Georgia Aquarium

Whale Shark, Open Ocean Exhibit

Georgia Aquarium – Get There

We used the free shuttle from the Hyatt Place Atlanta Airport-North to the airport where we caught the MARTA rapid transit downtown.  The MARTA costs only a few dollars each way.  You purchase a Breeze card for $1 and load on as many trips or days as you want.  The machines take various amounts of cash and gives change.  Credit cards work too.  MARTA staff are also available to assist and they were extremely friendly and helpful.  We headed to the Peachtree stop where you can easily walk to Centennial Olympic Park, the CNN Headquarters, the World of Coke and the Georgia Aquarium.

Ray and Shark Touching Pool

Georgia Aquarium – Exhibits

The Georgia Aquarium exhibits make it the largest aquarium in the world.  There are so many exhibits in the Georgia Aquarium that you can easily spend most of the day there.  The best feature is the gigantic glass aquarium wall where you can watch whale sharks, manta rays and other fish swim in front of you.  At the beluga whale exhibit, the belugas brush up against the glass right beside you.  In the Open Ocean exhibit you can walk along the aquarium floor through a tunnel among the sharks.  At the reef exhibit, waves break over the coral while beautifully colored tropical fish dart about the coral reef.

Penguin Pop Up, Georgia Aquarium

Georgia Aquarium – For Children

The Georgia Aquarium has excellent exhibits for children.  In the South African penguin exhibit, children and even adults can crawl through tunnels and pop up in plastic domes among the penguins.  The shark and ray touching pool exhibit is designed for children to touch them.  Exhibits also allow children to touch sea life in tidal pools.

Medical Equipment, Georgia Aquarium

Georgia Aquarium – Behind the Scenes

For an extra fee, you can go for a guided tour behind the scenes at the Georgia Aquarium.  You can check out the whale sharks from the top of the pool and watch the reef wave making machine in action.  The tour includes scientific research areas and infirmaries.  We got to see penguin eggs being incubated.  You can also pay for an after hours snorkel with the whale sharks and manta rays in the giant open ocean aquarium.  The Georgia Aquarium is a must see when you visit Atlanta.