Butterfly Paradise — Attraction in Siem Reap

I understand this venue is owned (or at least operated) by an elderly American couple. I met the lady, she's probably in her 60s and quite friendly.

What is ironic though is that a foreign couple decides to charge fellow foreigners more for entry than locals and not just a little more but a huge amount more.

Foreigners pay US$7.50/5.50 for adults/children (no seniors discounts) but Khmers pay just 5000/2000 Riel (US$1.25/0.50).

The ticket seller at the entrance did ask if we lived in Cambodia (if I had answered yes, would that have granted us a discount or was that just a question to make chit chat?)

Unusually, she requested an extra $1 note rather than breaking my $10 note to give change in Riel, because she said we "wouldn't be able to spend Riel", which is a strange thing to say given that Cambodia uses both currencies and its easy to exchange either Riel or USD to another currency at any moneychanger or bank. Not to mention that merchants routinely give Riel change for amounts under $10 these days, which is fine by me.

I think the gardens, while nice and all, were quite small and thus the entrance fee was overpriced for what was on offer.

My suggestion is to charge everyone the same 5000/2000 Riel as for Khmers as opposed to the tourist pricing, which is very off putting. No wonder we barely saw any other visitors. In fact, the only other visitors I saw were Cambodian children.

I did notice that food prices were very reasonable but the restaurant was empty - if I was in charge, I'd charge everyone the same for entry but raise food prices instead. When you're paying $7.50 for entry, you don't want to spend even $3 extra for a meal, but if you were charged $1.25 for entry a $5 meal would be acceptable.

The massage was interesting, at first I thought the old American lady would be giving it, but she told me the massage lady (a local) would be along shortly. You actually get 10 minutes per foot for a total of 20 minutes for just $1, rather than 10 minutes in total as the sign claims. This is quite a good deal. The chair is a bit uncomfortable but once you get in a comfortable enough position, you'll be able to enjoy the massage as I did, despite the intense heat (OK, I'm used to that but many visitors from colder climates may find it challenging).

Some of the exhibits were empty, which was a real disappointment, especially considering how pricey the entrance fee was, US$20.50 for a family of 3 and we only got to see 2 snakes and some guinea pigs.

11 guinea pigs in the one little interior exhibit with no natural lighting, where you would normally put only snakes and other reptiles was also weird; guinea pigs belong in a large pen outside just like rabbits. They like to nibble on grass and need some space to roam around.

The AC video room had a 1 minute presentation on butterflies, but the rest was basically one giant advertisement for Christianity (the school this park supports is next door and probably set up by missionaries). While I am nominally Christian myself, I'd rather learn more about butterflies than God when I'm at a self proclaimed Butterfly Paradise. It was nice to have a place to cool off though, hence we sat in there for a few minutes just for some much needed AC.

Funny that the access road was dirt and not paved over. You'd think the owners of this place would be able to afford to concrete over the 500m of track between the main road and the entrance to the park and school? Can't be much fun when its a mud bath during the rainy season and luckily we had a car otherwise we would have been covered in dust.

Overall, it was a nice little visit, despite the high entrance fee, but definitely a one time thing, not large or impressive enough for a...

I've visited Butterfly paradise 1 week ago. I've never heard about this place before as my trip to Cambodia was kind of spontaneous. I'm happy that one of my friends recommended me to visit it and I've never regretted it!

This place is awesome! It's literally like a little paradise! So peaceful, so natural! Not in a city center, but for me it was even more interesting to see how do real khmer people live (as the place around looks like a village). You can walk around it's really interesting. People there are very friendly. Also you can find a free very beautiful lotus lake 2 min away from the butterflies.

I've been before to several butterflies houses in Europe. There were 1-2 rooms, a lot of butterflies but no nature around. Yes, you can see many butterflies at the same time, but you cannot spend a long time there. It was boring to stand just in 1 room even with butterflies around. Moreover, butterflies were locked in a tiny room with almost no flowers, water and nature. I felt bad for them.

This butterfly paradise is the other way around! Huge space for butterflies, they can feel themselves as they are in a wild nature. Waterfalls, fishes ponds, birds singing, amazing flowers... That's one of the reasons why some people say that there are a few butterflies. Actually there are many, but they are free to fly in this huge space (huge for butterflies) and hide in the trees and flowers. So this park is the opportunity to see how does the wild nature work not in a human made room-cage.

I also like that they didn't try to show all kinds of butterflies that exist in the world (I can see enclosed "butterflies zoo" in Europe). The goal of this park was to introduce to the travelers the Cambodian nature and butterflies.

You can walk there for ages if you are a "nature" kind of person! There are even some extra activities I didn't expect to see: massage, Khmer vegan restaurant, science cinema, fish-piling, very nice souvenir shop. I didn't have enough time and money to try everything, so I've been only to the restaurant. Strongly recommend you to try the ice-cream. There is no sugar nor dairy products, but it's tastes as the real ice-cream. And it's so nice to walk around the park during the hot sunny day with a cool mango ice-cream.

Souvenirs were a little bit more expensive than you can bargain in the market, but I wanted to support this place since the money from every payment here goes to the orphanage house. I've heard about terrible Cambodia's history from the Floating village excursion so I knew what those kids went through. Some of them works at the Butterfly paradise so you can talk to them directly. I'm surprised that despite their hard life they are so happy and friendly. Moreover, some of the souvenirs are made by those kids like beautiful paintings or tea that was grown at the same butterfly farm.

All in all I strongly recommend to everyone to visit this place. The best time - sunny days, because in a cloudy weather butterflies will sleep in the trees (I didn't know about it, but it's still nice to make photos and relax). I think people from the northern countries, like me, will like it more as every particular flower will look unusual. If you like photos, wear something special as you can do a lot of good ones here. Perfect place for families with little kids. There is a "caterpillar laboratory" where they reproduce butterflies and teach kids science. Don't be afraid to touch them, they're much more pleasant than you can imagine (soft like sponge or jelly). Also kids can make some cute crafts connected to the butterflies, watch movies and just play hide and seek...

I saw many contrasting reviews about this place, so I wanted to see it by myself. And my honest opinion is: the place is wonderful!! We can see the love and care that the staff have in each detail.

The entrance fee of $7.5 is fair, considering that it's destined not only to maintain the garden but to support their school and orphanage.

Be aware that the place is a bit far, but it doesn't take more than a 15-minute ride by tuktuk from downtown. The road is not yet paved, so it can get bumpy. For me, this is the only downside because the whole experience there was lovely.

All the staff is kind and helpful. The garden is well-mantained and worthy to spend time relaxing, lying in the hammocks and observing the beautiful nature. Butterflies and other small animals are all around.

They have some other animals that were rescued or donated. Most of them are there temporarily. The place is not a zoo, but they do their best to take care of the animals while they are there.

They also have a little cinema, where they show videos about butterflies and nature, according to their creationist perspective, since they are Christians. If you don't agree with that, you can just ignore or skip that part since it's optional.

My favorite part was the lab, where we see many kinds of caterpillars and touch them. There are also art classes available for children.

The restaurant is also a paradise for vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free food lovers! Everything we tried there was delicious and cheap.

Lastly, the gift shop was a good surprise for me since I was not expecting to find so many nice and cheap clothes, scarves and souvenirs.

So, overall, I had an amazing experience in Butterfly Paradise. I will come...