The COEX Aquarium is a good place to go to if you’re traveling with kids and looking for a fun and educational place indoors south of the Han River. I took my daughter there one afternoon with my visiting relatives (and their kids) and the kids couldn’t help but start screaming around the fish!
Here is a map of the whole aquarium to give you an idea on what you shouldn’t miss out:
After paying the entrance fee (each adult had to pay 22,000krw, a bit on the pricey side but fortunately the kids didn’t have to pay!), we decided to go in. My relatives took the escalator up but because my daughter was sleeping in the stroller, I had to use the elevator instead. If you also need to use the elevator, you should let one of the staff know.
Naturally, the COEX Aquarium starts off with something very representative of Korea: the first room is a room full of different varieties of Korean Fish. Next up was a garden reminiscent of the old Palace Gardens Korea is also quite known for:
Then venture into Fish Wonderland, a room with various unusual utilities housing fish and some mammals sure to catch the attention of little kids and fans of the unusual. Imagine that: bunnies living in a bathroom and fish living in a refrigerator!
Next up was the Amazonian World, where the Aquarium tries to recreate the Amazon in this huge room as much as they can. There were statues of tribal people in one area of the room and lots of fake trees and a variety of fish in shorter aquarium tanks. There was also a monkey in a cage in the corner as you walk along the bridge. Unfortunately this room was so dark that taking pictures was really a challenge!
I was initially excited to get the kids to watch the feeding “show” at the Marine Mammal Village, but there really wasn’t much to see. There was a huge crowd (there were so many people in the seating area that we ended up seating on the floor at the front most area) gathered to watch the caretaker feed his seals. He tried to put on a little show but I don’t think foreigners will find it that interesting.
Here’s a list of the different feeding schedules of different animals there in case you’d like to try and watch it:
Then there’s the Deep Blue Square and the Deep Blue Tunnel, which are more or less connected. The Deep Blue Tunnel is an acrylic underwater tunnel that allows the underwater mammals and fish to swim over its audiences’ heads, and visitors get to take pictures of these animals (that range from various types of sharks to huge manta-rays) from below.
The children all found the Penguin’s Playground a very curious sight though. We also learned there that one can distinguish the adult penguin from the young penguin by seeing if it has a shade of black across the top of its chest. The younger ones’ chests should be white.
Korean Name: 코엑스 아쿠아리움 (Coex Aquarium)
Fees: Entrance Fee: Adults : 22,000 Youth: 19,000 Children: 17,000 Kids under 47 months automatically get free admission (one child per parent/guardian).
Opening Hours: 10AM-8PM (daily)
Address: Coexaquarium, 513, Yeongdong-daero, Gangnam-gu, Seoul (서울특별시 강남구 삼성동 159 코엑스 O12) Phone Number: 02-6002-6200 Website: http://coexaqua.com/
Other Information: How to get there: Get off at Samseong Station, Green Line/Line #2. Take exit 5 or 6 to get into Coex, and from there there are signs inside the mall pointing to the Aquarium
source:https://bringinguptheparks.wordpress.com/2015/04/08/a-trip-to-seouls-coex-aquarium/
