Monterey Bay Aquarium - Monterey - Things To Do Reviews

Haven't been to the Long Beach Aquarium lately, but this is probably the best aquarium in California. Tons of interesting exhibits and tanks filled with interesting lifeforms, from alien looking jellyfish to deadly looking sharks.

There are two VERY big tanks that contain the larger varieties of ocean life, including sharks and tuna. For some reason whenever I pictured tuna, I always pictured a small, salmon sized fish. But when you see them in person you realize that they are enormous, like underwater blimps. There are also a few sharks that are pretty amazing to see up close.

Only drawback is that tickets are ridiculously expensive. $25 for adults. I'm sure the money goes to a good cause, but $25 seems a little pricey to me.

If you have any time in Monterey, you have to hit up the aquarium. It is $25 for general admission and cheaper if you are older or younger! If you are a student you get a cheaper rate as well.

One of the neatest exhibits, in my opinion is the Jellies. It is facinating how simple an organism it is yet is able to get all of it's needs met.

There's always a crowd around the sea otter exhibit, and why not?! They are quite entertaining.

Be sure to stop by the tide-pools where you can touch starfish and urchins. The staff there knows a lot and will often pick stuff up and tell you about it, letting you touch them and ask questions.

After the aquarium be sure to stop somewhere along cannery row and take in the view and enjoy some of the seafood!

This is our favorite aquarium! They have set up the exhibits in such a way that visitors can get a glimpse of how these creatures live in their natural habitats, as opposed to just showing them in an old-fashioned "fish in a tank" style. My son can spend hours in front of the tall Sea Otter tank where you can see them playfully swimming through tunnels. The center-piece of the aquarium, a 28-feet-tall Kelp Forest is almost hypnotizing with giant sea kelp drifting in the sun light and countless types of fish slowly swimming around them. At the Outer Bay exhibit, you can see schools of torpedo-like giant tunas (they are huge!!) zipping around, passing by hammerhead sharks, stingrays and sunfish…

My favorite is jellyfish exhibits. There are two locations where you can see jellyfish: the Drifters Gallery on the second floor and the “Jellies: Living Art” exhibit on the first floor, both in the Outer Bay Wing of the aquarium. They are both wonderful. “Jellies: Living Art” is a very interesting exhibit because they show living jellyfish and artworks by artists who were inspired by jellies side by side. Some jellyfish are shown in a frame as if they are a piece of art (and they really are…), and some drifting in a lit-up tank that has colorful glass beads at the bottom. They are all mesmerizing.

You can easily spend a half-day, even a whole day, in this aquarium. There are a lot of hands-on areas for young visitors, too. If you want some fresh air during your visit, you can always walk out onto one of many outdoor porches where you can have a beautiful view of Monterey Bay.

One note: If you get hungry, there is a cafeteria (“Portola Café”) inside of the aquarium. They have a quite good selection, and the food is pretty good for a cafeteria, but the price is high. We paid $6.95 for a slice of cheese pizza for my son! There are a lot of cafes and restaurants near the aquarium, so you can always plan to eat before/after the visit if you don’t want to drop that kind of money for your lunch! :)

The Monterey Bay Aquarium is one of the best aquariums in the USA. It's located in Monterey Bay, California. It is a place which you can spend half a day easily, with or without kids!

It has several impressive exhibits: the living Kelp Forest exhibit, at 28 feet high, is one of the tallest aquarium exhibits in the world. The top of the exhibit opens to the sky, so the sunlight shines into the water, helping the kelp grow (up to 4 inches a day). Feeding time (11:30am and 4pm) is always a good show where divers go inside the water to feed the fishes. Sea water from the bay is pumped into the exhibit continuously.

The jelly fish exhibits are truly beautiful. Jellies of all different forms and colors fly through the blue water, transfixing children and adults alike.

The Outer Bay exhibit has more than 1 million gallons of sea water, an acrylic viewing window 54 ft wide, 15 ft tall, weighing 76000 lbs, at 13 inches thick, is all that separates you and the open ocean sea creatures found in any aquarium! Schools of big tuna, sea turtles, sharks and more jellies are in this exhibit. This is where the great white shark was housed between September 2004 to March 2005. I was lucky enough to catch her in one of my photographs during her fist days there, at only about 5 feet long, she was nonetheless intimidating to other fishes in the water, who kept a good distance from her. After several months, gaining more than 1 foot and 100 lbs, she began to attack and killed a couple of poor less-agressive sharks, she was released back into the Pacific ocean! This was the only white shark living in captivity in the world.

In addition to these star exhibits, there are also exhibits of penguins, octopus. "petting area" with starfishes, real tide pools (outside by the water), sea otters, sea birds who fly into the shore exhibits. You can also wallk under an aquarium to feel like you are in the water yourself.

Monterey Bay Aquarium is a very popular destination on the California coast. Fall and winter times, afternoons, or middle of the weeks are less crowded than other times. This is a great place to spend your time and gain appreciation of mother nature.