The Insectarium moved in with the fish, which means a single ticket at 1 Canal Street now buys a reef tunnel and a plate of edible crickets.
Audubon Aquarium holds more than 3,600 animals across 250-plus species and carries accreditation from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. USA Today readers have voted it among the top five aquariums in the country. It sits on the riverfront at the edge of the French Quarter, which makes it one of the easier attractions in the city to reach on foot or by streetcar.
The exhibits move through several worlds. The Great Maya Reef puts visitors inside a 30-foot tunnel with fish swimming overhead. The Amazon Rainforest gallery fills with free-flying birds and dense plant life. Down the Bayou recreates Louisiana wetlands with a great white alligator and the native species that share the water, minus the mosquitoes. The Gulf of Mexico habitat is the largest tank on the property at 450,000 gallons, built around the ecosystem that shapes the state’s economy and food.
Several exhibits invite contact. The Shark Discovery Touch Pool lets visitors reach into the water with sharks and stingrays. African penguins have their own colony, and cownose rays flap through their tank like birds.
The Insectarium occupies the same building and comes included. More than 50 live arthropod exhibits cover beetles, spiders, and their relatives. A leafcutter ant colony marches visibly through the walls. The Butterfly Garden releases hundreds of free-flying butterflies from rainforests worldwide into a flower-filled room overlooking the Mississippi. Bug Appétit serves actual insect cuisine for anyone willing.
Admission covers both and runs on a system Audubon calls Plan-Ahead Pricing. Adult tickets range from $45 to $55 and child and senior tickets from $40 to $50, with the exact figure depending on the date and expected demand. Children under 2 enter free. Booking online at least a day ahead generally gets the lower end of the range. All sales are final, with no refunds or exchanges.
A three-attraction combo adds Audubon Zoo in Uptown for around $60 to $63 per adult, and combination tickets stay valid for five days from the first use, which is useful since the zoo sits about six miles away.
Practical details are worth noting. The Aquarium and Insectarium went fully cashless on October 1, 2026, and cash-to-card kiosks are available on site for anyone caught out. Doors open daily at 10 a.m. and close at 5 p.m., with the last ticket sold at 4 p.m. and last entry at 4:30. Café Aqua handles food with vegetarian and allergy-friendly options. Separately ticketed Wild Encounters put guests closer to specific animals, and admission is included in most of those packages.
Entry is from the riverfront side of the building, and ticket holders head upstairs with a barcode. Most visitors report spending about three hours across both attractions, which is longer than the building looks from Canal Street.
