Oceanograpic de Valencia or simply Oceanarium is one of the most important attractions of the beautiful port city, spread on the southeast coast of Spain. The oceanarium is part of a unique complex that invariably attracts the attention of all tourists, and where residents of Valencia like to relax. We are talking about the City of Science and Art, consisting of five main buildings with a futuristic look, which are surrounded by parks and streams.
The Valencia Oceanarium is the largest center of its kind in Europe: it covers an area of 110,000 m², and the volume of water in all 9 of its aquariums reaches 42,000,000 liters. The park is home to 45,000 marine inhabitants of 500 different species.
What to see in Oceanografic de Valencia
The Oceanografic Park is divided into 10 zones. The main entrance has a stand with a map of the area and with the names of all the exhibits. At the entrance, visitors are given a brochure with the same plan. For convenient orientation throughout the territory, signs are installed.
In the garden of the aquarium you can see a variety of plants brought from all over the world. In total, more than 80,000 plants can be seen here.
This exposition occupies a separate building located next to the main entrance to the park.
A huge tank of cylindrical shape has become a habitat for 7400 representatives of the warm Mediterranean Sea. Extraordinarily bright starfish live in it, amazingly plastic fish of bizarre shapes, sparkling with fluorescent lighting of jellyfish.
The pavilion has a special illuminated panel with images of the inhabitants of the aquarium and their detailed descriptions.
Flora and fauna of boggy mangroves are displayed in a closed spherical structure. In this part of the park amphibian turtles constantly live and successfully breed, as well as birds, which usually live in mangrove forests.
The most interesting and rare unique ones are marked with posters describing the species.
It is in this part of the Oceanographic Park that one of the two legendary transparent tunnels located inside a huge aquarium is located. The walls of the aquarium and the tunnel are made of acrylic, which is much stronger than even thicker glass.
The inhabitants of ocean waters of temperate and tropical latitudes live in a huge water reservoir: fish, soft and hard corals, jellyfish, starfish, tubes, hedgehogs and horses.
On the sides of the tunnel are plates with photographs and names of representatives of the underwater world. This helps to identify the local pets, although some are sometimes difficult to detect: many live not in the water column, but at the bottom.
This part of the aquarium is also represented in a large-scale reservoir with water through which the tunnel passes.
Sharks and moray eels swiftly passing by, measuredly fluttering slopes, lazily swimming round moon fish of a beautiful steel shade, unexpectedly and gracefully popping up from the bottom of the jellyfish – all these are local inhabitants. And the only thing that separates a person from the huge and powerful volumes of water with its inhabitants hanging from all sides is a very durable acrylic canvas from which the tunnel is made.
The domed building, reminiscent of a real Eskimo igloo, attracts increased attention from visitors to the Oceanographic Park. There is calm music in the room, which helps to remain under the impression of the greatest power of nature for a long time.
Inside the pavilion is a huge water tank in which representatives of the Arctic region live. Graceful multi-ton whales, graceful belugas, imposing walruses – all of them slowly swim in the spacious water mass, showing people their superiority.
On this territory, the habitat of Arctic penguins is maximally simulated. Comfortably located on fenced stone cliffs repeating the natural landscape of Antarctica, these beautiful birds look around with real royal importance.
You can watch the penguins from a fairly close distance, not only when they are on land, but also when they swiftly swim in the water: the walls of the enclosures are transparent and therefore everything that happens underwater is visible.
Dolphinarium of the Valencia Aquarium is the largest dolphinarium in the world. Hundreds of the smartest and most friendly marine inhabitants of our planet live here.
The pavilion has a large capacity with water, in which many small multi-colored small fish from the Red Sea swim.
There is also a special audience where a 3-minute video with the most interesting episodes from one day of life of the large-scale Valencia aquarium is shown.
The fenced area of the park, which is located directly under the open sky, has become the habitat of sea lions and seals, as well as other representatives of the fauna of coastal cliffs. There is a separate aviary for each type of living creature.
The park also has souvenir shops, restaurants and bars. The most popular restaurant, Underwater Restaurante Submarino (marked No. 11 on the diagram), is located in the middle of the “Lake”. It has 2 levels: the lower floor is in the form of an underwater cave, and the upper one looks like an island.
