Birch Aquarium at Scripps Review

My son loved the wall of fish, and that he was able to play in the tide pools. The workers are all very sweet and helpful!

Not terribly large aquarium situated near Torrey Pines. No reciprocity with other institutions. The touch pools and views of La Jolla (plus occasional live music) on the sizeable verandah are not to be missed. We could have spent all day there. Three hour free parking in the lot.

Great place for the family to visit fun and interesting to see how marine life development change due to climate and human interaction .

A great educational experience. Perfect for kids. I highly recommend.

Small but good. Outdoor terrace and installations are very beautiful. Little gem.

I took my son for his birthday here and he loved it

Great exhibits, especially the hands on exhibits for children. Be extra early for scheduled demonstrations or you can't see.

Family had fun and learned a lot. Well worth the price.

Awesome little gem nestled away in la jolla. My daughter loves this place. Something fun to do on the weekends.

Had a great time and admission prices are cheap ! Plan around the kelp shows! It's once per day,but worth it!

A little more fore the small kids but some good aquariums.

Great aquarium. Kinda small but very well maintained. All of the animals seem healthy and happy.

Great place to spend an afternoon. Everyone seems to love talking about the exhibits. My granddaughter spent a week at one of the summer camps and now wants to be an oceanographer.
The price is extremely reasonable, especially compared with any other SoCal thing.

A tip: Consider paying for a membership if you even think you might want to go back. The member rate is not much more than two adult one-day entries.

Great place for a family outing. Very kid friendly.

Always 5-star experience! We go here as members and spend an hour or two checking out the sealifr and doing the kid fun

If you have friends in town Birch is definitely somewhere you have to take them! You can get discounted tickets for military, senior and student. This place is informative and beautiful!

So much funnn!
We went here during the first weekend of the month and got in for free when we showed our bank of america card or sallie mae. This promotion is valid until the end of the year, so definitely take advantage of it!

Z husband really enjoyed the photography room, we spent a good amount of time there. lol It was pretty crowded when we went but overall, everyone was nice and allowed each person to have a look at the tank. I really enjoyed looking at the turtle.. it's so beautiful! It was a little shy at first so we waited a good minute there to have a look at it.
The seahorse exhibit was one that i've never seen before...didn't know that there were so many different types of seahorses!! Another thing that I really liked about this aquarium is how kid friendly it is! Being of a small stature myself, I was able to perch up on some of the benches to have a better view, and it definitely gave me a different perspective! We spent about 2 hours and throughly enjoyed our trip to the aquarium!

Plenty of free parking!

This is a nice place to bring the kids, very educational. They even have a tide pool area. The view here is awesome too.

I have volunteered here off and on and I would recommend visiting here to anyone. The aquarium is not huge as one would expect but they offer tide pool, a shark tank outside with leopard sharks, and a 70,000 gallon kelp tank that can take your breath away. This is one of my favorite places to go to in San Diego. I totally recommend visiting especially if you have a hidden love of the sea. Tickets are also reasonable!

One of my favorite aquariums in the States. I visited when I was a child and again just a year ago. The aquarium does not take long to view the exhibits, kid friendly, great gift shop. I recommend a visit if you ever find yourself in classy San Diego.

Wonderful family day! We had a group of 13 people ages 1-80 yrs old and everyone had an incredible time! The aquarium is mesmerizing, the outdoor tide pool areas are a lot of fun too! Throughout the aquarium there were staff who were there educating people, which we thought was a plus! There's a hands on, educational section of the aquarium that was fun and we all played. It was a great time! We purchased the annual membership as it is a great value!

Great place to go with kids. Kids enjoy and learn at same time. Place is clean.

Fantastic aquarium. They just opened the sea dragons exhibit and it was spectacular. A little crowded on the weekends. Bring your student id if you are a college student.

Nice place to walk around with children and have them explore. The aquarium is small in comparison but the view is beautiful.

Smaller than its cousins like the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific or tge Monterey Aquarium, the Birch is nevertheless a fine place to visit. Their complex of displays about the coast and the California current were very well done and informative. And, as a big fan of marine biology, I was surprised to see animals I had never see before. The sections on oceanography and Scripps were likewise very interesting. The tide pool zone was, in contrast, rather disappointing with lots of kids struggling to find much of anything.

Still, we found the visit worthwhile. Oh, and we bought a chicken sandwich which we split between of us; it was pretty good.

This place could have used some more sea life not too exciting after 30 minutes we were ready to go home

I visit here every week. It is a small aquariumwith a lot to explore.

Excellent place to go with kids. If you don't want to stay the entire day on SeaWorld, this is the right place to go! You can visit every exhibit and read all about it in about two and a half hours.

Amazing views, good aquirium with local fish, not many exotics or larger specimens.

Nice place to take your kids. My kids loved it, and they got to touch a lobster, and some fish in the outside area of the aquarium. It wasn't too crowded, and parking was easy to get.

Bring your kids and watch any of the feedings! You'll enjoy yourself and learn a lot too.

Such a great experience! They do have a military discount when tickets are bought on base. Wonderful exhibits. Free parking. Learned a lot about the environment while here. I would definitely recommend to someone who loves the ocean or water animals. Also, families with youngsters who want to have a fun educational experience while enjoying it. The staff is fantastic! This can also be done in a half day for scheduling purposes. One item to note was there were not many things to touch in the touching pool exhibit. But still neat. Highly recommend.

Honestly, I was underwhelmed. Small displays, cramped spaces. The "touch tank" had one specimen that kids could touch. Many interactive displays were broken.

There wasn't a whole lot to see here. It had some fun interactive exhibits for kids but it probably wasn't worth the cost of admission.

