The centre itself is in Gweek, which is a quaint village on the Helford Estuary.  The sanctuary is well signposted from the main road and has a large, though undulating, car park.
On entry you get a quick list of the daily talks and events which for our trip started at 11:00 and ended at 16:20.  The entrance building contains a set of displays describing the history of the National Seal Sanctuary and some of its inhabitants.

Like the car park, the site is set over undulating hill side and the main pools are just the other side of a hill to the entrance.  Luckily for those with toddlers there is a bus that operates regularly between the three main areas, entrance, hospital and pools.

The pool areas are being updated each year and house a wide variety of different species.  Whilst the main aim of the project is the rehabilitation of injured local seals, they also provide a retirement home to older seals and Sea Lions.
One such pool contains a pair of Sea Lions, Rocky and Pepper, who have one of the more recently built pools.  Originally the centre took on the male Sea Lion Rocky, who is almost blind.  Deciding he needed some company, the centre looked to see if a female was available. They found Pepper, a Sea Lion from the Cape Cod Aquarium, who was retiring from being part of a performance show.  Pepper’s prowess as a performing Sea Lion is still evident as she enjoys the crowd attention during the talks given by the well informed staff.
The story of Rocky and Pepper’s first days together is romantic, but I’ll leave the staff to tell you about that.

Four of the pools have underwater viewing areas, which enable children and adults to delight in seeing the seals swim underwater.  Towards the end of feeding time at the nursery pool have a look at the under water view.  The last few fish thrown to the pool are used by the seals for play and I think this shows well how the pools work to bring the seals back to health ready for the open sea.  At times the seals come and spend a few minutes looking back at the people viewing them on the other side of the glass, and you begin to wonder, who is studying who.

Around each of the pools information boards have been set up which are undercover and provide protection from the inevitable British bank holiday weather.

Down by the pools is a covered refreshment area providing a good variety of food and drinks at reasonable prices.  Not far from the refreshment area is a wooded path that takes you up a small sub estuary of the river Helford called Otter Creek.  Otter Creek provides a sanctuary for two small Asian Short Clawed Otters called Bamboo and Tai.

The final stop on our trip was back up the hill to the Seal Hospital where injured seals are taken when they first arrive to receive medical treatment.  There are informative interactive displays on the treatment of seals and their rehabilitation into the wild.

Sample Itinery

11:00 Resident  talk & feed at the Convalescent Pool
11:30 Yulelogs and Flipper talk at the Seal Bay
12:00 Common Seal Talk at the Seal Harbour
12:30 Otter feed and talk at Otter Creek
13:00 – 14:15 Face paining at the Café
14:00 Resident talk and feed at the Convalescent Pool
14:30 Yulelogs & flipper talk at Seal Bay

LetsGoThere Likes
+ Informative displays
+ Covered weather proof pool side displays
+ Good value café
+ Well informed and helpful staff

LetsGoThere Dislikes
- Only toilets close to pools are up the hill at the hospital

Entry Costs £ 10 for adults, 6.50 for children
LetsGoThere's B.T. visited Easter week 2005