National SeaLife Centre Birmingham Review

Really great day out. You see so many amazing sealife. It only takes a couple of hours but worth a visit.

We had a great day out with the family. The Penguins were the best.

Great place. For children and adults it has a huge amount of aquatic animals. Recommend to anyone.

Good experience but over quickly, slightly overpriced for the length of time needed there. Exit is through gift shop which made it difficult to leave without buying ridiculously priced gifts. Our 7 year old boy with special needs would not leave without a gift.

Great family day out. Something different than usual. Value for money i would say. Depending on who you go with and number of people, it shouldn t take more than 2 hours to complete the experience seeing all the beautiful sea life souls.

Place is good, nice for an afternoon out. On the expensive side if you don't use vouchers. Spend a few hours walking about seeing endless amout of empty push chairs. Make it mandatory for pushchairs to be left in a buggy park. I was hit more then once up the back of my legs by people running the buggies into me they have the kids in their arms also empty pushchairs right in front of the windows of tanks so you can't get in for a look it's not good and the mojority of these people with the pushchairs are just plain rude they spoil it for the children that want to walk around and look but can't get through to the window.

Nice place to go with family and friends, A bit small but decent enough selection of fish.The kids absolutely loved seeing the sharks,turtles and penguins. Staff were friendly and highly recommend this place.

Loved it. Went with my lovely family and had a great time

Was there for the first time, and would love to go back again :)

Awesome place. It has all kinds of sea creatures, be it fish or turtle or shark or piranha or everything you could get in the sea. Ticket prices are also reasonable which also includes a 4D show of 12 mins. Also you could spend as much time as you want. Amazing experience. Worth every penny.

Great place to visit but really did expect the tanks to be a lot better than they were. Aston towers sea life for an example is exceptional. Granted a lot smaller but the tanks are pristine.

Can never go wrong with a Sea Life centre. Staff friendly and on hand to help. Was busy but it was half term and miserable outside, and the staff still kept everything moving smoothly and were on hand to help if needed. Will always return

Wasn't that bad i think it's expensive 20 pound for adult I expected more .It still good.

Was a great place to take my 2 year old for his birthday. Just a shame about the miserable git who was behind the counter when we arrived. Would go again if he gets himself sorted out, could of at least smiled. He just avoided eye contact, not really speaking to me - like he had better things to do...

Visited and seriously it's very good time which i spend with my family

Staff were lovely & clearly passionate about their job. Impressed most of the animals were rescues. Enclosures were clean and husbandry was to a high standard.
4/5 stars because of the amount of loud children. Some were banging on the glass, which is clearly the parents faults but perhaps staff could keep a better eye of it.
Overall loved it :)

A great place to visit for a few hours. Loved the penguins and the sea turtle.

Great place to spend a few hours. Staff very helpful and knowledgeable. Can see them feeding the fish and other animals. Penguins are amazing to watch. Good value for money

Great family attraction, would expect you could reasonably spend 4 hours at most there. There was a small amount of construction work going on at the time and so were given free return passes for use within a year. This did not detract from the experience at all and so was a nice gesture. Certainly shows great customer service and that satisfaction is important to them.

Really good experience with the girlfriend and two lads.. great walk through tunnel with see through floor

Good half a morning visit, the 4d movie is excellent.

Amazing how much is in a small space. Well kept aquarium

Nice, a big variety of marine life. I like penguins but
I don't like penguins in captivity. Too much artificial plants inside. Very nice area around the Sea life building.

We've had some lovely trips to Sealife, but unfortunately it's not at its best at the moment. A lot of the centre is undergoing renewal at the moment (Nov '18) and therefore closed.

We only managed to spend about an hour there.

They are issuing free return tickets, so we'll go back next spring when the work is finished.

Such a beautiful place to walk around with (or without) the kids, plenty of photo opportunities

Excellent way to spend a few hours. Very interesting

Pre-book tickets for best prices. Great for the kids. Underwater transparent tunnel is amazing!

Magic place with a lot of sea species. The 4D cinema is amazing. Kids love it.

Love it here a great little place especially if your children love fish and pond and sea creatures. educational and learn as you go round about all the different species. The tunnel you can walk through at the end is so exciting and thrilling and a great place to take pictures well worth it for an unusla photo. Shop is quite reasonable for the things that are in there. there is a soft play area but this could do with being updated though

Really good day out. Only improvements could be with the feedback machine...it's a bit slow

Great sealife centre just not a lot there, we managed to get roung the whole thing in less than an hour.

An amazing family day out. The young ones really love the attraction. The aquatic creatures on display are visually pleasing. There was a 3D cinematic film that we saw there (The Polar Express) that was impressive. There are some really nice offers on tickets and also a free return offer that we received - we have to return within the year, which is great! Would recommend.

