The Seattle Aquarium is a great outing for locals and a great place for visitors to check out. It’s engaging for people of all ages.

What Will You See?

Their Ocean Pavilion opened in August of 2024. It’s a chance to learn about the reef ecosystem in the Coral Triangle – tropical waters around Indonesia, Malaysia and the Phillipines. You’ll see 5,000 animals and plants: sharks, rays, bowmouth guitarfish, schooling fish, mangroves, and more than 40 species of coral. The animal care area lets you see into how they care for the creatures, and view a jellyfish nursery, with jellyfish the size of a grain of salt! Learn all about the Ocean Pavilion.

Their older buildings also have plenty to delight. In Pier 59, you’ll find the 120,000 gallon Windows on Washington Waters, touch pools where you can touch sea cucumbers, seastars, and urchins, and a play space for toddlers and preschoolers. Learn more about Pier 59. In Pier 60, there are shorebird habitats, river otters and sea otters, and seals. Plus the underwater dome. Learn more about Pier 60.

Where / When / How Much

On the waterfront in downtown Seattle. In April 2026: Open daily 9:30 – 6. $49.95 adults; $39.95 kids 4 – 12. Under 3 free.You can get discounts via CityPASS if you’ll be visiting several tourist sites in Seattle. Locals can get free passes through the Seattle Public Library and KCLS. As two adults, we were there 2 hours and 15 minutes and saw everything. We could have had lunch there and stayed a little longer if we didn’t have other commitments. The cafe there is quite good.

Is It Good for Kids?

Absolutely!

Babies like gazing into tanks watching the fish swim by. For the toddlers – they like cruising around by the tanks – sometimes paying attention to the fishies, sometimes doing their own thing. But the lighting and water sounds of the space seem to be just the right level of stimulating without being over-stimulating.

Preschoolers enjoy the kids’ play area, the hands-on touchable exhibits (I’m talking the coral models and fish models you can feel. Most preschoolers are hesitant to reach into the touch tanks to touch the real animals. The water is VERY cold, and it’s quite a long reach.) They also especially like watching the seals and otters swim.

Elementary age onwards enjoy the touch tank, looking at all the animals – there’s lots to see! I created these scavenger hunts for elementary age kids. You can print them and bring them along. If they’re engaged the whole time, no need to add anything, but if they’re starting to lose interest, you can pull out the hunt to get them re-connected.