You may be wondering what Zoomarine is - is it a zoo? An aquarium? A water park? A theme park? In actual fact it's all of those! On a very recent holiday to Portugal I decided to take the family.
The Zoomarine is situated in the Algarve in the South West of Portugal (there is also one in Italy which I haven't visited). We had hired out a car so it was easy for us to get to, it was about a 20 minute drive from Portomao.
When we arrived at the Zoomarine the carpark was full. The carpark was quite large but I soon realised I had booked our holiday during Portugal school holidays! I was so busy trying to avoid UK school holidays that I didn't even give Portugal school holidays a second thought. I would definitely avoid visiting the Zoomarine during school holidays if possible as it was absolutley packed and there were queues and crowds for everything.
Before I left home I read a review on Zoomarine which stated it wouldn't take a whole day and that you should only really give it a few hours, so we arrived at the Zoomarine at 12.30pm and stayed until 5.30pm. It turns out we did need a whole day and didn't get round to doing and seeing half the things we wanted to. My advice is to give it a whole day to avoid disappointment.
The entrance is a white U shaped building with a ticket booth built into it. Once you have got your tickets you can proceed through the turnstiles by popping your ticket inside. On the other side of the turnstiles is a photo opportunity where they take your photo infront of a Zoomarine sign and give you a piece of paper with a number on to view your photo at the exit. You are also given a very useful map with all the presentation times on it.
Ticket prices are as follows:
0-4 year olds - Free
5-10 year olds - 15 euros
11-64 year olds - 24 euros
Over 65 - 15 euros.
I thought that the adult tickets were very much overpriced but the 0-4 year old rule was quite generous as most places charge for children over 2 years. You can also get a 10% discount if you book in advance on the website. The park opens at 10am daily and closes between 5.00pm - 7.30pm depending on the time of year.
The first thing you come to is a dolphin enclosure. This is where they put on a show called 'Dolphins in Motion'. There was a big queue for the show but we got in at the very last minute. There were hundreds of seats that were all filled up, we managed to grab a couple of seats near the front. There are 2 or 3 rows of unused seats at the front - don't attempt to use these seats as they don't give a very good view and you could end up looking into a murky tank rather than watching the action happen on top of the water. Our seats were good as we could see into the tank aswell as on top of it and the dolphins got really close to us. The show started off with a man playing a bongo drum in the crowd, he soon got the whole crowd interacting with him with the help of only one bongo drum and one whistle. Eventually the show started and the dolphins and trainers came out to some epic music.
The show lasted around half an hour and was fascinating. The show was very varied and had some very fast paced moments where the dolphins were jumping around and doing flips to dancey music but also some very slow and touching moments which could have brung a tear to the eye (although thinking about it now I'm not quite sure how humans and dolphins hugging and kissing along to Elton Johns 'Can you feel the love tonight' in panpipes didn't turn into a total cheese fest!). The show included dolphin introductions (apparently they have the worlds oldest bottle nosed dolphin) and had various dolphin facts throughout. At one point the music was turned off so we could listen to the dolphins blowholes and a trainer jumped into the water and played dead to display the instinct that dolphins seem to have to save human life. Two children were also pulled out of the crowd to ride in a little boat that was pulled around by the dolphins, they also got to kiss them. At one point the trainers threw inflatable balls into the water for the dolphins to hit with their tails into the crowd (if you caught one you got to keep it). It was lovely to watch as the dolphins all seemed very happy with their trainers and seemed to enjoy what they were doing, although I'm probably being niave - after all who wants to live their lives in a tank and perform to a crowd everyday? Hmm. An hour and a half dolphin interaction session is also available at a steep (but probably worthwhile) 140 euros per person. Sadly I didn't have a spare 140 euros floating around! This is done during park opening hours and is situated at the back of the park. There is also a dolphin photo opportunity where you can get your photo taken kissing or touching a dolphin, just one of the things that I wanted to do but never got round to doing.
There were 2 main places to eat at (aswell as a number of small outlets scattered throughout the Zoomarine) which were next door to each other, had large seating areas and were under cover. There was a self service 'restuarant' where you can go along and pick up what foods you like, pay for it at the end and pick somewhere to sit. However they were seriously lacking in vegetarian options so we went next door. Next door held a number of different fast food outlets under one roof (Chicken Barbecue, pizza and hamburgers, snack bar) with a shared dining area. The whole thing was pretty rubbish and we couldn't really find anything decent to eat. I ended up getting chips and sharing a pizza (which we had to wait extra for). All of the menus in every outlet seemed very samey and again lacked in vegetarian options. I would have been quite happy with a veggie burger but there wasn't one on the menu - it turns out (after I'd eaten) that they do veggie burgers but don't have them on the menu!???!!
