Aquário da Madeira

The collection is local. The tanks hold species from the water immediately outside: Atlantic fish, moray eels, an octopus, and a set of displays built to work like tide pools. The main tank is the reason to come. Three small sharks share it with morays and other fish, and stingrays turn up in it as well. The larger fish in that tank come to the glass and follow people along it. Around it runs a series of smaller tanks, and the route through them is short. The place is clean and well kept rather than large or lavish. The octopus sits in a plain tank, and some of the morays lie motionless on the rocks.

• Time needed: the whole route takes 10 to 30 minutes — a loop of small tanks, then the big one, with no second wing to find.
• Toilets: the nearest are about 28 m from the entrance and charge; there are free ones roughly 66 m away.
• Manage expectations: the visit is short for the money, and some animals, the octopus included, are kept in plain tanks.
• With children: the aquarium is geared to families, and the tide-pool displays of local species are the part that holds attention.
• Drinking water: there is a public tap about 84 m from the entrance.

The aquarium stands on the Porto Moniz seafront, and the last stretch is measured in metres. Cars stop in one of two car parks: the nearer is about 48 metres from the entrance, the other about 120 metres away on unpaved ground. The nearest bus stop is roughly 235 metres from the door. From either car park or the stop, there is nothing to walk but the street, and no steps or path to negotiate on the way in.

Better: wet or windy weather, when the sea is too rough for swimming outdoors. The aquarium is indoors, and Porto Moniz sits on the exposed north coast, where the day's plan often has to change.

Avoid: crossing the island for the aquarium on its own. It works as a stop inside a day already spent in Porto Moniz, not as the reason for the drive.