Boston Aquarium - A place to visit?

I%26#39;ll be in town 7 days end of June. I%26#39;m staying at the Omni Park Hotel and was thinking of checking out the aquarium. Need opinions if worth the cost/time. Thoughts, opinions please.

Boston Aquarium - A place to visit?

It%26#39;s expensive but I think well worth it. If you like that kind of thing, you could spend hours there; if you don%26#39;t you could be through in an hour.

Boston Aquarium - A place to visit?

I agree with AlanM. It is expensive, but it%26#39;s a nice, cool place to spend a hot day. There%26#39;s a fun sea lion show and a big tank. It%26#39;s not as nice as some other big city aquariums (I was blown away by one in Philly/NJ) but it%26#39;s very much a part of Boston and ... if you can get one of those coupon books, you might get a deal.

Sorry, but the Sea Lion show has been gone for years. However, it%26#39;s still a nice place to visit.

In this order, I believe the Monterey Bay Aquarium, the Seattle Aquarium, and the Boston Aquarium are the top three in the U.S.

I agree that the Aquarium is worth a visit, esp. since you will be in Boston for 7 days. I also heartily recommend strolling through Beacon Hill and the Public Garden, and through the North End (the Freedom Trail takes you there and is also worth doing). My absolute favorite place in Boston is the Isabella Stewart Gardiner Museum, near the Museum of Fine Arts. The courtyard there is so serene, fragrant and beautiful, and the art and the setting breathtaking. The cafe is also good, and on Sunday afternoons they have classical concerts. The Fogg Museum at Harvard is also wonderful. Another of my favorite places in the area is the Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Belmont (I think!) just west of Cambridge. I believe it is an Olmstead-designed garden/cemetery and is one of the great public spaces in the US.

The Sea Lion Show is GONE????????

:-( It was my favorite.

AlanM,

I think I saw them in 2005 or something like that. Do you know what they%26#39;ve been replaced by? That was part of the reason for going. It was a separate, special show! Without that sort of thing, the Aquarium is missing something. Are there any new shows to make it worth the ticket price??

They are re-doing the sea lion home... they left a couple of years ago. They used to be on that old boat, but it was getting too old to house them. Supposedly the sea lions are being housed at other aquariums with the hopes of bringing them back if the Aquarium can raise enough money to build something new. I loved the show also!

CoCo Sandy,

I don%26#39;t see any indication of any plans or work being done, or any kind i\of replacement';. It%26#39;s now been several years. Sorry.

We were in Boston in early April and visited the aquarium on a weekday in the middle of the day. I would not do it again. It cost over $70 for our family of four and it was so crowded that you couldn%26#39;t see much of anything because there were always tons of people pressed up against the viewing area of every exhibit. The aquarium itself is nice, I would just make sure that I was one of the first ones in the door when they open in the morning or, IMHO, it is not worth the price of admission. Also, and this is usually the case in most places like this, eat before you go in or after you leave. The food in the cafe is overpriced and mediocre at best. We knew better, but our kids were hungry and we ate there anyway. Over $40 for a light snack for four was not a very good deal.

Boston is an incredible city. I would definitely hit Faneuil Hall/Quincy Marketplace and the USS Constitution. They are all free and a lot of fun.