Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve — Attraction in Marco Island

Absolutely fantastic visit today with our family, group of 5 people. I was very impressed with the staff there. The staff are so knowledgeable and very happy and eager to share their knowledge. They also were able to explain everything in terms my young children could understand. I personally learned so much and could have spent longer there listening to the staff forever. Learned so much today thanks to them.

We found the touch-tank to be so fun. Again, tons of knowledge shared with us and everyone loved the experience.

The upstairs section is lacking. We felt it has the space to have an even bigger children's section or other interesting exhibits.

But honestly a superb experience overall. We would definitely go back again, to learn even more. Kudos to the staff again who we met, Herb and a very lovely woman whose name I unfortunately...

What a WONDERFUL place to visit while in southwest Florida! It's only $5 for adults, $3 for children and it has incredible educational presentations, an overview movie, many hands on displays including the ability to hold starfish, sea urchins and the Florida State shell, the Horse Conch! It also has many walking trails including a bridge over a mangrove canal and a historical display that tells about settlers in this area. We stayed for two hours, but I could have stayed 4 easily! I found a wonderful book about sea turtles in the gift shop to take home to my Grands. I will go back! Oh and if it's too hot for you, you can sit in rockers upstairs, in the air conditioning and watch the wildlife in the trees by the water while the more adventurous walk the trails or just explore the duck...

Nice stop if you have time to do some hiking. We stopped here about an hour before they were going to close. There is a small museum tour exhibit about the ocean with some small touch tanks. There is another museum display about the historic indians that used to live in the area. This is mostly a bunch of hiking trails that we didn't have time to do. They lady at the front was very nice and did offer to give us a pass for the next day for free since we came in so late so we could do the trails, unfortunately we weren't going to be in the area.

This was a nice stop, a bit pricey for what you get but very nicely laid out and...