Self-guided visit request
Thanks for your interest in a field trip to the Seattle Aquarium!
The request form linked below is for school groups requesting self-guided visits only. Please refer to the group visit request page for all corporate, public and other non-school groups.
A self-guided visit provides admission to explore the Aquarium at your own pace without any additional scheduled programming. We encourage you to refer to our daily activities schedule to add educational components to your visit.
Self-guided visit requests must be made at least two weeks before your desired date. Please see the “2025–26 school year availability” section below for details about our current availability.
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2025–26 school year availability
For the 2026 portion of the 2025–26 school year, to best serve our many communities, we’re taking a new approach to how we release field trip availability for both self-guided visits and on-site classes. Starting November 24, 2025, early access to 2026 field trips will be available solely to public schools (pre-K through grade 12) in King County and tribal schools in Washington state.
Field trips will be bookable for dates between January and June of 2026 (details below) via a booking link that will be exclusive to King County public, pre-K through grade 12 schools and Washington state tribal schools until early 2026. At the close of that period, general access to 2026 bookings will be opened to all other groups—including both King County and non-King County private/charter schools, homeschools, colleges/universities and other education-related organizations.
Why the change?
In a time of limited staff and resources, we’ve reassessed previous programming models to simultaneously improve the services we provide for the communities we’re part of and create a more sustainable capacity load for our education team.
We know we can do more to serve the Aquarium’s mission, Inspiring Conservation of Our Marine Environment, when we’re focused and intentional with our reach. By providing a window of early access to King County public schools as well as tribal schools statewide, we offer greater accessibility to audiences that may otherwise experience barriers to participate in our programming and engage with our mission. We appreciate your understanding as we implement this change.
2026 booking details
Self-guided visits may be requested to take place from January 2 through June 19, 2026; Mondays–Fridays between the hours of 9:30am and 2pm.
Until general availability is released in early 2026, the registration form will require you to choose the district in which your public, pre-K–grade 12 school is located (or note that you are a tribal school, if applicable). You will be unable to enter an option that is not one of the 18 public school districts in King County or a tribal school. Visit requests that are not for public, pre-K–grade 12 schools in King County, or tribal schools in Washington state, will be rejected.
We’re unable to offer a waiting list for access to general bookings. When these bookings become available in early 2026, it will be on a first-come, first-served basis. Please note: Homeschools and public colleges/universities in King County do not qualify for early access—even if they are located within the boundaries of a public pre-K–grade 12 school district in King County.
Please do not contact our Registration team to ask about a specific field trip date; we receive an extremely high volume of inquiries and don’t have capacity to answer individual visit requests. Instead, we request that you refer to our convenient live calendar of availability.
Information about when 2026 bookings will open to all groups will be posted to our website as soon as it’s available. You can receive updates about registration and other news for educators by signing up for our Seattle Aquarium mailing list (specifically by checking the “educator news” box).
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 class request form 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.
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.
Pricing & scholarships
Please note: As of January 2025, our self-guided visit rate has increased from $10 per person to $15 per person. This rate is for both students and teachers/chaperones (except for children ages 3 and under, who always receive free Aquarium admission).
When general public access to our self-guided visit bookings opens in early 2026, homeschool families, private/charter schools and college/university groups will also qualify for the school group rate (as opposed to scout troops and other non-school groups, which do not qualify). During the period that registration is accessible solely to King County public K–12/tribal schools, however, homeschools and higher education groups may not access the $15/person rate.
Washington state schools with 40% or more free/reduced lunch participants, ESL/ELL students, special education classes and/or ECEAPs can apply for our field trip scholarships. Approved scholarship groups receive free Aquarium admission and may also apply for a bus reimbursement (as available) of up to $400 per bus rented to bring your students on their field trip.
Individual homeschool families do not qualify for school group scholarships but may benefit from other discounts. See our Hours, Discounts, & Groups page for details about offerings for foster/kinship families and recipients of EBT/WIC and ProviderOne services.
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 complimentary tickets for.
Our bus reimbursement scholarship is a separate application form than the free admission application but uses the same qualifying criteria (40% or more free/reduced lunch participants, ESL/ELL students, special education classes and/or ECEAPs). As such, we can only offer reimbursement to schools who meet that criteria. Bus reimbursements are not guaranteed to scholarship groups, though, and are awarded on a first-come, first-served basis.
Bus reimbursement scholarship update
We’ve made a slight change in the award amount for our bus reimbursement scholarship. All field trips for the 2025–26 school year, including all visits (past and future) before the end of the 2025 calendar year, will now receive a maximum reimbursement of $400 per bus rented, instead of the previous $500 amount.
Please take this into consideration if you’re planning to apply for bus reimbursement for your 2026 field trip. To be eligible, schools must still meet our qualifying criteria of 40% or more free/reduced lunch participants, ESL/ELL students, special needs classes and/or ECEAPs.
For King County public schools only: Beginning in 2026 your bus transportation could be covered by 4Culture! Check out the 4Culture website for more information. If you are within one of the included districts, please contact your school district to learn more about how 4Culture may be available for bus reimbursement.
Resources for planning your visit
After booking your program, you will receive more information to help your students prepare for their visit to the Aquarium. Please read all correspondence from registration@seattleaquarium.org carefully, as we try to cover what you need to know about what to expect from your field trip.
Please also 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 both at the Aquarium and in your own classroom or at home can be found on our teacher resources webpage.
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.
Questions about already scheduled visits can be directed to our Registration office at registration@seattleaquarium.org or (206) 693-6196. Please note that while we continue to experience a high volume of incoming inquiries, it may take at least five business days for you to receive a response to any emails/voicemails. Our office hours are 8am to 5pm Pacific time, Monday–Friday.
Thank you!
