The Central Coast Aquarium, Avila Beach

VERY small. Maybe a 10 minute excursion. Some staff were friendly and talkative. One gal just walked off as we got up to the touch tank.

Excellent for kids that have the ability to focus and listen for a few minutes at a time. Clean, well kept exhibits. Animals are well cared for. Will return!

Small, sweet aquarium :) I appreciate that they had many staff to speak with all the kids about the different sea life. We watched the octopus feeding which was awesome! Looking forward to going again.

Honestly… $ 8 to see about five aquariums and a couple touch tanks?
See if you agree:
You enter and walk up to a seashore animal touch tank, then there’s a tank with one little octopus I would guess about 15 gallons. Like a tank you buy in the store.
Then there’s a large round tank with a lobster! –wow never seen a lobster before – then a circular tank to show life On a pier piling. — –then a tank with three swell sharks that they use to do touch the shark skin demo — and one more circular tank with a horseshoe crab
— – that’s it — -end of «aquarium»
Oh I lied— the last 50% of their interior floor space is dedicated to a gift shop– selling toy walruses, t shirts with whales, stuffed dolphins and the like–
The people in front of us said they felt like the «aquarium» is simply a gimmick to get you into a gift shop—
took all of about 7 minutes for the kids to get in, see the animals and get to the end and pronounce «let’s leave».
So our bill for 7 minutes — $ 40
Hey! But it included free admission to a gift shop!
Ok, without the sarcasm, being degreed in Marine Biology and having been to just about every public aquarium, I feel to open the doors and charge $ 8 for adults and the same for kids for five or six tanks is ridiculous.
Even the little Aquarium over at Morro Bay only asks $ 2 to walk through theirs — had this been $ 2 for adults and kids alike, you’d see no bad review from me but when families are paying out close to $ 50 to walk through this, I’ll have to agree with the couple in front of us –
A gimmick to get you into a gift shop. Too bad — it’s has potential and could be so much more – lets hope in the future they minimize the merchandizing and maximize the aquaria.

If you are under age 2 they let you in free, but otherwise everyone is the same rate and we paid well over $ 20 for a 3-​year-​old and two adults. That bothered me, especially after I realized how small the aquarium was (two rooms with several exhibits «in progress» — in other words, nothing there yet). (There is also a gift shop.) Our small guest didn’t want to touch any of the sea creatures, so although it’s a very nice feature to have staff offering to let you touch sea stars, urchins, and other small ocean animals, this didn’t turn out to suit our guest. You can learn a lot about the animals from the docents, but if you have a little one with you, they hardly want to stand still while Auntie gets information about sea star legs.
At age three they don’t gaze too long at any one creature in a tank, so crabs, lobsters, small sharks, big fish, and even jellyfish didn’t hold his attention for long. The little one didn’t want to listen to or stand still for a docent’s talk about small sharks, either. This made for an awfully quick and expensive visit to this aquarium.
It’s nice that the docents give talks about the creatures (like the small sharks that they let visitors touch under supervision) and that a schedule is posted about activities such as jellyfish feeding. Once you pay you can come and go if you keep your receipt, so visitors can return for activities they’re interested in. This just doesn’t work for little kids who get exhausted during an Avila Beach visit and are taken home, so I’d only recommend this aquarium for older kids and for adults who are interested in a hands-​on experience with sea life. In my opinion we need something different for the little kids.

This is not a destination aquarium like Monterey, but it is a cool little place to kill 30 minutes or so with the kids when in Avila beach. The people who work here are really, really awesome — explaining to the kids what is what, letting them pet the animals, etc. It is only two small rooms though with a few small sharks, couple octopus’ (not sure what the politically correct plural of that is), crabs, etc.

Don’t waste your money. What a rip-​off. It’s a single room. It took about 5 minutes to walk through and you aren’t able to touch hardly anything. Knowledgeable and friendly staff. Tanks were clean and specimens looked healthy and well cared for.

