Registration for field trips during the 2026–27 school year will open September 14, 2026! Field trip bookings are available Monday–Saturday with scheduled entry times from 9:30am to 2pm.
Field trip request
Thank you for your interest in a field trip to the Seattle Aquarium!
Self-guided field trips are for student groups visiting the Aquarium with their school. This includes preschool–12th grade public and private schools*, homeschools and colleges/universities. Field trip bookings are available Monday–Saturday with scheduled entry times from 9:30am to 2pm. *Schools being booked by a third-party tour operator service do not qualify for our field trip rate. All tour operator groups are managed by our Group Sales and Experiences team, who can be contacted at the page linked immediately below.
The request form linked below is for school groups requesting self-guided field trips only. Please refer to the Group Visit Request page for all other group visits, including corporate groups, nonprofit groups, youth groups not affiliated with a school and groups managed by a tour operator. If you are a current Connections partner, please refer to our Connections program page.
This is a self-guided visit that provides admission to explore the Aquarium at your own pace without any additional scheduled programming. Upon arrival, field trip groups are greeted by Aquarium staff members who will review expectations, answer questions and assist your group in entering the Aquarium. We encourage you to refer to our daily activities schedule to help plan your visit.
If you would like to book a class at the Aquarium during your field trip, you’ll find information on our On-site Classes page. Please do not submit both a field trip and on-site class request form; admission to the full Seattle Aquarium campus—including our Ocean Pavilion—is included with an on-site class booking.
Field trip requests must be made at least two weeks before your desired date. Please see the “2026–27 school year availability” section below for details about our current availability.
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Pricing & scholarships
Field Trip Rate:
- $15 per student
- $15 per chaperone, including teachers
- 1:1 aides are always free
- Children 3 years old and younger are always free
The field trip rate is only available by booking ahead of time; it is not available at the door. You will choose your preferred method of payment during the booking process. Payment must be sorted prior to being admitted to the Aquarium.
Please note: There is a $5 service fee per visit for all paid transactions (groups receiving scholarship admission are exempt). This fee helps our nonprofit aquarium cover payment processing costs, so more of your support goes toward our mission. Thank you!
We’re excited to announce that we are now able to process payments online. This convenient feature allows groups to make payment in advance of their visits but on their own schedule, without needing to contact the Aquarium during business hours to process payment over the phone. “Online payment link” is now included in the drop-down selection of payment methods in our registration request form. If you select this method of payment, once your visit is confirmed, you will receive a custom payment link unique to your booking along with your invoice. Messages regarding payment links will be processed by our tickets@seattleaquarium.org email address, rather than the Registration contact that school groups are familiar with. Please add tickets@seattleaquarium.org to your safe senders if you plan to use a payment link
Free admission scholarships
Our free admission scholarships are only available for schools located in Washington. Scholarships are not available for homeschools. We offer free admission scholarships to school groups who meet at least one of the following criteria:
- Public schools with 40% or more students qualifying for free or reduced lunch (verified through OSPI report cards)
- Title 1 schools
- Dedicated special education classes within a public school
- ECEAPs, Head Start and Seattle Preschool Program groups
The free admission scholarship covers admission for all students and chaperones (including teachers). Chaperones covered are not limited to our required ratio; we welcome additional chaperones who would like to join the field trip.
Aides required and accompanied by students with disabilities can enter the Aquarium free of charge even if the rest of the group doesn’t qualify for a scholarship. If applicable, please let the Registration team know in your visit request form how many 1:1 aides you are requesting comp tickets for.
Scholarship application process:
If applying for a scholarship, when you request your visit, you will indicate the reason you qualify in the booking form. We will confirm the information when we process the booking before we send your order confirmation, or we will reach out with follow-up questions. For the free admission scholarship specifically, there will no longer be a separate application form sent via Docusign. (Bus reimbursement applications are processed differently. See below for details.)
If your group doesn’t meet the free admission scholarship criteria but faces a significant financial barrier to visiting the Aquarium, you can reach out to registration@seattleaquarium.org and our team will review the situation. We have a limited pool of funds available to consider exceptions on a case-by-case basis.
Bus reimbursement funds
Field trip groups who qualify for a free admission scholarship may also apply for bus reimbursement funds. Receiving a free admission scholarship does not mean you automatically receive bus reimbursement funds.
Bus reimbursement funds are very limited for fall 2026. We ask that you only request a bus reimbursement if you do not have a different funding source available for your field trip transportation. Bus reimbursement funds are awarded on a first-come, first-served basis, depending on when schools confirm their reservation (not based on the date of the visit). The maximum reimbursement amount is $400 per bus.
Bus reimbursement process:
The Seattle Aquarium cannot pay for field trip transportation up front; your school or district must arrange transportation for your group’s visit on your own. However, after the field trip is over, we may be able to provide a limited amount of funding for qualifying schools to reimburse their original source of transportation funding. The award is up to $400 per bus rented, with no limit on the number of buses rented (within reason and based on the number of field trip attendees).
Our bus reimbursement scholarship is a separate application form than the field trip registration request form but uses the same qualifying criteria as the free admission scholarship. If you would not qualify for free admission, do not apply for bus reimbursement.
Our application form is sent via the third-party service Docusign and requires two separate signers with two separate email addresses. As such, we will request the name and email address of an administrator from your school/district who can be your cosigner. This can be a principal, secretary, treasurer or other office administrator who can best verify your qualifications. The application should automatically be sent to your office administrator at the same time you receive your copy; there is no need for you to forward the application to them. Different questions on the form are required of different signers. If the form will not allow you to complete a given field, it is because that field can only be accessed by the other signer.
