From an early obsession with Octonauts to a love of snorkelling and desire to become a marine biologist, my daughter has been fascinatined by the underwater world for most of her life – but despite visiting Sea Life Centres around the UK (and Europe), I realised we were long overdue a trip to write this Sea Life London aquarium review.
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Isn’t it always the way? We’ve visited more aquariums than I can count, from Chicago to Portugal, but haven’t set foot inside our local London Sea Life Centre for years.
So what better excuse to arrange a visit? On a chilly February Sunday, a colourful marine world was definitely more tempting than the grey skies outside too – so we stepped across the glass floor to wander through the 14 different rooms and zones and get a glimpse of more than 6,000 creatures living in London’s aquarium.
Sea Life London Aquarium: Need to know
Before we dive into my Sea Life London Aquarium review, let’s start with the practical bits – how to get there, how to get tickets and everything else you need to know about a visit to London’s Sea Life Centre.
Where is Sea Life London?
Sea Life London is set on the South Bank, a shell’s throw from the London Eye and Shrek’s Adventure, just a short walk from Waterloo tube station or from Westminster, across the river via Westminster Bridge.
You can also arrive by boat, if you fancy. The closest pier is the London Eye pier.
How to get tickets for Sea Life London
Part of the Merlin collection of attractions, you can book tickets direct through the Sea Life London website, with discounts if you’re visiting more than one attraction in the group – saving up to 61% if you book for three attractions.
You can also book for the aquarium alone, with Standard Tickets and Anytime Entry, as well as an upgrade option including a VR experience.
Pricing depends when you visit, so you can expect to pay more at weekends and during school holidays, although you can also sometimes find deals outside those times. Under-twos go free.
Ticket prices currently start at £28 for adults for Standard Entry if you book online, with a discount of 28% off the on-the-door price. You need to select timed entry with 15-minute slots available (Anytime Entry allows you to go in at any point during the day you choose). You can also reschedule for free, up to three times. Merlin Annual Pass holders go free but also need to book a time slot.
The aquarium usually opens between 10am and 11am, and closes between 5pm and 7pm. It occasionally opens at 9am at weekends – see the complete list of opening hours here. Last admission is one hour before closing.
TOP TIP: It’s well worth getting one of the earliest slots if you can – we had entry at 10.15, with no queue to get in, and not too many people inside. Unsurprisingly, Sea Life London is very popular, especially on rainy days in London and school holidays, so it can get crowded.
What can you see inside Sea Life London
The London Aquarium is home to 500 species and around 6,000 creatures in total, in a string of different zones.
Those include Coral Kingdom, home to the UK’s largest living coral reef, Polar Adventure, including the aquarium’s gentoo penguins, Rainforest Adventure, as well as the huge Open Oceans tank with the Aquarium Tunnel leading through it.
There are chances to get hands on at Rockpool Explorer and a room dedicated to jellyfish in Ocean Invaders.
You’ll often find additional activities during the school holidays or in the run-up to Christmas, with trails and challenges available year-round.
Is there a cafe at Sea Life London
No, there’s no cafe at Sea Life London, although there are some points where you can get drinks and snacks, including from vending machines.
When we visited on a Sunday morning, the little snack shop wasn’t open (although it looked like it was preparing to raise the shutters) although there was a small bubble tea stand, much to my daughter’s delight.
You can’t bring your own food in with you – no eating or drinking is allowed, except for water (we were asked to drink the bubble tea by the stand before exploring further). There are toilets throughout the aquarium, with baby changing facilities, and a gift shop at the end.
There are plenty of places to eat and drink nearby along the South Bank – check out my tips here
What can I bring in to Sea Life London
Families can bring buggies to Sea Life London and use them throughout the aquarium, or leave them at the buggy park if you prefer (which can be easier if it’s busy).
You can’t bring luggage in to the aquarium, apart from standard handbags and daypack-sized rucksacks. There’s also no cloakroom at Sea Life London, so you won’t be able to leave coats or bags once you enter.
There are left luggage facilities at Waterloo station nearby or you can use secure bag storage options like Stasher and Luggage Hero.
How long does a visit to Sea Life London take?
The average visit to Sea Life London Aquarium is around 90 minutes, but you can stay as long as you want. We easily filled two hours at the aquarium without dawdling too much and without it being too busy.
If you’d like to linger over all the displays, as well as following the kids’ trail or making the most of some of the talks and feeding times, it wouldn’t be hard to spend longer.
On a quiet day, if you’re visiting with younger kids who want to race from tank to tank (or if you’ve got a packed London itinerary and have limited time to spare), you could get around everything in an hour if you needed to.
Bear in mind that it’s a lot bigger than it looks from the outside, set over several floors, with around 14 different rooms and areas to explore along the way – there’s an interactive map if you want to look around before you visit.
Sea Life London Aquarium review: our visit
Right from the beginning, you’re plunged into the underwater world (not literally!) as you stroll across the glass walkway towards the entrance, sharks swimming unbothered beneath your feet.
Then after a string of quirky facts about some of the creatures you’re going to meet, it’s time to dive into the world’s second largest ocean, the Atlantic. Home to wolffish, starfish, swaying anemones and a string of other fish, you’re swept along to Ray Lagoon.
Created beneath an old pier, in waters mimicking the shallow Atlantic, you can peer down to spot the rays swimming around – and a few hiding beneath the sand at the bottom – or look through the glass tank to see them at their level. I love spotting the rays’ apparently smiling faces as they go.
