The aquarium itself is well worth the money, with amazing animals that you might otherwise never see. I love the fact that the aquarium is free flowing, with different exhibits branching out from the main lobby. Because of this there is no time limit on your visit and you can view certain exhibits multiple times. The food is great (especially the desserts), though it is a bit pricey. There's also two gift shops, filled with the basic toys, shirts, and keychains, as well as unique art and jewelry.

On my last visit we did the behind the scenes tour ($25 for members $45 for non-members). Though pricey, this tour was worth the money. You go behind the scenes of the Tropical Diver Tank, Beluga Whale Tank, Whale Shark Tank, the labs and hospital area, food prep area, etc. You're guided by a knowledgeable staff member who can answer just about any question you might have. I'd recommend this tour to anyone who has the extra money to spend.

I was actually able to visit the Georgia Aquarium for free, because the conference I attended held an opening-night reception there, but I would have gladly paid the adult admission cost, which is $23 ($17 for kids). That’s not much more than what my local aquarium in Boston charges, and the Georgia Aquarium beats it by a mile. About three thousand teachers and school administrators, on top of the visitors who were already there, filled the place to bursting, and every exhibit was jam-packed so tight you could barely move. The pungent smell of not-so-appetizing catered food and Sterno carried throughout the entire building, and camera flashes went off approximately eighty million times a minute. Despite all these distractions and annoyances I was utterly transfixed, and had to be dragged out by my colleagues.

There are five major exhibits to explore, each featuring a different water ecosystem, and all include contextualized displays, giving you a sense of what the associated landscape might look like. You can walk around and under tanks, usually from multiple heights, and in the largest exhibit, the Ocean Voyager, has a 100 foot-long clear tunnel running right through its 6 million gallon tank, so you can watch creatures like 600 pound grouper swimming right above your head. The usual suspects are all here: otherworldly sea dragons and so-cute-you-wanna-try-to-walk-off-with-them penguins (from Africa!), but there’s also creatures you don’t often get to see in an aquarium (or anywhere else, for that matter) like beluga whales, giant Japanese crabs (which can grow to the size of cars), and whale sharks. The beluga tank alone dwarfed most of the exhibits I’ve ever seen in aquariums like the Shedd in Chicago, or California’s Monterey Bay, and you’d have to travel all the way to Asia to see another whale shark in captivity. The Georgia Aquarium has four of them! There’s a side mini-exhibit that looks like a commercial for a shipping company, but is actually a really interesting record of the massive effort of shipping those whale sharks to the aquarium before it opened.

A Georgia resident I met while in Atlanta said that he’d been waiting since 2005, when the aquarium opened, for visitor traffic to fall off a little, so he could see the place when it wasn’t so crowded. He’d been waiting two years and there was no sign he’d get his wish anytime soon. You’ll have to deal with large crowds, but it’s more than worth it, and you can probably avoid the worst of it by visiting on a weekday and showing up early.

Upon entrance, all have to go through security checkpoints. They check for knives, and guns. No guns allowed! The inside is split into 5 areas, and unfortunately because of the way it's organized, traffic is constantly bottle-necked through the exhibits and completely crowded and almost impossible to see some of the smaller exhibits. Many people were frustrated by the end of the exhibits because of this, and therefore were quite rude and grumpy.

The Georgia Aquarium is the largest aquarium in the world! It has 8 million gallons of fresh and sea water and more than 100,000 animals per their website (www.georgiaaquarium.org).

It has five sections with different types of fish in each section. Their prize animals are four whale sharks. Each section has a large viewing window that gives you room to move around or sit and watch the fish for a while. Amazingly, the pictures come out fairly well even through the glass (acrylic) windows.

They have a 4-D movie that is worth seeing. With the special glasses, you get the 3-D effect, but then they are additional real effects (such as, water, flashing lights, exploding ribbons, etc.) to get the fourth dimension into the experience. The movie showing in summer 2006 was Deepo's Undersea Wondershow, which is cute and worth seeing and very reminiscent of Disney's Finding Nemo.

One of the five viewing sections is a play area for younger visitors. It includes interactive exhibits for the children, including a "petting zoo" for some smaller fish.

One interesting item to note is that the aquarium was originally funded by a single donor, who is a co-founder of The Home Depot. For all the other donors, there is a wall with each of their names. A computer next to the wall lets you search for each person by name and then the wall lights up to show you where that person's name is. It's pretty neat.

The gift shop is a must for all the people you need to buy gifts for when you return home. Some of the items available are shirts, toys, collectible souvenirs, books, etc. You can spend a long time in there.

Daily admission costs $22.75 per person over 12 (free for children 0-3, $17 for children 3-12, and $19.50 for persons over 55).

The aquarium is still a relatively new attraction (opened in November 2005), so it is very crowded. It is highly recommended to make reservations on-line or by phone ahead of time. Going during the week and during the afternoon is also recommended for smaller crowds. The reservations are to allow you entry during a specific hour (e.g. 2-3 pm). You can then stay as long as you like.

Parking is available next to the Aquarium for $10. It's next door, but a little bit of a long walk to the entrance.

Adjacent to the Olympic Park, you will find one of the most surprising attractions to be found in a non-coastal city: the Georgia Aquarium.

The Georgia Aquarium (www.georgiaaquarium.org) opened in November 2005 and has already seen over 3 million visitors - that's an average of more than 11,000 visitors per day. It bills itself as "the world's largest aquarium" due to the fact that its tanks hold more than 8 million gallons of water.

And yes, the place does feel as crowded as it sounds - our tickets were for 9am, and we got there around 9:30am. I am not exaggerating when I say that even at that hour of the morning, the Aquarium is a super busy. School groups, tourists, you name it, the place was absolutely packed. If you don't buy your tickets online (like we did), you will definitely have to wait in line to get in!

The Georgia Aquarium has a variety of really lovely animals and fish (more than 100,000 animals across 500 species), but it's lacking something: enough windows to see them. The place was jammed with people, which meant that every window was packed with people trying to see inside.

The aquarium's design is very attractive, laid out in several Disney-style tours of different ocean regions, which made it easy to navigate. I would have also liked to have seen more information available at each display tank, although having the guides giving live talks was a really nice touch.

It is expensive to visit here: adult tickets are $22.75 (plus service fees if you buy online - and you'll want to; reservations are highly recommended), children 5-12 are $17, and seniors are $19.50. In addition, you'll pay for a lot of things inside: audio tour, movie, etc. There is also a "behind the scenes" tour for $50 (in addition to the admission price). If you purchase the Atlanta CityPass, general admission is included on the CityPass.

If you do not like crowds, this place is not for you, as people constantly jostle each other for viewing. I liked the layout and the interior design of the aquarium, but felt that not enough space was given for people to be able to wander and take a little bit of time when viewing some of the more interesting exhibits.

The aquarium is also involved in rescue, research, rehabilitation, relocation, and conservation projects, not just in the southeastern US but also around the world.

In addition, the aquarium's restaurants participate in the Seafood Watch Program, which is designed to increase consumer awareness of sustainable seafood resources.

If you're in Atlanta and like sea life, you may want to give the aquarium a look.