MONTEREY BAY AQUARIUM
The Monterey Bay Aquarium in California does a huge amount of marine research, and was the first aquarium to successfully keep a great white shark in captivity. It’s also one of the few places where you can see an ocean sunfish.
Photo: Angelo De Santis
HOTEL ATLANTIS DUBAI
The Hotel Atlantis in Dubai offers these “underwater” rooms built right up against huge aquarium tanks. It’s a cool view, but I’d be terrified of it breaking in my sleep…
Photo: Werner Bayer
OKINAWA CHURAUMI
The Kuroshio Sea is the main tank at the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium in Japan. It held the record of the world’s largest tank when it opened in 2002, but has since been surpassed by the Georgia Aquarium.
Photo: Sonotoki
L’OCEANOGRÀFIC
L’Oceanogràfic is in Valencia, Spain, and has a total capacity of up to 11 million gallons of water in all of its tanks. It also happens to be a particularly beautiful building.
Photo: Nickolay Pirogov
AQUARIUM OF GENOA
The Aquarium of Genoa is the largest in Italy, and has a number of different marine habitats, including North Atlantic, Caribbean, and Ligurian Sea tanks.
Photo: Castgen
CHIMELONG OCEAN KINGDOM
The Chimelong Ocean Kingdom in Hengqin, China, broke five world records—including largest aquarium—when it opened earlier this year. Unfortunately, it’s come under a lot of criticism for its methods of obtaining the animals.
Photo: Sina
AQUADOM BERLIN
The AquaDom is a cylindrical, 25-meter-tall aquarium in the Radisson Blu Hotel in Berlin. Inside the cylinder is a glass elevator.
Photo: Jamie Mead
SEAWORLD
Probably the most (in)famous aquarium in the world, SeaWorld is known for its shows with marine animals, particularly killer whales. It came under a ton of criticism for its treatment of those whales recently, thanks to the documentary Blackfish.
Photo: Chris A
HILTON MALDIVES UNDERSEA RESTAURANT
The Hilton in the Maldives has both underwater suites and an underwater restaurant. The Maldives is actually at risk of sinking into the sea, due to climate change and sea level rise, so this might be the way the whole country is going.
Photo: Christian Jensen
USHAKA MARINE WORLD
The uShaka Marine World in Durban, South Africa, is the largest aquarium on the African continent. It’s also connected to a water park and has SeaWorld-like shows.
Photo: Cat
THE AQUARIUM BED
Okay, so it’s not the largest by any measure, but I would’ve killed as a five-year-old to fall asleep with fish swimming over my head. And the sound of the aquarium must be insanely soothing.
Photo: Wicker Paradise
TURKUAZOO
The TurkuaZoo in Istanbul, Turkey, has the largest aquarium in Europe. It also allows visitors to go diving with sharks.
Photo: Pixage
SHEDD AQUARIUM
The Shedd Aquarium has been in Chicago since 1930, and for a long time it was the largest aquarium in the world, though it has since been dwarfed by a lot of these other spots.
Photo: Smart Destinations
GEORGIA AQUARIUM
The Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta was the largest in the world when it opened in 2005, and it remains the largest in the United States. It’s home to 500 different species and holds a total of 10 million gallons of water.
Photo: Melvin “Buddy” Baker
NEWPORT AQUARIUM
The Newport Aquarium in Northern Kentucky is probably best known for its shark petting exhibits.
Photo: Ken Colwell
DUBAI MALL AQUARIUM
The largest mall in the world also has one of the largest aquariums in the world—the Dubai Mall Aquarium has a single tank with 33,000 animals in it.
Photo: Salis
SHANGHAI OCEAN AQUARIUM
The Shanghai Ocean Aquarium has one of the longest underwater tunnels in the world, and is located right next to the Oriental Pearl skyscraper in Pudong.
Photo: Aapo Haapanen
NATIONAL AQUARIUM BALTIMORE
The beautiful National Aquarium in Baltimore Harbor is technically partnered with the National Aquarium in Washington DC, but Baltimore’s aquarium is significantly cooler. It’s home to 750 species and can hold 2.2 million gallons of water.
Photo: Jeff Kubina