Flint RiverQuarium

So, 5 stars? Sabrina? Really? YES! This review is solely based on this aquarium. Not my experience at any aquarium. That wouldn’t be fair. It’s in Albany. A small town. In Ga.
My nephew’s 5^th birthday party was here. He and his friends loved it. There was a dive show (feeding and playing with the animals), great snippets of history about the marine animals and educational activities. The event space was pretty bare, but nothing a few decorations and good food couldn’t fix. I loved that it wasn’t too big. None of the kids were lost and everyone had fun. I’ll def go back when I return.

Wow, what a surprise! We loved this place. This is great for all ages. The youngest in our group was 15. Everyone we encountered had so much knowledge to share and was very kind. We would definitely visit again. We saw a diver enter the tank for a live feeding of striped bass and other fish. Later, we also saw alligators being fed. They have a rare albino alligator here named «Moonshine.» I was quite surprised at the animal diversity at this location.

My sister lives near Albany, GA. While I was visiting her a little over a week ago, we stopped at the RiverQuarium. The exhibits are fantastic and spacious. The volunteers and staff are friendly and happy to answer questions about the animals. As a resident of the DC metro area, I’ve been to the National Zoo and Baltimore Aquarium several times — the RiverQuarium is smaller, of course, but the exhibits are much better overall. The animals look healthy and energetic, which is a rare sight at zoos in my experience. I rate this place up there with Clyde Peeling’s Reptiland in Pennsylvania, another small zoo that has really great staff and exhibits. The RiverQuarium is definitely worth the cost of entry. You’ll learn a lot about a unique and beautiful ecosystem. Highly recommended.

I went to the Flint Riverquarium int the spring of 2013 on my way through Albany to visit the Kolomoki Indian Mounds. This was a fantastic experience. There was one volunteer in particular that was immensely informative, friendly and welcoming. This gentleman told me all about every single species in the aquarium, how the resident alligator snapping turtle got his name, and more. It must have been a slow day for his others duties because I was escorted by him and the highlight of the day was going into the aviary and meeting Arkie, a tame and very intelligent and friendly bluejay who took a liking to me. The volunteer explained that I must be a nice guy because he usually doesn’t happily perch on people’s shoulders and chatter away to them in response to your conversation with him. Great place, great folks. Very young kids, however, will be bored. It is best for middle school aged kids or the younger ones that take a keen interest in nature.

I went here with my stepson and wife a couple of years ago. It was a nice change and it felt like a positive addition to downtown Albany.
Corey, my stepson, had a pretty fun time running around and playing on the little attractions. The fish were beautiful. The environments and reflection of the local habitat made Albany seem a bit nicer than I imagine most days. They have little science projects for children and games to keep them engaged. They have shows and divers drop in on the fish and other things and feed them. I also believe they had an aviary, but I didn’t spend much time in there.
This place is a generally nice place to have in Albany and I would recommend it for anyone who enjoys aquariums. I do remember they have an albino alligator and I thought that was intriguing.
I found the architecture to be mildly appealing as well.
The entire area is pretty nice with the fountains and the buildings downtown. The river park is right next door and the Turtle Park playground is a very short walk. I would recommend it for a nice day out with children. Thronateeska Heritage Center isn’t too far away either if you’re looking for another place to visit in downtown Albany.
Flint River BBQ is around the corner and across the street from the playground if you get hungry. The park also consists of a river trail that follows down by the river and is a nice walk.
The center stands well on its own, though. It’s worth a visit on a nice day.

I didn’t decide to come to Small Town USA to pee in their pool… but I gotta be honest. This place is beautiful and has great potential to be amazing, but until they add bigger and better exhibits, a lot of the space here is virtually unused.
THE EXPERIENCE
In my opinion, the RiverQuarium is not really worth the money… that is, unless you have toddler or preschool aged children. Our 9 year old and 12 year old were not very thrilled with our visit today and neither was I. Most of the exhibits and displays are mediocre at best and if you’ve seen other Aquariums like Atlanta’s Georgia Aquarium, Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies or Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium, this will leave you highly unimpressed. Seriously, PetSmart is more exciting than this place. Sure, I know this is supposed to give a unique education on the life of river animals, but in short, there’s just not much substance here.
We paid $ 32 for a family of four and spend all of 1.5 hours tooling around trying to act more excited than we were to encourage our kids excitement. 15 minutes of that time was spent watching a rather unimpressive alligator feeding. The Riverquarium itself will take you less than ½ hour to circle through all the displays and that’s if you actually find something interesting enough to stop and observe. Otherwise you’ll be done in 10 minutes.
There is also a theater showing animal related movies (we missed the last show), but even if we’d seen the movie and it was awesome, I doubt if it would have made the experience much better.
Today there were several booths set up both inside and out offering everything from face painting to «shoot the duck» projection screen displays. There was a neat catch and release catfish pond and a very cool Birds of Prey show. The ladder was the best part of today’s visit and from what I understand, this show is only offered once a year… SCORE! However, since it was sponsor driven and outside the buildings, there would have been no need to pay to see the show.
THE VERDICT
If you’ve never been to any sort of aquarium, this might be a great way to spend time with your family. Otherwise, I’d probably skip it in favor of the Albany Zoo, which is about the same cost. And for the record, even though we acted excited about this place, when we asked the kids what THEY thought of today’s visit, their honest response was: «We were trying to be excited because you guys seemed excited, but it wasn’t that great.» Oh the irony!
Highlights:
Blue Hole Spring exhibit
Outdoor step waterfall
Kids play tunnel
Outdoor bird sanctuary
Birds of Prey show (not a regular event)

