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    Long Island Aquarium

    3.5 (363 reviews)
    Closed • 10:00 am - 4:00 pm

    Long Island Aquarium Photos

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    Carol S.

    The Long Island Aquarium in Riverhead, NY is possibly the best aquarium I have ever visited. And I've been to a lot, especially when my Grandson was younger. The experience is phenomenal, whether you're young or older. There are interactive experiences, dives, tours, touch experiences and much, much more. My favorite is the penguin exhibition. The clear sides and floor is raised high enough for a child to go under. One comes to a rounded raised portion of the floor where the child can stand completely up and feels as if it's in the midst of the penguins. The penguins are very gregarious. When my Grandson looked at the side of the exhibit they all came over to greet him. As he moved, they moved to follow him. What fun! Don't miss the sea lion show, large living coral exhibit, shark tank and butterflies, bugs and bees garden. This year long attraction is a "must do" if you're in Long Island, especially if you have a child in tow.

    Elizabeth K.

    We had an AMAZING time at Long Island Aquarium! The aquarium is super spacious and never felt crowded, with so many interesting exhibits to explore. Everything is really well done, but the sharks absolutely stole the show -- seriously SO cool to see them up close and swimming overhead! Parking is about 1-2 blocks away, just follow the signs for "Aquarium Parking." There's a shuttle that runs often, and the driver was incredibly friendly. We were so glad we chose that option because it was slushy everywhere, and the shuttle made the whole experience easy and stress-free. Plan for about 2 hours, which felt absolutely perfect -- enough time to see everything, enjoy the exhibits, and not feel rushed at all. Fun, exciting, and 100% worth the visit. We'd definitely go back!

    Lavender the owl
    Krisily F.

    While on a recent work trip in Long Island my husband and I wanted to check out some fun things to do on the weekend. We had an absolute blast at Long Island aquarium! This is an absolute great way to spend a day between the amazing animals and the staff kids and adults will all have fun. The butterfly section was what dreams are made of and seeing some of my favorite butterflies for the first time in person was an absolute highlight of the day. We also added penguin photos because why not and getting to see that little nugget made me day. But the best part was most definitely my sea lion kisses! But if I had to pick my favorite part, it's definitely the staff. I have limited mobility so sometimes I use a cane and sometimes I'm in a scooter, the way the staff went out of their way for us was nothing short of amazing and that goes a long way for both my husband and I. Being handicapped accessible is one thing, having staff that make sure their visitors are comfortable, well I'd give ten stars of if I could! We also spent some time with one of the staff who loved their new owl as much as I did and she brought us over to watch her be fed. Another of the staff was feeding one of their snakes and answered so many questions. This is definitely an amazing aquarium that truly cares about their animals! They also have Amazon wishlists for their animals and you can send them fun new toys to play with! You don't want to skip this place whether you have kids or not. We had an absolute blast there!

    Samantha C.

    We made our yearly trip to the aquarium to celebrate my niece's birthday. Fun fact is that no matter how old you are, you could get in free for your birthday. Reminder: bring proof of date of birth. Since my sister and my niece are days apart, they both got in free. Planning it out this way is great because it helps offset the cost. An adult ticket will run you $50. A child above the age of 3 is about $32. Is it worth it for the kids, totally. We loved our visit and got to actually see the penguins this time! One of the things to definitely do when on the Island.

    Turtle
    Salvador Z.

    I'm in town on a business conference and our planners organized an after work event at the Long Island Aquarium which included dinner appetizers and an open bar. We had the entire aquarium to ourselves. We were informed to walk around at our leisure and there would be appetizers in various locations within the aquarium. I got to see turtles, sharks, sea lions, and various species of fish too. Very cool venue to be able to network with colleagues and have an ice breaker discussion about the aquarium. Everyone had a blast.

    Tarantula
    Natasha P.

    We stayed at the Hyatt West End because it was recommended if we wanted to spend the day at the Aquarium. We were so disappointed at how small the Aquarium was. The entire experience took 25 mins max. There was morning special and it was so crowded. I wouldn't recommend driving hours to come visit or doing a staycation here.

    Meri L.

