Visiting the National Aquarium in Baltimore

The National Aquarium also referred to as the Baltimore Aquarium by locals is located in downtown Baltimore Maryland, at Inner Harbor. When visiting, you will have to locate one of the downtown parking garages that are within walking distance to the facility.

You can purchase tickets at the door but we highly suggest you order them online and skip the long lines that often form. In addition, they get really busy and we recommend that you visit very early in the morning or after 4 PM in the afternoon and try to visit them during the weekdays if you can.

A few months ago we paid our first visit to the National Aquarium and had a great time. With that said, we had the opportunity to visit again and decided to bring our grand daughter and god son along with us.

We decided to visit this time during a weekday afternoon and it was much less crowded than it was the first time that we visited. It was a LOT nicer this time because we were able to obtain easy parking and we could really take our time walking from exhibit to exhibit. We didn't feel pressure to hurry along and because they weren't crowded...we had better views of the animals.

The National Aquarium is broken down into several different types of areas: Amazon River Forest, Atlantic Coral Reef, Blacktip Reef, Jellies Invasion, Shark Alley, Living Seashore, Maryland Experience, Atlantic to Pacific and more! You can visit all of them or pick and choose what you want to see.

They have a brand new exhibit called "Living Seashore" which is a hands-on exhibit where you can touch jellyfish, snails and other animals. This is the ONLY area where you are permitted to touch the animals...so please remember that as you are visiting. In addition, you are NOT allowed to tap or beat on their aquariums or walls to get the animal's attention. Please be respectful.

One of my favorite places was the Upland Tropical Amazon Rain Forest where they had several different kinds of tropical birds, a furry and kind of cute...sloth, golden lion tamarin, a few frogs, a gorgeous yellow-footed tortoise and more. Yup...this was one of my favorite areas because I am a huge fan of primates and really enjoyed seeing the Golden Lion Tamarin.

After you are done visiting the National Aquarium in Baltimore there are plenty of other things for you to see and do within walking distance from the Aquarium. You can rent paddle boats and take them out for a spin, take an evening dinner cruise by boat, visit the Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum, take in an Orioles baseball game and more! There is something always going on nearby!

We really had a great time during our second visit to the National Aquarium in Baltimore and look forward to making it an annual tradition to visit with the kids every year. It's just a 2 hour drive or less from most locations in south central Pennsylvania. A great destination for a family day trip for sure!

You can learn more about the National Aquarium by visiting their site online. You can get their hours of operation, schedule of events and even reserve/buy your admission tickets online.