Birch Aquarium at Scripps Reviews

Great place to see up close fish and also is a great learning experience for the children and adults.

Local aquarium aim for mainly kids, not very big but still very good for a short visit !

It's small but the kids had fun. Great views of la Jolla!

It's a cute place. Small but fun for little kids. Great view!

Very small aquarium. But nice and clean and educational.

Renovations look great, and it's a great place to spend a few hours with the family. There is a food hut and food truck out front to grab some lunch... And there is even beer!

Visited a scientist and spent a few hours here. Loads to do for a few hours but not much more. Touch Tide pools and interactive energy exhibits were a hit with the kids. Many tanks and a variety of fish. Nothing huge except for the main tank where there was a feeding and talk with the divers in the tank. Get there a little early so you get a good spot.

Cute aquarium with great tanks and VERY well kept fish. The coral is incredible and colorful here. There's also a whole information side to learn things about the ocean and the ecosystem etc. Fun activites for kids and has an outdoor section with a beautiful view of the cove. Loved it.

A great small aquarium for kids of all ages with a strong focus on education and interaction

What an amazing place. Loved seeing the different varieties of fish and sea life. I highly recommend this spot.

Not worth the money. It cost $36 for 2 ppl, and it took all of an hour to see everything...twice. I kept looking for more thinking this can't really be it? If you've been to anything like the Atlanta aquarium you're going to leave dissatisfied. Also don't eat there, I'm writing this review from the throne for which I've now been sitting on for another hour, thanks to their $5 hotdog

Great place for going with the kids. We all enjoyed it.

Very cool aquarium! It was small and they had a part closed for renovation, plus some of the tide pool was closed off. The Hall of fishes was the best part

Cool place, Amy seemed to be rude and unfriendly changed my mood in 5 seconds but the rest was good, still giving you a 5 star review because Eric was a good tour guide.

This was a really cute aquarium, pretty small but the staff was very nice and I loved the turtle! It will not take long to walk the entire aquarium (maybe 1 1/2 hours, tops?). Regardless it was enjoyable and I do recommend it!

What a rip off. $20 for a place that takes 10 mins to walk through dont waste your money. I understand this place may be for learning purposes but to charge $20 for general public is a joke.

visited from out of town and it was a good time. The kids loved it. The hands on exhibits were done well. We spent most of a morning there and could have spent more time if our schedule would have allowed.

Birch is very family friendly but a bit pricey. We arrived late in the day but enjoyed the various displays. The children's interactive area was interesting with the specimen displays.

Excellent aquarium! Wonderful, scientifically accurate, informative exhibits. They have SEA DRAGONS!

Don t waste the $20, only takes you 30 minutes to walk through and if thats if your reading stuff. Don t waste your money seriously over priced. Should only be like $8 for entry. Take the money to drive a few hours to Long Beach s aquarium!

It's pretty good, but is probably better for field trips for school kids rather than the average person. Most exhibits get crowded with poorly managed children blocking the view to the fish.

Nice aquarium. A lot of interesting and educational displays/tanks. Clean and well kept. The employees were very friendly and helpful. My children had questions about the tide pools and the guides were very informative and pleasant to all of the kids in the area. We got through the aquarium in about an hour. Would visit again. Also, they have a military discount that includes veterans.

My daughter always have fun here and they give military discount

Great fun place to take any child that loves the water

Felt safe and socially distant. Lots to look at. Fun quick weekend trip.

Clean facility! Friendly staff! Educational! Social distancing & disinfecting in place.

A wonderful educational fieldtrip. Worth the money for students to experience

Great place to take the kids and family. Amazing exhibits, interactive stuff for the kids, price is right. Free parking.

Love this place. Just renewed our membership because it's a great value. Enough to see to linger a bit, but size allows for a quicker visit as well. Similar for the exhibits as well... enough changes to always make it interesting but the kiddos like to "visit the octopus and sea turtle."

Great Aquarium. A great way to spend a few hours or day with your family. It's good for kids of all ages. We were in San Diego on a short vacation & wanted to do something different & this choice didn't disappoint. We all had fun & learned some things at the same time.

