National Marine Aquarium
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National Marine Aquarium, Rope Walk, Coxside, Plymouth, PL4 0LF
When looking to visit the National Marine Aquarium, tickets can be purchased both online and at the attraction. They offer a discounted rate on the ticket if purchased during the winter months (November-February). Once a ticket has been purchased, they will upgrade the ticket to an annual pass free of charge.
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Ticket prices for the standard season (March-October - these were correct as of the 05/04/2024):
Adult (16+) - £25.00
Child (3-15) - £15
Concession (students and 60+) - £23.00
Child under 3 – Free
Carer – Free
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The National Marine Aquarium is open to the public between 10am-5pm. During school holidays, they open slightly earlier at 9:30am.
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We spent around 3 hours there including having food in the café on our latest trip here. As you get a complimentary annual pass when visiting, we easily could have booked to have come back later in the day.
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At the National Marine Aquarium there were a variety of tanks including a glass floor over one of them. We saw sharks, jellyfish, starfish, and many other sea creatures. There is also a soft play which is in an additional charge to your admission ticket, however this is only open on weekends and school holidays. While walking around there are some large whales hanging from the ceiling, a colour changing sensory display, a UV light walkway and tanks that cover the length of the wall (floor to ceiling).
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One of our favourite areas of the aquarium is as you just walk in. There is a large rock pool inside uncovered. At times there are educational talks here where they feed the sea creatures and there are a few stepped up areas around the pool to allow smaller children the opportunity to see the creatures for themselves.
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There is plenty of parking available in a hard surface multi story carpark (Harbour Carpark), which includes disabled spaces, but there were no child spaces. Parking cost us around £7.50 for 3 hours. The car park (which has both stairs and a lift) is next to the aquarium and took us around 2 minutes to walk to the main entrance door for the aquarium.
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While at the National Marine Aquarium, you can get food in their onsite café. We purchased 2 pepperoni paninis which came with a handful of crisps, 2 doughnuts and 4 drinks for £20. You can also bring your own food and the aquarium has designated areas where you can eat which they have placed bins nearby. Our favourite place to have a snack is in front of one of the large tanks so we can watch the fish while eating.
We have visited on four occasions with the boys so far since 2021. Our children were 2 years old (a month away from turning 3) and 17 months old on our latest visit, however our youngest was only 10 days old on his first visit there. We found this day out to be enjoyable, no matter your age.
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There are a few toilets available on the main floor by the café and there are toilets on the next level up, however once you have gone past the second load of toilets it is a little while until you reach toilets again. We found the toilets clean and well stocked with toilet roll.
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To travel between the floors, there are both stairs and a lift available. The attraction is well spaced leaving enough room for a wheelchair to pass through.
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Overall, we would visit again. When we saw staff, they seemed friendly and helpful. The aquarium is currently the largest in the UK and has an amazing view of the ocean which you can see from both the entrance to the aquarium and in their café seating area. Due to the price of parking, we have rated this day out 4 1/2 stars out of 5.
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Date of recent visit: February 2024
