The Shaw Centre for the Salish Sea is at 9811 Seaport Place, on the Sidney waterfront, and most visitors arrive by car or taxi and finish on foot. It sits in Beacon Park right beside the Pier Hotel, so once you are in downtown Sidney the walk is short.
Driving to Seaport Place
Enter 9811 Seaport Place into your navigation app and follow it into the town centre. Sidney is a small waterfront town, and the aquarium is on the harbour side, close to the hotel. Check a live traffic map before you leave, particularly if you are coming up from Victoria on a weekend or a holiday.
Parking near the Pier Hotel
The Centre offers limited free two hour parking for its visitors in the Pier Hotel parkade, directly below the hotel. Spaces there are limited, so it may be full at busy times. Sidney also has several public lots with two or three hours of free parking, plus free street parking, and there is a pay lot right next to the Pier Hotel on Seaport Place. Read the posted signs at whichever lot you pick, because time limits differ from one to the next.
If you plan to see the whole aquarium and then eat in town, two hours can run short. A pay lot or a public lot with a longer limit saves you a dash back to the car.
Hours, strollers and wheelchairs
The Centre is open daily from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., with last admission at 4:00 p.m. Strollers are allowed throughout the aquarium, and a wheelchair can be borrowed free of charge from the admissions desk on a first come, first served basis. The Salish Sea Store is open to the public without paying admission. Confirm hours on salishseacentre.org before a visit, since they can change around holidays and events.
Taxi or ride from Victoria or the ferry
If you would rather skip the parking question, a taxi can drop you at the door on Seaport Place. A trip from Victoria costs more than a short run within Sidney, so run the numbers through the taxi fare estimator first. The Victoria taxi page lists companies that serve the area. BC Transit also runs buses to Sidney, and the trip planner will show the closest stop to the waterfront for your start point.