We enjoyed our time at this museum. Went mid day during the week and it was quiet which gave us time to explore.
Nice outdoor touch tank for kids to explore and a good play area outside too.

This is on out top 10 places to go when people come in from out of town. As local we are expected to take people to cool places, Birch Aquarium is a truly cool place. Our Friends love it when we take them here.

Beautiful place , new exhibition dragon seshorses..excelent view, la joya california

Although the aquarium is small, it offers a large amount of exhibits and fun for kids.

My 4 year old attended a little day camp here, he had a blast. He also was able to tell me all kinds of facts he learned about starfish and jellies. Very cool!

My first time there. Great exhibits, details with the aquarium exhibits. Gift shop.

Great place to take the little ones. Fair amount of exhibits for the adults and students, and a great play are for the younger ones (2-5). Membership is worth while for the family. Pretty decent food and snacks available out front at the snack bar. Amazing views of LaJolla and the Pacific.

Once the screaming kids settled down it was a wonderful experience. Maybe limit school tours for very young children to specific days of the week? I got shoved and jostled by way too many kids who were let loose on a tour. We stuck it out and enjoyed the exhibits eventually.

Not very big but they have some neat stuff. And great views of the ocean.

Really enjoyed this small but great facility. Great views of the ocean. Very good educational exhibits for kids. Beautiful displaces. A very nice, small aquarium. Good place to stop on the way back from Torrey Pines towards downtown La Jolla. 1.5 hour visit tops.

Beautiful aquarium. Great price for an informative day. The food at the cafe was excellent as well

Wonderful family activity. Very.clean, friendly staff, and good prices. We also found Dory?

Nice people...first class aquariums very healthy
Bring an extra battery!

Small but educational and informative. Good for the family if they take the time to read the information presented. Covers water and water life of the West coast from Alaska to Mexico.

Small aquarium, but worth the price and a great rainy day activity! A whole side of the aquarium has interactive activities for students to play with

Everything about Birch Aquarium is great. There are enough things for kids to do, but not so much that you're overwhelmed. The fish always seem to be putting on a show when we walk through and the venue is small enough to do in a couple of hours. The people that work here are knowledgeable and helpful.

Very small but a gorgeous view from the back it will be amazing when the whales are migrating

Lovely aquarium with a multitude of different aquatic exhibits, ranging from local to other tropical locations. The huge floor to ceiling tank is great to just sit in front of and see how all the fish interact. There is also a touchable "tide pool" outside that also has amazing views of the sunset.

Great place for children to expand their appreciation of ocean life.

Great family spot, educational with a little something for everyone!

If you re on your own you ll see everything in 90 minutes. The exhibits are thoughtful and beautiful, however everything is small. The best part was easily the sea horse exhibit. I had no idea they grew so big. Overall I m glad I went and perhaps if I had small children I would feel differently. I had a good experience.

Be forewarned, this place is small. Nice little aquarium with good activities for the kids, but don't expect it to be like the Long Beach or Monterey Bay Aquariums

Thought it was overpriced for what it is. Albuquerque aquarium is more impressive, amazingly. The view outside, of the coast, is the best part but for the money you could go to a nice restaurant and be fed while you enjoy the view and the aquatic life/sea food.
Good if you are a local with little kids and you buy a family pass otherwise.... go get something to eat.

Beautiful aquarium with Excellent views of the ocean and La Jolla. If the parking lot is full it means the aquarium is close to capacity. Watch for special events on their website.

Amazing, I loved the seahorse aquariums the best. Had a perfect time with my son.

Spent a few hours at the Aquarium this afternoon. Great place to see what is in the ocean around you. I highly recommend a visit.

Great place!! Went early in the morning so we basically had the place to ourselves.

