2019 Drive to Thailand – Phuket Aquarium

A nice day out for the family at a reasonable cost!

The next day after our visit to the Trickeye Museum, we decided to take a short drive out of Phuket City to visit the Phuket Aquarium, which is located 12km South of our hotel, at the tip of Cape Panwa. This is not to be confused with Phuket Aquaria, which is at an entirely different location.

The weather was simply amazing that day, with bright sunshine (a little too bright for my liking as you can see from my photo above… I found it super hard to smile and open my eyes properly for the selfie with the sun shining so bright). There was some really beautiful cloud formations which made for some breathtaking photos. Cape Panwa offers many amazing views of the surrounding waters and islands. It is also relatively quiet and away from crowds, so there is plenty of space to go around for photos or even for a lovely picnic under the shade of the trees that line the beach just outside the aquarium.

A Panorama of the Seas around Cape Panwa

The Aquarium itself is a rather compact building, nothing really extravagant, but a simple exhibition which is enjoyable enough for the kids and the family.

The entry fee is very reasonably priced at THB180 for adults and THB100 for children, with 50% discount given to Thai citizens. This place has an extremely “untouristy” feel to it, and seems to be targeted more towards the local population. The short “educational show” in the theatre is hard to appreciate unless you are familiar with the Thai language.

The exhibition space inside the aquarium isn’t huge, but there are enough exhibits to interest the kids, with descriptions given in both English and Thai. There is also a mini tunnel which you can walk through for an immersive experience of what it might be like to live in the oceans. This is a SUPER MINI tunnel though, nothing compared to what you can find at other bigger aquariums. There has been also some criticism that the tanks are a little bit small and crowded for the fish and marine life on display, which I did feel was the case for some of the exhibits.

The highlight of the aquarium for me was the giant groupers near the exit. Seeing their mouths open and shut on their seemingly expressionless faces made me want to copy them and have some fun:

Fooling around with the Giant Grouper

Attraction Ratings for Phuket Aquarium:

Value for Money (10/10): THB660 for our family of five. Can’t complain there!
Quality of Exhibits (6/10): Venue could have been improved to have bigger tanks and more space for the fish to swim around.
The Kids Loved It (7/10): Enough interesting things to keep them engaged. They seemed to enjoy the place more than I thought they would!
The Adults Loved It: (6/10): Good way to spend the hot afternoon away from the scorching sun.
Memories Created (7/10): Plenty of places to take a good photo as a keepsake. Lovely scenery outside the aquarium too!
Crowds (9/10): Love that the place is off the beaten track and that it is not overrun with tourists.
OVERALL RATING: (7/10) We found this a much better experience than what the other online reviews might suggest.