monteverde butterfly garden (jardin de mariposas)

The butterflies were plentiful, gorgeous and quite "friendly". It was a real delight to walk through the various butterfly domes and hear all about them from David. Just as great was the introduction to insects by his wife, an environmental anthropologist. She was so knowledgelable and very, very funny! The insects were passed around accompanied by hysterical stories of their lives...how they mate, survuve and thrive!A not to be missed visit!

Going off the catch phrase for our dreadlocked teacher at this excursion "Now that's cool" is probably the best way to describe this butterfly garden. You start off in a classroom learning about a variety of insects and butterflies. Some of the things you learn really do blow your mind, it is wonderful how versatile some insects are. They also have a lot of insects and spiders in the class room which they show you as they explain the fun facts.You then go into a variety of different butterfly gardens where the guide explains about the different butterflies. Each garden is a different environment and you learn the difference between how each butterfly has adapted to suit that environment.The whole experience was fantastic and I would highly recommend it, they were also excellent with the small kids on the tour with us. My lovely girlfriend dragged me to this place and I have to say I walked away thoroughly enjoying the experience!Thank you for reading my review!Mr. Lorenzo

If you want to see and photograph butterflies up close this is a wonderful place to do it. The guided walks and introduction is hands-on, informative, and eye-opening. The butterfly houses are well maintained, although thanks to the constant humidity they look a bit overgrown with mosses and lichens. To me, this adds to the natural feel of the place. Nice little shop to end your visit, and you have a great couple of hours experience. The new owners, a young and eager couple, will make your visit special. And you will be supporting conservation and education of local children. Worth every penny!

Had fun at the butterfly garden with our 2 girls ages 7 & 9. The guide made the tour really interesting especially for the kids. I would highly recommend it!

It is an amazing garden. the owner is knowledgeable and entertaining. It is so much more than butterflies. You will not regret your visit with bugs and butterflies.

The number one thing I learned from Jardin de Mariposas is that we're doing butterfly gardens/reserves all wrong in the US. You can't have just one big "room" for lots of different varieties of butterflies. They often have very different requirements and won't live to their potential all crammed together. These folks have lots of different areas to support the various Costa Rica ecosystems, so you'll see butterflies and other insects in the environments they prefer. It's not particularly glitzy but you will learn so much. Tourists support the butterflies, not the other way around. Do yourself a favor and see this amazing place.

It all started with the warm and friendly welcome by the staff when we entered the garden. it continued when we met our first guide and it continued when we finally said goodbye to our last guide. They are all students from other countries having a temporarily job or studying while working. All are very knowledgeable and they are all very enthusiastic. The butterflies and gardens were beautiful, but the experience was so much more better due to the staff. Of course we learned a lot and made some beautiful photos of butterflies.

We visited the Butterfly Garden on our first day in Monteverde (January 30th, 2015). We were staying at the Monteverde Lodge & Gardens and had trouble locating the facility on foot, but we were able to hike an alternate route through the gardens of our hotel.We arrived for the last tour of the day (3pm). They close at 4pm. Be aware it was cash only, but they do accept American dollars. We had a wonderful young woman, Lauren, who was our tour guide. We first entered a room with several insect habitats and displays. She educated us on the various insects of the region and even hand- picked a few for a closer look. We saw tarantulas, praying mantis, katydids (look like leaves), walking stick insects (look like sticks) and roaches. Afterwards, we entered several separate butterfly gardens. Butterflies like the sunlight, so your best time to go maybe when it is most sunny. We had good weather and the sun was still out, so we got to enjoy viewing the different species of butterflies.It was enjoyable and educational. We highly recommend a visit here.

So enjoyed the beauty of the butterflies as they lighted on their favorite plants and foods. It was special to experience this with children.

The butterfly enclosures were alright, but the insect exhibit area was more interesting. Lots of info from guide about insects and you could hold some of them.

Brilliant guide, learnt a lot. Well worth a trip. Great to see hummingbirds and insects. Some fascinating stuff.

Yes, this is the best butterfly garden but it is much more. The owner, Bryna, provides a wonderfully entertaining and educational introduction to insects and spiders with live specimens of tarantulas, scorpions, walking sticks, katydids, praying mantis, and cockroaches. Bryna gave a great explanation of butterfly metamorphosis that has change the way I think about them forever. Then you are taken through a guided tour of three separate butterfly gardens each dedicated to a distinct elevation ecosystem in the rain forest.

This butterfly garden was as entertaining as it was informative. It does not look like much at first glance but the curators of this wonderful place are passionate about the bugs and spiders that they teach about. First we had a classroom style talk about different types of critters based on their arrival in the geologic timeline. We learned about scorpions, katydids, walking sticks, cockroaches, praying mantis' and a variety of beetles. Bryna (owner/teacher) then showed us a butterfly crisalis and told us about a metamorphosis that we never knew before (not what you learned in 4th grade). After the talk we were taken to the butterfly gardens. The three gardens are split by elevation. They were definitely the best of many butterfly gardens we visited on this trip. This is by far the most educational and fun butterfly garden we have found and I highly recommend it if you are in the Monteverde area.

We really enjoyed our trip to the Butterfly Garden in Monteverde. it was great walking through the greenhouses and seeing the many different varieties of butterflies, including the large blue morphos and lovely swallow tails. But we also enjoyed the first bit of the tour with tarantalas, giant cochroaches, millipedes, scorpions, beetles and bugs. The guide was very knowledgeable and you got to see these crittars really closely and learnt a bit about them.A really interesting tour and afterwards you are free to walk around on your own.Unless you are super fit do not try to walk from St. Elena. It is only about 2km, but the hill is VERY steep. A taxi from town will cost about USD6 and the Butterfly Garden will call one to take you back to town when you are finished.

We absolutely loved the Moteverde Butterfly Garden. The moment you walk in you are mesmerized by the view, at least I was. They have a lovely open porch area with rocking chairs that overlook the Gulf of Nicoya. The owners Bryna and David are very knowledgeable. They and the rest of the staff were very warm and friendly from the moment we walked in. When they found out that we’re staying in Monteverde for several months they were more than happy to give us some helpful tips on settling in. They have four different rooms each better than the next. We especially loved the last one. A huge open-air garden filled with tons of plants and butterflies. The big blue butterflies were my favorite. They do offer a tour so you can learn the proper names but with a rambunctious two year old in tow we decided it was best to opt out and explore on our own. It was very easy to spot tons of butterflies in all of the rooms. Its slightly off the beaten path but its a nice walk and well worth the trip!