Ocean Lab - Sea Trust Wales

Fantastic experience: Amazing knowledge staff ready to share the wonders of our seas

Fantastic experience: Small but very nice ocean lab, fully dedicated to what one can see and find in the Local harbour/bay. Very insightful and great passionate people. Loved it!

Fantastic experience: Cymraeg Welsh Lle ardderchog ar Gyfer diwrnod Allan yng Laboreth Cefnfor Maer Caffi yng ardderchog Maer Toiledau,n lane Maer lift ar Gael ar Gyfer cadair olwyn hefyd English excellent place for a day out at the Ocean lab cafe is excellent toilets are clean lift available to wheelchairs aswell.

Fantastic experience: Nice way to spend and hour or so learning about the local marine life. If you go at 15:00 the tour is loosely guided by marine biologists who are really well informed and happy to answer any questions. It's not big, but it's packed with interesting exhibits. The cafe was good too with decent value tasty food.

Fantastic experience: Get here on my journey for ptsd ptsd awareness.. they were very nice in the cafe let me charge my battery..

Fantastic experience: Great experience! Our guide shared a wealth of knowledge about the animals and local ecosystem.

Fantastic experience: Fantastic little aquarium exhibit, only two rooms but packed to the rafters with information. A guided tour around the tanks and almost every animal is sourced from the waters just next door. Well worth it.

Positive experience: Not quite what we were expecting but nonetheless very interesting if somewhat small in exhibit space. We were guided round by a very knowledgeable university student (Amy) on her one year internship. All local marine life on show so don't expect tropical fish. Conservation and Education is the main theme.

Fantastic experience: Great place to visit. Especially with little ones. The staff and volunteers are very friendly and knowledgeable.

Fantastic experience: Brilliant. It was a 30 minute tour. But Tiger was so interesting we ended up being there almost 1 hr. She actually took us in straight away and delayed her lunch for us.

Fantastic experience: Great tour through a conservation small aquarium. Excellent guide and lots of local info was shared. Porpoise conservation project was interesting.

Negative experience: This isn’t an aquarium. It’s a collection of about 10 fish tanks & some musty stuffed animals. It should be free entry with options to donate. It needs some serious funding & for someone with an eye for fixing visitor attractions to go in & sort it out as at the moment it’s stale, dated & messy. Honestly one of the worst public attractions I’ve seen. The good points were that the cafe & shop look lovely. The guy on the counter who served us was rude too but checked himself after a hard stare & some stern words. It really needs improvement.

Fantastic experience: Great experience for the children! The lady who showed us around (didn’t catch her name, has a London accent I believe) she was great! Explained everything, was really knowledgeable and welcoming.

Fantastic experience: Staff are fabulous, very educational experience, would reccomend. Tour lasts around an hour, but we stayed for about 2.

Positive experience: Nice location, lots of interesting exhibits. Little disappointed by the number of aquariums, but the variety of marine life from the local area was an eye opener. Their catch and release policy is great. Staff were very knowledgeable and provided detailed information.

Fantastic experience: Friendly and love what they do!

Fantastic experience: Great place to eat! Lovely food and lovely people working there! Highly recommended

Fantastic experience: It was really interesting and the staff were excellent

Fantastic experience: We didn’t go into the aquarium, just used the cafe whilst waiting to catch a ferry. The food was excellent and the service was very friendly. A perfect pit stop. There’s plenty of cheap / free parking, and a pier and small rocky beach to walk around if you need to stretch your legs. Good selection of snacks, cakes and drinks. Indoor and outdoor seating. Lift wasn’t working when we attended but there’s more seating upstairs.

Positive experience: It's a bit dated needs a refurb but staff are friendly and helpful and engaging with customers

Fantastic experience: It's small but the guides are great and they have really interesting exhibits

Fantastic experience: Great hot chocolate and cake.

Positive experience: -Came here to have a hot beverage and look at the gift shop -Glebe plant based milk is used at the Cafe -Some coffee they sell is Fairtrade

Fantastic experience: Took a short trip to Fishguard and this was the nicest thing I did on my journey here. My guide Jack was so knowledgeable, a gentleman a real expert in his field. The aquarium had a lot to.offer along with the viewing rooms with some fascinating pieces. 10/10 gift shop also had something for everyone at home

Fantastic experience: Had a lovely Sunday Morning trip out. First hint of Sun and we were by the water. We forgot how cold it can be despite the sun so ended up in the Ocean Lab cafe. We all enjoyed our breakfast. I had sausages on a Rustic Roll and it really hit the spot. Look forward to going again. With such a fabulous view of the Goodwick breakwater.

