Steve H. says:

I never miss the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It is simply awesome and unlike any aquarium you'd ever see...I mean, it's got to be the best in the world, or at least in the top 3. They have a deep ocean tank that's got huge sunfish and sharks in it...they even kept a Great White (juvenile) in it for a bit (released now). It's quite a drive down to Monterey from 'Frisco (about 50 or 60 miles), but I always, always go. I usually grab a bite to eat near the aquarium where you can watch Sea Lions bask from your dinner table (but be prepared for lackluster tourist-trap food), then hit the aquarium. If I leave early enough, I sometimes hit the Santa Cruz boardwalk on my way back to San Francisco, mostly for the nostalgia of my parents taking me as a kid (or because the "Lost Boys" from the 80's film hung out there..in the movie anyway), but it can get kind of scary there lately (population wise).

The aquarium is great at feeding time (usually around 1 pm if memory serves). The kelp forest is awesome with two-three story tall tanks (also the sea otters). The Monterey area is beautiful to begin with anyway, so it's nice to visit anyway, especially if you like Steinbeck.

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H S. says:

The Monterey Bay Aquarium is a family friendly Aquarium that has lots of great kids activities. This aquarium is in an old fish cannery. It’s pretty cool and they even left some of the old factory equipment in place. Here you will see everything from clown fish to sharks, and even giant sea turtles. They are now featuring a great white shark.
They have a lot of touch pools for the kids as well as sand and water play for them.
They have a neat walkway that goes tight along the bay that you can get to from the aquarium. We say starfish, birds, sea otters, and a seal in the wild right there. If you go back into the aquarium you will be able to see sea otters and starfish in the tanks.

This is very pricy. It was $21.50 for adults and our infant son was free. We got a $5.00 off admission card that was in one of the California Tourism Magazines that are free. It was an orange card that was stuck to the state map.

You kids will have a lot of fun. It is made for kids in my opinion.

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Ramona H. says:

This is a very cool place to go for a day. This is an awesome aquarium. They have such a wide array of fish and sea animals. The jellyfish tank is so amazing. I could sit there for hours watching those beautiful creatures. They also have a huge tank which house some tuna. You need to watch those fish swim.

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Karelin G. says:

When we go to Monterey to visit, this is our first stop. I absolutely love visiting this aquairum. I never feel like I've seen everything there is to see here and that's a great feeling. Even though we don't have children my husband and I love going here, it's definetly for adults as well as children. You can just sit and watch the giant Tuna swim around or spend all day walking from one end to the other. I love this place!

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Joanne R. says:

This is an awesome aquarium and it is a neat place to visit whether you are a kid or an adult. It will give you a whole day of entertainment because it is so darn big. Actually, it is a little overwhelming and it is sometimes a good idea to get your hand stamped and go shop for a little while on Cannery Row and then come back. It gets extremely crowded, especially on the weekend, and the line just to get in and get tickets takes forever. I would highly recommend pre-ordering your tickets online. Also, the parking is really bad. It is very hard to find a place to park. However, once you get past that and get into the aquarium it is really neat. There are so many exhibits that I couldn't even begin to list them all. Some of the best ones are the touch tank for the kids where they can touch starfish and rays. Also, the otter exhibit is really good because it is a huge tank where you can watch the otters play both above and under the water. The most awesome exhibit is the jellyfish exhibit. It is really big and dark and you can see all the beautiful colors of the jellyfish. I would highly recommend just going in and checking it out if you are going to be near Monterey. It is a much more pleasant experience if you can go during the week and not during the summer or Christmas or Spring break, because it just gets way too busy.

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