WHEN I WAS a child, a trip to the Blue Planet Aquarium was always a memorable one - and that was no different for me 20 years on when I visited recently.

My mum and dad would often take me and my brother to the Ellesmere Port-based venue, often timed to tie it in with a trip to the nearby Cheshire Oaks shopping outlet.

When opened by Queen Elizabeth II in July 1998, it was the largest aquarium in the United Kingdom, and is still the largest in north west England. 

Me and my wife's tickets for entry were a little steep at £27.25 per adult - but in my opinion you do get your money's worth for that. Our son is only six months old, so went for free.

We began our trip around the aquarium by taking a look at the array of colourful fish, which immediately caught the eye of our son Ffredi - who up until this point had only seen fish on the TV screen!

But, despite being known for being an aquarium, Blue Planet is home to several other critters too - from giant tortoises to lizards, frogs and (if you're brave enough to look at them) spiders.  

And not often do you get the chance to have a look at piranhas, stingrays and octopus' up close either, but Blue Planet has plenty of those to offer.

After enjoying some chips at the cafe (reasonably priced at £2.25) and spending a rather embarrassing amount of time trying to spot some frogs in their tanks (they're very good at hiding), we set off on a mission to find Ffredi's favourites - the clownfish (aka Nemo off Finding Nemo) and Blue Tang's (Aka Dory off Finding Nemo/Dory).

Seeing his eyes light up as he met (what to him are probably) celebrities, made the journey from Anglesey well worth it.

We then, after braving the snakes and the tarantulas in the venom exhibit, arrived at what is probably the ultimate highlight of Blue Planet - the mesmerising underwater tunnel (below).

There's lots to see at the Blue Planet Aquarium!There's lots to see at the Blue Planet Aquarium! (Image: NQ)

This section is truly a memory-maker, offering guests the chance to walk beneath some of the world's most incredible sea creatures from sand tiger sharks to Southern stingrays.

We took a walk under the tunnel as the creatures swam overhead, leaving the three of us, all very impressed. I loved it at nine-years-old and I still love it at 29-years-old!

One of the other highlights was being able to witness some of the fish being fed by the team of expert divers as we sat down for one of the daily aqua-theatre shows.

The presenter on stage (I sadly didn't catch her name), was brilliant, offering up some interesting facts about the creatures as they swam by and came up to the glass for their food.

All in all, we were at Blue Planet for about three hours (bites at the cafe included) and we will definitely be back again soon!

We topped the trip off by buying Ffredi his own toy Clownfish for just £5 from the gift shop and he hasn't let go of it since...