Cairns Aquarium; is it worth going?
There’s a lot of different attractions in Cairns, and one of the most well known ones (especially for those with kids) is to visit the Cairns Aquarium. Is it worth a visit? We decided to go with family and see for ourselves.
Where is the Cairns Aquarium?
This is located right in the centre of Cairns, and is quite quick to get to from a number of different Cairns camp sites. We stayed at Cairns Cool Waters Caravan Park whilst catching up with a heap of family, and thought it was pretty good, and relatively central.
The parking is pretty average
I want to make a point of mentioning that the parking around the Cairns Aquarium is nothing to write home about. It has no dedicated parking, and instead shares the parking options with the rest of the retailers in the area along the edge of the road, and in the centres of the roads.
There is a reasonable amount of parking around, but you might have to drive around to find something suitable.
Of course, this is no fault of the aquarium, and just a by product of its location, but its something worth remembering for when you visit.
Cairns Aquarium cost
Adults are $52, kids between 3 and 14 are $30, concessions are 42 and you can get a family pass for 2 adults and 2 kids for $147. Certainly not cheap, but also not obscenely expensive either.
What’s it like?
The Cairns Aquarium crams a whole lot into a relatively small building, and is extremely well presented, and is as informative and detailed as you want to make it.
You start off on the ground floor, exploring a range of different marine animals, before going up the escalator or lift to the above level where there is information on rainforests, and various other local animals, before going to the big aquariums where there’s a whole heap of fish, sharks and bigger animals.
There’s a number of talks on at different locations, and we found the information spoken about quite fascinating.
Here’s our vlog
How long do you need?
We probably spent about 2 hours here with our two young boys, but you could easily spend a lot less, or a lot more depending on what you wanted to see.
Did we think it was worth doing?
Our comparison for the Cairns Aquarium is AQWA, an old, and very well known marine display in Hilary’s, Western Australia.
AQWA is much larger, and their tunnel conveyor is better, but the Cairns Aquarium is certainly decent, and worth a good look. It’s also much more modern, and you really wouldn’t go wrong going to either.
Have you been to the Cairns Aquarium? What did you think of it?
