Monterey Bay Aquarium Virtual Tour: A Complete Guide

This step-by-step plan for taking a Monterey Bay Aquarium virtual tour includes everything you need to make the experience interactive and fun.

With links to live cameras and videos, information on the exhibits, and Google Street View starting points for each area and walk-through directions, all you have to do is click on the links and enjoy the tour.

About the Monterey Bay Aquarium

The Monterey Bay Aquarium is located in Monterey, California’s historic Cannery Row and has over 200 exhibits and 35,000 creatures. 

Featuring exhibits like a 28-foot-tall Kelp Forest, Giant Pacific Octopus, Sea Otters, Penguins, and their largest tank, the Open Sea with a 90-foot window, it’s easy to spend a couple of hours or more at this aquarium (even virtually).

Tips for Your Monterey Bay Aquarium Virtual Tour

The virtual tour of Monterey Bay Aquarium by Google Street View was done in May 2013.  Because of this there are a few areas that you are unable to walk through virtually, as the exhibits have changed since the tour was made.

Before you start your tour take a look at this map to get familiar with the layout of the aquarium and what there is to see.

If you have never used Google Street View to explore a museum or attraction virtually, read this article on how to use Google Street View for some tips.  This guide also includes a Google Street View link for the start of each area in case you have trouble navigating.

Links to videos, Monterey Bay Aquarium live cams, and informational pages (many of which have more videos on them) are posted for each section as well to make the trip more interactive (and educational).

Want more tips for making virtual tours more interactive for kids?

Check out Making Virtual Tours for Kids Interactive.

Start Your Monterey Bay Aquarium Virtual Field Trip

Before you begin your virtual field trip to the Monetary Bay Aquarium watch this intro video.

Hovden Cannery

Your aquarium virtual tour starts out facing the Hovden Cannery exhibit.  Walk towards the green wall, then turn right to stroll through this small exhibit. 

You can zoom in to read some of the pictures in this exhibit if you want to know more about the history of the cannery and the aquarium.

Once you reach the end of the exhibit, continue to walk straight and enter Mission to the Deep.

Mission to the Deep Exhibit.

Unfortunately, the aquarium has removed the information page on their website about the Mission to the Deep exhibit, so while you can still walk around to see the exhibit there are no videos or further information available about it.

Once you have finished, exit the exhibit, turn right and go to Oceans Edge.

The Oceans Edge

Kelp Forest

Start your virtual tour of the Oceans Edge exhibit by walking around the Kelp Forest until you reach the large U-shaped viewing windows.

Learn more about the Kelp Forest exhibit and what animals are in it here.  Then watch this Feeding Time in the Kelp Forest video before checking out the live Kelp Forest Cam to see what is happening there right now.  

If you want a relaxing activity to do before you continue your tour try out this guided meditation from the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s YouTube channel.

Once you have finished checking out the Kelp Forest, enter the Deep Reef on the left side of the stairs.

Octopus

When you enter the Deep Reef, look at the octopus in the aquarium on the left.  Then learn more about the Giant Pacific octopus exhibit by reading through the information, looking through the pictures, and watching the video here.

When you are ready to move on continue to walk staying on the left side to enter Monterey Bay Habitats.

Monterey Bay Habitats

In the Monterey Bay Habitats exhibit you’ll be able to look at the large aquarium on the right side through several windows, as well as many smaller tanks and exhibits on the left side.  This exhibit will take you through the Sandy Seafloor, Shale Reef, and Warf areas.

Learn more about the Monterey Bay Habitats and the animals in it here, watch the “Feeding Sharks” video, then look to see what they are doing right now on the Monterey Bay shark cam.

When you’re done exploring all of the exhibits, enter the Warf and walk along the right side, passing by the Seafood exhibit.  Then turn left and walk to the Nature Center area.

Sandy Shore and Aviary

After looking around the Nature Center area, enter the Sandy Shore and Aviary exhibit through the opened door and take a look around

Learn about the animals in the Sandy Shore and Aviary here and see what they are up to on the live cams.  Then watch the video “A Day in The Life of Makana”. 

Exit through the doors at the end of the exhibit to enter Rocky Shore.

Rocky Shore.

Take a look at the Bat Ray Touch Pool to your right, then look around, making sure to see the walk-through tunnel on the right of the Rocky Shore Touch Pool.

Once you have looked around and learned more about the Rocky Shore exhibit, exit through the closed doors on the left of the Rocky Shore Touch Pool to go outside.

Life on the Bay

Outside, turn right and walk along the outdoor area of the aquarium until you reach the stadium seating area, where you can stop to take a look at the Great Tide Pool. 

Learn about Life on the Bay and all the animals that live there, then take a look at what they are doing on the Life on the Bay live cam.

When you’re done exploring the outdoor viewing area, go back inside through the doors behind the stadium seating.

Once inside turn left and walk over to the Sea Otter exhibit.

Sea Otters

Walk past the stairs and turn left to see the rest of this exhibit, then watch the Monterey Bay Aquarium Sea Otter Cam, the Sea Otter Feeding video, and learn more about the Sea Otter exhibit here.

Once you have finished with the Sea Otters, you’ll see the Café/Cindy’s Waterfront Restaurant straight ahead. 

Dinning

Take a look around the dining area, and go ahead and zoom in for an ocean view if you plan on taking a break to have a snack or a meal.

