The Butterfly Place is an indoor living environment designed specifically for butterflies and was a fun place to spend an hour of our weekend. If your kids enjoy butterflies or nature in general, this is a must-see. Make sure you plan your clothing accordingly as the atrium is 80 degrees and humid, the ideal environment for butterflies.

The Butterfly Place is open from Valentine’s Day (February 14th) through Halloween (October 31st) from 10:00 AM until 4:00 PM (5:00 in the summer), and costs $10 for adults, $8 for seniors, and $7 for kids 3 to 12 years old. For $1 you can purchase a double-sided color butterfly identification chart to help name each type of butterfly you see. Some kids had a butterfly scavenger hunt worksheet, which we assumed was part of a birthday party happening in the large tent in the rear of the facility. This seemed to keep the kids quite busy and interested in the different species of butterflies. One item on the list was to find an animal resting, which sparked a great conversation between a child and parent on the hunt.

There were three main parts to The Butterfly Place: the gift shop, the observation area, and the butterfly atrium. The gift shop is the entrance and exit, as well as where you purchase tickets. It sells butterfly books, feeders, ornaments, jewelry, and some small toys. The featured item was the Butterfly Hatching Kit, which includes two caterpillars and the food to hatch your own butterflies. Any kid that is really into butterflies would appreciate being able to witness the life cycle of the butterfly first-hand.

You enter the observation area directly from the gift shop and are presented with three main areas to explore: display cases, a video presentation, and the atrium viewing area. The display cases offer close-up views of various stages of a butterfly’s life, from caterpillar to flying butterfly. Each case is well labeled with descriptive signs. In the corner is a room with a 15-minute video presentation detailing the life cycle of butterflies. The last part of the observation area is a large window looking into the atrium where you can get a glimpse of the butterflies flying around. This would be a good place to get out of the 80 degree heat and still keep an eye on the kids (unless they go off the path and into the trees, but that is against the rules).

The atrium is a semi-circle shape with large ceilings and a multitude of dirt and pebble paths weaving throughout. The space is smaller than we expected, but does provide an intimate viewing of many butterflies in their natural habitat. Signs clearly warn visitors that attempting to capture butterflies or lure them into your hand is prohibited and could result in your removal from the facility. It is impossible to miss the butterflies as they whiz by your head or maybe land on your shoulder. One landed on our son and he didn’t even know until we told him. There are several benches along the path to take a break and view the butterflies from a different angle. A koi pond filled with large orange and white fish is stashed near the exit of the atrium area, and there were several finches flying around.

Dad Says: I’m always up for some nature education, and the Butterfly Place didn’t disappoint. I thought $10 was a bit pricey given the size and amount of time you could spend here, but it was some good learning for us and the little one. The huge Atlas Moth was something to be seen!

Mom Says: Between the warmth, flowers, and butterflies, there was no way I wouldn’t like this place. Don’t forget your camera, and stay close to each other – you never know when you can get a shot of a butterfly catching a ride on one of you!

Check out a slideshow of the rest of our pictures from this trip or view them on Flickr

Website: http://butterflyplace-ma.com/

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 23rd, 2009 at 1:01 am and is filed under Museums, Places to Go, Zoos. If you use RSS, you can subscribe to the RSS feed , or if you would rather receive an e-mail, please subscribe to the e-mail in the lower right hand corner of this page. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.