You’ve probably heard about Dubai Miracle Garden as it is recognized by the world as the largest natural botanical garden in existence. Next to this record-breaking garden is Dubai Butterfly Garden, the perfect complement to the flower attraction that offers opportunities to observe and interact with butterflies up close.
If you’re planning a trip to Dubai Butterfly Garden, this guide can serve as a primer on what to expect when visiting the butterfly garden, including tips and advice on how to prepare, book, and enjoy the activity to make your visit more colorful.
Things to Know Before Visiting Dubai Butterfly Garden
Dubai Butterfly Garden is a large butterfly park that can overwhelm first-time visitors, especially those who haven’t encountered different species of butterflies in one area yet. To plan your visit and make the most out of your stay, here’s everything you need to know about Dubai Butterfly Garden and its offerings.
What is Dubai Butterfly Garden
Dubai Butterfly Garden is another record-breaking attraction near Dubai Miracle Garden, the holder of the world’s largest natural botanical garden. The Butterfly Garden is said to be the “world’s largest covered butterfly garden”. It has ten massive domes covering 6,673 square meters of land area. Each dome houses thousands of butterflies.
The garden currently features over 15,000 butterflies from over 50 varieties. Aside from the butterfly collection, the garden also offers up-close opportunities to see the butterfly life cycle—how butterflies evolve from mere eggs and caterpillars, and other attractions like koi ponds, kids cinema, museums, bird aviary, and murals.
Who Can Visit Dubai Butterfly Garden?
The garden welcomes children, adults, locals, and tourists. There’s no entry restriction to Dubai Butterfly Garden. However, parents and guardians must accompany children and make sure that they also follow the safety policies inside the attraction.
Visitors who need assistance, such as pregnant women and people of determination, are encouraged to bring companions. But not to worry, Dubai Butterfly Garden and all its attractions are safe and accessible by wheelchair. The garden even provides carts for handicapped persons on a first-come-first-serve basis.
Is Dubai Butterfly Garden Safe?
Despite housing insects, Dubai Butterfly Garden is safe. The domes inside the attraction are climate-controlled, providing the butterflies a relaxed environment and preventing them from harming visitors. Visitors are prohibited from picking up or disturbing butterflies while they are feeding to avoid accidents.
Dubai Butterfly Garden has a security room and first aid room for visitors who need urgent assistance and when accidents happen. Regardless, be comforted with the fact that the garden only houses safe and well-behaved butterflies. Furthermore, none of the insects from the open collection is poisonous.
COVID-19 Restrictions
Public attractions in Dubai follow special health and safety measures to combat COVID-19. Dubai Butterfly Garden and other similar establishments are required by the World Health Organization (WHO) and local authorities to ensure social distancing among visitors, sanitize public locations, conduct temperature checks for staff and visitors, and promote contactless payments.
Visitors, too, are required to follow individual safety protocols. Visitors should wear face masks inside the garden, avoid physical contact among staff and other visitors, and submit basic personal information for contact tracing purposes.
All these COVID-19 protocols in place are still subject to change daily, weekly, or monthly. The local and the national government could release amended safety protocols in the future as the pandemic progresses and new solutions arise.
When is the Best Time to Visit Dubai Butterfly Garden?
The garden is open from Saturday to Friday between 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM. Regular timings may change during public holidays. The best time to visit Dubai Butterfly Garden is between November to March, Dubai’s winter months when the weather is fine. To avoid large crowds and maximize your stay, aim to schedule your visit during the early morning.
How Long Should You Visit and Explore Dubai Butterfly Garden?
The Butterfly Garden is not as big as the Miracle Garden, but it still offers many attractions and activities to entertain you throughout the day. Allow at least two hours to explore the garden. If you want to religiously visit all attractions, try food options, and participate in various activities, you can explore the area until closing time.
Where is Dubai Butterfly Garden Located?
Dubai Butterfly Garden sits at Al Barsha South 3, Dubailand Area. It is located inside Dubai Miracle Garden and part of the vast entertainment complex of Dubailand. You can easily reach the Butterfly Garden after visiting the Miracle Garden, but we recommend setting aside a whole-day tour for each attraction.
Dubai Butterfly Garden Preparation Tips and Booking Procedures
Dubai Butterfly Garden is the perfect weekend getaway for tourists and locals who want to see a unique attraction. If you want to set foot in the garden and interact with butterflies of all colors and sizes, let’s head to the preparation and booking procedures of the activity.
How to Get to Dubai Butterfly Garden
Dubai Butterfly Garden is at the popular entertainment complex in Dubailand. Travelers with private or rented vehicles can easily reach it from the city center and other neighboring areas through E11 at Umm Suqeim St/D63 and Al Khail Rd/E44 in approximately 30 minutes.
If you want to commute, city buses can take you to the Dubai Butterfly Garden and its surrounding areas. Take bus 105 and alight at Miracle Garden – 01 bus station. It will take you a 6-minute walk from the station to reach the garden. There’s also an RTA Bus service from the Mall of the Emirates to Dubai Miracle Garden and Butterfly Garden, but it is temporarily unavailable due to COVID-19.
As of the moment, there are no direct metro or monorail stations leading to Dubai Butterfly Garden and Dubailand since the main entertainment complex still plans to build more direct roads and attractions.
What Should You Wear and Bring at Dubai Butterfly Garden?
Dubai Butterfly Garden is an outdoor attraction that houses butterflies and all sorts of insects and animals. Given the environmental structure of the garden, here are some reminders on what to bring, what to wear, and what you should leave behind for your visit.