Nice, clean place to go. It has all the things you'd expect to have at an aquarium, dive shows, various animal displays, and a petting tide pool. All staff was friendly and more than willing to talk to us about the different animals they had. One thing to note is that if you are looking to see a dive show, make sure you check the times online as they're only once a day and get packed early. One qualm that I do have with the aquarium is it's size, it holds 2 halls, one left and right to the entrance, but Overall the amount of displays and such were very compact and did not have more than 1.5 hours worth to do/see. Overall, this is a nice clean, and great aquarium to go to, but for $18/adult I'd rather make the trip up to Monterey Bay aquarium.

The Aquarium makes a great stop on the road, but don't count on it as a whole day event. It's small, but has killer view.

Small but very kid friendly and educational. Staff are nice, knowledgeable. Cool exhibits.

Love the aquarium they have a place to eat outside of the aquarium. I think it's called splash. Best panini I have had in a long time. Great staff there too

One of my favorite places to visit in the world, which never grows old for me.

This was my first visit my son's 6th grade class was on a field trip. There were so many things to see and learn about. I would like to go again I didn't have enough time to explore every detail. Great place to bring the family.

Just loved this Aquarium. Great displays and we were blown away by the Sea Horse exhibit. I would go back again, although next time we wouldn't walk from the beach all the way up some very steep inclines to get there!

Plenty to see, very kid friendly. You don't need all day to enjoy it. Gift shop is loaded

It was ok...really an educational facility for study not an aquarium for real entertainment. Sharks were small and there really wasn't much to keep my girls entertained and excited. Not horrible but definitely not the best Aquarium we've been to.

Great collection of aquarium spaces that reflect different "real world" environments. The view from here is also amazing.

Great location overlooking the ocean. The highlights for me were the octopus (tricky to find), the kelp tank and the hammerhead sharks. Otherwise a lot of fish that were pretty. Nice sculptures outside, cafe, some kids play areas. Free parking.

One of my top five aquariums in North America! Grwat place to visit again and again!

Awesome customer service and good prices, I used to go to Fountain's aquarium but after going to this place once and considering the high quality and health of the fish, I won't go back to Fountain's aquarium even to buy an air stone!!

- Tickets are kinda pricey, but if you get the Entertainment app, you can get 2 tickets for 50% off (basically, buy one get one free). The Entertainment app is only 99 cents for one month of use, so you pay $1 and save $18.50. Not a bad trade-off. Just remember to cancel your subscription before the next month (it's auto-pay), unless you want to keep using the app.

- Parking is free for the first 3 hours. Even though the parking lot seems full, there's a lot of turn over.

- Probably more fun for young children.

Our family went to Birch Aquarium on a Tuesday at 11:30AM with a 1-year-old, 4-year-old, and almost 6-year-old. It was full, but not crowded and we spent a good 2-3 hours exploring. We checked out the tide pool, looked at the view, and walked through the exhibits. The water play/boundless energy area is great. I think we spent at least 30-45 minutes there alone. I also liked that there were several museum employees throughout the exhibits who had some items on hand for children to touch and feel.

I have been here twice. One of the best places to be with ur kids. My 8 months old daughter loved it and specially the water activities they have outside.

They have many species of fish and it feels majestic to be among them.

One feels amazed to be in a different world altogether. How often do we get to see a horse-fish or a jelly fish?? Well here at Birch's you can see all of them.

They also have a good collection of sharks and a lot of people visit the place making it one of the best places to be in san diego..

and ya not to forget the tide pools they have where you can see star fishes and other things. .

Small but full of surprises, very interesting explanations

Beautiful place!! They had so much information and the tanks were gorgeous my family and i had a lot of fun!!

Wonderful spot, could sit all day looking at the ocean or one of the many tanks. Toddler really enjoyed seeing the fishes

Great place to learn about Nature and Family Outing

It's small. Young kids will enjoy it. Beautiful view. Plus a tide pool which is fun to touch sea creatures.

Nice place, definitely more geared towards school aged kids and younger families.

Small especially compared to Boston and Baltimore but nicely done.

Nice smaller aquarium in a very beautiful location. Amazing view!

Great place to take the kids during summer. It's mostly indoors which is great to keep cool on hot days. They also have a learning play area so the kids can burn off some energy while learning. It's not very big, but I love that. I don't feel completely exhausted when I leave.