Penguins – Tuesday at 3:30 pm
- Atlantic fish and anemone – Wednesday at 11:30 am
- Puffins – Wednesday at 3:30 pm
- Otters – Thursday at 10:30, 1:00, and 3:30 pm.
Temporary Exibitions: Florestas Submersas, Forests Underwater
The serene and relaxing temporary exhibition Florestas Submersas, Forests Underwater by Tekashi Amano showcases tropical forests inside an aquarium and has more than 10,000 tropical fish.
“Takashi Amano, the most famous ‘aquascaper’ in the world, created the central piece in this exhibition, a 40-meter long aquarium holding 160 thousand liters of freshwater… Amano believed that observing nature closely would enable us to better understand our world and learn how to preserve it.”
From https://www.oceanario.pt/en/exhibitions/forests-underwater/
Temporary Exhibitions: ONE, The Ocean As You Never Felt It
The newest exhibit at the Lisbon Oceanarium was created by underwater videographer Maya de Almeida Araújo.
ONE, The Ocean As You’ve Never Felt It portrays the deep connection between human beings and the ocean.
The ten high-definition screens of the exhibit create the sensation of being in the ocean with a close-up view of the various marine life and the moving tides.
The video installation was created completely within Portugal’s maritime territory and required eleven different film crews (including drone crews), and six vessels to film.
Conservation Projects at the Lisbon Oceanarium
A large part of the oceanarium’s mission is marine conservation.
Most of your ticket price goes for the care of their animals and research.
Oceanario de Lisboa is sponsoring the Manta Catalog Azores Research Project.
The Lisbon Oceanarium has created the Manta Conservation Experience, an eight-day and seven-night manta ray research project in the Azores.
Guest on the trip will have 10 dives with manta rays at the Ambrogio seamount, as well as a dive trip to Formiga.
Participants will help with the collection and study of scientific data with professional researchers.
This trip is open to a maximum of six participants. Advanced open water dive certification is required in order to participate.
New dates coming soon. For more information Sway (office.com)
What’s nearby?
The oceanarium has its Tejo Restaurant, where you can have a reasonably priced cafeteria-style meal.
There are also several highly rated restaurants to choose from just outside of the aquarium complex, including Michelin Star winner 50 Seconds.
Portugal’s tallest building, the Vasco da Gama Tower finally reopened to the public on May 22, 2023. You can enjoy fantastic panoramic views of Lisbon. See my article Vasco da Gama Tower – Lisbon’s newest viewpoint is now open to learn more.
You could also opt to eat in the food court at the nearby Vasco da Gama Shopping Center.
The shopping center and in fact many buildings in the Parque das Nações neighborhood are fantastic examples of Lisbon’s best modern architecture.
For more information see my article, Modern and contemporary architecture in the old city of Lisbon
Before looking for food, you might want to explore immediately around the oceanarium and enjoy the paved cobblestone sea monsters and other public art installations.
Or ride the Cable Cars (Telecabine) between the Oceanarium and the Vasco da Gama Tower.
Parque do Tejo near the Vasco da Gama bridge is a nice place to wander around, take in views of the bridge, or enjoy the skate park.
There is also a boardwalk where you can take selfies with the bridge. Just follow the riverside promenade toward the bridge.
If you are interested in hotels or houseboats near the Oceanario de Lisboa, check out my Hotels, hostels, and houseboats on the Lisbon, Estoril, Cascais coast
For information on other museums in Lisbon, see my article, Finding the most interesting museums in Lisbon
I am not affiliated with any businesses mentioned in this article.