If you’re following the Sea Life Ranger trail (buy the packs for an added fee), keep an eye out for some of the challenges as you go. Better for younger kids, we spotted one sign asking if you could pat your head and rub your tummy at the same time.
Then on to one of my favourite areas, the Open Ocean. With 750,000 litres of water, and a replica Grey Whale skeleton decorating the sea bed, there are more rays to spot here too, with Southern Stingrays gliding elegantly through the tank and Cownose Rays darting higher up.
It’s home to a string of brightly coloured tropical fish, from purple tangs to clown triggerfish, as well as a few much bigger inhabitants – a zebra shark and green sea turtles for starters, including one truly huge green sea turtle.
We could easily have spent ages just standing here watching this underwater scene – in fact, like everyone else, we headed straight for the first window to marvel at it, before realising there’s many more chances to peek inside.
Including the aquarium tunnel just around the corner. Shorter than some tunnels at other Sea Life Centres, you still get a fantastic view – the spotty zebra shark (they get their name for the stripes they have when they’re young) glided right over the curved top several times.
If that’s whetted your appetite for more sharks, you’re in luck, with the Shipwreck zone next on the list.
Home to some giant Easter Island-style moai heads, it’s also filled with sharks – little black-tipped reef sharks flitting past and bigger nurse sharks chilling out on the bottom (my favourite nurse shark fact being that they like to congregate together in what’s called cuddle puddles!)
There are also some bigger sand tiger sharks, and an even bigger Bowmouth Guitarfish – called Betty! – who’s half shark, half ray. Plus plenty of reminders that sharks aren’t nearly as dangerous as people think; humans are far more of a danger to sharks than the other way around.
If your kids are more alarmed than enthralled by all the sharks, the next area is perfect for kids – Coral Kingdom. Look out for the unusually-shaped bright yellow box fish along the way.
The UK’s longest coral reef display, and the largest living coral reef in the country, you stroll past mangroves at the start before spotting a whole string of colourful inhabitants as you wander along the 40ft tank.
One of the highlights for kids who love Finding Nemo is the countless little clownfish in their anemone homes, with black clownfish among the orange ones. There’s a whole rainbow of creatures in this section though, from yellow tangs to blue regal tangs, cardinal fish and more.
The corals themselves are just as vibrant, in a string of different shapes, from little fronds fluttering in the current to flat mushroom-shaped corals, brain corals and a whole lot more. A fantastically colourful way to brighten up February.
It’s at this point that you realise you’re only around half way through, with another seven different rooms and areas to go!
Next up is Seahorse Kingdom, with several types of seahorse, as well as pipefish floating gracefully around almost in a synchronised dance. It’s one of several places where there are little tunnels, peephole windows and seethrough bubbles to let kids get even closer to the underwater inhabitants too.
Then on to Rainforest Adventure, with a chance to see the UK’s biggest collection of piranhas – mostly hanging motionless in the water as we strolled past, but if you catch it at the right time, you might see the feeding frenzy.
There’s a chance to see a few different creatures who live in the world of the rainforest, including a Chilean rose tarantula, snakes, snapping turtles, a dwarf crocodile and terrapins.
But perhaps the most fascinating were the leafcutter ants who patrolled through clear glass tubes carrying huge chunks of leaf (compared to them) from one side of the room to the other.
If you’re wishing you could get even closer to the sea life, there’s another chance to visualise yourself on the seabed, with a VR experience – suitable for age 6+.
You could (virtually) swim with humpback whales, dive with manta rays or venture into the depths with tiger sharks. There’s even the chance to join a mermaid on an adventure beneath the waves.
Then a real-world opportunity to get hands on in Rockpool Discovery, where you can touch a mermaid’s purse (as shark or ray eggs are known) and feel some replica anemones in the series of rockpools.
With only three areas left, you’re transported on a Polar Adventure, to see the aquarium’s colony of Gentoo Penguins, hopping on their chilly rocks and diving into the water, with a window to see them speeding underwater and launching themselves into the air in acrobatic leaps.
It’s one of the most controversial areas in the aquarium, with no natural light, but has been designed with the help of experts to mimic seasonal weather conditions, including light and temperature, resulting in a successful breeding programme.
Supporting the charity Falklands Conservation, the other Arctic creatures in this area are all created through Augmented Reality and 3D technology, so you can look into a mirror to see yourself standing next to a polar bear or watch an orca emerge from the waves beside you.
The whole section after this focuses on conservation efforts, helping visitors see what other programmes are supporting threatened marine life – with information throughout on how endangered some of the creatures in the aquarium area – as well as ideas for how you can play your part, whether it’s signing a petition or pledging to eat more sustainable seafood.
And to finish, a room focusing on one marine creature that’s often overlooked – jellyfish. With more than 350 different species, thought to have emerged around 500 million years ago, Sea Life London has the world’s largest jellyfish experience.
I always find watching jellyfish faintly hypnotic as they pulse, and there are plenty of chance to feel mesmerised watching moon jellyfish, white spotted jellyfish and several different types of sea nettle. If your kids are less fascinated by that, there’s also an interactive display where you can design your own jellyfish.
Which only left one final debate to have before we left: which creature had we enjoyed seeing most – a conversation which kept us chatting all the way back out to the South Bank.
For more things to do in London with kids, including things to do in London in the rain, check out my other posts as well as my digital guide to London with kids
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links – any purchases you make are unaffected but I may receive a small commission. My entry was free for the purposes of review, but all opinions in this Sea Life London review are my own
Images copyright MummyTravels