For King County public schools only: Your bus transportation could be covered by 4Culture’s Curiosity Pass! Check out the 4Culture website for more information. If you are within one of the eligible districts, please contact your school district to learn more about how 4Culture funds may be available for bus reimbursement. Please note that schools listed as being eligible for coverage by 4Culture aren’t necessarily guaranteed funding.
Schools within the following districts are not eligible for bus reimbursement through the Seattle Aquarium for the 2026–27 school year. These districts have a contract with 4Culture that may allow them to be reimbursed for Seattle Aquarium field trips through 4Culture instead of through the Aquarium.
- Kent School District
- Federal Way Public Schools
- Auburn School District
- Highline School District
The Seattle Aquarium is not involved in the process of obtaining reimbursement through 4Culture. You must contact your district directly for information on how to apply. Please see the Transportation page on 4Culture’s website for support.
2026–27 School Year Availability
Beginning September 14, 2026, field trips will be available on a rolling three-month basis for all schools/school districts. This means the furthest in advance you will ever be able to request a field trip is 90 days.
Field trip bookings are available on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays between 9:30am to 2pm. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, visits can be booked between 11am and 2pm. Requests for weekday field trips must be made no later than two weeks before the visit date.
Saturday field trips are available between 9:30am and 2pm but require a full month’s prior notice in order to ensure staff availability. Please reach out to the Registration team with questions.
Before you book…
Effective September 2025 (ongoing): Please be aware that educators in multiple school districts have encountered an error message when trying to access our booking calendar, which is hosted by the third-party service You Can Book Me. This ongoing issue seems to be caused by school districts soft-blocking access to You Can Book Me on their secure networks.
As a workaround, we recommend accessing the booking calendars from a personal device not connected to your school’s network (such as a mobile phone or home computer). We apologize for any inconvenience. If you’re unable to get through to our calendar and booking form after trying on a different/personal device, please contact our Registration team at registration@seattleaquarium.org for support.
We understand that educators undertake a lot of preparation when planning field trips. Here is our suggested checklist of information to have ready BEFORE you view our calendar and submit your visit request:
At least two preferred dates and entry times for your group (in case your first choice isn’t available).
The highest possible student attendance your group may reach (we can adjust your actual attendance later; this helps us plan staffing needs for high-traffic dates).
We require a ratio of one adult for every five students (1:5) for preschool through 8th grade, and one chaperone per 10 students (1:10) for grades 9–12. Groups without sufficient adult supervision may not be admitted, so please plan to confirm a minimum number of chaperones equal to our ratio requirement.
Does your group have any students with special needs or additional accessibility considerations? (The Seattle Aquarium may be able to provide some support; let us know in the “accommodations” section of the form).
Are you the day-of-visit teacher or contact who will be attending this field trip to the Seattle Aquarium? If you’re booking on behalf of someone else, or don’t know for sure whether you’ll be joining, please prepare a secondary contact who WILL be attending the field trip so we can make sure they also receive important details like parking and lunch areas.
- We are NOT able to change self-guided visits to on-site class programs after a self-guided visit has been booked. If you want your students to attend an educational program during their field trip, please fill out the request form linked from our On-Site Classes page instead.
If you’re interested in applying for our free admission and bus reimbursement scholarships, please read our pricing and scholarship information for details about qualifying criteria. King County schools, please check 4Culture’s website to see if your transportation can be covered by 4Culture instead of Seattle Aquarium.
Preview our Field Trip Code of Conduct and School Group FAQ so you’re aware of details like where buses can unload, where to eat lunch, and behavioral expectations for both students and chaperones.
Resources for planning your visit
We have created resources to help you prepare your students for their field trip. Please be sure to carefully review our school group FAQ, which includes information such as location of loading zones, lunch areas and more. On the preparing for your field trip page, we’ve included a video and social story that will help teachers prepare students for a visit to the Aquarium. This may be especially helpful for students with sensory needs.
Additional resources to be used at the Aquarium and in your own classroom or at home can be found on our teacher resources webpage.
After you have received your field trip confirmation, you may request a one-time Teacher Planning Pass by emailing registration@seattleaquarium.org. We encourage you to visit the Aquarium before your field trip to help with your planning process. Once Registration confirms the day/time you’d like to use your Teacher Planning Pass, we’ll send your complimentary ticket via email.
Please note that a Planning Pass only includes admission for a self-guided walkthrough of the Aquarium habitats. Teachers serving students or chaperones with sensory, mobility, medical or other needs who would like to meet with someone to discuss accessibility accommodations should include that information in their email.
Take home the memories!
Send your students home with a personal photo keepsake from their field trip to the Seattle Aquarium! Photogenic, a division of Cherry Hill Programs, offers special plan-ahead pricing for student groups who schedule souvenir photos during their field trip.
Please note that you must register for these packages in advance of your visit date—but they can’t be booked until your field trip date and time are confirmed. More details can be found on our Shopping page.
Contact us
The best way to contact Seattle Aquarium’s Registration team is via email at registration@seattleaquarium.org. Please note that due to a high volume of messages, it may be at least a week before you receive a response to any inquiries.
Urgent questions about already confirmed visits can be directed to our Registration office phone at (206) 693-6196. However, please be aware that we are often away from the desk or otherwise unable to answer this phone, so there may still be a delayed response to any voicemails we receive. Our office hours are 8am–5pm Pacific time, Monday–Friday.
Thank you!
Our work is supported, in part, by an award from 4Culture.
