Birch Aquarium at Scripps Review

Been to bigger and better. Was not expecting it to be so small.

The green flash summer concert series has me coming back every year. Awesome shows on the back patio. The aquarium is small, but has a lot of local species.

I wouldn't even give it a star but it made me not enough animals at all it was a complete RIP off wouldn't recommend going I will not be coming back

Good variety of fish. A smaller aquarium - able to get through it in about an hour. Kids were entertained. My two-year-old daughter actually enjoyed the outdoor interactive exhibits (water current to energy to be specific) spending most of her time there.

Free Parking for up to three hours.
Admission fees seemed a little high

Definitely a fun Experience! If you go outside it has a beautiful view of the ocean. It s so serene and calming. Definitely recommend. They have plenty of Sea horses so if you re a fan of sea horses... GO THERE!

Went here about a week ago for a biology project. Didn't expect much but this place is absolutely amazing. The amount of info you learn and the varity of of sea life they have is outstanding. They have a lot of stuff to make it entertaining for both adults and kids and they have an amazing view if you go to there balcony where the petting sea life thingy is. Highly recommend you go here and check it out if you haven't already. Would go back.

Loved it great for a quick trip. My 3 year old loved it!

Unique sea animals very friendly layout, you can cover the whole place in short period of time. Warning, weekdays may be overtaken by elementary age school children on field trips.

Very nice aquarium but a bit on the small side. We took our time and finished our walking tour in just over an hour. The view from the back patio where they have the hands on display is beautiful. Don't expect to spend the day unless there is a special activity going on.

Was there for a private event. Beautiful views, and fun interactive marine life exhibits.

Great small Aquarium. Super knowledgeable & friendly staff.

Great exhibits, exotic critters, knowledgeable staff, incredible views of the ocean and scripps pier

Beautiful creatures of the sea. We got to touch baby sharks and other sea anemones. Pleasant customer service except in the gift shop. Two women were rude and snobbish towards me until my daughter came up and spent quite a bit of money!

Very cool aquarium. Takes an hour or two to go through the inside, more time if you are able to explore outside. We we're not allowed on the deck or tide pools due to weather.

One of the best aquariums I've ever visited. Amazing exhibits and the fish seem to actually enjoy being photographed!

Great views over the cliff and down to the pier. A nice aquarium with interesting exhibits.

Beautiful and can be seen in 1 hour as it's much smaller than Aquarium of the Pacific

This is a very good place for families they have a hole lot of fish and they have a touch pool that is very cool and if you go out in the back of the place they have a great view

So good! Not overly huge so it's over relatively quickly but the kids love it and will look around the space multiple times.

It is a great place to bring the kids so they can see the fishes...beautiful view to the ocean from the outside.

Great place to bring kids, just wish it was bigger. Expected more for the price.

Small aquarium, they have a great view of the coast.

I had a lot of fun. The place was a little than I expected, but still a great place.

Small, but well-curated and maintained. Lots for kids to enjoy! Tide pool, shark tank, a lively octopus, and lots of other wonderful sea critters.

A small aquarium but very high quality in terms of collections and exhibits. I love the SIO oddities exhibit they have right now!

Smallish aquarium with lots of great exhibits. We spent about an hour there. The kids liked the touch pools and the kelp forest was my favorite exhibit. After finishing up head toward seal Beach in downtown La Jolla.

Cool place to get indoors if it ever rains in San Diego!

This is a small aquarium, but it is very educational, and I love how focused it is on the specific ecosystem of the La Jolla cove itself. The location also makes it a spectacularly beautiful place to spend a few hours. The views here, and the natural beauty of the hillside, are wonderful to experience. I recommend it to everyone I know when they visit San Diego, and everyone says it is one of the highlights of their trip, even if it is usually just a fairly quick diversion.

Scenic aquarium enjoyable for toddlers to adults of all ages. Complete with sea turtles, leopard sharks and tide pools!

Amazing experience! The kids loved it and we went on a rainy day so great way to have some fun and stay dry. Was not expensive and saw a lot of things I've never seen before. Great way to spend a couple hours!

Great place to learn something new and have awsome experience

Beautiful place for all the family to enjoy, lots of displays (including several hands-on ones for the kids) and very educational exhibits with beautiful or strange fish. Different shows or attractions depending on the day. On the Tuesday I went, there was a leopard shark feeding show and a scuba diving show.

Had a great experience here! Learned a lot and it was such a pleasent suprise to see so many sea creatures! Highly recommended!

I expected more out of this aquarium. A lot of hype but not a lot there.

Beautiful little aquarium with nice views of the ocean. Geared towards kids and is busy during the week with school visits. A lot of the fish in tanks were not labeled which was unfortunate. Coming from Atlanta with the huge Georgia Aquarium, this is on the opposite end of the scale but still has really nice small viewing tanks where you really get to see everything up close and take the time to look at every detail. My favorite was seeing the growth of jellyfish and sea horses that they breed at the aquarium. If you enjoy marine life, definitely check this aquarium out.

I always love coming here with Wesley in the front is awesome and always is nice to see a friendly face.

Very first time here. The staff is warm and friendly. What a view from the touching area of the ocean breath taking

Great place for family and good resource for kids to learn.