Fantastic experience: Did the aquarium tour with my kids. Really interesting. The tour guide was very knowledgeable. Lots of cool creatures. Kids really enjoyed it.

Fantastic experience: One of the stand-out activities we did on our holiday. We went with low expectations thinking this would be something for the kids. Well we were not expecting how interesting it would be and how absolutely lovely Cliff and his team were. The aquarium sources fish from the sea and returns them after a few months. There were really cool things to see and gave me a proper appreciation of how varied the ocean life is in the UK. 3pm was also feeding time which made our visit more special. Our kids (3 and 5) both LOVED it and learnt loads. Also there was a playground next door and then we saw a seal in the water so it was a brilliant afternoon.

Positive experience: Unique compared to other aquariums. They have a turn over of fish and marine life every so often locally caught which is great for knowledge of our home shores. Very helpful/friendly staff. Well worth a visit if you want to know something about local life in our seas. Don't go expecting to see great whites and dolphins

Fantastic experience: The team at Ocean Lab were fantastic - really friendly, helpful and knowledgeable. We were a mixed group ranging from 6 to 60+ and we were all kept interested and engaged for two hours! Special thanks to the team for spending so much time answering the children's questions; they were fascinated and it really made their day.

Fantastic experience: Went today with six and eight year old children, staff were very welcoming, well informed and very happy to give lots of time. Well worth a visit.

Negative experience: Went there with my family and had to pay £28 for 2 adults and 2 children. The most interesting piece in the ‘submarine’ was the large vertebrae of the whale. The guide gave us some facts but I’m sure he would love it at a place that has more sea life.

Positive experience: Loved seeing the species you have, but think that there really isn't enough space in the building for everything you want to do - felt very claustrophobic. There was 11 people in our group on the time slot and there wasn't really much room. Taken aback that a carer had to pay to get in... Usually concession paid for disabled person and their carer is free. Great place for a one off visit, don't think we'll be back.

Negative experience: Was rather disappointed paid all that money for 4 adults and 1 child was expecting a bit more for what we paid two small rooms didn’t even take 15 min two go through everything. Some of the tanks was empty the out side was like a building site the main entrance was loads of scrap and rubbish only good thing was the caffe

Negative experience: I’m sorry to say I can’t agree with most of the reviews on here. They must have visited a different aquarium?? There was no ‘tour’ and it was just a room with a few small tanks and very little sea life. At 28 quid for 2 adults and 2 kids it was an absolute rip off

Fantastic experience: I've visited this restaurant for 10 years now , and there fish and chips ? Are beyond the normal dish , the size ? More than one can eat ,freshly cooked for you .Dog friendly too , the cafe area open all day , and open thro to pm time too ,a warm welcome on a cold day after a brisk walk on the beach , but can say a small let down , on our last morning ,packed up and got down to broad haven%for breakfast before our 495 mile journey home , we even rushed to get there before midday when breakfast stops being served , having arrived there 4 minutes late they'll chef refused to serve breakfast altho we'd had quite a few meals there over the fortnight holiday , so beware of your times for meals !!!

Positive experience: We just stopped for coffee and bite to eat, which was lovely and very reasonable, so, can not judge aquarium.

