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Butterfly Pavilion and Insect Center
Rating Details »
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
11 reviews for Butterfly Pavilion and Insect Center
I remember coming here when I was little and having fun, but this is definitely still a cool place to visit as an adult. Who doesn't love wandering around a room filled with butterflies? Especially when that room is set up like a rain forest in Colorado? There's some great photo opportunities in the pavilion, and if you hang around long enough you are likely to have a butterfly land on you.
There's also plenty of creepy crawly things to look at, and you can hold a tarantula if it tickles your fancy (my fancy was not tickled by such things).
Admission is very reasonable - $7.95 for adults and $5.95 for kids. It's a nice thing to do on a day you don't want to break the bank.
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Strength - Weakness - Opportunity - Threat
S - Easy drive and easy to find off the highway (good signage)
S - Nice greenhouse decor with pretty flowers, greens and ponds
S - Variety of butterflies that fly like crazy all around you
S - Greenhouse is an excellent place to take pictures due to vibrant colors
S - There are tortoise there too
S - Kids from 1.5-10 years are well entertained for 15-30 min (but 30 minutes seems to be the limit)
S - On a given day, there are a insect/butterfly related classes and crafts
S - A party area for birthdays or get-togethers (although I don't see why you would choose that when there's a Dave & Buster's across the street - hehehehe)
S - Live spiders and water bugs and weird insects (if you or your kid is really into that - apparently, I'm not)
S - Educational when it comes to learning about insects
S - Prices. I guess it's reasonable for a certain degree. Adults: $7.95; Children (ages 2 - 12): $4.95; Children (1 and under): Free (2 free with each paying adult); Seniors (65 years +): $5.95
W - Weather!!! Be careful when you go. The butterflies are contained in a greenhouse that gets really humid on hot days.
W - Size. Maybe I've been spoiled by the huge greenhouses elsewhere but this place was really small. It's about the size of a tiny restaurant. I went with an 18 month old and we were done with place after 30 minutes.
W - The gross wads of banana that the butterflies sit on
W - Presentation of outdoor gazebo garden was bare... truly. We thought it'd be this beautiful area but its like this mini dirt trail. That's it... oh yea, with a gazebo.
W - On day's with face painting, be careful of kids running crazy or you'll come home with mysterious green paint on your pants. argh....
W - There are 2 scheduled butterfly releases each day. You think they'd just release a whole bunch of butterflies and that's it. Nope... It's a huge lecture. It's more of a release of long-winded information in a hot and humid room. Just let those damn butterflies go already!!!
W - Prices. Pretty much, you're done with the place in about an hour to hour and half. I've seen longer movies for this price (but I still get student discounts for movies) Adults: $7.95; Children (ages 2 - 12): $4.95; Children (1 and under): Free (2 free with each paying adult); Seniors (65 years +): $5.95
O - If the greenhouse was bigger, it might be better.
O - At least there's a Dave & Buster's across the street to go play some arcade games
O - Mother's of infants and toddlers, please take a stroller with you
T - Extremely hot days. Just go in your swimsuit since you'll come out drenched in a sauna sweat.
How often do you get a chance to hold a tarantula named Rosie?
Small, but very cool place to check out loads of butterflies and other insects including spiders, scorpions, bees, and roaches (YUCK!). The butterflies came in many different varieties and were beautiful. We went during a weekday so it wasn't overly crowded. Both my girls loved it. Funny thing is my 2 year old held the tarantula, but the 10 year old wouldn't go anywhere near it. If you get a chance to hold Rosie, DO IT! I'm scared of hairy ugly spiders and it was one of the coolest things I've ever done.
People thought this was:
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The Butterfly Pavilion is much smaller than you might imagine looking at it from the outside, but it's definitely worth a visit.
They essentially have three sections - one with various kinds of insects/bugs, one with water creatures like starfish, and of course the big butterfly house. There is also a section with giant plastic ants and such called "shrunk" but there aren't any live creatures there.
The butterfly area is the most interesting, as you might expect. Walk around, butterflies everywhere, landing on you occasionally. A pretty educational and experience, but I wouldn't allocate more than three hours to the entire thing. Make sure you are there for the 12:30 or 3:30 release of just-hatched butterflies.
All in all, a decent way to kill a few hours. Discount available for Westminster residents.