My 3 and 5 year old loved this! It is small — 2 rooms but lots of hands on things for kids this age and the volunteers gave the kids individual attention. My kids were able to pet the Swell Sharks, sea stars, sea cucumbers, kelp and a barnacle shell. They saw many other animals up close and liked seeing the plankton in the microscope and the animal feedings. A little pricey but I checked the time and we spent a good hour inside. Mostly for young children. Step stools were available. A bonus is that it’s near the beach and restaurants and the cool playground so we didn’t need to move the car.

Its small in not going to lie, but the staff is really helpful and educated. People need to understand that is aquarium is a non profit that wants to educate the public on the importance of ocean maintenance. They have a lot of out reach opportunity in the community and host several beach clean ups. The exhibits are fun and educational. Again its a small place and but it you think about how much it must cost to maintain the giant tanks it makes sense. To top it off the exhibits are VERY INTERACTIVE take some time and hang out there.

It is small, but like another reviewer said it has a lot of heart. Went on a weekday, it wasn’t busy and they had plenty of time to answer every question we had. Also, no problem fighting the throngs for cool video of the giant octopus and such like at the mall aquariums that are popping up.

We have been here a few times and each time I think it’s going to be bigger, there are very cool exhibits and the staff is every helpful. Most of the staff are high school students so when you ask a question they don’t always know the answer.
The entry fee vs the experience doesn’t match up. Lower the entry price maybe?

This is a great aquarium for toddlers! The staff was very knowledgeable and it was very hands on. It’s a little pricey for the size, but we had a great time!

We love this place! Yes it is small, but sometimes in a big aquarium you see a lot of the same thing over and over just in different areas. In my opinion, they have done a nice job of having a nice variety of sea life to view. The touch tanks are always a hit with the kids! We are locals, and my kids ALWAYS ask to go in their to check out the touch tanks every time we are in Avila and close by to the aquarium. My kids have participated in the Sea Life Camp during the summer and had a wonderful experience! The staff does a great job and is very knowledgable about Marine life. I highly recommend the Central Coast Aquarium!

This aquarium is cute. It’s TINY and has only a few exhibits. The kids will love it but you may just want to pick one adult to go in with the kids. «Adult» (10 years and older) admission is $ 8, kids is $ 5, and under 2 years old is free. The kids get to touch a star fish and sea urchin. There are small sharks in a tank, an exhibit of jelly fish, a tank with a small octopus and a tank full of flat fish. It will take about 30 minutes to look at it all. The kids can also look at an exhibit of brine shrimp. There are several feeding times throughout the day so you can come and go with a hand stamp. The staff are adorable college age volunteers who love to chat about marine life. The staff is very knowledgable about the marine life. Your admission goes toward funding more projects so you feel like you are doing something good for the world. If your are spending the day in Avila I would recommend it but I wouldn’t drive out of my way.

For a good size building the aquarium area is tiny. With the admission they charge it’s not really worth it especially for 2 parents to go in. It literally took us 10 minutes to take everything in. The volunteer staff were very friendly.

I have visit Many aquarium and by far this one has to be the tiniest. 2 small rooms with fish tanks. I did see the small building but I thought it was two story aquarium. It took us 5 mins to go from the entrance to the exit. Even my kids were complaining as we walked out. And it did feel like a rip off. I payed $ 18 for 5 mins of fish tanks. (2kids 1 adult) But that’s just my opinion. I don’t recommend it. Sorry

More of an experience then an aquarium.

Way overpriced! Two small rooms of fish tanks. Don’t waste your money!!!

What a great little place to take our toddler while at Avila Beach this weekend. They have just enough to keep his attention plus a playground right outside and steps from the beach.
The touch tanks were his favorite!
I do hope they raise enough money to get a changing table in their restroom though as it’s hard to find a good one near a beach area and didn’t really love changing my son’ diaper out front on the grass.