    Hard to say. I found it to be expensive, $50 per adult. I highly suggest getting discount tickets at the library. You can finish your entire time in about two hours or so with seeing everything. It can also be very crowded with strollers everywhere so it's hard to navigate and look at different exhibits. As soon as you walk in you can pet stringrays and feed them. Just be careful as they do splash water. There's things to see both inside and outside. There's also shows to attended as well as different experiences for an extra cost. Overall, the day was good. I just feel it's a bit overpriced.

    Barred Rabbitfish
    Harris L.

    BLUF: 3.5 out of 5 stars. A good experience, best for pre-teens and younger. Long Island Aquarium (LIA) is a solid regional attraction. While not as impressive as larger aquariums, LIA can still fill an hour or two of one's time, or longer, depending on one's enthusiasm for the exhibits and attractions. Long Island Aquarium offers some personal experiences that some larger world-class aquariums don't. Subject to extra cost and seasonal availability, it is possible to feed stingrays, dive in a shark cage, and get personal photos with penguins, seals, and sea lions. Feeding / petting stingrays -- generally characterized as the ocean's puppy dogs -- is the lowest cost and most accessible of these experiences. The stingray pool is straight in from the aquarium's entrance. Long Island Aquarium also has a number of attached attractions, including a gaming arcade, and a giant play tree set. Most of LIA's displays are compartmentalized short experiences, which makes it easy to go exhibit to exhibit with breaks in-between. The aquarium is pricey, with adult tickets costing $48.99 per person plus tax and credit card fees. Discounted tickets are available for locals at local libraries, and for those staying at the attached hotel. AAA New York offers a minor discount ($2 per ticket, up to 5 tickets) for those unable to take advantage of other discounts. The cost is mostly understandable, as it takes significant resources to maintain healthy and enriched environments for all the lifeforms at the aquarium. Long Island Aquarium has its own parking lots, about two blocks north. LIA does have a cafeteria, but those not visiting as part of a school trip should consider dining elsewhere, as there are several options within walking distance, including some with riverfront seating.

    Sea Lion Presentation
    Tracy D.

    We took my daughter to the Long Island Aquarium when they were having their 25th Anniversary promotion where adult tickets were $25 on the 25th of the month in the summer months (which is pretty much half price). General Admission on a normal day is on the expensive side at $50.99 for adults and $35.99 for kids considering the small size of the aquarium. It had been quite a while since we had been to the aquarium since it opened so many years ago. You can easily find parking on the street in the neighborhood streets. The aquarium was nice with lots of sea animals to see. There are both indoor and outdoor exhibits. My daughter loved looking at the penguins and turtles. There was a short sea lion show, but I remember it being longer in the past or at least I remember them doing more tricks to impress the audience. On the other side of the aquarium there was a butterfly exhibit that was really fun. Lots of butterflies that flew all around and very close to you. It was funny that when we were trying to leave the experience room that there was two blue butterflies that were trying to make a break for it. They have a secondary exit room in case some butterflies attempt to escape and they can easily catch them to bring them back to their habitat. Overall we had fun time and my daughter took home an axolotl puppet home.

    Brittany T.

    High prices, but worth a full day of seeing the awesome sights & shows and different fun things to do!

    Cafe
    Donathan D.

    We had a great time! We started off with the seal show. It was shorter than I remember but still a great show. Only two seals performed but my daughter loved it. After that we walked around he got to go in the crab pit and put them up. We went in a play area that was an extra $12 but it has slides and stuff a cool thing that was extra. We ate in the cafe chicken fingers fries and a drink was like $20 it was enough to share as I wasn't that hungry. After we seen everything we ended it with a shark feeding show which was mad cool!

    Sting rays
    Maureen C.