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I had a great time here and my 3 year old loved it! He loved the the not so nice bugs as well. Personally I could only take so much of that before my skin was crawling and I had to get the heck out of there. The butterfly room was amazing though! I had been there once before for a wedding, but it was at night so not quite the same experience.
I will be back for sure. I was in awe of such beautiful butterflies AND the amazing flowers and plants they have. It is a small botanical garden in there.
Oh, also it was great to visit a gift shop that you can actually afford to buy your kid a souvenir.
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Wonderful. Dare yourself to hold the tarantula! Oh my tingly friend...Take photos of awesome butterflies. I didn't really like looking at some of the insects but I really liked looking at most of the others. Giant free roaming butterfly pavilion was so cool. There was even a sea life exhibit. Take your kids or treat yourself as a kid and have fun. Nothing takes the fear of insects away more than learning about them and maybe interacting with them.
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If you're patient and don't mind profuse sweating, this is definitely a place to check out. The butterfly room is a great place to sit and observe; the right opportunity can snag you a killer picture, too.
There are cases on display filled with chrysalises, and if you're lucky, you can catch a butterfly hatching and being released into the room.
Butterflies aside, they have bugs. Personally, a girl can only look at so many cockroaches and spiders. It threw me back to the days of scary apartments in midtown Kansas City and made me want to curl into fetal position and rock back and forth.
They do have some sea life in aquariums, but again, not much movement there. Starfish and sea coral are pretty, yes, but not real fun to stare at for more than, say, 15 seconds. Animals that just sit there and don't move aren't very interesting to babies. Just sayin'.
The gift shop is sizable and they have some very pretty light catchers. Plus, they have a bazillion different trinkets with names written on them (think Stuckey's and souvenir spoons - that sort of thing). My husband and I were wildly entertained when we found a flower pot with "They don't have your name" written in loopy calligraphy across the front.
Overall, I think this would be a great place for a field trip (the folks that worked there were very informative), or for the independent burgeoning photographer. As far as family outings go, though, I'd say you have better options around town.
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We had our wedding there. The ceremony is in the tropical garden and there is a room next door for the reception. The ceremony in the garden was beautiful. The only thing is that you can not have it with many people (it is fairly small) and there is not much space for the photograph.
The person we dealt with was not the most charming, but we made it work.
The lighting is not great in the reception place (neons) so if you do it you have to plan for that.
Anyway, our wedding there was beautiful and all worked out.
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while i guarantee i was the oldest person in this place that wasn't an employee or didn't have a "chaperone" sticker on me, i really enjoyed visiting the butterfly pavilion. it's a pretty small place, filled with all kinds of critters--spiders, bugs, and of course, butterflies. while i was there, i held Rosie the tarantula, which was slightly terrifying. the butterfly room was nicely sized with hundreds of little butterflies flying all over. word of advice: watch where you step! i saw plenty of little crushed butterflies...which is horrifying to see.
Pardon me if I gloss over the cockroach, spider and other creepy-crawly exhibits. Having a tarantula the size of a small baseball waltz across my hand is just not my idea of entertainment no mater how cute and unassuming you may name said tarantula.
I much prefer the tropical haven of the butterflies. Big and small butterflies of every shape and color flit around and hang like ornaments from flowers in the steamy glass bubble of the pavilion. Indecently, this is a fantastic place to go in the middle of winter if you need a climate change, or if you're one of those weirdos from anywhere east of here who actually like, and miss, humidity.
If you are the patient type, you can sit and watch butterflies hatch, or you can watch the staff release the newly hatched butterflies several times a day.
They also have some aquatic invertebrates you can touch, like sea stars and sea cucumbers, which is cool, though seems like an odd exhibit to find at a butterfly pavilion. I don't get it but it's not keeping me up at night.
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Filled with thousands upon thousands of fluttering butterflies and buzzing insects, this domed botanical sanctuary situated in suburban Westminster fulfills an ideal excursion for families fascinated by the flits of and flirts of kaleidoscopic winged creatures, many of which settle on your shoulders like a new best friend
The super cool "Shrunk" exhibit, teaming with scorpions, carpenter ants, dragonflies, and other bodacious bugs of distinction, has been set up to make visitors feel inches tall, giving the little monsters a power trip surge.