Long Island Aquarium and Exhibition Center Reviews

Very nice to go with the family. To have a little fun

While the aquarium is nicely laid out and clean, there is an underlying feel of it being outdated. You can tell that there hasn t been much updating of the exhibits lately. With that being said, I think this aquarium is perfect for families with young kids. There s a variety of things to do here and there are a lot of interactive components like the butterfly room and birds sanctuary that will appeal to a younger age group. And luckily most of these activities are included in the admission price. The aquarium is a good size and there are plenty of areas to stop and rest when walking becomes too much.

I thought the shark tanks were pretty cool. They offer shark diving experiences for an additional price. You need to reserve a spot for this activity which you can do on their website. There s a sea lion show that is also pretty good. Unfortunately, there s no shade in any the seating areas. It can get really uncomfortable during hot days or when it rains during shows.

Our favorite area of the aquarium is the stingrays exhibit. It s so much fun being able to pet and feed the stingrays. They are super friendly and will swim right up to the edge of the pool to try and grab food. It never gets old!

You can easily spend a solid two or three hours here during each visit and it s not a bad way to spend your time. Yes, the tickets were a bit pricey but it goes to a good cause. Will come back but probably not until next summer.

Tip: If you go an hour before closing they lower the admission prices to half.

Great place
Butterfly garden and aviary were awesome. We got mobbed by the birds as soon as we walked in and beautiful butterflies everywhere even on this frigid winter day.

I was very surprised to see how much they had to offer.

Go and watch the seals play and do tricks. Pet the Rays and feed them! Enjoy the butterflies in a full natural experience in the garden! This place was so fun. The fishies and aquariums were fantastic as well.

Great place for you to take the kids, not too bad for the adults as well, we all had a great afternoon. Close parking and a free shuttle service.

A little pricey but nice to see the animals being well taken care of

Great exhibits, but high prices. If you're a member of the Middle Country Library, they offer discounted tickets

Love this place. It is small compared to other aquariums (with the exception of the coney island one which is really small) but it has a lot. Sharks....otters....sea lions...etc. etc. There is also a stingray feeding pool and turtle feeding pool. Also for extra you can feed the sharks and even dive with them.

Very happily surprised this was a really nice experience.

Fun place for kids and adults but it will hit you're wallet

Very nice place lots of cool different types of SeaWorld animal had a lot of fun with the family.

Had a great time with my boyfriend and grandson..I loved it!!!

i went once before a while ago and had fun! yeah overpriced, costs alot of money to run the place im sure. i am heading back tomorrow morning and i hope we have a good time.........

This aquarium was a big hit for nieces and nephews and we thoroughly enjoyed our vist

Over priced for the size but anyhow the kids still had fun.

Nice place for short activities with kids. Great butterflies exhibition. And fun ses lions show

Family had memberships for about 4 years till I was attacked by the big sting Ray in the feeding pool. I'm a father of two and, to make a long story short, was tail whipped and it got me on the neck. If just for that I'd give the place a 1 star, but it brought us enjoyment for 4 or 5 years prior to the incident. No one seemed to care that it happened as well. I ended up calling and asked to speak to whoever was in charge of them, but played phone tag till I finally gave up on it. Haven't been back. Don't plan to.

Today was my third visit to the LIA. While I still love this place (awesome exhibits, shows and staff), I feel management is trying to nickel and dime their customers. I paid $10 for parking, which I never had to pay a penny for before (Came here back in February of 2018 and June 2017). Fine, I accepted that despite a few words mumbled to myself. What really irked me though was the five cent charge for the bag in the gift shop. I try to support these places as much as I can. Feeding the sting rays for $3, feeding the birds for another $3 (One container is only $1, but I purchased 3). Ate their cafeteria food when there's a diner right down the road which probably would have been cheaper, purchasing a few gifts from the shop, etc. But five cents for a bag for my gifts after ALL of that? I'll still come back because I know the place stands for a good cause besides just housing animals for our entertainment and the experience as a whole is nice but sheesh, try not to make it so obvious y'all trying to milk us please.

I know that this aquarium does marine animal rescue, which is a noble cause. But the emphasis seems to be on kitsch and entertainment rather than conservation and environmental education. Everything here also seems to be geared toward making parents spend exorbitant sums of money on stuff that often has little to do with marine life, like the arcade, for example. Very little is actually included in the high admission price. Parking is extra, too. The sea lion theater is tiny and cramped. I'm using the NY Aquarium in Brooklyn for comparison, where admission is comparable or less than this place. The shark tank here is nice. The otter and penguin sessions are worth checking out. The butterfly experience is also another nice touch. Will not be coming back here, I guess.

Sea lion performance was pretty lame. Nothing compared to the ones in coneyisland. Not much to see but a good walk around. Highlights of the day would definitely be the parrots and butterflies exhibit. Loved that part

A bit small but very friendly and helpful staff. Parking is a few blocks away near the railroad.

The Atlantis exhibit is my son's favorite with the sharks and other larger fish swimming right by the glass.

Located in Riverhead, on Long Island, it should have been a magnificent, jewel. Instead it was poorly lit, the displays were in various stages of disrepair, or not open at all. From cracked glass to worn down or broken concrete and cheap plastic, the exhibits were not esthetically pleasing to look at. Indoor and outdoor exhibits were in dire need of repair. It was not clean enough. Many indoor exhibits had very small viewing windows. Exhibits with audio (shark tank) was unintelligible. It was dark and dank. $10 to park with free shuttle to building. Parking lots were unpaved and filled with potholes. $30 per adult. We were in and out in under an hour - really, nothing to see. Not only was this a far cry from a first rate, top notch aquarium as it should have been, it did not even meet the criteria it was more like a relic. I felt sorry for the creatures. I hope all the money they take in (that isn't going to maintenance) goes to care of exhibit creatures. Very disappointing. Don't be fooled by the photos - they must have been taken a long time ago!