Fantastic experience: We visited Strumble Head and met Hanna and Zoe and Chris who very kindly let my wife & I join their seawatch. We had come to Pembrokeshire to see Risso dolphin's and 20 minutes in 8 turned up! It was so amazing and exciting to share our first sighting with these lovely kind people, and to see the porpoise and comon dolphin as well. Thank you all. On their recommendation we popped down to the sea lab centre and had some lunch in the amazing cafe, the food was tasty and great quality and the staff were so lovely. I would highly recommend a visit. After lunch we decided to visit the aquarium and the young lady from Ireland (who's name escapes me at this time so sorry) was very kind and helpful and friendly I did another sea watch with her and her team midweek and was made to feel so welcome and had a lovely couple of hours with you all. We were introduced to Will who was our tour guide, he was so polite, knowledge and helpful as well as passionate about all the sealife in the centre, he even let us stay for feeding time. The information displayed and the sealife is so informative and fun and we asked tons of questions and got all our answers coming away with a greater understanding of what is going on around our coast line. Thank you Will. Please visit the centre and help to support the valuable work the team are doing, you won't be disappointed. We returned to Strumble Head a couple of times and we met Ken, Mike and Luke. We spent some wonderful hours in their company scanning for wildlife coming past the head and we were made to feel so welcome and part of the team. We feel we have now made lots of new friends in Pembrokeshire. The help and advice on the various sightings was invaluable and we took a lot away from our meetings. Ken's pictures are amazing. Once my hand is better I will be bringing my camera and telephoto lens with me on our next visit, if I can capture photos like his I will be a very happy chap . In summing up this is a worthwhile cause that cares very passionately about the coast and the wildlife that live in and on it. The staff are all amazing, the centre is well worth a visit. Thank you for making our holiday so special. Kindest regards Stuart and Rachael.

Fantastic experience: Spent a lovely couple or hours in the Aquarium. Maddy showed us round, and the kids enjoyed learning about the sea life found along the Pembrokeshire coast. WHAT a lobster. Free parking between the petrol station and the Tesco Express over the road.

Fantastic experience: Charming and highly personalised introduction to the sea life swimming just a few dozen meters away. I learned that it’s catch-and-release, so every 6 months the fish etc. are returned to their home and replaced with new specimens. And the cost of admission supports further research. A quick, fascinating, ethical stop which I just happened to make, and I’m so glad I did!

Positive experience: Great for a walk and a cafe to have a meal.

Fantastic experience: had a fantastic time at the ocean lab aquarium visit with our guide jack. he was so informative and clearly passionate about marine conservation, and was a really great ambassador for the sea trust. he really brought the exhibit to life, and answered all our questions. we were also able to watch live feeding, and a display of how anenomies respond to uv light. the lab has a catch and release policy, and i’m definitely excited to come back in a few months and see what else is there! would highly recommend to friends and family. all staff and volunteers are extremely friendly and welcoming.

Fantastic experience: Had an aquarium tour with Jack, really enjoyed would definitely recommend. All of the staff and volunteers were extremely friendly, and it was fascinating listening to Jack talk about the local marine wildlife. Highly recommend.

Negative experience: Very expensive for what is essentially a single room with half a dozen fish tanks in it. Paid £22 for 2 adults and 1 child. We were led into a room with tanks and told it was 'feeding time' We thought - great, we can feed the fish! - but no, we watched a member of staff feed a lobster and a crab. We weren't expecting a 'sea life centre' but £22 is a lot of money to walk round one room and do a colouring-in of an octopus. Would not recommend unless they reduce the entry cost significantly, or it's raining and you want to kill an hour looking at fish, having a coffee in the cafe and buying a toy in the gift shop.

Fantastic experience: Wow! Didn't expect to experience so much! Very informative, learned a lot! Guide knows many stories n things to tell.. Sea Trust is a great place to be and support!

Fantastic experience: Well worth a visit, staff are friendly and informative. Good work being done by the trust.

Positive experience: Great little srop off place to visit ! Friendly staff , I do think the lab could be better as in maybe more fish etc to see or made bigger so you couls access more as I thought the gift shop had alot more space than the actual aquarium part. The coffee shop was lovely too .

Fantastic experience: Fantastic ! Highly recommend! The 3 staff we spoke to were so so friendly and knowledgeable, we spent ages in the exhibit room and had talks regarding the items in there, then the aquarium area each tank had lots to see. We had talks on each tank, pointing out the different species the staff were again so patient and friendly giving us lots of information. The work the trust do is important and it has definitely inspired the budding marine biologist in our family, thank you to all the interns, students and staff for a great time ! Great value for money booking in advance advised on a rainy day nice and easy to do.

Fantastic experience: An enjoyable visit. My two children loved the hour in the aquarium. Really knowledgeable staff and my children also liked the little activities within the aquarium. Happy to support this great place!

Negative experience: Very expensive for very few fish. There were maybe 8 - 10 small fish tanks with a few very small fish in one room and a few bones in the other. The guide didn't really provide a tour. At a push you could spend 20 minutes there.

