Buckfast Butterfly Farm and Dartmoor Otter Sanctuary Reviews Summary

Butterfly Enclosure

Pros:

• "The indoor butterfly greenhouse is also lovely. Very pleasant to walk around with all of the butterflies fluttering around your head."
• "The butterfly farm is beautiful, there were poles of chrysalis... and we could watch the butterflies emerge."
• "The butterflies are amazing, you actually walk around with them flying around you and if your lucky enough, land on you!"
• "It was so peaceful and relaxing to walk among the free ranging Butterflies."
• "The butterfly house is hot and humid as you would expect, and a very calm place really."
• "There are lots of large butterflies to see and their enclosure is full of beautiful tropical plants."
• "The butterfly area is very very humid like the tropical jungle with rare species here from around the world."

Cons:

• "It's very hot in the butterfly 'enclosure/green house'."
• "The butterfly 'house', which is very warm and humid."
• "The butterfly area was quite hot and the otters were very playful if you do visit try to go around feeding time for a much better experience."
• "We chose a very hot day to visit and the butterfly house was uncomfortably humid, but with some beautiful specimens, so well worth the discomfort."
• "It’s very humid in there and isn’t a good mix with raincoats and jumpers."
• "I also saw quite a few dead butterflies, which, of course, cannot be helped, but I wonder if it was due to the stresses of the public being idiots."
• "The biggest issue for me was the butterfly house... I strongly feel that this sort of thing should not allow people in."

Otter Sanctuary

Pros:

• "The best animal’s experience we ever had!"
• "Loved the butterfly and otter combination."
• "The otters were great fun to watch. Feeding time was brilliant, they certainly put on a show for there food."
• "The keepers are clearly passionate about their work and it really shows with the obvious love that the otters display whenever a keeper comes around."
• "Amazing experience! Very friendly place to visit! The otters are very clearly extremely well loved and cared for!"
• "Lovely to see the otters and being a sanctuary they also have baby otters here which are adorable."
• "The staff doing the feeds were really knowledgeable and obviously cared a lot for the animals."

Cons:

• "However, the entry price sadly does not reflect the sad, run down place we visited."
• "I don’t think it is worth 10 pounds though. It pretty small place and you don’t spend a lot of time there."
• "I wouldn't go during half term again as it is quite small and was heaving."
• "Shame there wasn't a cafe built in, but fortunately a sign by the exit pointed you right to a cafe less than 100 meters away."
• "Poor butterflies, although spectacularly colourful, got overlooked by most people."
• "The otter enclosure was sad and uninspiring for these lovely creatures."
• "The place was a little underwhelming, but it was a good way to spend a couple of hours and the location is great."

Facilities and Accessibility

Pros:

• "Parking is free."
• "Friendly, approachable staff."
• "Free parking nearby."
• "Additionally can walk along the river/ bath/enjoy the railway park/kids play area."
• "The entire facility is eco-friendly, using water from the nearby River Dart to deliver fresh water to the otter habitats daily."
• "Excellent parking (and lots of it)."
• "Free parking, café just across car park, Steam Train station and model railway shop."

Cons:

• "Just be aware that there aren’t toilets on site."
• "The nearest toilet is at the train station, so visit there first."
• "Second point of note is that the toilets aren't actually anywhere near the butterfly farm they are on the other side of Buck vastly station and it's a bit of a tromp especially if you have kids in tow."
• "They charge you entrance and there's not even a toilet there. You have to walk all the way to the train station nearby."
• "Toilets at the station and a cafe up there too."
• "The viewing opportunities for young children are not enough. 1 toilet...hole in wall where tiles have been smashed n left there."
• "Shame haven't got their own cafe but short walk to steam railway cafe."

Value for Money

Pros:

• "The place is a bit shabby but there's plenty of butterflies and otters to see which is what counts. Also the entrance price seems reasonable for what you get."
• "The entry price goes towards looking after local otters as well as the once at the park so you are helping a great cause as well."
• "Good value for money."
• "We managed to get a groupon 50% off voucher to come here but I would say it's probably worth the full price ticket."
• "For a cheap and great couple of hours for the family, and to be able to make core memories with amazing animals such as otters, this place is pound for pound a top tier attraction in the UK!"
• "Excellent value for money and very educational for kids."
• "Knowing that our money was going straight back into the sanctuary made it even better value for money."

Cons:

• "I don’t think it is worth 10 pounds though. It pretty small place and you don’t spend a lot of time there."
• "Although we did enjoy visiting the Butterfly Farm and Otter Sanctuary, it's not somewhere you would expect to stay at for more than a couple of hours at most."
• "They did provide a disclaimer at the door that the otters aren’t very active if it isn’t feeding time and that the butterflies were not fully hatched at the moment, but realistically they should be offering some sort of discount."
• "In all Truth I feel that the cost of this place is slightly too much as they're really isn't much to see."
• "This is a really lovely place, the butterflies were stunning and the otters looked happy and well cared for. Missed out on 4 stars because of the price, which we felt was too high for the size of the attraction."
• "Lovely place to see the otters are so so cute the letdown was in the winter they have so few butterfly's but their is no discount in the price for this."
• "It's not a large site but the price reflects that."