Rookery Bay Environmental Learning Center — Attraction in Lely

The Rookery Bay Environmental Learning Center and their staff made a rainy vacation day bright and fun! What an amazing place for toddlers, children, and adults. We had a great time and learned SO much- children and adults! Anita, Kathleen, and John were so kind, patient, and informative about the marine life, learning center, and Florida. I am a former educator and was very impressed at all of the learning opportunities- matching real skulls to pictures, sorting marine life, etc. The admission cost was very inexpensive. Anita helped the kids finish their Bingo sheet and let them get a great prize each, helped me with purchasing bug spray and gifts at the gift shop, and recommended places for us to stop for lunch after our visit to RBELC which made our day even more enjoyable. John and Kathleen helped our family with the touch tank where they taught us about the marine life, let us hold/ touch the animals, and were patient with our children/ toddler. Our children loved playing on the boat they have inside the...

In short:

The touch tank isn’t really a touch tank.

The butterfly exhibit had no butterflies.

The walking path outside is unusable unless you’re willing to be eaten alive by mosquitoes.

In long:

We’re disappointed because the main reason we went here was so our kids could experience the touch tank. But the “touch tank” is actually more of a “no touch tank.”

The volunteer that guides you is allowed to reach in the water to pick up and touch whatever, but you do not reach into the water. The volunteer will pick up different things and decide what you can and cannot touch.

Our family was able to touch a snail and a sea urchin.

The volunteer was able to pick up a starfish, but we could not touch it.

The touch tank in our home town (in an inland state) is drastically better than this.

The only thing we saw here that we hadn’t already seen at the beach was a horseshoe crab which was...

This is an amazing environmental learning center for both children and adults alike. I recently attended the Sea Turtle lunch presentation and learned so much about our incredible turtles surrounding FL. The dedicated efforts about protecting their nests until hatchery and research about environmental changes impacting habitat are highly admirable. In the learning center, the volunteers are passionate and very knowledgeable about the wide variety of creatures in the touch tanks. The upstairs area has local bird feather displays, skulls of different animals, and a reading corner for little ones. With the beautiful nature views up there, the only thing missing is a coffee bar! ...