Other activities at the Oceanographic Center
The Oceanographic Center offers not only the observation of animals placed in numerous aquariums and aviaries. Visitors can take advantage of unique opportunities for closer contact with the pets of the aquarium.
The show takes place in the open air. Spectators can sit on concrete terraces (no additional comfort), and children are allowed to come closer during the performance.
Free shows last 30 minutes. Usually they are carried out daily at 11:00, 13:30, 16:30 and 19:00, but there may be changes. You should always look at the schedule on the day of the visit.
For an additional fee, you can participate in a workout that includes swimming and playing with dolphins. After training, participants are given a special certificate.
Those who want to plunge into the waters of a large European aquarium and temporarily become the same exhibits as its other inhabitants can do this together with an instructor.
After diving (training is also included in the program), the participant is issued a certificate and a video cassette.
Every night, with the exception of weekends and holidays, the tunnels in the aquariums of the aquarium are transformed into expensive hotels. But the living conditions here are worse than in any other Valencia hotel: noisy agitated schoolchildren with selfie sticks, wake up at 8:00 on an alarm call. The only thing other Valencia hotels cannot offer in comparison with the tunnel: monitoring the nightly behavior of marine inhabitants.
Practical information
The oceanographic park is located at: Carrer d’Eduardo Primo Yúfera 1, 46013 Valencia, Spain.
The official website of the Aquarium in Valencia: https://www.oceanografic.org/en/.
The opening hours of the aquarium vary with the time of year. It always opens at 10:00, and the closing time varies from 18:00 to 24:00. During the season, when the Valencia Aquarium is open until 24:00, tourists are offered an evening visit. The difference in price with a daily visit is 5 €, but there are much fewer people.
It should also be borne in mind that due to weather conditions, the schedule of some zones or the time of the dolphin show may be changed.
You can check any information regarding the opening hours of the aquarium on the official website.
Children under 4 years old are admitted to the aquarium free of charge, for other visitors, ticket prices are as follows:
- for adults – 30.70 €;
- for children aged 4-12 years and senior citizens over 65 years old – 22.90 €;
- for students with a supporting document – 26.10 €;
- dolphin show – 225 €;
- diving with sharks – 290 €;
- night in the tunnel-hotel – 80 €.
Since the aquarium is part of the City of Sciences and Arts of Valencia , then tourists are offered tickets allowing a combined pass to various museums of this complex. You can view and choose suitable options on the park website.
For 3.70 €, visitors can take an audio guide, available in Russian.
The more visitors who visit the Oceanographic Park, the higher the chances that the Earth’s population will think about global problems, the solution of which is dedicated to the activities of this scientific center of Valencia.
Prices on the page are for November 2019.
Useful tips from experienced tourists
- At the entrance to the aquarium you can try orchat – a soft drink that is made from earthly almond chufa tubers.
- Often crowds of children and adolescents (and sometimes adults) try to catch in their selfies an underwater inhabitant floating in the aquarium. But you need to consider that in many rooms of the aquarium in Valencia, photos and videos are of very poor quality due to inappropriate lighting. Perhaps you should not be distracted by smartphones and cameras? As for professional photography, you need to have special permission for it.
- The evening visit to the aquarium (when it is open until 24:00) is valid from 20:00, and the area with birds closes at 21:00 – therefore, having entered the park, it is better to go see the birds first thing.
- It makes little sense to buy tickets for an evening visit with an optional dolphin show. Dolphins are involved in the program literally 5 minutes, the remaining 25 minutes are allotted for synchronized swimming and the actors’ dance numbers.
- Food in the park is sold at unreasonably high prices. In expensive restaurants, the cost of dishes starts from 17 €, fast food is not much cheaper: a hot dog costs 6 €. But since it is forbidden to bring food to the Oceanographic Center of Valencia, it remains either to prepare for additional costs, or to eat for its territories before or after a visit.
- Visiting the aquarium (Valencia) is better on their own, and not with a guided tour. The excursion program is designed for 3 hours – this is clearly not enough, for many only watching sharks takes about 1.5 hours.
Shooting of the inhabitants of the aquarium in Valencia in 4K:
