Discover the best zoos and aquariums across the country. ThrillZing covers admission, must-see exhibits, animal encounters, and reciprocal membership tips for every major zoo and aquarium — plus the latest news from the world of wildlife attractions.
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/ August 20, 2026
The Florida Aquarium opened in downtown Tampa’s Channel District on March 31, 1995, and has since grown into one of the region’s premier marine attractions. Spanning roughly 250,000 square feet along the waterfront, the aquarium houses more than 671 species and nearly 20,000 aquatic and
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tz
/ August 20, 2026
Birch Aquarium at Scripps sits on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean in La Jolla, California, serving as the public outreach center for the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego. The aquarium traces its roots back over a century to Scripps’ early marine
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tz
/ August 20, 2026
The Seattle Aquarium opened on May 20, 1977, on Piers 59 and 60 along the downtown Elliott Bay waterfront. Managed by the nonprofit Seattle Aquarium Society since 2010 and accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums since March 2024, it now draws roughly 850,000
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tz
/ August 19, 2026
Mote Marine Laboratory began in 1955 as a small shark research lab founded by pioneering scientist Eugenie Clark, growing over the decades into one of the most respected independent marine research institutions in the country. For 45 years, its public aquarium welcomed visitors to its
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tz
/ August 19, 2026
Moody Gardens is a non-profit educational destination in Galveston, Texas, established in 1986 by The Moody Foundation on land owned by the City of Galveston. Spread across 242 acres, the campus is anchored by three glass pyramids, each dedicated to a different environment: rainforest, marine
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tz
/ August 18, 2026
Downtown Aquarium is a Landry’s-owned aquarium and entertainment complex at 410 Bagby Street in downtown Houston, opened in 2003 on a 6-acre site built around two redeveloped city landmarks: historic Fire Station No. 1 and the old Central Waterworks Building. The project cost Landry’s roughly
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tz
/ August 18, 2026
Downtown Aquarium Denver opened its doors on June 21, 1999, as Colorado’s Ocean Journey, a nonprofit aquarium built by Bill Fleming and Judy Petersen Fleming at a cost of about $93 million. Sited on 17 acres beside the South Platte River near the I-25 and
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tz
/ August 18, 2026
OdySea Aquarium sits in the Arizona desert on land within the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community in Scottsdale, an unlikely home for the largest aquarium in the Southwest United States. It opened on September 3, 2016, after roughly 18 months of construction, and quickly became
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tz
/ August 17, 2026
Audubon Aquarium sits on the banks of the Mississippi River at the edge of the French Quarter in New Orleans, Louisiana. It opened on September 1, 1990, as the Aquarium of the Americas and quickly became one of the city’s signature family attractions, drawing visitors
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tz
/ August 17, 2026
The South Carolina Aquarium opened on May 19, 2000, on Charleston’s waterfront, giving visitors a close look at the diverse ecosystems found across the Palmetto State, from mountain streams to the open ocean. The nonprofit, AZA-accredited facility sits at 100 Aquarium Wharf with sweeping views
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tz
/ August 17, 2026
Texas State Aquarium opened on July 6, 1990, on Corpus Christi’s North Beach, growing into the largest aquarium in Texas and one of the largest in the United States. Run as a nonprofit and accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums since 1995, it
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tz
/ August 16, 2026
The Primorsky Oceanarium sits on Russky Island off Vladivostok, at Russia’s far southeastern edge, where the country meets the Sea of Japan. Officially opened on September 3, 2016 — with President Vladimir Putin cutting the ribbon — and welcoming its first visitors three days later,
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tz
/ August 16, 2026
Most aquarium tunnels last thirty or forty meters. The one at Antalya Aquarium keeps going for 131 — a curving underwater walkway that is widely cited as the longest aquarium tunnel in the world. Above and around it drift hundreds of sharks and rays in
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tz
/ August 16, 2026
At the edge of the Port of Las Palmas on Gran Canaria stands a white, wave-patterned building that holds Europe’s most dramatic single aquarium view: a curved acrylic window 36 meters wide and seven meters tall, the largest of its kind in the world. This
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tz
/ August 16, 2026
On a headland in Ocean Expo Park on Okinawa’s Motobu Peninsula stands the aquarium that taught the world how to keep whale sharks. Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium — chura means “beautiful” in the Okinawan language, umi means “sea” — opened in 2002 as the successor to
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tz
/ August 16, 2026
When Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan opened on the Tempozan waterfront in 1990, it was the largest public aquarium on the planet. More than three decades later, the building with the fish-mosaic facade is still one of Japan’s defining aquariums — a vertical journey that starts in
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tz
/ August 16, 2026
The Moskvarium — formally the Center of Oceanography and Marine Biology — opened on August 5, 2015, on the grounds of VDNH, Moscow’s sprawling Soviet-era exhibition park, right beside the landmark Cosmos pavilion. With about 25 million litres of water inside a 53,000-square-metre complex, it
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tz
/ August 16, 2026
The Port of Nagoya Public Aquarium opened in 1992 on the waterfront of Japan’s busiest port, in Minato Ward, Nagoya. Three decades on, it is the largest aquarium in Japan by both total tank capacity and floor area — roughly 27 million litres of water
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tz
/ August 16, 2026
Chengdu sits about as far from the ocean as a major Chinese city can, more than 1,500 kilometers from the nearest coast. That did not stop it from building the Cube Oceanarium, an 11-million-liter aquarium that briefly owned one of the aquarium world’s most coveted
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tz
/ August 16, 2026
Every big aquarium promises a trip around the world’s oceans. The Afrykarium in Wrocław, Poland, makes the opposite bet: one continent, done properly. Opened inside Wrocław Zoo in 2014, it is the world’s only oceanarium devoted entirely to the aquatic life of Africa, and with
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