One of the best parts about living in northeast Ohio is being close to many fun places to explore, and for us, that includes the Greater Cleveland Aquarium. We’ve been regular visitors there for nearly a decade! Haven’t been yet? Let me give you a quick photo tour!
A bit of History of the Greater Cleveland Aquarium
The Greater Cleveland Aquarium opened its doors to the public in 2012 and is housed in the FirstEnergy Powerhouse. Before it was an aquarium, it was home to comedy clubs, retail space, and restaurants, but before all of that, it provided electricity to Cleveland’s streetcars and railways from 1892 to 1920. It is a pretty unique space to house an aquarium!
In recent years, they renovated the current exhibits to add more species and enhance the experience. Some of the upgrades included the Coastal Boardwalk that gives you the look, feel, and even smells of being at the beach, as well as upgrades to the Asia and Indonesia gallery! This is really the kind of place where you can go and spend the day with your whole family!
Must See Attractions
Everything here is really a must-see attraction, but here are some of the things my kids loved! We always spend the most time at the Coastal Boardwalk watching stingrays. My kids love to try to pet the stingrays. My youngest is content just to watch too. There is also a really cool touch tank there as well that is fun for all ages!
We also really loved the Ohio Lakes and Rivers exhibit and learned a thing or two about the aquatic life in our state.
My kids also found watching the divers cleaning the tank fascinating and spent a great deal of time watching and interacting with them.
Plus, we also loved seeing a few species that were not aquatic, like the lizards!
When to visit
Anytime is a great time to visit, but the Greater Cleveland Aquarium has a lot of great events coming up as well. To plan your trip around one of the events, make sure you check out their event page!
What We Loved
One of the things I loved was how relaxing the atmosphere was and also how there were little signs throughout the aquarium telling you little things you could do to help the environment. The kids and I learn a little more each time we visit.
Final Thoughts
I hope you enjoy our pictures and that it makes you want to visit too! This was a fun field trip for us and definitely on our list of places we want to visit again! To find more Ohio day trip ideas, check out the travel section!
Cleveland sounds like an awesome city.
That does sound like a fun trip! We just love aquariums.
What a neat visit! The building that it’s in makes this aquarium look especially unique. Thank you for the photos; one of my favorite animals to see was the little turtle. 🙂