Love it. Was fun and informative. Love the seas and oceans

A very nice place to go and see, but they were doing a bit of work inside, so a little disappointed, but we got free tickets to come back when is all the work is finished. Will definitely be back. Very good place to spend time with your family

Very crowded indeed. Sea Life could choose to make it a little less hectic as the tickets are timed. Combined with low ceilings and darkness, the effect is very claustrophobic. The shop is a disappointment. Not a single book- my boy loves to learn about wildlife, and we would certainly have bought a book or two about sea creatures, but it was just wall to wall cuddly toys and plastic tat.

Great place not very big and dosent take long to walk around

Only around 1.5 hours of entertainment. Very good though and staff are all very friendly.

I have visited a few sealife centre now and this is the best but can only really spend about 90 minutes there and for the price you pay didn't really offer value for money. If you can get a deal go but if not better places to visit

It's great. There's loads of cool fish and it's very beautiful.
It is a shame there aren't really any plants but I know adding plants can be a near impossible feat to balance right.
It would still like some more anatomy about fish though.
Maybe I'm jaded. People keep taking to it and once you've seen it you've seen everything. 3 times later I'm bored. They don't really change much. How could you? They're massive tanks with living creatures. That's hard to rearrange.
Dunno, I guess I'm looking for some more information.

Fantastic day with my family. Loads to see here. Really enjoyed seeing so many different fish and sea life. A couple of down sides though......... Went in the summer holidays so it was rammed felt a bit like I was moving along with the crowd rather than getting time to look at everything properly. The 3D cinema was good but would have been nice to have seen a film that had real sealife in it and talked about them rather than a cartoon story but I guess it's all orrienated around kids....... The walk through tunnel was brilliant unfortunately again because it was so busy we couldn't stop to look at anything because it caused a hold up........ It is designed for you to start one end and follow a route through you can go back but when it's so busy it's difficult too........ I will go back again but definitely avoid during busy times so I can really enjoy watching the sealife and see the bits I missed before.

Great day out, tons there to see for all the family. They have everything you would normally expect from an aquarium but also some really nice surprises like seals and penguins.
Most of the displays are of marine fish and staff seem quite knowledgeable about the sealife.
You can get your hand stamped for free re entry which means taking a lunch break is a whole lot easier. I would recommend the malt house pub just across the cancel for some good pub grub.

Nice place but not worth the money. Walked round at a steady pace and all done within an hour.

I run a social group for Adults with Autism and we came here for one of our activities. The group always enjoys coming here and the staff are always really nice and accommodating. I was a little disappointed as the tunnel was closed which is the main part of the Centre. Alot of the tanks were also too dirty to see through. I understand they were doing their clean which is why the tunnel was closed but we didn't know that before coming. It would have been nice to know in advance, especially as we had booked in advance. Or, just close it while the work is being done.

Smallish but good aquarium. All a bit too noisy with music, but recommended if you are into sea life.

Great for kids although expensive and don't let you in after 1500hrs, which we only found out after going for lunch and trying to go round again. Cheaper online although you have to pick a 15min slot when you will be turning up. We decided not to do this as although was cheaper online we were traveling from 2hrs away with a 2yr old so could have easily missed the 15min window.

We found the online booking really easy and were very excited to visit. This would be a first time visiting. The only issue we had was our tickets were not emailed across so had to screen shot them from the website.
On entry everything seemed good but it soon went down hill. It was very busy and social distancing was not possible easily. There were signs everywhere about the importance of sanitising but sanitising stations were few and far between. Not good. Lots of handrails but no cleaning taking place that we saw. We used the toliets and they were not in a good state.
We felt under pressure to hurry, we didn't feel we could stand and enjoy the centre as so many people were infront, behind and everywhere around us. In the tunnel we waited to enter but were shortly asked to move along as others were waiting. This really upset my son as he was so excited about going in the tunnel. It was very stressful and my son started crying. We were unable to read the info on the animals for the feeling of needing to move and not stand still.

Nice views and lovely animals bzmut i expexted more variety.

A great place for all age groups to enjoy a few hours admiring the many beautiful varieties of fish and other sea life. You can't help but to be captivated and enthralled by the beauty, uniqueness and individuality of the the sea life on display. I've only been to this 'Sea Life' so can't comment on other ones around the country, but this is my 4th visit and I still enjoy coming back each time.

Paid full price and half the place is shut off due to work going on. Don't bother paying full price until work is completed

Make sure you go round twice at least. Gently rolling changes of displays and improvements.

We enjoyed a lot with children, got free ticket for one more visit within a year due to some construction work intruption caused

It's an ok little place, better for young children. Took my teen son there to spend some time while my partner was in a meeting and we got through the whole place in about 20 minutes.

I have been to a number of the sea life centres around the UK and they are all very good. This one is no exception.
The highlights are the penguins which are super fun for the kids and the giant underwater tunnel featuring sharks and a giant sea turtle. There is also a 4d cinema. The only downside is the high price and the fact that it can get very busy on weekends and holidays. There are nearly always vouchers available somewhere.
Disabled and wheelchair access is good.

Sea Life Birmingham has many great exhibits to keep all the family happy. During our family visit the centre was undergoing some building work, so some exhibits are closed. Therefore, it's not possible to award 5 stars. But Sea Life are happy to apologise for any disappointment, with another free visit added to your entry fee, a great concession. Thank you Sea Life Birmingham!

