oceanopolis

Great family day out, easy to find and free parking close to venue.Interesting displays, lots to see and do. Well presented however could do with a face lift as bits were a tad scruffy. Grandchildren loved it!

The aquarium is divided into three regions...tropical, temperate and polar. The temperate section was mediocre and concentrated on the local weathers and thier drab, grey and average fish. Ten Polar section was good and the panorama movie is well worth seeing, showing footage from the South Indian Ocean Antarctic islands. The tropical section stood out with a wide variety of exotic fish, a presentation on how atolls are born and die, and a very good large tank containing a variety or shark species up close and personal. While most of the descriptions are in French, the are ample English translations to make it enjoyable without the audio guide. Not a site I'd travel exclusively to Brest to see, but good entertainment for an afternoon.

Visited this very large aquarium attraction today, in Brest, France. Really enjoyed our day here, so much to see, also several film shows ongoing. All type of seas shown including Antartic with penguins and seals from Norway. Thoroughly worth a visit if you are travelling through Brittany 18.5 € which is quite reasonable as you could spend several hours here. Also a nic restaurant where we enjoyed lunch.

We went to this attraction whilst on a stopover on a cruise. We were given a free shuttle bus to the attraction and a discount voucher for entry, and for the gift shop. There was a lot to see and a touch and feel section for kids. You could hire some headphones to translate to English at a price, which we wish we had done as everything was in French only. Considering this is supposed to be a major tourist attraction its a shame that there couldnt have been some traslation. The gift shop and restaurant were very good and stocked a lot of different things. Reasonable price to get in.

Me and my family spent a week in Le Faoeut, Brittany. On the day we left, we went to the Roscoff ferry port via Brest to specifically check out Oceanopolis. It's... not bad...The prices are... okay. Not the worst, but far from the best in Brittany. There is a kids play area as you come in, which seems fun, but then, you go inside. There are LOADS of aquatic mammals that you can get up close and personal too. Seals, sharks, clownfish, sting rays, you name it. Only problem is, it's not as big as you would expect. I mean, prepare to be dissapointed in how quick your time at Oceanopolis goes. There is a gift shop, which as you'd expect is expensive and even a audio tour in English for 2 euros. But besides that, everything else is in French, and if you're not fluent, then you're screwed.All in all, not bad stuff, a sight to behold, but it goes quicker than Usain Bolt on Red Bull. Water shame. (Sorry about that. -_-)In a word: Seals.

Visited this with our kids (4&2). Well we found it good and especially loved the topical area and seeing the sharks but after reading some of the reviews we were expecting more. We sent about 2.5 hrs and that was enough really. We didn't eat in it so can't comment on the food.

This a huge area with three buildings brimmed with facts and info related with marine life, tropical forests ,seals, snow bears and penguins and other that are too many to mention here. There is an audio guide that is available but and extra €2 a pop. Talking of price the entrance cost is €18.50 per person which is a bit shocking ok but, I will assume there is a reason and by the end of the day after walking around for at least 3 hours and reading watching the huge and in depth information and many animals and strange and beautiful creatures. Its a bit of a long walk around but the kids should love seeing all the different animals. I like the tank where shark all swim over your head.I would suggest taking the audio for English as most of the signs and explanations are in French. There is a place to eat but it seems limited. There is ample parking in the surrounding perimeter area and just a short walk to the entrance. Worth the relatively high price.

Judging on folders and travel-guides this attraction is top class: "You need more than a day to see it". Well I have a different opinion. I have seen many Aquaria all over the world and this one was average, or even below that. The terrain is large and you will walk a lot. There are 3 main areas: Arctic, Moderate and Tropical. The four of us all agreed that the tropical area was best. I did not see any animals that I had not seen before. Since dogs are not allowed inside oceanopolis, we had to split up our group, one person staying with our puppy dog while the others visited the aquarium. I have been in the Aquarium for about 1.5 hours, and when after that time I went to the entrance to switch places with my wife (who had been in for about 1 hour) she told me she had seen enough. My father and son who had been in for 2.5 hours also told me they were not interested in a longer stay. My 15 year old son is very fond of aquaria and normally wild horses cannot drag him away from it - so that tells enough I think.

Your children will very likely love it - especially the shark aquarium and panoramic elevator in the Tropical section and the sealions and pinguins in the Polar section. The giant crabs are also great to watch. At the exit of the Temparate pavillon you can touch the starfish and other sea creatures.However, if you are arriving alone, you may find less to learn as only a small proportion of the information in provided in English. You will normally get a very brief summary - things that you most probably already knew. I felt this particularly disappointing in the section describing the sea life in the coastal waters of the Britanny coast, which looked interesting and focused on research and environmental protection too. A missed opportunity here.

Great idea on a rainy day as all exhibitions are inside. It's all in French no translation to English so you may not understand the information or be able to enjoy the movies on offer. There are a lot of giant set pieces surrounding in comparison a small amount of animals set aside in 3 different sections. Audio tours for 2 euros are a good and cheap idea for kids to keep them happy. I would highly advise booking online as paying on the door is expensive.

We've visited a number of aquariums over the years as our daughter loved them and this was on a par with them all if a little smaller. Four different zones to visit based on different climates provided a wide variety of fish and animals to see. 90% of the written information is in french but that did not detract from the visit (I can get by in French but technical language is beyond me!). Our daughter is 6 and enjoyed the visit, we saw everything during a morning, you don't really need any longer than that. I've heard it can get very busy during bad weather but it was reasonably quiet during our visit (August). Food outlets were as expected so take your own supplies if you have kids and don't want to spend a fortune, there was a picnic area and large indoor eating area next to the playground.

The Aquarium is good but nothing extraordinary.It was a good day out and it's pretty interesting for children/adult however the cost is pretty high when you come with a family then if you need to eat you will have overpriced sandwich/dinner with rude people who work in restaurant (this doesnt apply to people who work in the aquarium itself).

Reading other reviews, as an English visitor, you may be put off. All I can suggest is that the people didn't look hard. Virtually every sign within the tropical and polar areas had an English translation which gave almost all the important information about what you were seeing. In the third zone (temperate), there were less translations but there was an audio guide available for the whole site (which we didn't use). There was also less of the random 'button mashing' that seems to be the trend in UK establishments - OK, they often have a point, but I rarely see the people using the displays bothering to read the text and interact as intended. (By the way, the cost for 2 adults and 2 children was 62.60E or 70E for 3 children...)As for food, the people who suggest this isn't good can't have tried eating somewhere like any of the London museums - we had a great meal for a fraction of the cost that it would have been at an equivalent location in the UK.Another thing that sets this aquarium apart from others I've visited is the amount of the attraction that was well-maintained and operational. Often you see broken equipment or shabby signage, but not here. Everything was clean and well-designed and up-to-date. Particularly the deep sea display was informative and interesting.Even the shops were excellent - there is a very well-stocked book shop and a large 'souvenir' shop. They seemed to be reasonably priced and had an excellent mix of goods.In conclusion, we had a great day at Oceanopolis. It was clear that it must get much busier, by the number of queue barriers, but on the day we went, we had no queues at all and would highly recommend a visit.

Having spent most of our holiday on the beaches it was good to do something different. At just over 60 euros it wasn't a cheap day out but there was plenty to see. We also enjoyed a really good lunch in the brasserie where the kids could watch the sea lions from our table. At about 10 euros for mussels and a massive plate of chips it was excellent value. There were short paragraphs in English on most displays and we could have paid the small fee for audio description so overall a good family attraction.

Interesting, well-designed, comfortably walkable, OK restaurant, more English texts and explanations would be necessary.