St Petersburg Oceanarium with kids: tickets, feeding times and when to go

An adult ticket to the St Petersburg Oceanarium costs 900 roubles from 1 September to 31 May and 950 roubles in summer. A school child or anyone aged seven and over pays 700 roubles in winter and 750 in summer, a child aged five to seven pays 400 roubles, and children under five go in free. Pensioners, large families, people with disabilities and veterans pay 450 roubles. A family of two adults and one school child therefore spends 2500 roubles at the door.

Two things to check before you go. The price does not change between weekdays and weekends — the oceanarium charges by season, not by day — but the crowd absolutely does. And every third Monday of the month is a cleaning day with the whole place closed; in October 2026 that falls on the 19th. Opening hours are 10:00 to 20:00 daily, with ticket desks and entry closing at 19:15.

Shows and feedings: the exact timetable

Two fixed anchors run the schedule. Seal training sessions take place Tuesday to Sunday at 11:30 and 17:30 at tank number 52 — there are none on Mondays. The shark feeding happens every day at 19:00 at tank number 38, when a diver goes into the main tank and feeds the sharks by hand. It is the best thing in the building and also the latest.

Other feedings vary by weekday. On Saturday you get seals at 11:30, moray eels at 14:00, otters at 15:00, seals again at 17:30 and sharks at 19:00. Monday looks completely different: catsharks at 12:00, tropical fish at 14:00, piranhas at 14:30, otters at 15:00 and sharks at 19:00. You cannot see the full list in one visit — seven and a half hours separate the first seal from the sharks. Pick one or two and build your visit around them.

How long it takes and when it is quiet

The exhibition is split into seven zones, from jellyfish and a rocky shore to the main tank and the fish of north-western Russia. Allow about ninety minutes for a steady walk-through, two to two and a half hours if you watch one feeding, and half a day if you want both the 11:30 seals and the 19:00 sharks. Most children run out of patience in dark halls after three hours.

The quietest hour is right after opening on a weekday, and the second quietest is after 18:00. The worst slots are weekend afternoons, school holidays and rainy days, when the entire city moves indoors at once.

Getting there

The address is 86 Marata Street, inside the Planeta Neptun shopping centre. The nearest metro stations are Pushkinskaya and Zvenigorodskaya, which form a single interchange, so you can reach it from almost anywhere in the city. A metro ride costs 95 roubles with a token or bank card and 65 roubles with a Podorozhnik card. There is no free parking of its own, so driving here on a weekend is a bad idea.

Cheaper alternatives

The Zoological Museum at 1 Universitetskaya Embankment charges 700 roubles for adults, 400 for students and pensioners and 200 for children aged three to six. It opens 11:00 to 19:00, closed on Tuesdays, with last entry at 18:00, and on the third Thursday of every month children under 18, students and members of large families enter free. The halls are bright and wide, which matters if you have a pushchair.

Leningrad Zoo in Alexandrovsky Park costs 800 roubles for adults, 400 for school children and students, 300 for pensioners, and children under seven are free. It is open daily 10:00 to 20:00 with last entry at 19:00. For a family with a preschooler that is roughly half the price of the aquarium — but most of the route is outdoors. Our guides to the oceanarium and to Leningrad Zoo go through both in more detail.