Negative experience: Not great.. £28.00 for two adults & 2 children. In contrast to previous reviews - our tour guide was not that good. We waited in anticipation for our "tour" to begin and we're led into a room behind a closed door. This was meant to be a "submarine" and our guide said she was the captain then provided very little info but mumbled something about looking at the exhibits ourselves & then she would answer questions if there were any. In the second room she said even less - just telling us not to tap the aquarium tanks other wise a shark would get us. She then litterally disappeared saying nothing more, We noted she was back in the shop area when we left. Really very disappointed. Seeing the spider crab was good however.. We have been on another aquarium tour elsewhere (last summer) where the staff were really engaging, knowledgeable, and passionate about marine life. This so-called tour was anything but and not worth the money. The lady on this tour put in no effort, did nothing to engage our kids and we left feeling ripped off (and actually a little angry) and almost asked for a refund but didn't want to make a scene. I would welcome a response from Ocean Lab.

Positive experience: A really interesting visit with dedicated and helpful staff, lovely gift shop and cafe. It's a small place, but for the price it offers as much as it can. Well worth a trip. The walks outside are lovely too.

Fantastic experience: Not a huge place, but staff gave very good guide tour about the sea creatures. Amazing 1 hour spent in the aquarium.

Fantastic experience: Really informative and entertaining, the guides know so much. Great place to spend an afternoon!

Fantastic experience: Our host, G, was a great presenter of this research lab aquarium. Myself and my teen son had a first class time. :)

Fantastic experience: If you are turning up expecting some “free Willy” type attraction you will be disappointed, if you want to know about the local wildlife and take your time with your children and enjoy what is in on the doorstep of Fishguard with people who are passionate about the locality the this is your rainy day and any day

Fantastic experience: This is great to keep the kids entertained for an hour or two and we all learnt a lot. The staff really make this place what it is - their enthusiasm rubs off on you. The aquarium itself is small but that isn’t the point, you get a tour and commentary on what is in each tank. It’s a catch and release aquarium - most of the creatures are caught locally, kept for a short period of time for research/exhibit purposes and then released. Just be sure not to tap the glass or you’ll be fed to the shark! The gift shop is also good - a thoughtful selection of nice things, not just a load of plastic tat!

Fantastic experience: Great service and coffees

Fantastic experience: Really nice, informative yet fun. Great displays of mainly local sea and rock pool life. All staff interacted well andade the visit fun. Quite small, so an hour is probably enough.. although I could have stayed much longer. Entrance fees supporting this great cause. Well done everyone.

Fantastic experience: Lovely experience! Really interesting assortment of animals that are always changing. Great information provided. Had fun and would go again! Thank you to Tiger for the tour and information. Image of a confused sponge crab provided.

Fantastic experience: The tour guide made the trip for us she had only just started recently but she was super engaging and knowledgeable - really enjoyed our trip. Some great exhibits with interesting things for the kids including colouring and litter picking

Fantastic experience: Absolutely brilliant. SO interesting and the young staff were so enthusiastic and informative. The highlight was a beautiful blue lobster!

Negative experience: Really small place paid £8 per person it's a bit too expensive. However staffs are friendly.

Negative experience: Tour guides just focus on one or 2 people not the group, waste of time and money!!!!!

Fantastic experience: Called in to the cafe. Staff are friendly and the food was very tasty.

Negative experience: This is definitely not an aquarium, at best this place is someone's private collection. I'm pretty sure you have to have a certain number of animals before you can call it an aquarium. For £8 entry per person, I was expecting more than a singular room. Utterly dissatisfied.

Positive experience: Great small lab if you have the feeding tour. There is one info room and one lab room with tanks containing the small life from the Welsh coast, eg corals, shrimp, crabs, sponges, a few fish, jellies, an eel, a spider crab and a sea slug. Going round it yourself won't really be worth it as there's not much to see compared to an aquarium but with the excellent tour with Lloyd who runs the lab and seeing the specimes come to life while feeding made this really interesting. I spent two hours there and there's also a small gift shop with environmentally friendly products and a cafe. Not really suitable for children in my opinion although they try to engage them.

Fantastic experience: Really well worth a visit.

