Blue Reef Aquarium, Tynemouth

The web site looked promising so we were really looking forward to our day out at Blue Reef Aquarium. What a disappointment. It only took around 20 minutes to walk around the whole centre. The water the seals swim in is so murky the "viewing windows" are near to useless. The tropical rainforest is 3 small cages with a couple of small monkeys in. Very over priced and misleading website.

Also - beware of the over zealous traffic wardens outside.

We travelled down with my 4yr old son and my 7yr old sister from Middlesbrough as a treat. When we approached Blue Reef Aquarium me and my partner were really shocked at how small it was. When entered there seemed no organisation, we got a family ticket and they put a fish stamp on your hand saying that you have paid. It takes about 20mins to walk around it. Before you enter the otter area, remember to block your nose as the smell made me physically sick. It was tiny and my partner even noticed a large dead fish on the bottom of one tank, all the sand had nearly covered it so you could clearly see it was dead. We noticed the children were more excited about going home through the Tyne tunnel on the way back home, then being in there. On the way out we saw a toy museum over the road and took the kids in there. It was a 100 times better then the Blue Reef and the kids enjoyed looking at all the old day toys and when we arrived home it was the toy museum they mentioned to their friends.