During our Fort Lauderdale FL trip, we spent a few hours checking out Butterfly World in Coconut Beach. It was a less than 30 minute drive from our hotel, and close to the beach where we planned to spend the afternoon. Butterfly World looked like a typical Florida tourist trap in some of the advertisements we read, but fortunately we dug a little deeper in internet research and took a chance on it. While it is a relatively small place, they have a fantastic variety of butterflies, birds, flowering plants and trees, and other beautiful things to see and photograph.
We went on a weekday during December, so the crowd was relatively sparse early in the morning. Also, a tip for photographers, in the morning the butterflies are relatively calm as they are sitting around with their wings spread, soaking up energy from the sunlight. A couple of hours later, more toward lunchtime, we made a second swing through the butterfly house and they were all flying around actively as you would expect butterflies to do. The morning hours were a much better time to catch some photographs, although it is also very impressive to see them all flying around.
In addition to the different habitat/viewing areas Butterfly World has a visible laboratory area where you can watch the staff nurturing new butterfly larvae and cocoons in different stages of development from behind a window. The facility also offers a small outdoor cafe overlooking the central pond, restrooms, and a gift shop.
Butterfly World is toward the higher end of the price range for similar tourist activities in FL. When we visited they were charging $30 per adult, and $22 for children. We still thought it was worth the cost for a very well managed, clean, and beautiful place to spend a few hours.
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