Located just 3.5 miles from De Anza Inn, the Monterey Bay Aquarium is a must-see for visitors looking to experience Monterey’s renowned marine life and conservation efforts. Since 1984, the Aquarium has been a global leader in marine conservation and education, featuring over 200 stunning exhibits with 80,000 plants and animals, including sea otters, sharks, jellies, and penguins. Visitors can experience the beauty of the ocean firsthand while learning about critical conservation efforts like otter rescues, sustainable seafood initiatives, and plastic pollution reduction. Set aside at least three hours to explore, but many visitors happily stay all day.

Sea Otter Program
Sea otters are adorable, cute, and curious…and they are amazing ecosystem engineers! They help balance the complex food levels in every habitat from kelp forests to the coastal wetlands. The Aquarium not only saves individual animals, but they also release them into areas where they are desperately needed through their surrogacy program by rescuing, rearing, and returning the otter pups into the wild. They use the non-releasable otters in their exhibits as surrogate moms. The fantastic news about this way of doing things is that the surrogate-raised otter pups survival rates are comparable to their wild-raised kin, plus they are staying in the areas where they are released which helps that area’s ecological recovery!

From Abalone to Zebra Sharks and everything in between the Aquarium’s oceanfront location and sea life exhibits bring the wonders of the ocean to life for their visitors. Allow a minimum of three hours to see the key areas at the Aquarium, but don’t be surprised if you end up spending the entire day there because there is so much to see and do! For more information on the Monterey Bay Aquarium, visit their website at montereybayaquarium.org

Located 3.5 miles from De Anza Inn