So impressed!
My brother and I decided to make an impromptu trip to somewhere neither of us had been before. We chose Albany, Georgia. I don’t know. Just go with it.
On the drive up from Tallahassee, I googled around for things to do in Albany, and this was at the top of a lot of lists, and for good reason. First of all, it’s mad cheap. Adults: $ 9! And if you’re a college student (like moi): $ 5.50! Because the price was so low, I was a little skeptical about the quality of the exhibits, but these fears were quickly dashed. The aquarium is so well done. It took us about an hour to walk through the whole thing, and we enjoyed every minute of it. The exhibits were interactive, the designs of the tanks and habitats were beautiful, and everyone there seemed to really enjoy themselves.
The two coolest exhibits by far are the Blue Hole Spring and the fish hatchery. The walk up to the Spring exhibit makes it feel as if you are descending below the Georgia swamps into the Spring itself, which is very cool. The hatchery is just awesome, because who doesn’t love baby animals.
We happened to also be there on the day of the Great Turtle Race and the Albany Mardi Gras festival. Both events were highly entertaining, and I definitely suggest visiting during this time if you can.
This is a great way to spend an hour or two in Albany, especially if you have kids.

I loved this park. Clean, well maintained. Plenty of parking and it is right in the «city»

Very nice considering it’s in the horrible, run-​down area that is downtown Albany. Had a fairly good time, but it’s probably more fun for kids. Too expensive, though.

this is a nice spot for where its at.

I am so glad I came here! I honestly like i’st a little better than the aquarium in Atlanta due to the lay out and the way you can interact and learn despite of it’s small size.
Admission is $ 9, but if you are a student it’s $ 8, not a bad deal. The aquarium itself is fairly large and highlights the ecosystems found in GA’s waters from those found in rivers to those found in oceans and underground aquifers. It also had some really cool salt water fish found in the Caribbean which were really pretty to look at as well as a tank full of shrimp… whose are some goofy creatures when they are alive! They look more serious when they are cooked! Anyway they had some huge bass, alligators, including an albino one which is extremely rare.
One of my favorite animals shown were the turtles as well as the variety of birds in the aviary. There were a variety of turtles ranging from snapping turtles to tortoises… just awesome. Another highlight was the aviary, there was variety of birds including quails, a goose, blue jay, and a whole bunch of different ducks to name a few.
There was a section on educating patrons on the effects of pollution on the ecosystem, which I thought was very insightful and well done. Showed ecosystems that had been ravaged by pollution that cannot support many fish… very interesting.
Overall, I had a wonderful experience. I learned a great deal and was extremely entertained by the variety of animals that were displayed. The lay out was great, the staff was wonderful… answered many questions on a variety of animals and how they were acquired and maintained. Its a wonderful place for people of all ages, I highly recommend.
#Yelp365 ⁷⁄₃₆₅

Love this Riverquarium! Its a much smaller aquarium compared to many others but it was well worth the visit. The aquarium itself had exhibits on fish, alligators, frogs, snakes, etc…
They currently have an exhibit called Alligators: Dragon in Paradise and the star of the show is «Moonshine» The Albino Alligator
After we viewed the exhibit I asked the kids (depending on their age) questions specific to what was at the exhibit or what they remembered! I am happy to report that my money was well spent! They remembered a number of things and it also gave me an idea of what interest them! Great learning experience for both parent and children!
Price for adults is $ 9, seniors $ 8, Youth (4 — 12) $ 6.50
They are open from:
Monday — Friday
9:00 a.m. — 5:00 p.m.
Saturday
10:00 a.m. — 6:00 p.m.
Sunday
1:00 p.m. — 5:00 p.m.
For more information visit their website at: