Down to earth Monterey Bay Aquarium
Just because Pebble Beach is right around the corner doesn’t mean a family trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium needs to be an astronomical expense. Discover where to camp, which hotels offer family packages and which days this summer are free for kids 12 and under.
Deals: Children 12 years and younger receive free admission at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Sunday, Sep. 9 for “Fiesta del Mar.” Veterans Memorial Park has 40 campsites at $20/night for the first vehicle and $5 for additional vehicles with a three-night minimum stay. If you are staying in a hotel, try Seaside and Pacific Grove for cheaper rates than Monterey. There are also aquarium hotel packages on the Monterey Bay Aquarium website. You can also get around Monterey with a free trolley ride from Monterey-Salinas Transit.
Why Go: The Monterey Bay Aquarium added a new $3.6 million “Wild About Otters” exhibit this year. There are also additional Aquarium Adventure Programs that take families on science sailing trips, on scuba dives, on behind the scenes tours and on youth sleepovers.
Why Not: You’d prefer to wait until school is back in session for smaller crowds.
When: All summer long.
Contact: Monterey Bay Aquarium
Related Los Angeles Times links:
Monterey Bay Aquarium otters get African visitors
Elkhorn Slough, an intimate Monterey Bay wildlife refuge
23 Comments on “Down to earth Monterey Bay Aquarium”
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June 26th, 2007 at 10:04 am
One other summer tip: Saturdays and Sundays through Labor Day, the aquarium is open until 8 p.m. I’m on the aquarium staff, and crowds during the extended hours have been very manageable — an off-season experience in the middle of summer. Plus there’s live jazz and the restaurant is open for early-bird dinners.
June 26th, 2007 at 5:17 pm
Can anyone afford any of this? I’m a health care professional, and I can’t pay the admission to these places and still have a bed at the end of the day. Traveling has more and more become a luxury for the wealthy, while the middle class steps closer and closer to the end of the bread line.
June 27th, 2007 at 7:39 am
Thanks for the extra tips, Ken!
Spoondio, I know the cost to getting to Monterey could be a tough expense for a family on a tight budget, even if driving. Our aim is to point out ways for travelers to get added value or the same experience at a lesser cost.
Adult tickets are $24.95
Child tickets are $15.95
And like we said, children are free on Sept. 9.
Please let me know what your budget is, no matter how low, and I’ll take on the challenge of finding an affordable, fun “something to do” for your family.
Jen Leo
Los Angeles Times Travel Deal Detective
June 27th, 2007 at 12:38 pm
I have to agree with spoonido. My spouse is also a health care professional, and although we earn a decent living and own our own home, we’ve cut travel from our budget. We are barely keeping our heads above water with the high cost of gasoline, our electric bills, and our grocery bills. I wonder how many of these trips are financed by credit card. The middle class is disappearing.
June 27th, 2007 at 12:49 pm
Spoonie,
Sounds like you need to manage your budget better. I am middle class and can travel to anywhere I want!
–Bill
June 27th, 2007 at 1:03 pm
Your readers may also want to consider joining as members. For $120 you can get a family membership (2 adults + kids 3-21). The best part is that a portion of it is tax deductible (I think about $75, but I can’t remember off the top of my head). Members have a separate entrance, receive monthly updates on events and have special after hours events. If you are coming up from Southern California, there are a number of less expensive hotels in Marina and even Gilroy and Morgan Hill. We live in Campbell (about 70 minutes from Monterey) and visit about 4 times a year. Monterey is beautiful, peaceful, and it has a ton of history.
June 27th, 2007 at 1:19 pm
I don’t think this is a very expensive get a way. It really comes down to how well you budget.
I am going to DC next because I skimp on the day to day items so I can afford to travel.
June 27th, 2007 at 2:42 pm
I agree with the comment that traveling is becoming more out of reach of the middle class. With a limited amount of disposable income that is not keeping up with inflation and rising cost of gas, housing, energy bills, insurance, and food, the average family is seeing the opportunity diminish and vanish to take their children to see parts of our nation set aside especially for them, let alone foreign countries to at least witness other cultures and ways of life.
Our nation has spent more money in the fruitless fight in Iraq than on any other cause to the detriment of everyone. First for the lost soldiers who died fighting for us, then to everyone else, including the Iraqi people, the american taxpayers, whom experienced nothing to do with words like “freedom” or “democracy” that our current administration throws around like cheap and transparent whorish come-ons.
June 27th, 2007 at 2:47 pm
I like traveling on a budget. These deals make it easier to enjoy exhibits and recreations for less money.
I think places like the aquarium are stuck in a hard place as people cut out travelling from their limited budget resulting in lower admission revenues and so with rising energy costs and lower revenues, organizations such as the aquarium are left to increase ticket prices to make up for the lost attendance, which only drives more people away.
Some day, I may not be able to visit these places but until then, I think it is money well spent, especially when deals arise!
