New England Aquarium Boston: Giant Ocean Tank & Penguin Colony
Four Stories of Fish, One Tank That Stops You Cold
You get admission to all exhibits—the four-story Giant Ocean Tank, the Penguin Colony, the Marine Mammal Center, and the new Coral Reef Exhibit—plus a movie pass on New England's largest screen. No reservations needed, no timed entry, no guide to keep up with. Just walk in and spend your day with 800+ marine animals at your own speed.
Is this one for you?Pick this if you want to see hundreds of marine species without planning transport, timing, or a guided schedule—just walk in, get your ticket, and spend the day with the animals at whatever pace works for your group.
What’s included
Your visit includes admission to the New England Aquarium in Boston, access to all exhibits (the four-story Giant Ocean Tank with Caribbean coral reef, the Penguin Colony with over 70 penguins, the Marine Mammal Center with California sea lions, and the new Coral Reef Exhibit), and a movie pass to see a film on New England's largest screen. Maps and guides are available in multiple languages, and the entire facility is wheelchair accessible.
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2h
Step-by-step itinerary
Day 1 — Visit New England Aquarium exhibits
- Enter New England Aquarium
- See Giant Ocean Tank coral reef
- Watch penguins in Penguin Colony
- Observe sea lions in Marine Mammal Center
- Explore Coral Reef Exhibit
- Watch film on large screen
The moment you round the corner into the main hall, you see it: the Giant Ocean Tank rises four stories in front of you, and your brain takes a second to catch up with the scale. It's a 200,000-gallon Caribbean coral reef, and there are sea turtles the size of car tires drifting through it like they own the place. The tank wraps around you—360 degrees of glass—so you're not just looking at the reef, you're inside it. More than 120 species live in there, and the penguins are right there too, 70 of them in the colony that circles the tank, diving and surfacing and making sounds that sound nothing like you'd expect.
The New England Aquarium spreads across multiple levels, so you're not just standing in one spot. You move through the Penguin Colony watching them swim and eat and preen, then down to the Marine Mammal Center where California sea lions dart through open-air pools. There's a new Coral Reef Exhibit with a nine-thousand-gallon floor-to-ceiling tank that curves outward, and the way the light hits it makes the whole thing feel alive. You'll see seadragons, stingrays, and sea turtles—over 800 different marine animals total, all under one roof. The admission ticket includes a movie pass, and the screen here is the largest in New England, so if the kids need a break or the weather outside turns, you've got that built in.
The whole place is wheelchair accessible, and maps are available in French, German, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin, and Portuguese. Strollers work fine if you're bringing small children. Public transportation is right there, so you don't need a car to get in. You can move at your own pace—there's no guide, no fixed schedule, no group waiting for you to catch up. You show up, you get your ticket, and you spend as long as you want with the animals.
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