Sea Life Adventure on Southend's seafront has been named as one of the country's best attractions by the VisitEngland tourist board.

Designed to celebrate excellence within the visitor attraction sector, the UK's official tourist board's awards showcase those that go the extra mile to provide a high quality day out

This could be through a warm welcome, an engaging story, a delicious lunch or the overall visitor experience.

Out of nine accolades awarded to attractions in the East of England and 76 across the UK, Southend's own wildlife centre stood out for the tourist board for its warm welcome.

Sea Life Adventure was recognised for it's warm welcome and named as one of the best attractions for a family day out.

The centre, which houses a whole host of exciting wildlife, has gone from strength to strength in recent years and is in the middle of its latest expansion.

The first phase of the Sealife Adventure Wild opened in February 2018 and saw the arrival of meerkats and African Spurred tortoises.

In October, they welcomed a troop of Macaque Monkeys who were rescued from euthenasia in a testing lab in Italy.

Other attractions in the East of England, which includes Colchester Castle, can be found here.