Review of the Denver Downtown Aquarium

Denver Downtown Aquarium is located off of I-25 with $7 parking available across the street.

We were rained out of our planned hike to Roxborough State park so we went to the Denver Downtown Aquarium instead. Unfortunately on this Saturday, it seemed like the rest of the city of Denver had the same idea. The aquarium is well organized but does not handle large crowds very well because the walking aisle running between exhibits is narrow and, thus, we were continually jockeying for viewing position and struggling to navigate our baby stroller.Aquarium prices are as follows: free for 2 and under, $8.25 for ages 3-11, $12.95 for ages 65 and over, and $13.75 for everyone else. In addition, be prepared for heavy cross-selling throughout the facility. For example, after you leave the otter exhibit, you will be presented with the option to buy stuffed animal otters. Finally, it has both a small junk food court and a nice restaurant on the premises.

It has a collection of active aquatic wildlife including sharks, otters, turtles, and small fish. Most of my pictures did not come out well because of the limited light surrounding the aquarium exhibits. In the following picture, you can see one of the inactive eels.

It is kid friendly and entertaining. For example, kids can crawl under the fish tank and look through a concave viewing window (see picture below). In addition, there is an interactive mountain stream exhibit where a flash flood is reenacted with water raging out of a fake mountain; beware as you might get wet.

Surprisingly, the aquarium has a rainforest section that includes, Sumatran Tigers, birds, and other non-aquatic animals. These exhibits felt out of place and made us wonder whether the tigers enjoyed being indoors.