Tide Pool and Aquarium

Fantastic experience: Wonderful little museum with marine creatures and taxidermic birds. The guide Kip was friendly and super knowledgeable.

Fantastic experience: A special Dad to me. Craig Stanley Wilson passed away in 2004. The State of California, planted a tree at the Doheney Beach. There is a baby blue bird house hanging from his tree. The two women working that day. Told me the tree house is there, because a Blue Bird is nesting there. This tree was not supposed to make it. My Dad had blue eyes. ... My last room mate was a blue bird l rescued...

Fantastic experience: Nice little place worth ten minutes if you're in the area. Friendly staff.

Fantastic experience: Very small but free aquarium with just a couple tanks and plenty of taxidermy sea life in a few cases. Aquarium is in two small rooms and takes roughly 5 minutes to walk through. Nice little spot to see while visiting Dana Point and you can’t beat free!

Fantastic experience: Worth the stop, a good place to volunteer and great for the community.

Positive experience: The park staff is very helpful. You don't need tickets, but the tide pools at this location are simulated ones in the museum. The actual tide pools are down the road at the ocean institute.

Fantastic experience: Micro Aquarium and museum, about the real estate of a 4 car garage. Very clean, well kept and wonderful staff. Has a few small tanks with eels, sharks, spiny lobsters and tide pool. No touching them, not a petting zoo. You could spend 20 min to an hour in here looking at the exhibit and kids would love this. Free and next to the beach. It is about the size of an exhibit section in a normal Aquarium. They also have taxidermy wildlife and bones of sharks and whales on display. Pretty dang cool! For those giving it 4 stars or less, what are you expecting for the small size? Do you want a full size amusement park and for free? It's definitely 5 stars. If you aren't sure they are open, give them a call or something. And worth a 30 minute drive for sure to check out before or after church or on the way to brunch or coffee or beach.... or a stop on the way home to kill time from traffic. I love and appreciate this place. They have a little gift shop too.. help support this little gem for future generations and future visits. P.s. there are some overweight squirrels outside at times. (Picture attached)

Fantastic experience: Stop in and see the aquarium. Located at the entrance to Doheny State beach.

Fantastic experience: It was great for my Granddaughter. The Caretaker was very informative. This is a small but very nice facility.

Fantastic experience: It’s pretty small but it’s free! A few fish for the kids to look at, lots of stiffed animals and bones etc for the kids to touch and look at. Not something I would specifically travel to, but worth a peek if your driving by to get out of the sun for a few minutes.

Fantastic experience: Nice fish. Can you find the urchin? Hint: it likes to hide.

Positive experience: This free little state park aquarium/interpretive center is worth a visit. Inside you will find a small tide pool tank with sea stars, guitar fish, sea urchins, and even shark eggs (if you are there when they have them. There are five more tanks with eels, lobsters, leopard sharks, and fish. The rest of the place has taxidermy native species and bones of animals found in the area. You can see a history of animals presented. It may be a small center, but there is still much to see and children love to explore here.

Positive experience: I learned a lot about the local marine habitat, especially the local sharks in the area, from a stranger who just so happened to be in the Aquarium when I walked in. That was a lucky break!

Fantastic experience: This is a very cute little aquarium at Doheney St. Beach. Set your sights appropriately, this is a small, 2 room aquarium that tries to showcase the native species that live in thr area around the park. It's great to stop in if you are there for the day or camping.

Fantastic experience: Such a cute little aquarium to stop by if you’re driving through. Free and the kids loved it. Nice short walk to the beach also!

Fantastic experience: Very cool place with exhibits for the kiddos not very large but within walking distance of the butterfly trail and open courtyard and reserve areas and it's just a hop and skip to the beach.

Fantastic experience: One of the best places to visit in Dana Point. Free information and educational exhibits for the local critters and sea life in the area. Just a small sample of pictures that I took while exploring.

Positive experience: It's a small place, but for the size there was quite a lot to see. There were croakers, calico bass, and a sand shark in the tide pool tank. The aquariums had eels, lobsters, and sharks. The rest of the displays were taxidermy of local animals such as coyotes, squirrels, skunks, and various types of birds. You can visit for 5 minutes or half an hour depending on how much detail you want to get into it. Also, there's a butterfly garden next door. Unfortunately, we didn't see any butterflies on our visit.

Fantastic experience: Awesome little spot to see marine life. Very nice and informative staff. Kip is the best!

Positive experience: Great camping/Rving, Children friendly. The only downside side to Doheny state beach campground is no hook ups. (Water,electricity)

Positive experience: Was a small but unique place to visit and the gentlemen was very informative on the displays

Positive experience: It's a small hidden place great to entertain the little ones. The park volunteers are extremely knowledgeable and excited about nature.

Positive experience: Interactive and family friendly. Very fun and knowledgeable people. This aquarium is not like Aquarium of the Pacific. Most everything is hands on. A great way to learn alot and kill and hour or so

Fantastic experience: Super cute, but small aquarium center. The employees were very informative. And kids absolutely love the little sharks they have

Fantastic experience: Neat place to look at local wildlife in the area, they have a little tide pool inside.

Fantastic experience: Very small place but so much to see. Very attentiveness and eager to help! I been to Dana Point many times but first time in here. There is a couple of 15min parking spots and bike racks