Fantastic experience: We really enjoyed our visit to the Sea Trust Aquarium. The guided tour was really interesting and our guide was really friendly and made the tour interesting for both adults and children. We will definitely visit again when we are in the area. Thank you

Fantastic experience: A lovely place to meet up and have a coffee then go for a walk on the beach.

Fantastic experience: Really interesting place to visit. Personal talk from very informed staff. Local marine species to view. Plenty of stuff for kids to do and learn. Lovely cafe and gift shop.

Positive experience: Nice little coffee and gift shop that looks on to the harbour. Didn't go into the Aquarium this time around.

Fantastic experience: Guided tour every half an hour. Very reasonably priced. £28 for 2 adults and 2 children to get in. Very knowledgeable tour guide through this small little aquarium, where you get to see a range of bones and understand the sheer size of a whale. Another little room with small tanks around the edges where you get to see fish, crabs, starfish, and even a baby shark. Inside, there is a handful of activities for the kids to do. We were lucky enough to have our tour at the time the terrapins needed feeding, so the kids got to do the feed. Some lifetime memories made!

Fantastic experience: Love this place

Fantastic experience: Excellent experience. It's a smaller aquarium than many I've seen before, but the exhibits are far more hands on. Superb local knowledge from the guides and the marine life comes from the local surroundings. Very impressed.

Fantastic experience: Fascinating, catch and release, working on plastic pollution with schools and fishing boats. Porpoise studies. Great people

Fantastic experience: Fantastic little aquarium. Not worth it if you're expecting Sea Life, or lots of tropical fish. What you will get are about 6 tanks, all full of local to the area fish and crab etc. Fish are caught and realised regularly, so always a chance to see different creatures. Fascinating to see what's in the seas off Pembrokeshire, and Fishguard.

Fantastic experience: Always interesting, always changing. Enthusiastic staff great coffee and snacks

Fantastic experience: Great place to go on wet days ,great tour and fantastic coffee in cafe.

Fantastic experience: Me and my partner really enjoyed visiting the aquarium, we found all the different creatures fascinating and learnt a thing or two, definitely a great visit for a rainy day for a few hours :)

Fantastic experience: Very interesting and informative place to visit. Knowledgeable staff, good value activity and excellent café.

Fantastic experience: Over the years, we have been in a few sea life places and aquariums. These places have been bigger, with many more tanks filled with fish and creatures. However, I have not left a place the way I did today. You get to book a tour, we were 5 minutes late so we were afraid that we missed our tour. We were welcomed by Lloyd Nelmes and Megan Acaster. The tour started with a museum room. This was very interesting as we got to know lots of new facts about the animals from sea and ocean. In addition, we were allowed to touch and hold some of the bones. Later, we entered the room with tanks. Interestingly, they only catch sea kingdom animals for the season, and they release them, this is the reason why they don't have too many. I find that very positive. With only a room full of tanks, we were swept away with full hands-on experience, facts, and interesting encounters of the sea life. I am totally fond of this place. If you believe that "knowledge is power," this is a place for you. Amazing absolutely loved it ❤️

Fantastic experience: Well worth a visit with children. Friendly and knowledgeable staff who were very patient answering our four year old's questions and encouraging his enthusiasm. Expect more of an informative show and tell than an aquarium in the way that sea-life or Anglesey sea zoo is. The intimate format of the ocean lab has benefits over other larger attractions and is a great way to fill an hour and ignite scientific interest. In the future I would love to see more use of the Welsh language. There were a couple of signs with a Welsh heading (yes octopus is octopws, well done) but Welsh names for species, translations of information, or any real Welsh signage was conspicuous by its absence. One of my favourite parts of visiting attractions in Wales is sharing the names of species with my son. In language acquisition the names of animals are very important (for some reason). Yes, I won't use corgimwch, draenog y môr or rhufell very often, which is why learning them at other attractions was a joy, but neither will I use prawn, bass or roach in English...

Fantastic experience: V. Interesting visit, learned interesting facts about local marine life. Very Small place comparing to the likes of The Deep although still recommended. It is a local charity and most of animals in aquariums come from local waters.

Fantastic experience: Fantastic place to visit. Very impressed with the knowledge and time given to answer questions. And the fact everything in the aquarium was local was incredible.

Negative experience: Very bad experience today. As a local with family down on holiday would have expected alot better. Never again!

