Lourinha and the Dino Parque – 13th May 2025

by Kerry · 25 May 2025

We went to visit Dino Park at Lourinha after passing through the town. The dinosaur sculptures showcased on the roundabouts caught our attention and sparked our curiosity.

Dino Parque is a theme park dedicated to the history of dinosaurs and is the largest open-air museum in Portugal.

This dinosaur exhibition allows visitors to see more than 200 life-size, scientifically proven models of dinosaurs and other animals. There is a museum when you first enter with big, fossilised skulls but then its straight into the park with the life size replicas.

There are six distinct routes that represent the various stages of dinosaur evolution and offers insights into the history of dinosaurs and prehistoric animals from Portugal and around the world.

There is even a dinosaur named after this town – following the discovery of a huge number of fossilised dinosaur bones in the cliffs.

They have really made the most of this with dinosaurs round every corner and roundabout.

Apparently over 100 dinosaur eggs were discovered in a nest in Lourinha.

Did you know that the Tyrannosaurus rex could measure up to 15 meters long.

Journey through millions of years in this open-air museum filled with dinosaurs.

This outdoor dinosaur exhibition was designed with an Edutainment concept in mind.

At Dino Parque, you can enjoy learning about paleontology, fossilization, dinosaurs, their history, species, and more.

There are 6 different trails to explore:

Paleozoic

– The Paleozoic era began around 419 million years ago and featured many fascinating animals that existed before dinosaurs.

Triassic

But it was during the Triassic period that the giants emerged, and several types of dinosaurs appeared.

Jurassic Period

Lourinha is one of the world’s richest areas for Jurassic fossils.

There are unique species including the Diplodocus Hallorum, which is around 45 metres long!

Cretaceous Period

This trail showcases renowned dinosaurs such as Tyrannosaurus rex (T. Rex) and Triceratops. The extinction of dinosaurs occurred at the conclusion of this era.

We had fun taking these photos!!

Sea Monsters Trail

On this route you will be able to observe animals that have reigned over lakes, seas and oceans from 450 million years ago to the present day.

Cenozoic Ice Age

The most recent trail opened in March 2023, with a unique and exclusive theme, different from the other trails.

The Ice Age Trail features 14 full-scale models along a 500-meter stretch, showcasing Mammoths and Sabre-toothed Tigers.

As we went round the trails the imagery got a bit grittier…

Its a Dino eat Dino world!

Hmmm – tasty!

There were several lots of school trips with quite young children going round at the same time as us who were all obviously absolutely loving the park.