Smaller aquarium but lots of interactive stations for kids. The view is also stunning!

Not worth the price. You're paying $20 for a small exhibit. The Baltimore Aquarium is huge and you get your money's worth. I wouldn't go back.

Excellent aquarium experience. Engaging for both adults and children. Only negative was the lobby venue big screen (bad audio) display of the "Kelp Forest Diving Experience". It was worth

Wonderfully curated aquarium, wish there was more. Part of it was closed for a private function, but admission price was the usual, so they lost a star

Small aquarium, but nice exhibits overall. A little pricy for what you get, and a lot of the interactive exhibits outside aren't in working order.

This is a great place for kids, and has a wonderful view of the ocean!

Nice little place to get out of the house. Was a little sad we didn't see everything looks like a lot is being redone or closed

Very informative. We went while they were doing a feeding. It was pretty neat.

Not very many fish, definately no big ones unless you count the whale statues ot front.

Seemed a bit pricey for the return. Avoid drinking quarters in the binoculars on the deck, just gives you super fuzzy results. Nice staff

My son loved it. Very informative and interesting visit.

A great aquarium with the best views of La Jolla Cove and the Pacific.

Really nice aquarium with many indoor tanks. They have a HUGE indoor tank and a couple outdoor tide pools. Go there on the Go Pass and plan to spend an hour or 2.

Bit small, but the staff has been awesome. Dig the coral exhibits, the touch tanks outside are really amazing with a view to boot. But My kids would just play with the boats the whole time if I let them. Good educational spot with some tremendous over views.

One of the top 5 attractions in San Diego and not to be missed. Something for every age and interest level. Come for the sea life and stay for the views

Great view of LA Jolla from outside and the exhibits are great. I loved every visit I've made here.

The aquarium fish exhibition was great. The exhibit on global warming was dishonest. The $6.48 for water in a cardboard box was a WOW moment. Ah, California.

It has many incredible species and you can see them very close, I recommend it for the whole family the kids love it

Beautiful scenery and aquarium had amazing ocean exhibits. I thought it would have a larger size exhibit of the kelp forest. But it was located on the side of a mountain.

We spent 3 hours here, but I could have stayed all day.

It is a small research aquarium, but has so many fascinating species of enormous starfish (the biggest I've ever seen), a Pacific Octopus, jellyfish, sharks, and sea horses (amongst many others). Been there twice now and can't beat the location, as the Pacific Ocean is literally out the back door.

Adults can also spend good 2-3 hours at the aquarium, learning about sea life and watching sea creatures. Try to find each creature featured outside the tank. I bet you will miss many but they are present!! And hey, beautiful views of Pacific Ocean!

Extremely nifty with a number of tremendous specimens, but the facility is disappointingly small. Sea turtles and crabs and jellies and all kinds of sharks! The tide pool touch experience in the back was very engaging and fun!

The section with the preserved samples allowed us to see things that were impossible to keep at the surface (anglerfish, deep sea vent tubes), but they were all browned from the preservation process.

This aquarium is pretty good, but even with the Groupon deal I got, it wouldn't be worth visiting a second time.

This is a small local charm. Great touch tank interaction with helpful staff.

Great hands on experience for kids and adults. Staff is awesome. Diver show was exceptional!

Haven't been since I was a child, I loved going back as an adult.

It is rather small, but there are lots of exhibits and interactive stations. Loved the photo gallery, super pretty. My baby sister really liked the tide pool area with lots to touch. Cool place

Kid friendly and informative. Tide pools. Plenty of parking.

Parking is a bit tight. Great hands on place and kid friendly. Staff is friendly.

Great place to hang out. It has many different tanks to look at a variety of sea creatures. Also has a learning interactive area for kids to explore.

Small but very neat aquarium next to the beautiful UC at San Diego campus

Nice aquarium with some cool things to look at. It's a bit on the smaller side, so doesn't take too long. Tide pools to feel and little boats for the kids to play with too.

Lots of fun! Very interesting with a lot of very cool fish.

Great local spot to visit and take the kids. Perfect if you plan a tourist day in La Jolla!

This picture is so full all kinds of fish had a great time with my nephew

What an amazing place for children or adults. So many amazing things to see and learn.

Birch Aquarium is wonderful.The seahorses and dragons were awesome!A great small aquarium!I very much enjoyed the visit.Great little aquarium.

Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego today announced that it will temporarily be closed to the public beginning Thursday, March 12 at 5 p.m. until further notice.

The seahorse and seadragons are amazing to watch. Check out their feeding schedule in the help tank. Also free entrance for BoA card holders every first weekend of the month.

I expected it to be much more then it was. Fun for little kids but my 9 year old lost interest

Really cool! Super awesome that we have this in our backyard basically. The only complaint is that the HVAC could be better controlled in some areas. Kinda disgusting when the glasses of the exhibits are covered in breath, but nevertheless, I learned alot.

Having been told that the Aquarium gets quite crowded and boisterous, we arrived soon after it opened on a Sunday morning and easily found a place to park and navigate the various exhibits. The various tanks show a wide variety of fish and corals, with informative descriptions, some hands-on activities aimed at kids who knew that male seahorses spend most of their lives pregnant?! And the setting with its views were spectacular. Well worth the visit.