June 27th, 2007 at 2:54 pm
travel is much more expensive than during the 90’s
with demand and prices up
i travel a lot less
roundtrip drive to monterey is easily $100
no more cheap road trips
p.s. try fishwifes seafood in seaside for great affordable
seafood
June 27th, 2007 at 3:12 pm
Glad to hear some folks are doing so well. But this year my pay went up 2% and my rent went up 10%. Good money management only goes so far, and on my vacation this year I will be camping and staying with relatives.
25 bucks for admission to an aquarium? Yikes. The one in Long Beach is only $20, and you get $5 off if you buy your ticket at Ralph’s grocery store.
June 27th, 2007 at 3:19 pm
I’m a starving college/art student and I’ve traveled domestically and internationally–from megalopolises, other metro areas, backpacking, and camping. It’s all about making it as much as a priority as your other bills.
June 28th, 2007 at 8:13 pm
I agree with Amara. Unfortunately, most Americans are caught up in the materialism which consumes most of their disposable income.
I also travel around the world and not wealthy, etc. however I don’t buy a new car every year/every other year, don’t buy a new TV every year, don’t buy a new stereo or electronics every year - so it is all in setting your priorities.
June 28th, 2007 at 8:45 pm
If you make travel a priority, you’ll find a way to pay for it. I’ve traveled the world broke, with money, on limited budgets — and it’s always worth every penny.
June 28th, 2007 at 10:16 pm
Its all in how you budget. For all of you who attend or have attended a california community college, go check out your school’s travel deals as well. For instance, my school has a running deal on san diego wild animal park and other places all over California. Its worth checking into if you are traveling on a budget this summer.
June 28th, 2007 at 10:37 pm
Curious impact from traveling to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. All forms of motor transport utilize petroleum which when combusted produces CO2 — a gas that is emitted to the atmosphere. As the concentration of CO2 increases in the atmosphere the partial pressure of CO2 increases which results in an increases of the concentration of CO2 in the waters of the world’s oceans. As CO2 concentrations increase in the ocean the ocean water becomes more acidic — the result is acidification of the world’s oceans and a dieoff of marine organisms with concomitant changes in ecosystem composition and function.
The best course of action is to not go to the Monterey Bay Aquarium as going is accelerating the death of that which we “love”.
June 29th, 2007 at 3:54 am
I have recently been to Korea and Japan for 3 weeks. I have a day job, however, to better afford my trip, I taught ESL 7 days/week, after my 9 hours workday and on weekend. I stayed at hostels, not limited just to youths. You’ve got to eat, but I mostly I ate from the food stalls or bought fresh items at the supermarkets. The hostels all have kitchens. I spend a lot less than allocated and will be on my way to Vietnam in December, pulling a lot of extra shifts. You have to decide what is important, and to me, going places is important. All I need is a bed to sleep in. The rest, I have at home.
June 29th, 2007 at 8:12 am
In regards to backpacking. How would most people feel if a 45 year old guy was sharing a room with them in a hostel? I’d think that was weird. If your a woman you can do the backpacking thing, if you’re young you can, but if you are middle aged, well you seem a little odd doing the cheap route.
Also most Americans don’t have the kind of money to backpack through anywhere. In general Americans get way less vacation time than people in any other country.
Americans don’t travel because the vast majority are very broke (not buy a new car broke either, but barely paying rent broke), not because they are materiallistic.
Stop watching TV and actually look at the lifestyle of real Americans.
Jane
June 29th, 2007 at 8:45 am
It’s not so much an issue of travel being unafordable for the middle class throughout the country, so much as it is life being very expensive for the middle class in large metropolitan areas (especially ones like LA).
For the cost of renting a 2 bedroom apartment in Los Angeles, you could rent a large house in a nice neighborhood in several midwsetern areas. You pay a premium to live in Los Angeles - gas and groceries are somewhat more expensive here than they are elswhere, and housing is significantly more expensive here than it is elsewhere. Travel for the middle class is perfectly possible and available, but it is just difficult to budget when you’re already paying necessary costs of living in the inflated markets of Los Angeles.
June 29th, 2007 at 10:44 am
It is very true that we all make our priorities but we all have ways to make things happen as well if we want them bad enough. Travel has become expensive and the biggest culprit is the cost of fuel since it filters into the cost of virtually everything we do and buy. We all have ourselves to blame for insisting on buying fuel hogs and not standing up to our leaders and saying we are fed up with the fiscal mismanagement of our country and state. We need to support mass transit, car pooling, and vote with our dollars to push fuel efficient vehicles. We also need to vote with our dollars to say enough is enough on the ridiculous home prices and taxes in our state. No wonder people can’t afford to take the kids to these places when they spend half their salaries on housing. I challenge everyone to take a hard look at their spending habits and look at alternatives to what they are now doing so they can afford to set aside some cash for doing things with their families.
September 8th, 2007 at 10:14 am
To the Administrator: The aquarium hotel packages link in the original article is down (as of this date).
September 8th, 2007 at 12:15 pm
Thanks for the heads-up, Michael. I’ve updated the link, which has changed to:
http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/vi/vi_tickets/hotels.asp
- Andrew
Sr. Editor/Producer
travel.latimes.com
March 24th, 2008 at 7:43 pm
Hey, if you guys have any print out coupons or know of ways to get free savings, please email me at zachery798@yahoo.com