Ever wondered how it’s like to be under the sea? The Manila Ocean Park in capital Manila allows you to do just that: walk under the canopy of sharks, stingrays, and a rainbow of fish without having to strap on your wet suit or without getting wet at all.
The 8,000-square-meter Manila Ocean Park is the Philippines’ first oceanarium that is bigger thanSingapore’s Sentosa Underwater World Aquarium, only that Sentosa’s marine life tunnel is longer. Both children and adults, however, may enjoy Manila Ocean Park’s attractions and amenities including a wide array of marine life, live music, seafood restaurants, and spa and boating services. Soon, the park will have its own boutique shopping center, hotel surrounded with a 360-degree aquarium, and open-air dive site that will allow visitors to dive and snorkel right at the heart of the city.
A diver feeding the fish inside the tunnel (Photo by jekert gwapo)
Attractions
Currently, the star of the park is a 25-meter carved tunnel with tanks divided among artificial corals, schools of freshwater fish, sharks, and Eagle-spotted rays. Apart from walking through the 22-degree tunnel, the park offers a glass-bottom boat ride, and a Fish Spa in which travelers may get a foot spafrom small schools of fish. The park also has a boutique mall and a marine-themed restaurant row. The park’s Concourse Plaza houses concerts, parties, performances, exhibits and other eventsthroughout the year.
Inside Manila Ocean Park’s aquarium gallery (Photo by jekert gwapo)
Nowadays, the park is still on the process of completing its amenities, which will soon include an open-water marine habitat in which visitors may dive or snorkel with sharks or deep-sea animals, and an H20 Hotel that will have rooms wholly surrounded by aquariums.
Fees and opening hours
A group of sharks inside the tunnel of the park (Photo by jekert gwapo)
The park opens at 9 a.m. on weekends and 10 a.m. on weekdays. It closes at 9 p.m. Fees: P350 for children and P400 for adults (entrance to the aquarium); P120 (Fish Spa); P150 (glass-bottom boat ride).
How to get there
Manila Ocean Park is behind Quirino Grandstand in Luneta Park, Manila . The best way to get there is ride a taxi from anywhere in Manila (flag down rate: P30) or ride LRT Line-1, get off in U.N. Avenue Station, and ride a taxi from there.
Contact details
Official website: http://manilaoceanpark.com/, Tel: (632) 5677777, Fax: (632) 5672309
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