Our Visit To The National Marine Aquarium In Plymouth: AD/Gifted

During our first camping trip to River Dart Country Park in Devon we knew that on one day the weather was not going to be good as there was rain forecast. So our plan was to have a day trip that would involve being inside somewhere.

We were invited to National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth which was perfect as it was only about a 30 minute drive from our campsite.

We had never been to an aquarium let alone the biggest one in the U.K. with over 4000 species of sealife and one of the biggest water tanks that is home to sharks, manta rays and numerous other types of sea life. It is run by the Ocean Conservation Trust and their mission is to connect people with the ocean.

The National Marine Aquarium is situated right on the harbour in Plymouth. It’s a wonderful setting and the perfect place for an aquarium.

As I said the weather was not good so I’m guessing a lot of people had the same idea as us as there was quite a queue by the time we arrived, but it moved very quickly and we had sorted our tickets out and started moving around the exhibits.

The girls were instantly fascinated by the fish and straight away they saw many species that were in open tanks with very handy viewing platforms to able to look over into the tanks or alternatively the tanks had glass sides so they could watch as the fish swam around.

All the tanks are clearly labelled with lots of information about the species in there and where they can be found in the worlds oceans.

We moved through the aquarium and along the way there are small water tanks for the girls to look at, which not only includes fish, but coral as well and a variety of species that I never knew existed.

As we continued on we turned a corner and were greeted with our first view of the big water tank and it was huge! I was actually in awe of its size and we got our first view of sharks and very large rays as they swam in a very natural environment which actually had the remnants of a crashed aeroplane. You can actually sit down in front of the tank and just watch them all swim past. I have to say it’s some incredible piece of engineering to make this massive water tank and I was for a while trying to work out how thick the glass was! I never did figure it out, but I’m guessing it was very thick!

We moved on and saw some awesome jellyfish in small tanks and then found another part of a tank where you actually walk through the middle of it, look upwards and you see sharks look down and you will see more sharks and huge manta rays who look so graceful floating through the water. It is an awe inspiring moment! Moving on there was still loads more to see.

The entire National Marine Aquarium took about 3 hours to complete and it is without doubt a fantastic, informative and very interesting. I personally learnt so much from our visit and there are plenty of talks on the ocean and its species by experts. The girls loved it and were constantly asking questions which I thought was brilliant that they wanted to learn as much as possible about the world around them and in particular the oceans and its inhabitants because after all the oceans cover two thirds of our planet and the girls are very aware of this.

We had all but finished, but of course you need the statutory visit to the gift shop so the girls can have a souvenir of their visit!

The National Marine Aquarium is definitely a must visit and is open everyday from 10am to 5pm (except Christmas Day and Boxing Day) a family ticket costs £53.50 which is for 2 adults and 2 children and you can plan and book your tickets here

Disclosure: In return for this blog post review we were gifted a family ticket for the day.