FAU Harbor Branch Ocean Discovery Visitors Center in Vero Beach South

Great place to stop and be educated about the area we live in and wonderful volunteers

The visitors center is free, clean and self guided. Lots of displays about the ocean, tools that FAU uses in their research and a short film. Small gift shop on premises. FAU also conducts tours on the main campus that is appointment only. I have not done the tour but plan on it in the future.

We enjoyed the tour of the Harbor Branch campus. It was a 2 hour tour and worth every minute. Highly recommended!

13, 10 and 8 year old grandsons were totally absorbed with the Discovery Centers learning while enjoying the "Hunt".

Great little free museum with additional fun and informative tours Tuesday-Saturday 10:30-noon. Tours cost extra but you see a lot of stuff and get a lot of cool information!

Last minute idea, turned into a great day. Lucky to get an open spot on the guided tour. Totally worth it. So much information. Amazing how much important research is happening right in my own backyard! Will definitely go again.

Great place. Take the kids!

A great place to visit

A great little detour to add in with other stops in the area, the Ocean Discovery Center is an enlightening display of the Universitys efforts in the area. Free to the public (donations suggested), the Center provides an introduction to the prevalent species of the IRL and the challenges that they currently face. The displays and aquariums provide a nice 60 - 90 minute reprieve from the road, and the Center is excellently paired with the DJ Wilcox Preserve located nearby.

Free to go. 45 min guided tour. Touch tanks. Explains what Harbor Branch is doing. Awesome place for knowledge.

Nice family outting. Very informative

The free guided tour, normally about 40 mins is excellent. Skyler Klingshirn was my brilliant guide on 6th February 2020!

Id go again alot of tours during the week alot of information on the river.

Very informative! Wonderful work being done here to protect our ecosystem. Dont miss this!

Every one should come out and support there work and inform themselves of what they do!. Great little stop.!

Small quaint quick stop with an amazing educational opportunity. Our guide was very knowledgeable.

Great place to go and learn important information. The displays and your was wonderful.

Very interesting and educational. Highly recommend.

A guided tour of the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute was fantastic. Very informative and enjoyable. Our tour guide, Marisa Pico, a marine biologist who is specializing in turtles, was very personable and answered all our questions - using words, thankfully, that we non-scientists could understand. Thank you, Marisa.

A tour of the facility was phenomenal

Great research happening here. Its phenomenal

Very informative. Excellent staff. Friendly environment.

Where I take my plastic wraps, bags and things city doesnt recycle

Great information from the tour that helped me understand and appreciate everything theyre doing for the local ecosystem.

If youre interested in whats going on at Harbor Branch, youll find this tour incredibly interesting and informative. The tour guides are great!

Very nice and informative. The staff are very helpful and know theit stuff. The immersion tour is very fun, just make sure you wear comfy shoes and bring sunscreen and bug spray!

Very cool place, and a great learning experience.

We had the most wonderful time learning with our entire family ranging from all ages. Super fun tour guide named andrew! Adorable gift shop very reasonable prices and admission is FREE!!!! Cant beat it. Our family will definitely come back again to see what new research theyve come across!

Very informative, exciting things going on here.

I highly recommend you visit and take the family.

Quite informative. Pleasant, knowledgable staff.

Very interesting display on ocesn ecology

The tour took about an hour and we learned very much!

Must see for locals and out of town folks

Not so much a dislike as it was just a super short visit will explore more

Great research going on here.

Awesome research facility and school.

Great Lectures and research PowerPoint Presentations 😎

Lovely learning experience

Took 4 young people ages 18,17,9 & 5. Everyone had a great time and learned quite a bit about ocean life. The guide was knowledgeable and patient with all our questions. Perfect for all ages. No one was bored!!!

Harbor branchs just a really cool place to go and learn about a lot of different stuff in the oceans in the surrounding waters here theyre very knowledgeable and you will have a great time bring your family bring your friends and stop by the Harbor branch oceanographic Institute You will definitely leave theyre smarter than when you arrived.

The tour guide was very good at explaining everything. Very interesting place and educational.Great price- free!!!

This place was small but nice. The first person that took us around to show us the facility was very pleasant, as was the receptionist. However, after the guided tour, my four year old son with Autism went over and hugged an exhibit. A staff member cane up to us and immediately started yelling at him to not “hang on” the exhibit. If she would have politely asked us to not touch it, I would have made sure that he did not. There were no signs saying not to touch the exhibit. If you have little kids or kids with special needs, this is definitely not the place to take them.

I love this place so much. I went there for a college summer program called H2O To Go! and it was amazing. Our tour guide was Brandon and he knew every single aspect of the facility and exactly what it did. It was fascinating and I recommend it to anyone who has a passion for marine life and technology :)

Interesting place, staff was very knowledgeable.

Fun and informative. Learn about local animal rescues, marine life, aquaculture and the Indian River Lagoon. Just the right amount of time, free to the public but please donate or purchase a souvenir.

Neat campus and the Ocean discovery center is definitely worth checking out.

Very cool and informative place. Something for everyone, adults and kids too.

Very interesting and educational

As someone who has always been interested in the marine environment, I was amazed to hear about all of the different research being conducted here at Harbor Branch. The Visitors Center is focused entirely on explaining the all of the work that the scientists are doing at this amazing institute. The best part of this experience is the guided tour of the exhibits. A graduate student at the university is responsible for walking the guests through center and interpreting the information as well as answering all questions. My favorite exhibit was probably the aquaculture pavilion which showcased their Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture system (IMTA). This system allowed redfish, sea asparagus, sea purselane, red mangroves, algae and sea urchins to all grow in the same body of water! As an aquarium hobbyist this system was very exciting to me! I would recommend this experience to anyone who is interested in science, research and the marine environment (especially the Indian River Lagoon). Also if you get the chance to go on the Immersion Tour of campus, take it. The campus is beautiful and is a great opportunity to see a historic and very influential institution.