Day Out: St Andrews Aquarium

This October holidays, we took a trip to St Andrews Aquarium for a fun Mum & Son adventure.

We got the train to Dundee then a bus to St Andrews. The Aquarium is about 10 minutes walk from St Andrews bus station, so it is pretty easy to get to.

The Aquarium is situated next to St Andrews Bay coastline and you can take a walk down to the little sandy and rocky beach area while you are there. We did this and the views were lovely, however, it was a windy day when we visited so sand being blown in our faces kind of ruined the moment a little! It didn’t stop our attempts of a Mum and son selfie though…

Luckily, we could escape the wind inside the Aquarium so here are our thoughts on this family attraction, at St. Andrews.

Once you step inside you will be delighted to see all the variety of animals on show including:

Terrapins, Chinese water Dragons, Seals, Penguins, a wide variety of Fish, Seahorses, Ray’s, Frogs, Lobster, Octopus and even Meerkats!

Our favourites had to be the Water Dragons, Penguins and Meercats.

You can get up close to some of the animals at the twice daily reptile handling session. When we attended, the friendly and informative member of staff chatted about a bearded dragon and a snake. We were able to touch both animals, with everyone being offered to hold the snake too (we chose not to hold it though).

There are also daily talks and feeding sessions for the seals, penguins and meerkats. We attended each of them, making the most of what is included in the ticket price. We enjoyed finding out more about the animals and seeing them feeding.

The most interesting facts we heard included:

• Snakes use their tongues to smell
• Penguins poo a lot (around every 7-10 minutes 1 of the penguins there will do a poo!)
• The Meercats still look up in to the ‘sky’ (roof) looking out for birds to keep themselves safe even though they are in an indoor enclosure.
• Bearded dragons can use their bums to intake water instead of drinking it (when they live in areas where the water is sandy)

I have a 9 year old boy, of course it’s the facts about bums and poo that caught his attention!! Other boy Mums – you can relate, right?!

During the reptile talk, they gave important information on how to look after bearded dragons and snakes should you want to keep them as pets. Many of the animals at the Aquarium are rescued animals and therefore they want to give important information like this. I think this was a great aspect of the chat.

We really liked all the animals we saw and heard about on the day, the only thing we didn’t like much was the large tarantulas! That is one animal we could do without seeing!

We would definitely recommend a visit to St Andrews Aquarium and make sure you catch all the talks and feedings as they really make the day!

Cafe and Shop

The Aquarium has a small cafe however on our visit this was close for refurbishment but we were able to pop out to the cafe at the nearby golf museum. They had lovely soup and cheesecake!

There is a little gift shop at the end of the exhibits with a range of kids toys and teddies. Nathan bought himself a snake soft toy for £6.60 and a Penguin necklace for £3.00 – spending most of his pocket money.

Visitor information:

Open daily 10am – 5pm

Child £8.50     Adult £11.00

Your ticket allows access all day so you can pop out and come back later.

I am unsure on wheelchair access for the venue – we didn’t think it looked very accessible. So I would perhaps give them a call before you visit if you require this.

Great day out! Have you been to St Andrews Aquarium – what did you think of it?