Sea Life Scheveningen — Attraction in The Hague

A slightly salty review of Sea Life — lots of people, little fish, expensive tickets.

I went to sea life as a kid, when you could still hear touch all of the fish. I wanted to take my kid for that same experience, and while they enjoyed it, I did not.

The whole set up hasn’t changed since the nineties and feels like it’s straight out of movie set for some B-movie. There are literally vending machines with candy and drinks everywhere sometimes two in one room. The vending machines crowd out the tanks and the fish and in between the bad lightening and poor air circulation, if they put some slot machines in—it would be hard to know if you’re in Sea World or Holland Casino.

It was very crowded and the set up was too narrow for the number of people, which really should be capped.

They have some nice sections with different types of animals including a small crocodile and and the penguins. But the enclosures are small making it hard to enjoy the experience.

The underwater tunnel feels like you’re actually diving, as the air circulation is terrible and it feels like you’re deprived of oxygen walking through it.

Some of the windows desperately need a clean, for instance it was near impossible to see the otters because the glass was stained so badly.

I like that they did some education on environmentalism here and there and that they contribute to breeding various species. That being said, for a whopping 64-65 euros for two adults and 1 kid, this place really needs to be lifted out of the nineties.

If I’m going to be paying Disney prizes I’m going to expect a ride, rather than a school of vending machines and plenty of people rather than fish in...

Sea Life is a really nice place for kids and adults to learn about sea animals in different parts of the world, with quite a lot of variety of fish, seahorses, one otter, a few penguins, and two octopuses.

I found it strange how tall they expect their visitors to be to be able to see into the wall mounted aquariums, and looking around half the people around us were kids under the height of 1,5m. So their parents did a lot of heavy lifting, quite literally, lifting their kids to see the fish into the aquarium. why? Why didn't they put in some steps? This is very normal in aquariums around the Netherlands or the world. I hope most parents visiting have done their deadlifts at the gym, because they'll need it.

Lastly, I have to say the overall vibe is just a bit sad for the animals. The two octopuses there are probably the saddest octopuses you ever saw (their habitat is really tiny, really really). There's a single otter who I imagine is probably rather lonely, and 4-5 penguins in a 30m2 space. My 5 year old daughter loved the visit, but I personally found it so sad. Not going...

Sea Life is a very nice aquarium in a very inconvenient location....

Located directly at the beach of Scheveningen is both a blessing and a curse. You are forced to park at the very expensive parking garages, and then you have to get to the beach (10m walk) if you have small children or have a disability be prepared to scale a few stairs.... The city of Scheveningen offers no ramps to the beach.

After getting there be also prepared to stand in the queue for admission. Then you have to pay 17 for a ticket (adult)... You might think that's not so bad... Until you realize that it's such a small aquarium you are actually done in about 1 hour. The location is very cramped and small.... And by today's standard you expect more from these kind of visits.. Also the pinguïns are housed in tight areas.

So afterwards it's a blessing that it's located at the beach of Scheveningen..... Your kids can play at the beach and you can visit the pier.... Though you feel kind of sad spending 1 hour driving there, paying 19 euro to park and 17 euro...