It was a good family day out and it helped to celebrate my nephew's 2nd birthday. We all enjoyed seeing the penguins, sea lions and all the different varieties of fish they had on display.

Did you was remembered myself? I is earlier here. When I be 6 jahre alt i willed be here. The easiesed place to remember me? Fish is good and shark very atractioned there is. Tanks you. ;-*

A good selection of sea creatures, but the aquarium is quite small and I would strongly recommend you look for a voucher online because the full fee on the door is overpriced for what you get. Make sure you get there early as it gets packed and pretty by lunchtime during peak times. I also couldn't shake the feeling that some of the tanks and enclosures for the larger animals look small (although they're definitely within regulations), but perhaps this is a common issue with aquariums as a whole.

I like this sea Life centre went with family paid 50 pounds for the four of us, the fish were beautiful especially the shark and the turtle swimming in the tunnel, we also watched a 4 d movie and the accessories shop at the end of the walk was nice to get your toys for the kids.

An amazing day out for all ages,
With plenty to do and see,
We will defo be going back.

Feels a bit pricey and over a bit quick. However kids just absolutely love it. Penguins and the Tunnel a highlight

The other people there let it down. Absolute animals pushing children around. Needs to be more staff to manage customers better

Great to see such positive attitudes to saving the oceans and the life within them

Nice place with a lot of descriptions, funny facts and rare species to observe.

I took my son for his birthday an he loved every second of the experience friendly staff an somewhere to put pushchairs

Great to see all the sea life including penguins, sea otters, turtles and sharks
Also good to see that they had information about how to protect wildlife too
Only improvement would be if it was less packed full of loud children but that can't be helped I suppose

Good fun, great for the kids. It is expensive if you don't get vouchers or a deal of some sort but then there are a lot of aquaria! Easy parking nearby and some nice restaurants and cafes near by.

Well. For a national sea life centre it's not that big. Even strolling slowly, taking time at each tank, we got around it in 30 mins. I expect more for the price. We went around it twice, and managed 55 mins. This place is smaller than expected. Apart from that, the creatures are ok. I don't see the point of a whole section with just jelly fish.

Smaller than London but Nice place and worth a visit.

This was a lovely place to spend some time with my partner.
I do think that its a bit small for the price you pay if you dont book in advance.
If it were more obvious where the money was going it might be easier to justify.

Was very impressed by the nicely themed exhibits in this SeaLife centre. Lots of interesting animals and good talked which were regular through the day. Loved the penguins, archer fish and the 360 tank, but all their aquariums were well More

What a fabulous experience! Came to take a series of photographs ready for a project but couldn't imagine the variety we would see!

Love the work these guys do, if you ever get the chance to visit I'd recommend you do. It's even cheaper if you grab one of those soap bottles or something with an offer on it, plus you can pay a little extra and go to legoland experience place opposite after

Beautiful sea life Centre very friendly staff a lot of beautiful fish shark Best of all penguin section. We love it as we found is relaxing place.

Nice place to take kids. Play area for little ones.

Sealife centre was not too busy, staff at the entrance were nice. Got tickets online, still a bit expensive for the size of the sea life centre. Penguins were beautiful, and everything was just amazing. The only downside to our visit was the fact that the otters were not in their area, and we were really excited to see them, but overall, it was a nice visit!

very disappointed. We traveled far to come to Birmingham Sea Life Centre and we were really disappointed we didn't know that was work going on in the Sea Life Centre but because of that there wasn't really much to see we got through it More

Good place to spend 2 hours or so, but it's very expensive for what you pay for in my opinion. Also, the guide book isn't worth the money either in my opinion.

Nice day out. Was a little disappointed i had booked tickets on line and waited longer to get in than people turning up. It would be nice to have a dedicated area for those who wish to bring lunch for children.

Great for the kids, bit smaller than what it was. Also quite expensive in parts unfortunately, you will need a lot of money to get the full experience out of it.

Excellent experience. Toilet facilities could be improved.

Nice to see these sea creatures and revisit again. Good for all occasions with friends or family. Near the Birmingham Canals.

First time in my life I saw penguins. 4D show was simply amazing. Enjoyed a lot with friends.

Good place to take the sprog, ideally located with lots of things to see and lots of places to go eat when your done

Interesting place, really entertaining for the small one's. It's quite unique as design and establishment.

Visited here a couple of weeks ago, luckily had pre booked online as the queues to get tickets were ridiculous. The place could do with sticking to their time slots as the place was packed with people, at some points it was very difficult to get through anywhere, which wasn't great when we were a large group with 3 children in pushchairs. The interactive things were great for the kids. There was plenty to see and it was fascinating to be that close to so many species of animals. The Santa experience was highly disappointing, no interaction for Santa, children just sit by him, have their photo and are escorted out and then a Staff member hands the children a toy. None of us will be visiting anytime soon!

Great place to see definitely would and will go again..