London Aquarium is a great place for a family day out in the heart of London. We’ve been a few times and always enjoy our trips, but during the summer holidays we went along to visit the aquarium and try out something we had never done before: a behind the scenes tour.
I didn’t know what to expect with the tour since we had never tried it before, but we went around with a very small group and one friendly and informative aquarium worker to see the animals kept behind the scenes, out of the main viewing area, and to find out more about life in the aquarium. It was pretty interesting and definitely made our trip more educational for the kids.
We saw the animals food being prepared, and saw some baby sea creatures that had not yet been moved over to the main tanks, and the kids had plenty of opportunity to ask any questions with an expert on hand! In the aquarium, they don’t keep all of the animals out in the main tanks all the time – they rotate some of them into quieter tanks in the non public areas of the aquarium to give them a break and a change of scene. I had never known this before!
Back in the main aquarium, we followed along with the Lego City trail and enjoyed visiting all of the sea creatures. In the Lego City trail, there are various lego models hidden in some of the tanks. Each one is a piece of equipment that a diver would need, and it’s fun for the kids to seek them out while looking around. My boys are very keen on Lego, so were excited to spot each of these in the tanks.
Other highlights are the sharks, including the shark walk and the large shark tanks:
The clown fish and Nemo’s Cove:
The Penguins:
The Jellyfish:
The Rays:
The Japanese Spider Crab
There are so many creatures to see that you can easily fill half a day with the kids. It does get busy, so we arrived at 10am for the opening time to avoid some of the rush and I would definitely recommend doing that as it gets busier as the day goes on, plus you can easily find a parking space locally at 10am – not the case later! (You can of course easily access via public transport too)
I’m always happy to see how much the boys enjoy the aquarium, and having the behind the scenes tour boosted their interest in the creatures too, helping them to get even more out of our visit.
Visit the Sealife website to find out more.
We were given free tickets for this trip, in order to review
Anna Marikar, mum of four and seasoned blogger, has spent over a decade sharing her parenting journey and passion for kid-friendly crafts and free printables.
Her easy-to-follow craft ideas and practical parenting advice have transformed In The Playroom into a cherished resource for parents.
Going to the aquarium is such a fun day out. Lots for kids to see and do.
I didn’t know that they did this. My son especially is always very fascinated when we go there and I agree go as early as possible
this is one of my grandsons favorite places to visit on a day out