Butterfly World

Coconut Creek, Florida: The subtropical climate of South Florida isn't just good for vacationing, it makes for a great place to find colorful butterflies. While the region is home to a vast variety of butterflies, Butterfly World brings species from all over the world to the Sunshine State. 

Opened in 1988, Butterfly World is the largest butterfly butterfly park in the world. It is home to over 20,000 colorful butterflies ranging from 50 different species. And its not just butterflies found here, the park is home to free flight aviaries, an insect museum and much more. 

Your journey to Butterfly World begins in the Grand Plaza. Once you pay your admission fee, it's time to begin your adventure. The first stop of the self-guided/self-paced tour is the laboratory. From the observation windows of the lab, you can get an inside look at the life cycle of butterflies. Butterflies have a four stage life cycle; egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, butterfly. 

As you pass through the doors by the lab, you are instantly transported to the tropical world of the butterflies. Thousands of colorful butterflies fill the air and flowers around you. Be sure to take your time and see how many species you can find. The butterfly gardens are separated into three stops; the Paradise Adventure Aviary, Hanging Garden/Butterfly Emerging Area and Tropical Rain Forest. 

When you leave the butterfly gardens, take a break at Grace Gardens and enjoy the peaceful view over the lake. From there you will follow the vine maze which is home to a vast variety of vines and colorful buds. If you look closely, you may find some local butterfly species enjoying the blooms. The maze leads to the Tropical Bird Aviary. This aviary is filled with Budgies from Australia and more. 

Once you leave the Tropical Bird Aviary, your journey continues through into the Lorikeet Encounter. These colorful birds love nectar and you can purchase some to hand feed them. With nectar in hand, the birds quickly land on you looking to get a treat. When your nectar is gone and the birds head back to their perch, you can depart for your next stop. 

The next two stops on the tour are the Butterfly Museum and Bug Zoo. As you enter the building, you pass through the galleries of the Butterfly Museum. Here you will find display cases of tons of species of butterflies, moths and more. Next up is the Bug Zoo and these guys aren’t a mounted display. Inside these cases are a diverse collection of insects and more. From cockroaches to frogs and spiders, you will see unique species from all over the world. When you have your fill of the Bug Zoo, head back outside and on to your final exhibit. 

Cross the suspension bridge and make a quick stop with the Macaws before heading into Jewels of Sky Aviary. The final free-flight aviary features a bunch of colorful tropical birds that rival the colors found during the butterfly exhibits earlier in the tour. Colorful birds from North America, South America, Australia, India, Africa, Asia and more are all flying around you in this exhibit. 

Rounding out your journey through Butterfly World is the Garden Center, Cafe and Gift Shop. But if you want to see more before you leave, save your visit to the gift shop for later and take the journey again. You can take the tour as many times as you like during your visit, they just as that you stick to the one-way direction to comply with federal regulations. Because many of these species are exotic species, the facility is closely monitored by the USDA and as part of these regulations a strict one-way travel path with inspections while leaving are required to prevent accidental release. Failure to follow these procedures could result in sanctions to the facility which could force closure so please follow their rules. 

We enjoyed our visit to Butterfly World. We have been to a few other facilities and this one by far has been the best. The diverse variety of species and the number of butterflies was amazing. They advertise 20,000 on exhibit at any time and while there was no way to count them, it sure felt like that and more! If you enjoy butterflies or tropical birds, I highly recommend giving them a visit. We wish they were three hours away from our home or we would go back on a regular basis to see new emerging species. 

Butterfly World is located just north of Fort Lauderdale in the city of Coconut Grove. It is located at 3600 West Sample Road in the Tradewinds Park. Admission during our visit was $32.50 for an adult and $22.50 for children but be sure to check out their website for discounts, during our visit they had a 50% off discount on the website. 

Click on any of the photos above to view the entire gallery of photos from Butterfly World.