Once you have finished, exit the café and walk straight until you reach the Gift and Book Store.

Gift and Book Store

Take a walk through the Gift and Book Store to see what they have. 

While there isn’t a Monterey Bay Aquarium online store, if you wanted to pick up a souvenir you can easily find marine stuffed animals and ocean knick-knacks on Amazon.

Once you have finished your window shopping, exit the gift store and walk past the auditorium to the bottom of the stairs.  While you can’t enter the auditorium virtually, you can watch one of these Mysteries of the Deep videos.

Viva Baja! Life on the Edge and Tentacles

Behind the stairs are the doors to the other part of the aquarium where the Viva Baja! Life on the Edge and Tentacles exhibits are.

Unfortunately, the Viva Baja! Life on the Edge and Tentacles exhibits both opened after the Google Street View tour was done, so you are not able to walk through these exhibits virtually. 

You can still learn more about the Tentacles exhibit here and theViva Baja! Life on the Edge exhibit here, and take a look at the live cam of the coral reef

Once you have finished learning about these exhibits you can go to the second floor of the aquarium by clicking on the 2 on the right side of the Google Street View screen to see the Open Sea Exhibit.

The Open Sea

Jellyfish

Enter the Open Sea area, which starts with the Jellyfish exhibit.

Walk through the exhibit taking a look inside all the aquariums, then learn more about the Jelly Fish here.  Next watch this “Behind The Scenes of the Jelly Lab!” video and watch them on the live jelly cam.

When you reach the end of the exhibit you will be at the Open Sea.

The Open Sea Aquarium

The Open Sea exhibit features a 90-foot viewing window of the large aquarium.

Virtually there isn’t too much to see in this exhibit, but you can see what the animals are doing on the Monterey Bay Aquarium Open Sea cam and watch an Open Sea feeding video.

Once you have finished exit to the left of the aquarium and enter Ocean Travellers.

Ocean Travelers

Inside the Ocean Travelers exhibit, on the left, there are stairs leading to the Sea Turtles and Sea Birds exhibits.  While you can zoom in on these exhibits a little bit, the Google Street View tour doesn’t go into them.

But you can watch videos and learn more about them and all of the animals in the Open Sea Exhibit here.

To exit this room, walk towards the orange wall and turn right.  This will bring you to the Flippers, Flukes and Fun kids’ area, which you also can not enter virtually.

Turn left and look through the displays in the rest of the Ocean Travellers exhibit.

When you reach the end of this area, turn left and pass by the Jellies Experience Gift Shop, then turn right to continue to the bridge. Make sure to take a look around as you cross over the bridge to see the whales hanging from the ceiling.

Splash Zone

At the end of the bridge you will reach the entrance to the Splash Zone area.  There are 3 areas inside Splash Zone.  Take a look at the aquarium in the center, then turn left and walk towards the Enchanted Kelp Forest area.

Enchanted Kelp Forest

Enter the Enchanted Kelp Forest and take a look around.

This area features a lot of hands on activities for kids.  To make your visit more interactive you can play The Kelp Forest: My Aquarium game after you look around. 

For more activity ideas check out the Monterey Bay Aquariums Games and Activities page too.  

Once you have done a circle through and checked out the top half of the Kelp Forest aquarium, exit the exhibit then turn left and walk through under the Splash Zone sign.  Continue walking on the right side towards Coral Reef Kingdom.

Coral Reef Kingdom

Enter the Coral Reef Kingdom exhibit and walk through, looking around, until you get to the Coral Cave play area.  You won’t be able to go beyond that point virtually, but you can watch this video to see what the playground area looks like.

Once you have finished there, turn around and walk through the entrance on the right side to enter Splash Zone.

Splash Zone

Inside Splash Zone there is another touch pool on the right that you cannot get to virtually, but if you walk around the exhibit you will be able to see the penguins.

Watch videos and learn more about the Splash Zone exhibit here, watch a penguin feeding video, then check out the penguins at penguins at Monterey Bay Aquarium live cams.

Once you have finished you can pass by the Splash Zone store, then walk down the hallway on the left of it and you will be back where you started.

My Review of the Monetary Bay Aquarium Virtual Tour

Once I had my virtual aquarium tour plan finished, I of course tested it out on my kids.

I had both kids sit side by side in front of the computer, with me sitting off to the side with the mouse and a printed copy of this virtual tour guide.  As we reached an area with a live camera, video, or information page I pulled up the word document I had the guide saved in and clicked the link. 

With all of the videos, live cameras, and stopping to zoom in on things that looked interesting, the virtual tour took us an hour and a half, which is the same length of time we spent at the Sea Life Michigan Aquarium a month ago in real life. 

While the kids were disappointed that they couldn’t do some of the hands-on things, like touching a stingray or playing on the playground, they both still really enjoyed the tour.

Best of all it gave us a chance to see something that we may never be able to see in real life.

I hope your kids enjoy their Monetary Bay Aquarium virtual field trip too. 

If you’re looking for more virtual trip ideas to do with your kids, check out my Boston Children’s Museum Virtual Tour Guide and my Canada’s Wonderland Virtual Tour Guide too.

Did your children enjoy their Monterey Bay Aquarium virtual tour?  Let me know what they thought in the comments below.