Every day is a new adventure when we are out and traveling and I love telling the kids where we are off to each morning as that is part of the fun. We are not in Virginia Beach and there is no shortage of fun to be had. I believe my hardest task on vacation each day is figuring out what fun we are going to head to.
My kids have the faces that tell me all I need to know, excitement and the wonder of adventure is always glowing in their smiles so today’s adventure would be Oceanic in nature,but not to the beach. We headed out to see the awesome, fun, and really sea life oriented Virginia Aquarium where we would have an interactive, educational time yet all met with tons of fun.
We are ready for sharks, manta ray, turtles and more. Here’s my tale of lavishly living travel out loud at the Virginia Aquarium in Virginia Beach.
The Amazing Virginia Aquarium
So here is my crew, ready to have a fun day, and then head back to the beach after we are all done visiting. What is inside? What will we see? My kids are tweens and teens and adventure beckons them and they love the mystery of the Ocean and all things aquatic, so this is going to be fun!
When we first visited the Virginia Aquarium I thought we were going to be overwhelmed, but we were able to easily navigate our way through the day at the Virginia Aquarium. If your kids are into sea life, marine animals and learning all about our great underwater world this is a must do while in Virginia Beach.
You need to consider what time allotment you are going to use on your vacation to visit the Virginia Aquarium? For us about 3 hours or so passed rather quickly and we were able to see so much in that period of time. There is so much you can stop and experience you might want to make a day of it, as it is quite possible to do.
The Virginia Aquarium A Family Destination
The alligator is one of a few we have seen when we have been at aquariums, and this one stayed against the glass so we really got to see it.
Here I am getting munched on by a Shark before entering the Shark Exhibit Area. Look at the fun we had. I am not sure if I had more fun with this….
or if the kids had more fun, as you can see on our faces!
The sea-life is amazing.
See so much more here on our Video:)
The Komodo Dragon exhibit offers a cool option, you go underneath you can put your head in the bubble and get a picture snapped with it albeit a bit fuzzy you can still tell that its your kid.
You can pet the Sting Rays, horseshoe crabs, and there are many live demonstrations where they are talking about the stuff that’s there. It’s living science and quite interactive. Do you want to sign up and take a right on a dolphin tour you can do that there is well. We saw the boat that leaves the Aquarium pass us on the beach in the distance when we were at the Best Western Oceanfront!
This passage was pretty interesting and so pretty.
The sharks swam right up to the glass it was cool to be that close yet separated, and WOW did they have some teeth on them.
Did you see this picture of the turtles?
My son is infatuated with turtles so this simply made his day and you can see so much of the turtle as they swim right up to the glass, look at the photos I captured.
If you take the outside passage over to the Adventure Park even if you’re not going to the Adventure Park it is one third of a mile from the aquarium over to the other part of the aquarium, where you will find the sea lions in the otters, as well as the snakes.
Do you provide yourself enough time, and wear the proper walking shoes as it is quite a jaunt from building A to building B but it is very well worth it. almost 1/3 of a mile.
If you happen to get hungry by the time you get from the Virginia Aquarium over to the Adventure Park side you can snack on popcorn, slushy’s, soft pretzels, and hot dogs and we found out that they were all allergen free, and they do not use latex gloves.(if you are allergic be sure to ask as products used ALWAYS change) Also a side-note: when I mention allergen free this is based on my son’s food allergies, yours many differ. The snack pricing was very reasonable, pretty much a drink, hot-dog and popcorn for Under $10.
Everything is in one place, which makes it very convenient to spend time with both the aquarium as well as the Adventure Park. We however split it into two separate days. There are no charges for parking so do not worry about that and there is plenty of parking at the Virginia Aquarium you can either park right at the aquarium or on the opposing east entrance.
I do have to say that after 3 and 1/2 hours of Zip-lining, the kids were whooped and going on to the Aquarium would have just been overkill. It is a great idea to make two separate outings out of each place, even though you can access both while Adventure Park. The kids had a sensational time playing that day, but I will share that story later.
Parking
I can tell you from my perspective there is plenty of parking and if you can’t find it directly in the Virginia Aquarium lot, their overflow lot across the street offers more and of course .5 of a mile away is Adventure Park which is also part of the Virginia Aquarium so you could start there and park there as well.
Parking is FREE. You pay admission to get into the Aquarium. In addition any of the things you choose to do from Adventure Park to the theater are so many ways to fill your day there.
The sharks, fish, turtles and sting rays are waiting for you at the Virginia Aquarium. Get a real splash out of things and visit the Virginia Aquarium while you’re with your family on vacation it is a great place to see all of the fun marine life. Lavishly live travel out loud at Virginia Beach.
