Some quick thoughts to share following my visit to The Deep in Hull. Visit was with a 2.5 year old, mummy and daddy.
This place is well loved by our Little Legs. We visited earlier in the year, and for the price of admission you can come back as much as you want for a year. Under 3s are free and parking is £3.
You start at the top of the multi-story aquarium and work your way down. Our very start was at the cafe at the top after Little Legs napped on the hour journey from Leeds. The cafe is reasonably priced, with a 5 item kids meal for £3.50.
Little Legs has enjoyed this trip much more than the last time we visited (a month before her second birthday) but she did take some enjoyment from the colours last time. This visit she loved seeing Nemo and of course the Baby Sharks (do do do do).
There are a lot of hands-on exhibits and whilst she couldn’t understand the details, she loved spinning and touching whatever she could. At a shade over 90cm she was just tall enough for most of the interactivity.
The aquarium has many talks and feeding sessions, throughout the day, however we missed these today as the layout is just like IKEA: it’s very hard to go back to an earlier exhibit (although entirely possible).
Towards the end there’s a small soft play area for kids under 1m. This isn’t policed as such and there was no efforts from staff to dissuade the bigger kids from throwing their weight around. As such it’s on you to confront the parents if you want the rules enforced!
The trip ends with a walk through the big aquarium (in a glass tunnel) and a glass lift ride back to the top. Whilst we didn’t bring the pushchair, the entire journey down the aquarium is ramps and lifts so feel free to bring the pram.
You’d struggle to kill more than a couple of hours here without having lunch, however if you plan to visit more than once in the year it’s great value for money. I can see a third visit before our pass runs out.
These are lines that this dad hears several times a week. Little legs loves this book, and whilst at 2 she’s a way off reading, she could recite this story to you without pause or hesitation. As soon as I heard about this hidden gem 40 minutes from Leeds, we were set to go with equal enthusiasm. In fact, despite this book being a staple part of the nursery library for more than half of little legs’ life, somehow I’d never heard of this treasure of a walk!
After parking up (for free) the first port of call was the visitor centre. We knew it was cash only, so had £2 in hand for an activity pack. This had all you needed for the walk – map, crayons, page for rubbings, a quiz for finding letters around the lake plus more to do at home.
It’s a 2 mile flat walk. We did it with friends and a pram, but it was muddy in places. Took about two hours with stops to play and snack. Around the lake are wooden statues of the characters and metal plaques to do some rubbings.
Cafe is shut in winter but there were plenty of picnic tables, plus a little hut selling hot drinks was set up.
