Clearwater Aquarium

Going to Clearwater Aquarium has been on our Florida Bucket List for quite some time. Since having moved to Siesta Key a year ago, we’ve visited both Mote Aquarium and The Florida Aquarium… needless to say Clearwater has been le piece de resistance. So I basically woke up Wednesday morning with a surprising amount of energy and spontaneously decided that today was the day.

Like pretty much everywhere since 2020, you have to buy your tickets online and make reservations for a time slot. So if you’re planning on going, make sure you do that before you drive there. That being said, it was 9am and we had zero issue securing a 10:30am reservation. So if this post inspires you to jump in your car today, you should be fine.

The main focus of Clearwater Aquarium is the dolphins. Clearwater is a research aquarium and they rescue, rehabilitate, and release marine life back into the wild whenever possible. This is something that I personally love about going here. Knowing that this is their emphasis makes me feel good about spending my money on this experience. I know their dolphins are treated extremely well and their permanent residents stay there because it would be dangerous to release them back into the wild.

If you’ve seen the movie Dolphin Tale, it is about Clearwater Aquarium. Winter the Dolphin is real. So is Hope. And we saw them in their incredible 360 degree tanks. You literally walk around indoors in a giant circle with incredible massive viewing windows. One tiny portion of the viewing windows is shown in the image above, but that doesn’t even really do this area justice. The kids loved being pushed around in their stroller wagon and Camilla wanted to know everything about what happened to the five resident dolphins, and how they wound up there. She had me read the beautiful display which describes each of their stories.

On the top level of the aquarium there is always a temporary installation. When we went, the installation was on whales and it was spectacular. You literally enter through a giant Blue Whale’s mouth and walk through its rib cage (shown below). The kids absolutely loved this and it was super cool viewing replicas of these magical animals to scale. Did you know the Blue Whale is the largest animal that has ever lived on planet earth? And its heart is the size of a refrigerator? Now you do. This area also had a virtual reality theatre where you feel like you are swimming with the whales. Unfortunately Shane wasn’t with us and Kroy is too little so we weren’t able to experience it. I believe it’s $10 extra a person and we might make a trip back just to do this.

If you are looking to see beautiful tanks filled with colorful fish and an assortment of marine life, this is not the aquarium for you. Go to The Florida Aquarium or Mote. That being said, we had an amazing time here viewing the dolphins and whale installation. And there are also a ton of add-ons you can pay extra for. There’s a boat tour where you get up close and personal with marine life. And there’s the nicest food court I’ve ever seen. It’s truly stunning and clearly brand new with huge wide screen TVs and a beautiful gift shop.

If you’re planning on visiting or have already been I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below…