Fantastic experience: Great way to spend a rainy day or even a sunny day! Both fun and educational, my grandchildren loved it! There is so much to see and do, fabulous, patient, and knowledgeable staff. Reasonably priced. Great tour. Disabled parking in car park. Wheel chair accessible. Great view of the harbour. As a direct result of our visit, my little helpers always grab a bag and do a mini clean up on the beach and by the park before we leave. They're only 4 and 5 :0) Big thank you to all who work here. You do an amazing job!

Fantastic experience: Great tour by Sea Slug Man Lloyd. This is a small, research-linked aquarium. The great value is in the tours with knowledgeable and enthusiastic staff, who provide loads of info. on the apparently humblest of sea creatures. Great for kids, very personal and interactive. You will learn a lot about the sea-life around us.

Fantastic experience: Good little experience for the price, £20 for one adult and 2 children for an educational tour (August, 2023). Call to book in advance if you can. Parking available, wheelchair accessible. A lovely gift shop and a coffee shop with a lovely view overlooking Fishguard Harbour.

Fantastic experience: A small but mighty aquarium of native sea creatures all brought to life in fascinating detail by the enthusiasm and love of the marine biologist who tends them.

Positive experience: Nice level of things aimed at kids and exciting new VR installation. Catering is ok, service can be patchy. Some staff wonderful, some less so

Fantastic experience: Aquarium Tour: Can't believe some of the wonders waiting to be discovered in the seas around our beautiful Pembrokeshire coast. No wonder Pembrokeshire is one of David Attenborough's favourite family holiday destinations!! £8/£6 is fantastic value and goes towards such good conservation work. My favourites were the anemone tank and the giant starfish! Love the lobster too! Seashore Safari - Not just for children :) Thank you Josh! What an interesting safari! Loved turning over rocks, finding living treasure and having it explained in an easy to understand way. My favourite was the Blenny fish :) Sea Trust Cafe: Lovely food, excellent coffee and a bright and happy atmosphere. My favourites are carrot cake, flapjacks and cappuccino coffee. Sea Trust Shop: Hard not to spend a fortune. My favourite thing has to be the giant (100% recycled plastic) soft toys...especially the Tiger Shark and the Whale Shark! Thank you Sea Trust!

Positive experience: Great work carried out here. Although it's a small area and the variety isn't huge, I appreciated the marine life that was there and still found the tour interesting. The guide had good knowledge and was friendly.

Positive experience: Very interesting information and enthusiastic instruction on local wildlife. Happily the gift shop reflects the conservation ethos and promotes local artists. Recommended

Fantastic experience: Cannot rate this highly enough. Booking online was easy, parking a breeze, views outside of the harbour are spectacular. And we’d not even gone inside the Lab! Our greeting was warm but gentle, we had a browse of the shop and then the tour started. Our guides were friendly, easy going, incredibly knowledgeable and happy to answer any question…..even some weird and wonderful ones. The value for money on this is superb. If you’re in Fishguard, get yourself along. If it’s a rainy day, get yourself along. If you have interest in sealife, get yourself along….or even better if you don’t have interest in sealife, get yourself along because you absolutely will by the end of the tour.

Fantastic experience: Well worth a visit. Tour guid was very knowledgeable and we learned a lot. Would highly recommend.

Fantastic experience: Really informative and interesting tour, you will be amazed at what lurks just beneath the surface of ou6t coastal waters!

Fantastic experience: Fantastic tour with a super enthusiastic and knowledgeable guide. Really love the way it operates, letting you get a good look at local fish and then releasing them back into the ocean later. Learnt a lot of cool facts and had a wonderful time. Would fully recommend to anyone with an interest in local marine life

Fantastic experience: Brilliant, brilliant place! A sealife centre with Ray's & Sharks this not! It is however a tour & display of a much more varied representation of the sea creatures of the British Isles. Entry includes a super knowledgeable guide as standard. An aquire, display and release policy on cyclical basis is adopted.

Fantastic experience: Thanks Lloyd for the great tour! Such a unique place that cares a ton about it's fish and sea creatures. Best wishes to the legless crab's recuperation.

Fantastic experience: Great little outing - tour guide Lloyd was so knowledgable and enthusiastic about the sea life- it really excited and interested our children. It is a very small centre, but the tour more than makes up for its size