On October 10th, Save The Bay's Exploration Center and Aquarium permanently closed their location at Easton's Beach in Newport, Rhode Island. They are now relocating to a new facility called "Save The Bay's Hamilton Family Aquarium", which will open in downtown Newport in "Winter 2024".
Some pictures were recently posted on social media, giving a preview of what the new aquarium may look like. In my opinion, this looks like a great upgrade. While Save the Bay's new facility won't be a major regional aquarium to rival those in Mystic or Boston, it will still be a big upgrade from the old facility, and may cement itself as the best aquarium in Rhode Island (of the 5 small facilities that exist).
They were talking about this when I visited in 2022, I'm glad to see it's finally happening! Their previous location was fantastic (if confusing) but they were so cramped in there. I look forward to visiting this one when it opens. Fingers crossed for some decent parking, too
They were talking about this when I visited in 2022, I'm glad to see it's finally happening! Their previous location was fantastic (if confusing) but they were so cramped in there. I look forward to visiting this one when it opens. Fingers crossed for some decent parking, too
I wouldn't hold my breath on decent parking, lol. Newport is just one of those places where parking is difficult everywhere. I will say that this new facility is still going to be small (approx. 6,500 square feet), but that's still a major expansion from the current 1,200 square feet. It will be interesting to see though how much the visitor components become larger, the way I understand it is a lot of the expansion is going towards their education programs (which are certainly important- I did one of their programs out on the boat a number of years ago, which was super cool).
I wouldn't hold my breath on decent parking, lol. Newport is just one of those places where parking is difficult everywhere. I will say that this new facility is still going to be small (approx. 6,500 square feet), but that's still a major expansion from the current 1,200 square feet. It will be interesting to see though how much the visitor components become larger, the way I understand it is a lot of the expansion is going towards their education programs (which are certainly important- I did one of their programs out on the boat a number of years ago, which was super cool).
I knowww but I can hope They'll at least have room for doing small field trips and stuff too, the thought of even one class of kids jamming into the current location is a bit terrifying.
I wouldn't hold my breath on decent parking, lol. Newport is just one of those places where parking is difficult everywhere. I will say that this new facility is still going to be small (approx. 6,500 square feet), but that's still a major expansion from the current 1,200 square feet. It will be interesting to see though how much the visitor components become larger, the way I understand it is a lot of the expansion is going towards their education programs (which are certainly important- I did one of their programs out on the boat a number of years ago, which was super cool).
Even though the expansion isn’t too big and mostly focuses on education programs, I am still happy that the exhibits shown in the renderings look much nicer / more professional than what they had at the aquarium’s previous location.
I had heard wind of this but I hadn't seen the concept art. They're a great place that was already accomplishing so much with so little, I can't wait to see what they can do with this much deserved expansion and renovation!
I had the pleasure of visiting the new facility last week and my expectations were completely surpassed! This is absolutely one of the best aquariums in New England now.
Even though it's been open for quite some time now, this place is pretty good. Nothing groundbreaking but absolute quality all around. Especially now that all areas have signage (the Bay at Night area didn't have signage before), it's a great stop. Of course it's the Aquarium Tax for admission though, it's pretty steep for what you get, but if you're able to slow down and appreciate each tank for what it represents and what it has, you can easily spend about an hour here if you're stretching it like that.
Parking in the winter isn't terrible either, we were able to get street parking the other week by the hotel, but in the summertime I imagine it's terrible. Even though it was wintertime the place was pretty packed too, only imagine it'll get worse. But that was on the weekend after all, if you're hoping to check this place out sometime soon I really recommend going right when it opens or during the week.
Interior was super pretty as well. The mural for the Horseshoe crab area is my personal favorite. Tons of good faux-beachwork, all of the tanks are exceptionally clean and well taken care of. Tons of awesome species, including Barndoor Skates, local turtles, horseshoe crabs, Lumpsuckers and more. Not missing much in my opinion but could benefit from an additional freshwater tank or even salamanders. But they do have a lot of space which is good, maybe they'll expand in the future but I'm not entirely sure on that. I also have a small wish that they could cover the touch tank at the opening for longer periods of time. Unfortunately when I recently went, a child picked up a Periwinkle and threw it against the faux rock, and just went... "oops". The docent manning the tank brushed it off. I think that was a little bit shocking to see unfortunately. But besides that the staff are all excited to teach you about the local wildlife, it's awesome. Really hoping to see all the species they have on display here in the wild myself but it's really cool to see them all here.
If you're curious of the species list, ZooTierliste should be complete (barring inverts, and the snapping turtle for some reason? Snapping turtle was just there a few weeks ago lol). Let me see if I can put it in here.
If you're checking it out I highly recommend also checking out the Sachuest Point National Wildlife Refuge if you're going in one direction, super awesome place for checking out native seabirds, they also have a tank inside of there (which I count for my zoo lifelist lol) with American Bullfrog Tadpoles and Stickleback Fish. If not that, and you're heading back up north via Aquidneck Island, make a stop in Bristol to the Audubon Society Nature Center and Aquarium. Another smaller facility with more of a focus on their nature walks. If you need food recommendations I gotchu as well lmao.
I'm hoping to cover this place in a full-fledged overview / tour soon, so I'll be sure to keep you all posted on that. Super excited that Rhode Island got another quality place. I am such a big fan of Biomes from a nostalgia perspective, and while they have an extremely good native fish collection, I really wish they would take a note out of the Save the Bay's book and really invest a lot more in presentation and keeping up with tank welfare.
They'll at least have room for doing small field trips and stuff too, the thought of even one class of kids jamming into the current location is a bit terrifying.