Opposite the restuarant area is a 4D cinema which is something else we didn't get round to doing. Plus the fact we had a fidgety 2 year old with us.
Next to the 4D cinema are the seals and sealions.
There is also a big ship where a seal and sealion show is held. We had to watch the show as my daughter loves sealions. The show started with a mute/clown interacting with the crowd and all of a sudden the Titanic theme tune came on and a man came out on to the boat. The rest of the cast included a women, a seal and a sealion. The majority of the show focused on the man and women which I thought was rather strange and slightly disappointing. I was also expecting to see more than one seal and one sealion. It was more of a comedy act than anything and did actually have some sort of strange story to it but it kind of got lost on me! The kids loved it though and everybody was laughing and clapping along. The show had music and references to different films and the animals did a few cute tricks. It was all quite fun and bizarre.
In the middle of the Zoomarine are a few fun rides which include a childrens pirate ship (which swings backwards and fowards), a train for younger children to ride by themselves, a huge ferris wheel which overlooks the park, a double decker merry-go-round and a childrens rollercoaster. This is a great place for younger children, although I did notice that there were 1 metre height restrictions for most of the rides and sadly my daughter is just under. She was able to ride the train and merry-go-round (five thousand times) though. All of the rides are free to use. I was expecting there to be a log flume which I was secretley looking foward to but there wasn't one - I think I saw something which looked like a log flume being built or taken down, it looked like half a track.
Next to the rides is a small river with a bridge over the top. I noticed 2 alligators inside the river but it didn't look like the best of enclosures. There were also a few brave birds and turtles inside!
Next to the river is an indoor aquarium called Oceanus. The aquarium had tanks of different fresh and salt water marine life, aswell as tropical inhabitants. There was also a tank full of marine life from The Algarve which was interesting. The tank which seemed to draw the most attention was called 'the immense Atlantic' which was home to a number of big fish, a shark and a huge 3 legged sea turtle. There was also a tank full of junk which was aimed at teaching people about pollution and the sea, and the importance of not littering. Near the end of the aquarium was a big round tank of stingrays and huge, actual sized models of sharks and a whale. At the end of the aquarium is a shop with all the souveneir essentials.
Near to the entrance of the aquarium are where the birds of prey and tropical birds are kept. When we took a walk over the birds of prey show was underway which meant we didn't get to see any of the birds of prey, but we did get to see some tropical birds such as macaws, parrots, cockatoos and budgerigars. I was on the look out for flamingos but sadly didn't see any. The birds of prey show is called 'Sweeping the Skies' and the tropical bird show is called 'Enchanted Forest' but we never got the chance to see either of them so I can't comment on them.
Next to the Ferris wheel is a swimming area. This is a great place for the kids and perfect for cooling off on a hot day. You can hire out lockers and sunbeds. There are also changing rooms, showers, a shop and toilets right next to it.
There are 2 rides which are suitable for older children and adults which are situated away from the main part of the park, they are called 'Rapid River' and 'Harakin'. There was about a 10 minute queue for Rapid River which was 10 minutes too long in my opinion as the ride was really quite lame. You sat inside a wooden looking tub (each one seats up to about 5 people) and went around a stream. There wasn't any scenery and nothing exciting happened. We didn't get wet at all and the only thing that could have caused an ounce of excitement were a few dancing flowers which spirted water out... except they were all broken and limp and just seemed to be squirting water into the ground! Harakin was quite fun and again was about a 10 minute queue. It was a ride with 4 huge bumpy slides with water in. You sit in a rubber dinghy (each one seats up to 2 people) and zoom down the slides. I wasn't expecting to get wet but I got absolutely soaked. Very fun indeed, even if it did smell like sewage water! Nearby these 2 rides was an arena where a new diving show called 'Aqualocos' was taking place. I didn't see the show so can't comment on it but thought it was a strange place to have a show - I doubt many people would have even noticed it was there. Zoomarine is passionate about conservation, education and rehabilitation. Throughout the park are animal facts and information, there is also a zoologist that goes around the park answering questions and such. The park also takes in sick and injured animals which they care for until they are fit for re-release - there is a rehabilitation centre which has a seal recovery, dolphin recovery, turtle recovery, observation room, treatment room and food preperation room... yet something else I didn't have enough time to visit. The park is also commited to educating people about the devastating effects of pollution etc on our planet, there is a dome shaped building called 'The Planet Awareness Centre' to learn more, but I must admit I didn't even see it!
At the end of the park is a big souvenir shop and photo centre to pick up any photos which have been taken at the park.
Overall Zoomarine was a very good afternoon out but I wish I had made more time for it. I recommend to all animal lovers and families with children that are visiting Portugal. I will definitely be visiting again at some point.
Zooper fun in the sun! 
