The Sea Life London Aquarium is a great family-friendly attraction. The Sea Life London Aquarium is located on the south bank of the River Thames. It is in an area along with the other Merlin Entertainment attractions including the London Eye, Shrek’s Adventure and the London Dungeon. The nearest underground station is Waterloo, plus Westminster and Charing Cross are just a short walk away.
There is a glass walkway where you can see sharks swimming beneath your feet. This is a great and fun experience, especially for kids, so don’t rush it. What’s lovely about the Sea Life London aquarium is how they’ve themed a lot of the areas.
- Shark Walk – There is an immediate wow factor as you start your journey by walking over a glass window full of sharks. Watching your children tentatively walk over the glass and sharks swim under their feet is amazing.
- The Ray Lagoon – This is a brilliant section of the aquarium with a huge open tank of shallow water where you can watch the sting rays swimming around from above. You get to see them up close, which is really special. If you look through the window below you can see their mouth and gills on the underside of their body which is very amusing for the kids.
- Coral Kingdom – This is the UK’s largest living coral reef in a huge 40ft tank, where you will see hundreds of tropical fish including clownfish aka Finding Nemo’s
- Rainforest Adventure – There are creepy crawlies, poisonous frogs, snakes, tarantulas and even a crocodile. They’ve really gone to town with the setting and sounds which really make you feel like you’re in the rainforest.
- Shark Reef Encounter – This is a huge tank full of them, where you can see those terrifying teeth up close. The waters are clear and tank is clean which makes for perfect viewing.
- Ocean invaders – This is such an experience, where all of the jellyfish are lit up with amazing colours. The colours of the jellyfish are beautiful.
From the moment we entered the Aquarium the little ones were mesmerised, the brightly coloured fish, the funny faces of the sting rays, the enormous sharks, the funny dancing jellyfish and the giant turtle. There was alot to capture their attention, and next to each tank and enclosure was a fact file about each of the animal informing us of where they were from and a brief history on them too.
We spent ages watching the main tank where we could see the turtle swimming about and Noah loved watching him swimming against the glass. Seeing the sting rays up close we all could see their funny little faces and they seemed to be smiling at us. I could have spent the whole day just watching this tank, there is something so calming and peaceful watching them swim about. Isabella even sat and had her lunch watching the tank.
I knew before we visited that both of the little ones would enjoy seeing the fish as even at home they enjoy looking at our tropical fish, but seeing their reactions to the ginormous sharks and fish swimming about was priceless. We had lots of “oooooo’s” and shrieks at seeing these creatures up close and personal that it is an experience which we will treasure and of course come back to visit again.
