The National Aquarium is a Baltimore gem, located on the inner harbor. The National Aquarium boasts almost 20,000 animals of all shapes and sizes. During your visit, you will see sharks, dolphins, Dory and Nemo and you can even visit the touch pool where you can touch rays and horseshoe crabs! The National Aquarium is truly an activity that will pique the interest of your entire family. Personally, since our family lives about an hour away from Baltimore, we are frequent visitors and hold an annual membership. We have been going since before Peach was even born, but she has been visiting since she was an infant. This is a wonderful indoor activity for those long winter days or school breaks.
Getting To the National Aquarium
The Aquarium is located just a few minutes off of I-95. Be aware that during the summer months and heavy travel days you’ll want to allow for more time to get through the few lights that it will take you to get to the parking garage. There are several garages in the Inner Harbor, but you’ll want to make sure you find the one that has the National Aquarium logo on it. Their website suggests using the Lockwood garage on Market Place or the LAZ garage on South Gay St. Make sure you take your ticket in for validation. It doesn’t cover the entire cost, but it does knock down the price a little bit. As members, we pay $15 to park, which is an $11+ discount (depending on the length of your visit). Once you are parked, you will take a short walk to get to the Aquarium, about a block or so. If this is too much for little feet, you can always use your stroller and leave it in the stroller check. We almost always bring our stroller as we like to go out to eat after. As you are exiting the building, you can ask the staff member at the door to validate your ticket, and you can pay for it as you are going up on the elevator. Expect a line on more crowded days.
Plan Your Visit
If you’re not a member, it’s recommended that you buy your tickets online. They can be delivered to your phone, or you can print them out. At this moment, children 2 and under are free, children 3-11 $24.95 and adults are $39.95. Don’t let the prices scare you; it is a wonderful experience. If you plan to go 2+ times, it’s a great idea to consider purchasing a membership. The best time to visit the aquarium is before 11 am and after 3 pm Monday-Thursday. The early afternoon tends to be more crowded, and it may take a while to see each exhibit or to squeeze in to see the animals. If you are hoping to see a Dolphin show, animal feeding or do a tour, you’ll want to check the schedule and plan around it. They are fairly sporadic, so if you don’t specifically plan for it, you may not see any special talks or shows during your visit. If you have a little one who isn’t walking yet, or who uses a stroller, it is really important to note that you cannot take your stroller into the aquarium. There are lots of escalators and moving walkways that would prohibit you safely getting your kiddo through the buildings. If we are going on a less crowded day or time, we will let our girl walk, but if it’s too crowded and she could risk getting lost in the shuffle we put in her in the carrier. You’ll want to plan 3-4 hours for your first visit if you’re not watching any shows or listening to any animal talks. If it’s empty and you simply want to look, you can get through in about 2 hours. The Aquarium has a 4D IMAX theater for the older kids and adults who may enjoy that.
Big Exhibits
The Aquarium has many exhibits to explore, but these are some of the highlights. Dolphin Discovery is a personal favorite and the aquariums largest exhibit with 7 Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphins. In the colony, they have five females: Jade, Spirit, Maya, Bayley, and Chesapeake (mom to Bayley), and two males: Beau and Foster (Jade’s son). If you
like dolphins, you may want to consider doing a Behind the Scene tour where you get to meet a dolphin up close and personal! When you head into the exhibit upstairs, you are greeted by bubble tubes (Peach’s personal favorite), and you’ll head into the Blacktip Reef Exhibit. It’s a stunning display of beautiful (fun fact- it’s fake!) coral reef and majestic fish, blacktip reef sharks (who are real-life friends), a Reticulated Whiptail Ray, and Calypso, their 500-pound green sea turtle. If you’re having trouble getting your kids to eat Brussel Sprouts, you can tell them it’s one of Calypso’s favorite foods! You can even view it live!
You’ll then wander through a few other exhibits including a puffin exhibit, a coral reef exhibit where you can stop by and say “hi” to Nemo and Dory and then up through the Upland Tropical Rainforest where you can spot a sloth, poison dart frogs, a golden lion tamarin monkey and tropical birds. Once through you’ll head into Shark Alley. It is the home to the Largetooth Sawfish, Nurse Sharks, Sand Tiger Sharks and Sandbar Sharks, as well as various fish and Roughtail Stingrays. At the bottom of Shark Alley is a beautiful underwater view of the Blacktip Reef where you can take gorgeous silhouette pictures of your kiddos enjoying the aquarium.
Tours and Experiences
I previously mentioned a Dolphin Discovery tour, but there are many choices to choose from. If you are PADI scuba certified, you can even do a diving experience! Most of the tours and experiences are for children 8+, so it’s important to keep that in mind.
Food and Shopping
The aquarium has two places to eat- when you first enter there is a deli with a few beverages, sandwiches soup, etc. on the first floor. If you are looking for a wider variety, head over to the Dolphin Discovery area for a small food court with more options. If neither of those options sounds good, or you’d like to save a little money there is a wide variety of restaurants within a block of the aquarium. There are two gift shops. The first one is located on the second floor near the Blacktip Reef exhibit, and there is a specific dolphin gift shop outside of the Dolphin Sanctuary.
We hope you enjoyed this blog and enjoy your visit. There are few things in the local vicinity that could compare the beauty and fun of the National Aquarium.
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