Butterfly World

We went to Butterfly World this morning near St. Albans as they were having an Open House and it was free! Frankly, we’ve never been before because when it opened last year I felt that the prices were extortionate.  In fact, I emailed them about it but sadly never received a response:

Dear sir/madam,

My family was planning on coming to Future Gardens this weekend as we were excited about the gardens and wanted to support a local project.  Sadly, we were put off by the price (£12.50 per adult), especially in the current climate.  I don’t normally contact companies about such things but felt you may appreciate the feedback. Hopefully, if you have a family or open day with reduced prices we may get a chance to come and enjoy the gardens.

When we arrived today we were greeted by a lovely, personable lady who was obviously passionate about the site.  She showed us a video and gave us some bumf about memberships etc.  I noticed a drastic drop in prices and asked her about it.  She said that since it was privately funded (£10.5 million), they used consultants to help them with the pricing.  Being new to it all they trusted them and in her words ‘last year was a disaster’.  She is now backpedalling trying to get people in.  They are now only charging £6 and under 3s are free, which I think is perfectly acceptable.

As it is winter, we had no expectation of seeing butterflies and if you could look past the barren flower beds and the construction site it’s going to be amazing and I can’t wait to go back in the spring!  They have individual gardens, Very Hungry Caterpillar feature Garden, pond dipping and a Play Zone.

We did only see one butterfly but it was rather impressive!