If you’re looking to see butterflies on your trip to Costa Rica, the Monteverde Butterfly Gardens is the perfect spot. Our family has visited these gardens a few times, and it’s become one of our go-to recommendations for families exploring the area. In this post, we’ll tell you what to expect at the Monteverde Butterfly Gardens and how to plan a visit.
Location
The Monteverde Butterfly Gardens is located in Monteverde, Costa Rica, a famous ecotourism destination known for its misty cloud forest. Monteverde is about 2.5 hours from both San Jose Airport and Guanacaste Airport in Liberia.
Monteverde is an excellent wildlife destination with lots of animals and especially birds within its many nature reserves. Although wildlife is abundant, it’s often hard to see in Monteverde’s dense forests. Fortunately, around town, you can find wildlife exhibits that let you see animals close up. The Monteverde Butterfly Gardens is one of the best spots.
The gardens are located about 10 minutes outside the main area of Santa Elena at the end of a quiet side road.
If you’re planning to rent a car for your time in Monteverde, be sure to check out our rental car discount to save 10% and get free extras.
Note: The butterfly garden we’re discussing here is the standalone attraction called the Monteverde Butterfly Gardens (Jardin de Mariposas). There’s another butterfly garden in Monteverde at Selvatura Park, which also has popular hanging bridges, zip lining, and a sloth sanctuary.
The Monteverde Butterfly Gardens Tour
Getting Started
After checking in, we met our guide. On our most recent visit, our guide was Leah, an enthusiastic volunteer from the U.K. Right away we could tell that Leah was really passionate about entomology and loved sharing her knowledge.
Insect Exhibits
The tour began in the insect exhibit, a room filled with several enclosures housing interesting bugs native to Costa Rica. These included tarantulas, scorpions, stick bugs, and even cockroaches. We learned cool facts about these creatures that gave us a whole new appreciation for them.
One of the main goals of the Monteverde Butterfly Gardens is to educate people about the importance of insects in our environment and show just how amazing they really are.
An especially interesting creature we saw was a female orange-kneed tarantula. This particular spider was an impressive 18 years old!
We also saw displays with beautiful jewel beetles, which have shiny, bright green bodies, and some giant rhinoceros beetles. These beetles, we learned, use their large horns to fight with other males over potential mates.
Our six-year-old was particularly interested in the butterfly chrysalis display, where the staff places cocoons gathered from the butterfly enclosures. It was fascinating to watch butterflies begin to emerge from their cocoons.
Note: The Monteverde Butterfly Garden is a safe spot to visit, but if you’re feeling uneasy about insects and spiders in the wild, check out our post Bugs, Spiders, and Snakes in Costa Rica: What to Expect.
Butterfly Exhibits
After the insect room, Leah led us through four different butterfly gardens, each representing a different ecosystem in Costa Rica. These gardens house over 30 different types of butterflies.
Beach Enclosure
This warmer environment replicates what you’d find in Costa Rica’s beach areas.
It’s a well-insulated greenhouse where you can see many types of butterflies that live in coastal areas, like Blue Morphos and Owl butterflies. We also saw several caterpillars.
The enclosure had beautiful landscaping with flowers and tropical plants, plus feeders set up with fresh fruit that the butterflies enjoy.
Mid-elevation Enclosure
This enclosure represented a typical garden—what Leah called “grandma’s garden.” It showcased butterflies from Costa Rica’s middle elevations. This one had many gorgeous long-winged butterflies. They feed on nectar and pollen instead of fruit.
Forest Understory
This enclosure had several glasswing butterflies, which we learned are transparent to avoid predators. This characteristic can also make it hard for them to find a mate, though. To help with this, the males use their pheromones to gather together in a display to attract females.
Cloud Forest
In this open enclosure, the temperature was the same as outside, so it had butterflies adapted to Monteverde’s cooler climate.
Important: Although you’ll see plenty of butterflies, the Monteverde Butterfly Gardens doesn’t overfill the enclosures like some other butterfly gardens do. This is so that the butterflies don’t get stressed.
Wrapping Up
After the final exhibit, we walked along a forest trail and saw some beautiful, mature trees, including a giant stranger fig.
The tour ended at the gift shop, which had unique insect-themed items from T-shirts and bags to stuffed animals and toys. We picked up a couple of fun mementos for our kids.
Traveling with kids? Be sure to check out our Costa Rica with Kids page for more family-friendly things to do and travel tips.
Planning Your Visit to the Monteverde Butterfly Gardens
Cost
- Adults: $20
- Students: $14
- Youth ages 7-18: $12
- Children ages 4-6: $6
- Children under 3: Free
Advanced reservations aren’t required, but if you’d prefer to buy tickets online, you can do so through Viator.
Hours
Open every day. Tours are offered from 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. The last tour is at 3:30 p.m. Tours last about 1.5 hours.
What to Bring/Wear
Comfortable shoes and a camera. If you want to wear insect repellent, be sure to apply it before you arrive.
Conclusion
The Monteverde Butterfly Gardens makes for a great, quick activity, especially if you have kids. It’s an educational and entertaining way to learn about Costa Rica’s incredible insect diversity while getting up close with some beautiful butterflies.
If you book a tour through Viator using the link above, we get a small commission. This doesn’t cost you anything extra and helps us keep providing information on this website for free. Thanks for your support!
Have a question about visiting the Monteverde Butterfly Gardens or have you been? Leave a comment below.
Looking for more information to plan your trip? Check out these posts:
Finca El Paraíso Farm Tour: This organic dairy farm tour will get you up close and personal with cows and other animals, plus it includes a cheesemaking component.
Don Juan Coffee Tour: This interactive coffee, chocolate, and sugar cane tour is one of our favorites in Monteverde.
Monteverde Hummingbird Gallery: This is another fun, quick stop to see hummingbirds zipping all around you.
Monteverde Tours: View all the tours in Monteverde that we can help you book.
Wildlife Activities: Get more options for activities to see wildlife in Costa Rica. Safari floats, crocodile tours, wildlife sanctuaries, and lots more.
Things to Do: Plan your activities with our Things to Do articles. We cover 150+ attractions all around Costa Rica.