Tuesday 20 September 2016

Scarborough Sea Life Sanctuary

My youngest child Jacob is crazy about penguins, he sleeps with a cuddly one and gets excited whenever he sees them on TV. So when we were selected to be Scarborough Sea Life family ambassadors for the year I knew that he would be so excited, as it meant he could go and visit the penguins whenever he wanted.

Scarborough Sea Life

I have visited Scarborough so many times - as a child myself and as an adult, but have never visited the Sea Life Sanctuary before. Scarborough is around two hours away from Newcastle, so just the right amount of time for a day trip with little ones. The Sea Life Centre is located in the North Bay, right on the seafront and close to the town centre. There was plenty of parking in the car park and there is also a regular bus that runs from Scarborough and drops you right outside of the centre. 

Scarborough Sea Life

We visited at the end of the summer holidays on a weekday and it was really busy, there were queues out of the door but we did not have to wait long to get in. We visited as a family so we had both of our toddlers - aged just turned two and three and our teen with us. When you enter you are asked to leave pushchairs in the buggy bay at the entrance near the tills, so keep this in mind when you visit - we put Jacob on some reins. 

Scarborough Sea Life

We entered the centre and came across a big tank full of stingrays which my children were amazed by. A lot of the tanks have big windows that are low enough for little ones to look in themselves, there was also a lot of areas where children could get a closer look at the fish too. There were lots of tanks of fish as you walked through the centre and my girls were amazed when they found a tank with Dory, Nemo, and Marlin in. 

Scarborough Sea Life

The jellyfish displays were amazing, the room was dark and the jellyfish were in colour changing tanks, which looked rather beautiful. It was so mesmerising to watch the jellyfish. 

Scarborough Sea Life

Penguin Rock is located outdoors and this was the highlight of my son's visit, you can actually walk through the enclosure. They have keepers in the enclosure to keep an eye on the penguins and to talk to you about the penguins. Jacob was amazed that one of the penguins actually walked right up to him as they are fairly tame. There was also two baby penguins, who were adorable. 

Scarborough Sea Life

The Sea Life Sanctuary is also home to a Seal hospital, a few seals were in the hospital when we visited. Once the seals have been nursed back to health they are then realised back into the wild. They also have a big outdoor pool with five resident seals in who were swimming around in the water, my toddler enjoyed spotting them as they bobbed in and out of the water. 


Scarborough Sea Life


Scarborough Sea Life

We then headed to the ocean tunnel, this was definitely one of the highlights of my three-year old's day as she was amazed to see sharks, giant turtles, and so many different fish swim over her head and on either side of her. We then headed to see the turtles upstairs, which she totally fell in love with. She loved them so much that she brought a soft toy one from the gift shop on the way out. 

We noticed a cafe and a coffee shop during the visit, both were really busy when we visited so we did not try them out this time. I was pleased to see that the gift shop was not too expensive, Jacob got a little soft toy penguin which was £6 and Sophia got a turtle soft toy which was £10. As well as having a huge selection of soft toys in the gift shop there was also lots of small pocket money toys, sweets, and gifts. 

We really enjoyed the visit to Scarborough Sea Life Sanctuary, however, it was really busy on the day we visited so we did not spend as much time there as we would have liked. We have already planned to go back again soon, during term time so that we can explore the centre a bit better and make a day of it. If you are looking for a family day out or a day out with toddlers near North Yorkshire then I really do recommend the Sea Life Sanctuary as we all really enjoyed it, especially my two toddlers.

To find out more info, book tickets or check opening times please visit the official Scarborough Sea Life Website

Disclosure : I am a Scarborough Sea Life Family Ambassador, this means that we received a complimentary family annual pass in return for this review. 



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5 comments

  1. This reminds me so much of Weymouth Sea Life Center :) Looks so much fun! It's nice to be able to go to day-outs like this one, isn't it? :)

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  2. I used to love trips to Scarborough as a girl. I've not been in ages now. How does this compare size wise to Blue Reef Aquarium?

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  3. This looks like a fantastic day out for toddlers. I love the jelly fish picture! We're about 2 hours from Scarborough so I'll add it to the list for next time we are over at the east coast.

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  4. We love aquariums and we've visited so many in various places in different countries but I've never visited Scarborough even though it's only a couple of hours away!
    Good tip that they ask you to leave your buggy and great that Jacob got to see a penguin right up close!
    Thanks for joining #daysoutwithatoddler - see you again soon :)

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  5. I need to make a trip to Scarborough, there seems to be so much to do. Little M loves Penguins, but has yet to experience a real Seal, which i know would be a hit. It looks like a fantastic day out, but like all the best attractions, taken during term-time on a work day. #daysoutwithatoddler

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