Very small, took 30 minutes to see it all. I'm from Utah and the Loveland aquarium is at least 5 times bigger. I thought that since this was by the ocean it would be more impressive. I was not impressed at all and would not recommend

great aquarium with quite a few activities for children. Also amazing view.

I've gone here since I was a kid. It's much bigger now. It's also not in the location on the beach that i remember. I had a hard time finding it.

This Aquarium was fun to go to, but this is a pretty small place, so I would expect an 1-2 hour visit here. One side of the building was the actual aquarium, and the other side was mainly a children s activity center. There are two outdoor exhibits as well, featuring small sharks! The place gets really crowded on a busy day, and parking can be a nightmare when it is crowded. Otherwise, this is an good place to visit.

This aquarium is really small. I honestly don't feel that the price is justified. That being said, it is a nice and clean place to visit and has a variety of sea life. This place is geared more toward little kids age 5 and under. It will take you less than an hour to see all this Aquarium has to offer. Enjoy!

Not super big or impressive, but the views from the back are incredible

Good for small kids and good for the price. However there was not a lot to see.

A little bit pricey but the jellyfish and seahorses are breathtaking. I will definitely go again.

High class aquarium with beautiful exhibits. Very educational and great for people of all ages.

(Keeping in mind that I've been here before pre Covid) Its a beautiful place. The view from the outside onto the beach is breath taking, the aquarium itself is nice and pretty always clean and theres so much to see. Now, during covid, I undeestand that we have our social distancing rules in place and that places are doing as much as they can to remain open while still following the rules, but its very unfortunate that we can't see the inside. So realistically all there is to do is look at the view of the ocean, pet a few smaller sea animals that they have outside, read some fun facts on boards outside and listen to a lady talk about shells. Not that I didn't enjoy myself because I did, but the full experience is obviously not there but for what it was I really enjoyed myself.

Fir the ticket price i expected it to be a little bigger with more activities

A great place and well worth the visit. Very nice view of the beach and a great set of exhibits. You will probably be expecting more but again every exhibit tells a story and they are all beautifully displayed. Food is a truck outside not too bad but do not expect anything other than your basic fair.

Very nice aquarium in a scenic area of La Jolla. Decent price for admission with a nice variety of exhibits. Very good place to take kids.

In my opinion and my 17 year old son's, and 4 year old niece's opinion, the Aquarium was boring.

Not the largest aquarium but the biodiversity is awesome and the exhibits are fun for a toddler and educational

Awesome aquarium! Reasonably priced and not too crowded. Plenty to look at and touch. Awesome view of the Pacific from tidepool area!

Beautiful tanks and fascinating information on all the vertibrates and invertebrates here. Got to go here!

The exhibits here are well curated. It's a smaller aquarium but has excellent displays. The view from the touch tanks is breathtaking.

Nice place to go with kids, it's not as big and not as expensive as other places around

Great for kids of all ages, all of the displays are easily viewable,all of the aquatic life is easy to see

Fun for the whole family! You could easily spend an afternoon here.

A nice aquarium I liked there kids exhibits and the shark feeding was neat

I see multiple food reviews in here, which I find odd, I came for the Fish, to look at the fish not to eat the fish! The Aquarium is amazing and the total experience was well worth the price.
I can t lower myself to review the food, honestly I cook my meals at home.

Overpriced and not many exhibits at all. Was disappointed for sure.

DON'T waste you're money or time. Maybe 20 mins walkthrough. No large tanks, space is cramped and you feel rushed viewing let along reading anything. Don't recommend a stroller due to the small aisles. Honestly Sea world has larger fish, tanks, sharks everything don't waste money here. It's like walking threw a pet store for fish. The tanks are soo dirty and scratched forget about pictures. Honestly the worst experience at any wildlife viewing I've been too and I've visited many zoo's and aquarium's in many country's and Birch Aquarium is by far the smallest and the worst.

Every child and adult had a smile on there face. This is a great place to visit for all ages.

The place is a tad small and a tad pricey for the pace of the facility to explore but nonetheless it is a beautiful place to see and the sunset is something to absolutely appreciate. Especially since it's the time the lobsters start coming out from their caves the tide pools.

Beautiful location and great aquarium! I love how the place is organized by the region in which you would find these animals/aquatic plants! My favorite spot was the giant kelp forest tank!

However, I feel like some of the tanks are too small for the animals. There was one tank with a big octopus in it and the octopus itself looked like it took up a quarter of the tank which made me a bit sad to look at. Overall, great place especially for kids!

Being a biologist, this place is amazing. I love marine biology and being able to see the different species of marine life here is incredible. It's a good place to take the kids too and teach them about marine wildlife.

Beautiful aquarium with a lot of different sea life to see and fun environment!

Great experience, beautiful ocean views, perfect for kids to learn

Nice aquarium, great for kids, lots of activities and interactive displays

Very happy that the aquarium is open during black friday!

So much to see and do for the price. Well worth it!

Cute aquarium. It is on the small side so gets crowded when there are school groups there too. Lots of stuff to look at. Fun touch pool outside

Love this aquarium! They had a special exhibit on seahorses when we were there. Takes about 2-3 hours if you want to go slower. They have a lil cafe and water filling station. Beautiful view of the beach from above!

One of my favorite aquariums. Staff were great and even answered some obscure questions. Have been here multiple times

Beautiful aquarium with incredible education opportunities for local ecology.

Love the education and especially petting the sea hare in the touch tide pools! So soft! Will recommend, and will go back. Decently priced, about $20.

Awesome in so many ways, anyone can enjoy this educational, interactive & fresh aquarium.

Went out here when I was on vacation. Was an amazing aquarium especially the seahorse section. Will definitely go back when I m in town. Highly recommend