Waikiki Aquarium: What to Expect

Every number here is from the aquarium’s hours and admission pages, checked October 14, 2026. The aquarium sells tickets at the front desk, and we found no aquarium ticket on Viator that day, so there is no booking link for admission. Children under 18 need an adult, and pets are not allowed.

A banner on the aquarium’s site reads that it is “open while undergoing vital renovations.” It does not list the closed exhibits and its exhibit pages carry no dates, so we checked them against University of Hawaiʻi news. As of October 14:

• Open: the aquarium, daily, on normal hours; Hōʻailona’s monk seal habitat (below); and the other galleries on its exhibits page. It marks none of them closed.
• Dismantled: the Edge of the Reef. UH said on March 17 that this outdoor exhibit “was dismantled to make way for a critical infrastructure project” and that a redesign is planned (UH SOEST). No reopening date is posted, and the aquarium’s own Edge of the Reef page still describes the exhibit and says its touch pool is temporarily closed.
• Being rebuilt: the large tank that held mullet, which UH says will become a new habitat that may hold mullet, rays or sea turtles, and a planned aquaculture tank.
• New inside: an Immersion Theater with 360-degree NOAA videos and the documentary Chasing Coral, per the same UH release.
• Before you go: UH’s release is from March, so call (808) 923-9741 if one exhibit decides your day.

The aquarium’s exhibit index lists about fifteen exhibits. These carry the visit:

• Seahorses, seadragons and pipefishes: a gallery wall over 60 feet long with nine exhibits and two nursery tanks of juvenile seahorses bred on site (aquarium).
• Hunters on the Reef: whitetip reef shark, zebra shark, giant grouper and knifejaw (aquarium).
• Ocean Drifters: a changing sea jelly gallery, fed live plankton three times a day (aquarium).
• Hawaiian Marine Communities: a Koko Head tank with a surge every 45 seconds, Kāneʻohe Bay patch reefs, a Kona Coast reef and the Deep Reefs of Lānaʻi (aquarium).
• The Pacific: a 5,500-gallon Barrier Reef tank with over 100 fish species and giant clams (aquarium), and a 4,000-gallon display of fishes from the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (aquarium).

Smaller stops include a Hawaiian day octopus (Jet Set) and the Living Reef corals. Outdoors, the giant clam display and the coral farm sit on the garden side. Want wild turtles instead of tank animals? A boat snorkel does that, and the card below carries a turtle guarantee.

The habitat is open. Hōʻailona, a Hawaiian monk seal born on Kauaʻi in 2008, was abandoned soon after birth and rescued by NOAA scientists. He spent 2021 to 2025 at a research lab in California and returned to a refurbished habitat, celebrated on September 27, 2025 (Hawaiʻi Public Radio). UH’s March 2026 release pictures its interim director with him (UH SOEST), and the aquarium runs a monk seal webcam.

He is the only monk seal there. The aquarium’s own monk seal page still says two, but Makaʻonaona died in 2018 at 34 (Honolulu Star-Advertiser). The aquarium says its seals could not survive in the wild. It posts no feeding or talk times, so ask at the desk.

The aquarium publishes no suggested length. Our estimate, for a building on 2.35 acres (aquarium history): about 60 minutes for a steady pass, 90 with children who linger at the seahorses and jellies.

• Hawaiian Reef Animals: a half-hour program to hold a sea star, feel a sea cucumber and feed an urchin, for ages 4 and up, $5 a person plus admission (aquarium). No times are posted.
• Front to Back Aquarium Tour: Wednesdays at 3 p.m. since September, $25 per adult and $20 per child (minimum age 10), admission included, with animal feeding and a look behind the scenes (aquarium).
• The Shop: no admission needed (aquarium).

Walking from Waikīkī: about 0.75 mile and 15 minutes from the Duke Kahanamoku statue, by our walking-route count. The aquarium is across Kalākaua Avenue from the Kapiʻolani Park tennis courts (directions).

TheBus: routes 14 and 200 have a stop named for the aquarium on Kalākaua Avenue. Routes 2, 8 and 42 reach the Kapahulu and Kalākaua corner from Kūhiō Avenue in about 7 minutes by our count of the TheBus schedule data, then it is about 0.3 mile along Kalākaua. Our Getting Around Oahu guide covers fares and HOLO cards.

Parking: the aquarium points to metered street parking on the park side of Kalākaua Avenue, plus a very limited number of free stalls in front for its visitors only. On busy days the desk gives out two-hour passes. It posts no meter rate, and the City’s meters page names none for this street, so read the sign on the meter. Our Waikīkī parking guide explains how the meters and the Park Smarter app work. The Honolulu Zoo lot on Kapahulu Avenue is $1.50 an hour, four hours at most, per the City’s zoo page.

Driving: from H-1 take exit 25A, go south on Kapahulu Avenue to the ocean and turn left on Kalākaua. The aquarium is on the ocean side.

The aquarium’s overview map puts the galleries inside the main building and the monk seal habitat, clam and coral farms on the open garden side. It posts no rain policy. On a showery day, do the galleries first and the garden last, or see our rainy day guide for Oahu for other indoor plans.

The same $12 ticket suits different ages differently.

This is a small aquarium run by a university, and its strength is local: Hawaiian reef animals, corals the University of Hawaiʻi studies and one rescued monk seal. At $12 it is worth an hour if you are already in Kapiʻolani Park, and a bargain at the $5 a child pays. It is not worth a special trip across the island, and it is a poor pick if the Edge of the Reef touch pool is the reason you came.

Kapiʻolani Park. The aquarium sits on the park’s shoreline, so the Kapiʻolani Park guide lays out the lawns, bandstand and zoo around it. The Honolulu Zoo is nearby on Kapahulu Avenue.

The beach and sunset. The sand beside the aquarium is covered in our Waikīkī beaches guide. Before swimming, check the aquarium’s box jellyfish calendar, which says its dates are estimates and to ask a lifeguard. For the evening, see where to watch the Waikīkī sunset.

The rest of the day. Free things to do in Waikīkī and things to do in Waikīkī fill it, and the Diamond Head hike is the other big stop at this end of Waikīkī: see Diamond Head reservations first.