Benalmádena has more family attractions per square kilometre than anywhere else on the Costa del Sol, and nobody tells you where the child rate ends before you budget for them.
At Selwo Marina the reduced ticket covers ages 3 to 7. At the cable car it covers ages 3 to 7 as well. From a child's eighth birthday, both charge the full adult fare – there is no child rate above seven and no teenage rate at all.
For a family with two children aged 8 and 11 that is four adult tickets in both places, which is roughly €64 for Selwo Marina and €72 for the cable car before anyone eats anything. Below is what each attraction costs, which ages it actually suits, and the one that is free. Prices were checked against the operators' own sites on 18 August 2026.
Which attraction, which age, what price?
| Attraction | Best ages | Online from | Full fare starts | Time needed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Parque de la Paloma | All ages | Free | – | 1–2 hrs |
| Monowa Butterfly Garden | 3–10 | €11.50 child | age 13 | 45 min |
| Selwo Marina | 3–12 | €15.90 | age 8 | 3–4 hrs |
| Cable car to Calamorro | 5+ | €17.90 | age 8 | 2–3 hrs |
| Sea Life | Toddlers–preteens | €18.50 adult | age 15 | 1.5 hrs |
| Holiday World | 6–15 | Resort rates | varies | Half–full day |
Two things fall out of that table that change how you plan the trip. Sea Life is the most expensive per hour on the list – €18.50 for about ninety minutes against €15.90 for half a day at Selwo Marina – and it is the only one whose adult threshold sits at a sensible 15. And the cheapest attraction in Benalmádena is free, which is why it goes first.
Start at Parque de la Paloma, and not because it is free
Parque de la Paloma covers more than 100,000 m² in Arroyo de la Miel, with a lake, two modern playgrounds, walking paths and animals roaming loose across the whole site – peacocks, ducks, rabbits, goats, chickens and assorted birds. There are no barriers and no ticket. There is a café and a workout area for the adults.
The reason to do it first is diagnostic rather than financial. Ninety minutes here tells you how much stamina the children actually have before you commit €64 to a gate, and if they are flagging by the time they have finished with the ducks, the beach is a better use of the afternoon than a marine park.
Opening hours run approximately 09:00 to 22:00 in winter and 09:00 to 23:00 in summer, though the 2026 municipal page does not confirm them cleanly, so treat them as indicative. It is a short walk from Selwo Marina, which is the natural pairing for a single morning.
Selwo Marina
Selwo Marina is the biggest paid family attraction in town: dolphins, sea lions, penguins, exotic birds, monkeys, reptiles and Amazon-themed zones, with daily presentations that are the headline draw. The park does not publish a fixed timetable in advance, so show times are posted on site on the day.
The tariff, from the park's own price page:
- General, ages 8 to 64: €15.90 online, €17.90 at the gate
- Reduced, €13.90 online or at the gate: children aged 3 to 7 or under 1 metre, seniors 65+, visitors with a disability plus companion, large families
- Under 3, or under 1 metre: free
- Open-date ticket: €23.90, sold online only
Two corrections to figures that circulate widely, including on this page until today. The gate price is €17.90, not €19.90, so booking online saves €2 a head rather than €4. And €48.90 is not a Selwo Marina ticket at all – it is the SelwoPack three-park combination, €54.90 at the gate.
The main pool is still out of action
The park also prices dynamically, which it states openly – advance purchase, promotions and booking volume all move the number. So €15.90 is the floor rather than the fixed price, and the gap between online and gate is the reliable part.
The cable car, and the same eighth birthday
The Teleférico climbs from Arroyo de la Miel to 769 metres on Mount Calamorro in about 15 minutes, and the summit has walking trails and free-flying falconry along an open ridge. It is the best viewpoint on the Costa del Sol that does not require walking up a mountain.
A general return is €17.90 online and €21.90 at the window, and the reduced return – ages 3 to 7 or under 1 metre – is €12.90 online. Full fare starts at age 8, exactly as at Selwo Marina, so a family of two adults and two children aged 9 and 11 pays €71.60 online or €87.60 at the window.
The birds of prey show is run separately by the Fundación Valle de las Águilas and is not included in the ticket: €7.00 for adults and €4.00 for children aged 3 to 11, cash at the entrance. Show times move seasonally and can be cancelled.