Clothing
When visiting a mostly outdoor attraction like Dubai Butterfly Garden, consider the UAE’s general rule for public dressing and the current Dubai weather when you visit. During winter, dress in layers. For a summer visit, wear comfortable and breathable clothing that can help you tolerate the heat.
Butterfly lovers and enthusiasts recommend wearing brightly-colored clothes and sweet-smelling lotions or perfumes to attract butterflies, so you might also want to consider this suggestion if you want to interact with them.
Food and Drinks
No outside food and drinks are allowed inside the garden to not disturb the butterflies and other animals. Food attracts ants, spiders, and other butterfly predators. If you get hungry, you can buy food and drinks at the coffee shop, food kiosks, and candy shops spread throughout the garden and eat your meals at the designated areas.
Recording Equipment
Professional cameras or cameras with a detachable lens and large gadgets like iPads, tablets, and laptops are strictly prohibited. However, you are allowed to take photos of butterflies using your smartphone and basic digital cameras.
Is Prebooking Necessary?
Prebooking is not necessary. You can directly buy Dubai Butterfly Garden tickets at the entrance. But if you want to book group tickets, look for deals, and avoid queues, you can purchase tickets online and show them at the entrance.
Butterfly Garden Dubai ticket price varies. It depends on the age category and number of visitors. The attraction offers promotions for group visitors. Here’s the Butterfly Garden Dubai ticket price list:
General admission for adults (55 AED / 14.97 USD) – full-day access, access to kid’s cinema
General admission for kids (55 AED / 14.97 USD) – full-day access, access to kid’s cinema, free ice cream or popcorn
Group package for 3 (125 AED / 34.03 USD) – full-day access, discount up to 30%
Group package for 4 (150 AED / 40.84 USD) – full-day access, discount up to 35%
Group package for 5 (200 AED /54.45 USD) – full-day access, discount up to 40%
The mentioned prices here contain each category’s regular Butterfly Garden Dubai ticket price, but note that the attraction offers discounts during national holidays and special events.
What to Do at Dubai Butterfly Garden?
Dubai Butterfly Garden houses over 15,000 butterflies of different varieties. But you can do more than just stare at them inside the venue. You can also explore special activities and attractions to make the most out of your Butterfly Garden Dubai ticket price. For reference, here’s a list of things to see and do inside the attraction:
Explore All Domes
Dubai Butterfly Garden currently has nine domes with sizes that extend to 2,600 sqm. The climate-controlled domes are the main highlight of the garden. Each dome contains triangular windows to allow natural light to come in and maintains high temperatures with an average of 28˚ C to protect the butterflies. These insects normally like to live in a 28˚ C environment, but it’s challenging to provide that temperature due to the weather and climate in Dubai.
Visit the Educational Area
Aside from viewing colorful adult butterflies in action, you can also see how they evolve from being a small caterpillar to a thing of wonder. Visit the Educational Area to get an insight into the life cycle of butterflies and the actual metamorphosis. Here, you can also learn interesting facts and trivia about these species’ natural habitat and the different varieties of butterflies, such as the Monarch, Red Rim, African Queen, White Angled-Sulphur, Tailed Jay, and more.
Sit by the Koi Pond
Another species living inside Dubai Butterfly Garden is the Koi fish. The Koi Pond is located in Dome 2, so you wouldn’t miss it as you explore all domes on the first part of your visit. The pond shelters Koi fishes in various sizes hailing from the Far East.
Head to the Butterfly Museum
Extend your educational tour by visiting the butterfly museum. It’s the first room in the indoor garden of the attraction, so you can easily spot it. The museum displays arts and crafts made with or inspired by different species of butterflies. There are even paintings made by thousands of pressed butterflies across the globe. One interesting piece inside the museum is a mural made by the Crown Prince of Dubai, Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.
Relax at the Kid’s Cinema
Having a kid’s cinema inside Dubai Butterfly Garden may be unusual, but it surely expands the experiences offered by the garden. According to the management, they are aware that the whole-day tour of the garden may be tiring, so a kid’s cinema can offer relaxation.
The cinema runs a series of educational movies and animated short films featuring the butterfly life cycle and other related topics. On top of that, it also offers a library of family-friendly Disney films for everyone.
For movie treats, booked tickets online come with complimentary popcorn or ice cream. If your booking option doesn’t have one, you can purchase food and drinks at the cinema entrance.
Final First-Timer Tips to Visiting Dubai Butterfly Garden
Dubai Butterfly Garden offers visitors a chance to see and observe butterflies up close, but keep in mind that this attraction is not the native tropical habitat of such insects. As such, visitors are encouraged to be extra careful and understanding when interacting with butterflies. Make sure to follow the strict rules inside the garden, such as no bringing of food and avoiding physical contact with butterflies.
These rules are meant to protect both the visitors and the butterflies. But as you follow them, don’t forget to enjoy and maximize your stay. We recommend relying on the map given at the entrance to plan a systematic tour.
What to Do After Visiting Dubai Butterfly Garden
If you haven’t already, don’t forget to explore Dubai Miracle Garden, the central and bigger attraction that houses Dubai Butterfly Garden. Unfortunately, you need a separate ticket for the Miracle Garden despite its proximity to the Butterfly Garden.
Aside from these two attractions, we highly recommend visiting Ras Al Khor Wildlife Sanctuary, a free and publicly open sanctuary at the very end of Dubai Creek. It shelters thousands of migratory birds, mammals, and exotic plants.
