Summer 2026 bookings are now live! Beginning on June 22, visits may be requested hourly for Mondays through Fridays, 10am–2pm.
Self-guided visits are at capacity through the end of the 2025–26 school year. Please check back for information about the 2026–27 school year later this summer. This information will be shared as soon as it is available.
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. Homeschools and public colleges/universities located in Washingotn DO qualify for the school group visit rate. Please refer to the group visit request page for all corporate, public and other non-school groups, as well as schools visiting from outside of Washington (including those booked via tour operators).
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 “Summer 2026 availability” section below for details about our current availability.
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Summer 2026 availability
Self-guided visits for summer schools and education groups located in Washington State are now open! Field trips can be requested hourly for Mondays through Fridays* between the hours of 10am and 2pm, from June 22 to September 4, 2026.
*For Monday–Thursday visits, entries are only available on the hour (starting at 10am, 11am, etc.). This hourly availability reflects the capacity of our Group Experience team to best meet the needs of summer groups during our peak attendance season. Please do not contact Registration to ask for an entry time on the half-hour for Monday–Thursday visits as we will not be able to accommodate. Fridays are open with entries available on the half-hour, 9:30am–2pm.
During arrival at the Aquarium, a group of up to 50 people per entrance will be accepted. If your total group is larger than 50 total people (including both students and chaperones), please be prepared to split into smaller sub-groups to be admitted through separate entrances.
Please do not contact the Registration team to ask about your specific weekday field trip date. We receive an extremely high volume of inquiries, so we do not have capacity to answer individual visit requests. Instead, please refer to our convenient live calendar of availability for when future dates become available. If the only place you contact us about your visit request is via direct email, it may get lost in our messages. The best way to ensure your visit gets booked is by using our live calendar and its booking submission form.
School year bookings (Spring and Fall 2026)
Our calendar is at capacity through the end of the 2025–26 school year (June 19, 2026). We will not be opening more bookings for May or June field trips, including for small groups, and do not have capacity to maintain a waitlist for cancellations.
We understand this may be frustrating if you requested dates that were ultimately declined or could not submit your request earlier in the season. This spring we received such a high volume of bookings that many dates filled early in the season. We’re grateful for your understanding.
Thank you for your interest in supporting our mission of Inspiring Conservation of Our Marine Environment by bringing your students to the Seattle Aquarium. We’re sorry if your school won’t be able to visit us this year, but we hope to see you next year instead.
Please check back for information about the 2026–27 school year later this summer. This will be shared as soon as it is available. You can sign up to receive updates about registration for next school year and other news for educators by registering for our mailing list and checking the “educator newsletter” preference box.
Please don’t reach out to the Registration team with specific program requests for next school year. We ask that you wait until our live calendar is updated with bookings for that season. Thank you!
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.
Pricing & scholarships
As of spring 2026, schools visiting from outside of Washington State no longer qualify for our school group rate of $15 per person (including those booked through tour operators). However, you may still be eligible to receive a group booking discount by visiting our Group Visit Request page instead.
Our self-guided visit rate is $15 per person for both students and teachers/chaperones (except for children ages 3 and under, who always receive free Aquarium admission).
We are excited to announce that we can now 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. Going forward, “online payment link” will now be 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 specific 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.
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 scholarship. Approved scholarship groups receive free Aquarium admission for the entire group, including all teachers/staff/chaperones. Bus reimbursement scholarships are not available for summer visits.
Individual homeschool families do not qualify for school group scholarships but may benefit from other discounts. See our Hours, Discounts and 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 comp tickets for.
Bus reimbursement scholarships
Bus reimbursement scholarships are not available for summer visits between June and September.
Questions about bus reimbursement scholarships for the 2025–26 school year can be directed to the Registration team at registration@seattleaquarium.org.
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.
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!