Fares, the closure risk and what is actually at the summit are covered properly in the Benalmádena cable car guide.
Sea Life Benalmádena
Sea Life sits inside Puerto Marina and holds around 200 species across tropical, deep-sea and Mediterranean zones. The walk-through tunnel with sharks and rays overhead is what children remember, and the whole thing takes about ninety minutes.
A standard ticket is €18.50 online and €21.00 at the gate for an adult, which here means age 15 and over – a far more generous threshold than the age-8 cut-off at the other two. The early-booking discount of up to 10% applies only to purchases made at least a day ahead, not on the day.
A separate child price is not published on the ticket page. It appears in the basket rather than in advance, which is worth knowing before you plan a budget around it.
Opening hours were 10:30 to 22:00 with last admission at 21:15 when checked on 18 August 2026, which is the high-season pattern – they shorten considerably out of season, so check before an autumn visit.
The case for it is the roof. It is sheltered, air-conditioned in summer, compact enough to hold a small child's attention, and the obvious answer to a wet day or a 35°C afternoon.
Holiday World Resort
Holiday World is a resort hotel with amusement attractions on its own site – roller coaster, Ferris wheel, bumper cars, flying chairs, teacups, carousel, sky drop and a pirate bay area, with height restrictions on some rides. It also has pools, restaurants, a kids' club and an arcade.
The honest caveat is access. It operates as an accommodation complex rather than a standalone park, and whether an external visitor can buy their way onto the rides depends on current resort policy, which is not published in a verifiable form.
If you are not staying there, ring before you drive over. If you are, it is the strongest option in Benalmádena for families who want rides attached to the room.
It suits school-age children and teenagers better than toddlers: the height limits rule out the youngest, and the atmosphere works for children who can be let off the leash for an afternoon.
Monowa Butterfly Garden, and the Pueblo morning
Monowa is a tropical butterfly house at C. Muérdago s/n in Benalmádena Pueblo, holding 1,500 to 2,000 butterflies and marketing itself as the largest in Europe. It opens daily including public holidays, closing between 18:00 and 19:00 depending on the season, with last entry 30 minutes before closing.
Admission is €13.50 for adults, €11.50 for children aged 3 to 12 and seniors 65+, free under 3 – note that the child rate here runs to 12, unlike the age-8 cut-off at Selwo Marina and the cable car. Forty-five minutes covers it.
It pairs naturally with Colomares Castle and the Stupa in a single Pueblo morning, about three hours for all three. Colomares is better for ages 5 and above – the terrain and the confined spaces inside are not toddler-friendly.
Dolphin watching from Puerto Marina
Boats leave Puerto Marina most mornings for around two hours, and both common and bottlenose dolphins are seen regularly in these waters. It suits ages 4 and up; younger children find a choppy morning uncomfortable and there is nowhere to retreat to.
Sightings are not guaranteed and the crew will say so before boarding. Book a calm weekday morning in May, June or September, when the sea is at its flattest and the boats are not full.
Planning it around the town
Where things are. Sea Life, dolphin watching and the beaches are walkable from Benalmádena Costa hotels. Selwo Marina and Parque de la Paloma are inland in Arroyo de la Miel, a short bus or taxi ride. The cable car station and the Pueblo attractions need a car or a taxi.
Getting here from the airport. The Cercanías C1 runs from Málaga Airport to Benalmádena with no changes, every 20 to 30 minutes, and on the zone tariff it is €1.80 – two zones, the cheapest band on the network.
The catch is that the station is Benalmádena-Arroyo de la Miel, 2 to 3 km uphill from the sea, which with luggage and small children is the argument for a private transfer from Málaga Airport instead. The C1 guide has the full fare table.
How many days. Three is comfortable: Parque de la Paloma and Selwo Marina on the first, Sea Life and the marina on the second, the cable car and the beach on the third. The Pueblo attractions swap in for older children.
Beyond Benalmádena, Málaga with kids covers the city, and Caminito del Rey is about 45 minutes away by car and suits older, active children – under-8s are not admitted at all.
For a base with a pool and a kids' club attached, the family resorts guide covers the verified options.
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