Is the Seattle Aquarium Worth a Visit?

While we were in Seattle last month, one of the sites to see on our list was the Seattle Aquarium on Pier 59. The Seattle Aquarium is one of Seattle’s most popular attractions, and since its opening in 1977 has seen nearly 20 million visitors.

What to see: The Seattle Aquarium is a multilevel indoor/outdoor facility that has four primary viewing areas. These areas are grouped by themes which include the Intertidal Zone, the Pacific Coral Reef, Ocean Oddities, Shore Birds, Marine Mammals, and the UnderWater dome.

In the intertidal zone, visitors get to touch tide pool animals such as starfish, crabs, and sea anemones. The Pacific Coral Reef section has a large collection ocean coral and small saltwater fish. Ocean Oddities include the wildly popular seahorse exhibit and a number of other strange looking fish. Once visitors are finished exploring these areas, they can continue outside to view a collection of shore birds, otters, and seals. One of the highlights of the outdoors areas include a massive under water dome which gives visitors an “in the round” perspective of life beneath the ocean.

The entire aquarium takes about 1.5 – 3 hours to view depending on the interest level of your group.

Admission & Hours: The Seattle Aquarium admission prices are pretty much in line with the rest of Seattle’s popular attractions. General admission is $16 for adults over 13 and $10.50 for youth 4-12. The admission to the aquarium can be paired with an Argosy Harbor cruise for a bit of a savings.

The Aquarium is open daily from 9:30 to 5pm. For information about planning a trip to the Seattle Aquarium, check out their website at www.seattleaquarium.org.

So it the Seattle Aquarium worth a visit?: Our family visited the Seattle Aquarium on a weekday afternoon at the height of tourist season, which was a mistake. Not only did we have a long wait in the lines, the aquarium itself was quite crowded with huge groups of kids squeezed around the more popular attractions. Unfortunately for our group, we weren’t able to see the aquarium’s two most popular attractions (the tidal touch pools and the sea horses) because of the size of the crowd.

While the aquarium was not as big as you’d expect to find in a city the size of Seattle, it still is a very nice facility to visit. Families traveling with children will enjoy a wide assortment of kid-designed activities which include hands-on science demonstrations and live marine creatures to pick up and touch. The Seattle Aquarium also features an upstairs cafe and a fantastic gift store with all sorts of tempting merchandise.

For parents traveling with children under the age of 14, the Seattle Aquarium has a lot of interactive appeal with plenty to see if your family can get close enough to the exhibits. The crush of the crowds can be avoided however by visiting the Aquarium first thing in the morning, which will make for a much more enjoyable experience for both kids and adults.