Cairns Aquarium Marine Life Encounter Ticket: Hand-Feed Cownose Rays on Exclusive Backstage Tour
4.8
16 Ratings
Cairns

The pinnacle of experiences!
Visualise yourself feeding docile Cownose Rays during a private guided tour that includes visits to our food prep, research, and quarantine zones.

Duration: 3 hours
Cancellation: 1 day learn more
Highlights
  • Cairns Aquarium - Get the most from your day at Cairns Aquarium with a Marine Life Encounter! You’ll be met by one of our passionate ecologist guides, who will personally escort you on an exclusive guided tour through 9 diverse Tropical North Queensland habitats from the freshwater rivers, through the tropical rainforest, across mangroves to the Great Barrier Reef and out to the Coral Sea. Your guide will take you Behind-the-Scenes so you can see how the Aquarium cares for its marine life. You’ll also see our quarantine section and animal food preparation room. An exclusive hand feeding session of the Cownose Sting Rays with their favourite food takes place amidst circling predators of the Coral Sea on a specially designed feeding platform. Enjoy a scatter feed of the giant Freshwater Rays and Barramundi followed by a visit to the Cairns Turtle Hospital and end with a 2-course lunch at Dundee’s Restaurant including main and dessert or drink. Available Wednesday-Sunday at 9:15am.
What's Included
  • Handfeed the Cownose Rays and giant Barramundi
  • Wildlife Educator guided tour
  • Exclusive Behind-the-Scenes entry to Cairns Aquarium
What's Not Included
  • Lunch
Location
Cairns Aquarium
5 Florence Street
Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Customer Ratings
4.8
(16 Ratings)
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Dualfishy
Aug 27, 2023
So much more than I expected! - Such a great experience! So much more than just an aquarium. The turtle rehabilitation was really interesting and the information about the ecosystem in the tropics was also a bonus! Very worthwhile to do - highly recommend.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Bnls1968
Jul 8, 2023
Amazing experience - The marine life encounter tour was the highlight of our week in Cairns, Sharlee and Jenny we're so passionate about the sea life and provided an amazing tour, which included hand feeding stingrays and turtles. We would highly recommend including a tour such as this with your aquarium visit.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Jackie82
Jul 5, 2023
Recommend a visit to the rehabilitation turtle Centre - Attending the turtle rehabilitation Centre. This was an an amazing experience to learn more about the turtles found around Cairns and the surrounding islands. We listened to the work being done to sick and injured turtles to get them well enough to return to the wild again and was very heart warming. The staff are volunteers and are knowledgeable and enthusiastic.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Rolfi235
Jan 11, 2023
WOW, a great way to spend a few hours in town - WOW, a great way to spend a few hours in town and a wonderful educational experience. The staff were super helpful and checkout the additional turtle hospital tour where you can get up close to the recovering turtles.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Greg
Aug 7, 2022
Worth Every Penny - Absolutely brilliant. Well worth the money and possibly the best aquarium we have ever visited. The food was plentiful and well presented, the drinks were not expensive and in general I would highly recommend this trip
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Maxknight2018
Feb 21, 2022
Must Visit - The Cairns Aquarium is an amazing place. It is very well laid out and designed and is extensive in terms of the range of sea creatures and the size of the aquarium itself. Amongst all the sea creatures that were on display we got a special treat by seeing the newly born shark which was very exciting. We spent over 2 hours there and could have spent much longer so allow plenty of time. We bought a combo ticket for the Aquarium with lunch at the adjacent Dundees restaurant. The lunch was great and included a glass of wine or beer. The service at both the Aquarium and Dundees was exceptional.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
691aurar
Feb 18, 2022
Absolutely worth it - If you are in Cairns, you NEED to visit the aquarium. We did the marine life encounter tour and would highly recommend it if you can afford it - our tour guide Shania did an incredible job, was highly enthusiastic, knowledgeable and great all round, and being able to feed some of the animals was the most amazing experience. If you want to really make sure you see everything, I would actually recommend 3-4 hours rather than 2-3, as we arrived 3 hours before closing time and had to hurry along the last part because they were closing. And besides all of that, their work helping and rehabilitating animals (particularly the turtles) is worth supporting them alone. I couldn't imagine a better experience.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Pjkcolley
Dec 9, 2021
Excellent - I would highly recommend this experience with the Aquarium. I have visited there before with my granddaughter on our own however the Marine Life Encounter with the Ecologist Christine and Irelend was exceptional. We also have great photos for our memories. They are very Professional, Welcoming, Friendly and ensured we were provided with all the information to provide us with a Great Experience. Ily was also Fantastic providing very interesting information in regards to the Cow Nose Stingrays, we loved feeding them and meeting Jessica in the Freshwater pool. So Special. Thank you Christine Ireland and Ily you ensured we had a Wonderful, Memorable day.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Danascherp
Apr 3, 2022
Really nice experience - Had a last minute ideal to book the lunch in the aquarium, really glad we did. Great experience overall. Setting was really nice, pleasantly surprised with the food - great with good portion sizes. The ambience would probably be nicer for the twilight setting but overall still a lovely time. The aquarium visit was great, beautifully designed and really informative layout. Would recommend and go again.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
T8105
Aug 6, 2022
Don’t eat steak at Aquarium - Tour very good . Unfortunately the worst steak l have ever eaten very tough even though it was cooked medium Rare . Told the staff but they weren’t interested as we got this trip through a voucher l gave up trying to discuss the matter . Had l paid directly l would have taken it further. The waitress was not interested and after speaking to hotel staff where l was having dinner that night , they told me it was not uncommon. We had eaten at dundees previously at the waterfront the meal was good but expensive.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
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up to 4 guests
1 Adult
May 2024
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