Seoul Aquarium GuideAbout This Guide
An independent guide to Seoul's two big aquariums — SEA LIFE COEX in Gangnam and Lotte World Aquarium in Jamsil. We compare ticket listings, the aquariums' own published prices and recent dated traveller feedback. We do not operate or personally conduct these tours. Everything bookable sits on the Seoul aquarium ticket comparison, and every number on the site carries the month it was last read.
This is not either aquarium's official website
SEA LIFE COEX, Seoul Aquarium is operated by Merlin Entertainments and its official site is visitsealife.com. Lotte World Aquarium is operated by Lotte World and its official site is lotteworld.com. We are not affiliated with either, not endorsed by either, and not acting on their behalf. We cannot issue, change or refund a ticket, and we hold no reservations of any kind.
Their own sites are the authority on prices, opening hours and closure dates — check them before you travel. We use the aquariums' names here descriptively, to say what this guide is about. If a rights holder believes anything on the site oversteps that, write to us and we will correct it.
Why this site exists
Search for a Seoul aquarium and the results split into two piles: pages that describe one aquarium as though the other did not exist, and listings that sell a ticket without saying what the same ticket costs at the door. Nobody sets the three prices side by side — the ticket window, the aquarium's own website, and the resale platform.
We did, and the result was not what we expected. On COEX the resale ticket is level with the aquarium's own online price, and for a child aged 3 to 12 it is actually worse, because the resale listing has no child rate at all. On Lotte the resale ticket really is about a quarter under the gate. That distinction is the whole reason to read a comparison instead of a listing, and it is on the ticket page in a table rather than buried in prose.
Where the facts come from
Walk-up and official online admission prices are read from each aquarium's own English pages and dated where they appear. Gate and official online prices verified: August 2026. Currency conversions use the rate on the day of the check and say so.
Ticket prices, ratings, review counts, inclusions, age rules and cancellation terms are read off each platform listing on the date shown, in US dollars, and every listing carries the same fields in the same order. Listings checked: August 2026.
Tank volumes, species counts, opening years and zone layouts are cross-checked against the aquariums' published figures and independent reference sources, and we say so when a marketing claim does not survive the check — as with the "largest aquarium in Korea" line, which the tank figures do not support.
What we will not do
We do not quote a review we would not stand behind, we do not invent a visit we did not make, and we do not leave out a fact because it costs a booking. Bella, the last beluga at Lotte World Aquarium, is described on this site as she is: alone since 2019, with a promised 2026 release that has not happened. Booking platforms advertise "beluga whales", plural. That gap is exactly the kind of thing an independent page is for.
When a price we publish is beaten by the aquarium's own website, we say which one is cheaper and by how much, even though we earn nothing when you follow that advice.