AQUARIUM TRAVEL · THE WORLD’S GREAT TANKS
Stand nose to glass with the ocean.
Reviews of the best aquariums on earth, city by city. Barcelona’s shark tunnel and Genoa’s dolphins, the whale sharks in Atlanta, the SEA LIFE tanks across Europe and the giant reef walls of Dubai and Sydney. We sort the tickets so you pick the right tank.
Worth the trip
Three tanks you can’t see anywhere else.
Almost every city has an aquarium now. But whale sharks the size of a bus in Atlanta, the eighty-metre shark tunnel in Barcelona, and Genoa’s dolphins on the old harbour are here and almost nowhere else on earth.
Atlanta
Whale Sharks at the Georgia Aquarium
Almost no aquarium on earth keeps whale sharks; the Georgia Aquarium keeps several, alongside manta rays, in a single tank of more than six million gallons. You stand at a window the size of a cinema screen and watch the biggest fish in the sea drift past inches away. Add a dive or a behind-the-glass walk and you get closer still. It is the headline reason people fly into Atlanta.
See all 2 →Barcelona
The Shark Tunnel at Barcelona
The Oceanarium at Barcelona is the largest in Europe, and its eighty-metre glass tunnel runs straight through the middle of it. You step onto a slow walkway and sharks, rays and shoals of silver fish slide over your head and around you on every side. It is the single most photographed aquarium moment in the Mediterranean, and the reason this tank tops the list on the whole continent.
- 1 Barcelona Aquarium: Entry Ticket
- 2 Barcelona: Hop-On Hop-Off Bus & Aquarium Tour
- 3 Barcelona Aquarium Skip the Line Ticket
Genoa
Dolphins and Sharks at the Aquarium of Genoa
Italy’s largest aquarium sits right on the old harbour, a Renzo Piano building holding dolphins, sharks, a manatee and a glasshouse of hummingbirds and reptiles. The route winds through more than seventy tanks and finishes at the open-topped cetacean pool. Set aside half a day, time it for a feed, and you have the most complete aquarium visit in the Mediterranean.
- 1 Genoa: Aquarium of Genoa Entry Ticket
- 2 Genoa: Aquarium of Genoa with Lunch
- 3 Genoa: World-Famous Aquarium and Lighthouse Combo Ticket
The one everyone books
If you only visit one aquarium.
More visitors book this one than any other we cover. A safe first ticket in a city you are still getting to know.
The classics
The World’s Most Popular Aquariums
Barcelona, Genoa, Atlanta, Dubai, London. The tanks visitors line up for first, in the cities they most want to see them.
Where to start
Pick a country.
The USA for whale sharks and the SEA LIFE malls. The UK for the tunnel tanks. Spain for Barcelona’s shark walk, Germany for the giant Oberhausen halls, Australia for dugongs, Italy for Genoa’s dolphins. Each country, with the aquariums it does best.
Which kind of visit
What kind of aquarium day.
The kind of tank matters as much as the city. Three ways to spend a visit, depending on the time you have and who you have with you.
Barcelona & the Spanish coast
Spain has the biggest tank in Europe.
Down on the old harbour at Port Vell, the Barcelona Oceanarium holds the largest aquarium in Europe and the eighty-metre glass tunnel that made it famous, with sharks and rays sliding overhead. Beyond the city, Mallorca runs a shark-breeding tank and the deepest in the country, the Canaries keep cold-water giants, and Benalmadena draws the Costa del Sol crowds. The whole country reads like one long coastline pressed up against the glass.
See the best aquariums in Spain →SEA LIFE country
Germany does aquariums on a grand scale.
No country in Europe has more big public tanks. SEA LIFE runs centres in Munich, Hannover, Konstanz, Speyer and beyond, each with its own walk-through tunnel; Oberhausen keeps one of the largest in the region with a vast ocean tank and a tropical hall. They are easy to fold into a city break, reliably done well, and a sure thing on a grey afternoon when you want the kids somewhere warm and bright.
See the best aquariums in Germany →The best part
A big tank makes a whole room go quiet.
It happens at every great aquarium. The corridor opens onto a window the size of a wall, the blue light spills out, and a crowd that was loud a second ago just stops and stares as something enormous turns and drifts past the glass. Kids press their hands to it, grown-ups forget to talk, and for a minute everyone in the room is six years old again.
Browse every aquarium →The Gulf goes big
In Dubai, the aquarium is the size of a building.
A ten-million-litre tank set inside a shopping mall, with one of the largest acrylic viewing panels in the world and a tunnel that runs straight through it past sand tiger sharks and a giant croc. Down the coast, the Lost Chambers winds beneath Atlantis and a brand-new mega-aquarium has opened on the waterfront. This is the aquarium done at full Gulf scale: more glass, more water, more shark than anywhere else.
- 1 Dubai: Aquarium and Underwater Zoo Experience
- 2 Atlantis Aquaventure Ticket (with options for Aquarium), Dubai
- 3 Dubai: Lost Chambers Aquarium Entry Ticket
By how long you have
How long do you want inside?
Some visits are an hour through the glass tunnel and back out into the city. Some are half a day with a flagship tank and a feeding time. And some are a full day with whale sharks and a dive. Pick the visit, we will point you at the tank.
An hour or two
A quick walk under the tanks.A compact city aquarium you can do in an hour: the glass tunnel with rays overhead, a touch pool, the kids’ faces at the shark tank, and back out into the city before lunch.
Half a day
Take your time in the big tank.A flagship aquarium with a proper Oceanarium: the long walk-through tunnel, dozens of themed tanks, feeding times to plan around, and an hour you could happily double.
A full day with the giants
Spend the day with whale sharks.The world-class aquariums you build a day around: whale sharks and manta rays in a single vast window, dive and behind-the-scenes add-ons, a dolphin show, and you still won’t see it all.
The reef, indoors
Australia keeps its own ocean behind glass.
In Sydney you walk a glass tunnel past dugongs, grey nurse sharks and a tank built to feel like the Great Barrier Reef; up in Cairns a purpose-built aquarium shows the reef and the rainforest rivers that feed it; Melbourne and the Sunshine Coast add rays, penguins and a shark dive. For most visitors it is the closest, driest way to meet the creatures the country is famous for.
See all 12 aquariums in Australia →By city
Pick a city and a tank.
Barcelona for the shark tunnel. Genoa for the dolphins and the manatee. Dubai for the mall-sized tank. London for SEA LIFE under the South Bank. Sydney for the dugongs and the reef. Atlanta for the whale sharks.
By country
Every country with a great tank.
From the USA’s whale sharks to Spain’s shark tunnel, Germany’s SEA LIFE halls to Australia’s reef tanks, Italy’s dolphins to the Gulf giants. Browse by the country whose aquariums you want to see.
Opening to closing
A perfect day at the aquarium.
First visit to a big aquarium and want to do it right? Here is how it flows, from a quiet tunnel at opening to the giant window at the end of the day.
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