Lots of fun interactive exhibits, tours and activities.

Great place for a family trip! It is a huge aquarium and has everything you could want! As soon as you walk in you are able to pet the sting rays and the layout of the space in such a creative way for children to enjoy and explore!

I really expected more for the price, but felt underwhelmed. My kids didn t seem impressed at all. The sea lion show was barely 10 minutes long. The African penguin and gator talk was boring. Every kid in the butterfly room was terrified, so it s funny reading reviews about how much people loved it. Maybe I just went in with a scared group but all the babies were crying, kids were screaming every time a butterfly got close, even the teenagers were scared. I couldn t believe how terrified everyone was of butterflies! It really ruined the experience. The monkey looked so sad and absolutely refused to come down from the top. The otter literally did the same trick nonstop for the 15 minutes we stood outside by it s tank. I just felt so sad for it. I asked my kids if they wanted to visit again soon and they said no, so I m pretty sure we won t be back.

Great place to bring your kids, the butterfly and bird exhibits were absolutely wonderful!

Great place to take your kids. The 2 hour drive was worth it.

My wife and I took our three kids and they had a great time. We had a chance to see the sea lion show and they loved it. Parking is free and about two blocks from the aquarium.

Average aquarium. Don't expect too much from them. Plus the parking is far off from the actually aquarium

Small but some great exhibits, especially the shark tank. With kids you'd probably spend 2-4 hours. A little on the pricey side and parking is several blocks away.

it was fine great exhibits an very nice environment

The parking lot was a short walk away and offered a free shuttle, however it is one price no matter how long you stay, $10. For a gravel lot. The free shuttle smelled terribly, with a sign that explained that it was due to the rubber on the floor allegedly. There was literally fecal matter at the entrance where an exhibit was. Most of the animals were hiding or just not in the exhibit. Almost every activity available was for an additional charge on top of the already high admission fee. An adult is from 13 - 61 years old for admission fees. Most of the tanks were hard to see through. Many of the exhibits had a distinct odor. The information on the displays were useless. There were services completely unrelated (and for an additional charge). The enclosures needed to be taken care of, as well as better supervised. It was extremely hot inside of the aquarium, which is bad for the animals and made it hard to see the fish without having to use your hand to wipe it off. The staff as a whole was not welcoming and clearly did not want to be there. The groups of children who were on tours were running wild with minimal supervision. The aquarium itself was small and didn't have very much to offer.

Took my two year old grandson who throughly enjoyed seeing many sharks, fish and stingrays up close. He can't wait to visit again soon.

A half day can be spend in there. Very good for family with kids....

The aquarium is small, but my kids had a blast. Not many big ticket exhibits, but there were a lot of hands on experiences.

We came during Memorial day weekend, I thought they missed out by not having some things own for the first big season holiday; like the outdoor ice cream shop.

Some of the hands on exhibits were stingrays, crabs, sea urchins, butterflies, birds and the best one spider crabs. You can walk into a shallow pool if you are tall enough and actually hold the crabs, horseshoe crabs and conch ( I think they were conch).

The staff are very friendly, with the exception of one girl in the aviary with a sour face. Loved the butterfly exhibit, there were also some interesting spiders and insects.

Now the food court, just don't. It is horrible! If you have no choice you can grab a salad, pack of apples or sugary yogurt. There is a snow cone machine right outside of the food court that's decent.

Like I said it's a great place for the kids they will have a blast. But it's good to know before you go.

Loved the bird and butterfly enclosure and let us not forget the great fish on display.

The painting with the sea lions was a unique experience. Loved it!

It was amazing!! Specially loved the shark exhibit.

High price for a short visit....doesn't take very long to see everything!

Amazing place, great shows and great learning for Children (and Adults!) We thoroughly enjoyed the four hours there. Kudos to the team managing the Show.!

Beautiful aquarium, $35 a person is a little expensive it is not huge... However they offer free parking and it was not crowded. Definitely worth the trip loved it

Very expensive and not worth the price. We arrived at 12 noon and took us 1.5 hours to go through the exhibits. Lots of extra additional cost for.other activities as well. We spent $65 for entrance plus $10 for parking

Take the kids and the grandparents, everyone will love it

My husband and I love the butterfly part of the aquarium. It was beautiful, tranquil, and a peaceful experience.

Too expensive for such a teeny weenie facility! Go to Brooklyn.

Cant wait to go again! Best aquarium experience on Long Island!

Beautiful place to bring the whole family . They also have amazing events all year round!

Loved the exhibition of Fish, The Butterfly house was very cool!!! The insect collections Creepy!!! Overall it was a pleasure to see... And it's Handicap accessible!!!

Great to see all these beautiful creatures being so well cared for.

My family loved visiting the aquarium. A little warm, but it was summer, couldn't expect less.

Visiting from Alabama - the best part was the show. Price was outrageous, very disappointed.

Really gorgeous aquarium! A bit on the pricey side, so we get a family membership, which 2 visits make worthwhile (though we go more often than that.) They have beautiful salt water tropical fish displays, sting ray pool in which one can touch and feed the rays, seals, sea lions (shows), otters, a wading area in which one can touch various crabs, giant manta rays, sharks, a climbing wall, & more. Food and water are overpriced, so bring your own water bottles.

Perfect length for my 3yr old. Even my 7 month old was able to enjoy it. Wonderful experience

Feels expensive for what you get, about 2-3 hours of displays and shows.

Got to say its a nice aquarium, may not be very big but has great animals and insects to see . The workers here are nice and friendly. Only problem the parking lot is 1 block and it s muddy .

All time favorite place to go with my son. Been going here for the past 15 years