    I can't believe in my four decades of life I have never been to this aquarium! My son has been driving me crazy to touch sting rays, I saw the LIA had this feature and as soon as you walked in. So off we went! I got tickets from my local library at a 20% discount, so check your library before going! The aquarium is right on Main Street. There is a parking lot about one block away which is $12 to park all day (cash only). There is a shuttle between the parking lot and the aquarium which literally takes less than a minute, but it is nice that they offer that especially in the winter months. The aquarium was not busy at all on a Saturday morning, we were able to touch the stingrays as soon as we walked in, which made all the difference in the trajectory of our day because that was my son's one thing he wanted to do, and as soon as we walked in they were there. for three dollars you can get little mini fish to feed the stingrays. there was also an interactive turtle feeding that they had fun at. There are a couple of seals outside, which are really fun to watch. The aquarium is really cute themed and was easy to navigate. Outside there was even a treehouse play area whic was really nice for them to go up and burn off a little extra energy. There's a small café, we brought our own lunchbox of food, but we're able to sit in there and enjoy our lunch out of the cold. There is also a really nice butterfly area that was included in the admission, wear bright colors if you want the butterflies to land on you. My son wore an orange sweatshirt and they were literally following him around. There are a couple of gift shops that are also reasonably priced, overall it's a really cute day trip and if you wanted to make a night of it at one of the hotels for swimming or something in the winter, the Hyatt is connected right next-door. We will definitely be back.

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    tiny , wasn't alot to see compared to the ci one in Bk . kinda disappointed... also kinda pricy

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    Ask the Community - Long Island Aquarium

    Does the aquarium have a cafe?

    Yes. There is an indoor cafe and outdoor seating. They also have an outside snack stand open in the summer

    When does reservations for the shark dive close? Im trying to reserve for Friday but it says no times available? I thought it was 11am friday-sunday?

    Give us a call. We're having some technical issues with our e-commerce. You do need 48 hours to reserve, so please call today. Our reservation team is at 631.208.9200, ext. 426. If you get the VM, leave a message, mention that you do want to… 

    I see that shark diving starts at 11am daily but when does it end?

    The program begins at 11, but the end time depends on how many participants there are. Only 2 people can dive at the same time, so if we have 10 people booked, and you go last, you won't be done for quite a while. You are in the shark habitat… 

    What hotels are in the area?

    There's a Hyatt attached to the building and the Preston House and Hotel is right across the street!

    How is the food at the aquarium?

    Overall, pretty bad. Bring snacks. It's got the basics, soft drinks, pretzels, French fries and a few other things but they don't taste very good and are on the expensive side.

    Is there a cafeteria where I can purchase food?

    Yeah! But you can also leave and eat somewhere else. There's tons of good places to eat around there.

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    Review Highlights - Long Island Aquarium

    “My husband did the shark dive as part of the celebration of the 145th anniversary of our church.”

    Mentioned in 15 reviews

    Read more highlights

    Mystic Aquarium - King Crab

    Mystic Aquarium

    3.7(683 reviews)
    48.3 mi

    22nd September 2026 Mystic, Connecticut Partly cloudy 64°F…read more My husband is quite an expert of aquatic sea creatures, both of the saltwater and freshwater variety, from an early age, being that it was quite an intensive hobby of his, visiting the Mystic Aquarium after we visited the one in Newport was a must-see for us. I found the experience very enjoyable and relaxing watching the pleasant environment they have created here. Mystic Aquarium has quite an extensive collection of species. Especially the Beluga Whales in the outdoor waters. We observed many families with very excited toddlers throughout. Thank you for a lovely break in Connecticut!

    I tend to have mixed feelings about zoos and aquariums, and that response seems to correlate to my…read moreperception of how well the animals are cared for or what their quality of life is. The Mystic Aquarium was small and dirty. Some of the environments seemed way too small for the creatures in them. The penguins seemed to be happy in their little group, and the seals seemed to enjoy just basking in the sun. Everything else felt way too tiny for the fish, and I mostly just felt sad the entire time. I'm also pretty sure I saw a dead jellyfish. As an adult, the ticket price is way too high for what you get. They also had a number of up-sell/add-on options not included in the regular ticket price. I think, if you have some young kids, you might be able to squeeze a little bit of magic out of this experience, but otherwise I found the Mystic Aquarium to be far too depressing.

    Photos
    Mystic Aquarium - Performing seals from California - 9/22/2026

    Performing seals from California - 9/22/2026

    Mystic Aquarium - Performing seals from California - 9/22/2026

    Performing seals from California - 9/22/2026

    Mystic Aquarium - King and Heir. Sculptor Kent Ullberg 9-6-1997 In memory of Roger Tory Peterson, Artist and Naturalist

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    King and Heir. Sculptor Kent Ullberg 9-6-1997 In memory of Roger Tory Peterson, Artist and Naturalist

    Long Island Aquarium - aquariums - Updated September 2026

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