Florya Tickets and Tours | GetExperience.com

Istanbul Aquarium opened at Florya in 2011, on the Marmara shore at the western edge of the city. The building is a route, not a hall. You walk about 1.2 kilometres, from the Black Sea to the Pacific.

How the route is built

Sixteen themed zones sit along that line, plus a rainforest floor that is not a tank at all. Around 15,000 animals live here. The species count runs to roughly 1,500.

• Home water first. The Black Sea and the strait, the section most people walk past too quickly.
• The seas of this country. Aegean and Mediterranean tanks, before the route leaves for the ocean.
• The tunnel. Glass overhead with rays and sharks above it, and the one stop that holds children.
• Rainforest. A humid upper floor of trees and birds rather than glass.

Who it is for

This is a weather plan and a children's plan. Two hours covers it, unless somebody in the party is six. The aquarium sits inside a shopping centre, so lunch and a cinema come attached.

Practical

• Distance. Florya lies out west by the airport, well away from the old city. Reckon on most of an hour each way.
• Getting there. The Marmaray suburban line has a station at Florya, a short walk from the door. The coast road is slower.
• Tickets. Sold by the head, with the 5D cinema priced separately and safely skipped.
• Crowds. Weekend afternoons and school holidays jam the tunnel. Weekday mornings are calm.
• Layers. Chilled rooms and a hot rainforest in one building, so a jacket you can carry beats a coat.
• If the sky clears. The shore park and the Ataturk marine mansion are ten minutes away along the water.