Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institution of Oceanography

Great Aquarium! Its cute, clean and the staff is friendly. The gift shop is adorable. It's not a huge aquarium with large fish but it does have some very neat fish in it: sharks, rays, many species of tropical fish, several species of coral, sea dragons, puffer fish, seahorses...the touch tanks are a lot of fun as well! It's very educational and also a lot of fun. We went with a 7 and 4 yr old and they absolutely loved it. Didn't want to leave. The view from outside (touch tanks, etc.) is gorgeous too! I highly recommend! The proceeds from the aquarium fund a lot of research in our oceans and sea life, so your money is also going towards an awesome cause.

Loved the decor for Halloween and how Birch outlined a path with 6ft distance markers, all related to sea creatures of course. Super cute, Birch! They also limited the amount of guests in the aquarium for safety. Went with my partner, her nephews and parents. the boys were definitely intrigued by the sea life. My favorite sections are the jelly fish, sea horses and getting to pet the baby leopard shark and sting rays!

Honestly this is a beautiful view. However this is more for young children, I recommend it for smaller children. It's a quick aquarium with a lot of little cute creatures but not for 11 and up who have been to bigger aquariums. Get boring quickly.

Beautiful aquariums! Free parking. Easy to find. Not crowded at all. Right now, you must pre purchase tickets for a specific time, but still no big deal. Lots of small aquariums, and several large aquariums. 2 massive aquariums. A couple of small touching aquariums, including baby sharks. Overall, a great experience. Spent a couple hours here. Basically 20 dollars per person for adults. Gift shop and good sized snack/ grill shop.

Smaller then I thought it would be. BUT, really cool!nI'm really glad that they had to monitor how many people were able to go in at a time. If it was able to have 100 percent capacity this place would have felt WAT too crowded. My dad and I only spent an hour here and saw everything at a leisurely pace. I had a great time getting to feel the aquatic creatures in the tide pool area out back!