Butterfly Wonderland

For a truly immersive butterfly encounter with over 3,000 butterflies, visit Butterfly Wonderland in Scottsdale, Arizona. The conservatory houses 42 varieties of butterflies, all which are flying freely throughout the exhibit. Of all the butterfly exhibits I have been to (Butterfly House in Sioux Falls, Chicago Botanic Garden’s Butterflies and Blooms, Milwaukee Public Museum’s Puelicher Butterfly Wing and the Desert Botanical Garden’s Spring Butterfly Exhibit in Phoenix) Butterfly Wonderland is the largest, best maintained and most impressive.

You begin your experience by watching a short film entitled “Flight of the Butterflies” in a 3D theater. The film is the story of the Monarch butterflies’ migration and life cycle and threats facing the species regarding habitat destruction. The film is shown at regular intervals, you must watch the film before entering the exhibit. While you are waiting for the next show you can visit the gift shop and the bathrooms (there are no bathrooms inside the conservatory). After viewing the film you are led to the Butterfly Emergence Gallery, where there are many varied chrysalises and butterflies emerging and pumping up their wings. When you are ready to move on you can enter the conservatory.

This photo shows approximately half of the conservatory and gives you a sense of the size and design. The butterflies are free flying and will land on the netting, the plants, the walls and if you are lucky, you. If you want to encourage butterflies to land on you, wear brightly colored clothes and lotion that smells like flowers. I just wore a brightly colored top and I had butterfly visitors landing on me.

Everywhere you look, there are butterflies. When you pay the fee to get in ($23.95/adult, $15.95 ages 2-12) they will give you a brochure. Make sure to take it, it has a butterfly identification guide in it.

The variety of butterflies was fantastic. There were many species that I have not seen in person before.

At regular intervals, misters go off in different parts of the conservatory. If it bothers you, you can just walk to another area; however, it feels pretty good considering how warm it can get on a sunny day.

About halfway through our visit, my husband had a little tag-along for the duration of our visit. It was quite amusing, I had to remind him not to sit down. All the other visitors to the conservatory found this to be hysterical, especially the kids who kept asking him if he knew that he had a butterfly on his butt and would then burst out laughing. We literally had to have an employee remove it before we could leave the exhibit.

My longest lasting visitor was slightly more accommodating, in that I could sit down, but I had to move very slowly while taking pictures. I was surprised to find that their legs can pinch a little. Every time I moved faster than the butterfly wanted, it would hold on a little tighter with its legs.

I didn’t keep track of time, but I believe we spent close to 2 hours here, maybe longer. The conservatory is open daily from 9-6, 365 days a year. We actually bought a combination pass for OdySea Aquarium, which was next door to Butterfly World. It had just recently opened. I do not recommend that aquarium at all. It was by far, the worst one we have ever been to. I live near Chicago, so the Shedd Aquarium is my standard, so maybe my assessment is harsh, but I’ve also been to the Georgia Aquarium and Sea World and other aquariums in Orlando and quite simply OdySea smelled and the water the animals were in did not look clean. They had many ‘touch tanks’ where you can stick your hand in to feel the sting rays or fish and they all looked dirty. They also had anemones and urchins in the touch tanks which I thought was odd, as anemones can sting and urchins have sharp points. I felt sorry for all of the animals that were housed there.

On a more positive note, we happened to be in the conservatory when they released more butterflies into the exhibit. They allow the butterflies to leave the net enclosure at their own pace and simply remove it once all the butterflies have ventured forth.

Once you are ready to leave the conservatory, you are checked out by an employee to make sure there are no butterflies on you, then you pass into an empty room, in case one sneaked by, and finally out of the exhibit and into the Butterfly Cafe. We were actually quite thirsty and hungry and were going to buy a snack and drink, but they were woefully understaffed and we did not want to wait in the long line. There are three more exhibits for you to view on your way out: Spineless Giants (beetles and insects), Rainforest Reptiles and Tropical Waters. You then must pass through the gift shop on your way out of the building. Obviously, a marketing strategy, but I didn’t mind as I have a particular fondness for gift shops.

I loved everything about our visit to Butterfly Wonderland…..OdySea….not so much. I would definitely return for another visit if I had some extra time while visiting in the Phoenix area. A few helpful tips…sit on the far left of the theater if you want to get out first (where you enter is also where you exit), if the chrysalis emergence gallery is too crowded when the movie releases (you were stuck on the far side of the theater) skip it and go back in 10 minutes, it will most likely be empty, the butterflies are most active from 9am-3pm (although it is harder to get good pictures when they won’t sit still) and wear brightly colored clothes if you wish to attract the butterflies directly to you.

This was the last day of our quick 4 day trip to Arizona. On other trips we have visited Sedona and Boyce Thompson Arboretum and I will write posts about them someday…. Next up will be Maui, as we recently returned from 10 days in paradise. As always, wishing you happy travels and fantastic adventures in this thing called life.

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Other places to visit in Arizona…

Ro Ho En Japanese Friendship Garden

Saguaro National Park

Desert Botanical Garden

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