Fantastic place to visit! This sanctuary is small but fantastic. It is kid and adult friendly and they have a great gift shop and learning center! I purchased a Luna Moth cocoon and it was closed today! Amazing day, thank you. read more

Bear Mountain Butterfly Sanctuary - Souvenir Shops Near Me - Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania

This place is awesome! Staff is very nice and taught us so much. Not just butterflies, we were introduced to and educated about axolotls. I would highly recommend , we had kids from 8-18. Everybody had a blast read more

Staff was wonderful and very attentive to keeping the kids interested and informed. Gift shop is very reasonable.

Don't waste your time or money. The place is small. The live flying room is small, hot and overcrowded of people. When we finally got in they allowed us only 2 minutes to look around. Only a few frogs in The "frog room". Same for the "Turtle room". 98% of the butterflies are all monarchs. The word "sanctuary " in the title is very misleading and leaves a lot to be desired. read more

Bear Mountain Butterflies is a really unique place to take children in the Jim Thorpe area. I say area because although the address listed is a Jim Thorpe address, the building itself is located a few miles outside of the tourist downtown area. Bear Mountain is usually open May-September usually from Thursday to Sunday. The building itself is small and rather odd looking and consists of a small area with about 20-25 chairs where you watch a short video on butterflies and then a member of the staff explains their life cycle and shows you different specimens and their unique colors and markings. Then you go into the "FLUTTERARIUM" which is where butterflies and some moths fly freely around you and you can dip small paint brushes into sugar water and see if you can either pick one up or get one to land on your brush. There is also a small area that displays a few poison frogs and a small gift shop. All in all, Bear Mountain while not spectacular is a winner for its funkiness and uniqueness and is well worth a visit for an interesting hour or two. read more

I'm so glad we made the trip to check this place out. It's amazing. The staff is very well educated and willing to share their knowledge with visitors. The woman who started the sanctuary is so passionate about environment stewardship and she is great with kids. Interacting with the butterflies in the flight room is quite the experience. Put this place on your road trip bucket list read more

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My husband and I went to visit the Butterfly Sanctuary this week and we both loved it. You can tell these ladies love what they do and love to share their knowledge with you. It's a great spot for kids. They have a room with frogs from around the world, a room full of butterflies and a cool looking water creature called axolotl. I loved the butterfly room because you got to get up close to the butterflies and even had one land on me. The women working there were great! Ask them anything! read more

Highly recommended - my 5 year old looooved this!! We spent a great afternoon here (about 3 hours) learning about butterflies and frogs. The highlight was definitely the butterfly room where butterflies land on you. We definitely spent at least an hour in that room. There are art projects and puzzles and a short movie. We will definitely be back for the butterfly room! read more

Bear Mountain Butterfly Sanctuary - Souvenir Shops Near Me - Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania

Awesome experience! We got to go in a room with butterflies and feed them. The owner is great! She is very knowledgable and passionate about butterflies. You watch a short video and then she will do a presentation about the butterflies which was very educational but fun! I went with my family(just adults) but it looked like a great place to take your children with crafts and puzzles in the one room. We got milk weed seeds to plant in our garden for the butterflies and my mom even bought two caterpillars for our home so we can release the butterflies at our house when they are ready. I honestly was so surprised about all the info I learned from going to this place. If I am ever in the area again I would definitely go back. read more

Bear Mountain Butterfly Sanctuary - Souvenir Shops Near Me - Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania

Excellent learning center! Great for groups....girl scouts and boy scouts! Anyone will love the experience! Thank you for taking such good care of these beautiful creatures! read more

This is a great rainy day activity for the 5 and under set. The room with the butterflies, as one noted, is quite small, BUT there are butterflies after all and it is cleverly decorated with fairies and greenery. The woman who runs the place is very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about butterflies. We all enjoyed her talk. Kids can make a simple craft, and also live butterflies (in chrysalis form) are available for purchase. They also have a small assortment of frogs from around the world. Would this be worth a very long drive by itself? No, but combined with other things in the Jim Thorpe area, or as I said good rainy day alternative I give it two thumbs up. read more

Very educational experience for all. The owner is a kind and generous person. We could tell she does this out of love and concern for nature. She does a 20 minute presentation that is fun, educational and entertaining. The butterfly room is beautiful and not overwhelming for little ones. I also bought a beautuful bracelet in the gift shop and saved $5 due to a door prize the owner gave to about four guest-winners. read more

This was my second time coming to the butterfly sanctuary. I brought my eight-year-old daughter, my sister-in-law and my three-year-old niece. You have to without a doubt make sure you do the butterfly presentation and stay for the movie. I always leave wanting to stay and learn more. Everyone including my niece sat and partook in the interactive presentation. The butterfly room was amazing. You learn to always let nature be. They have a special section for the ones who are older. I have never seen anything like this. Even the Academy of natural science in Philly never had this. This is my favorite place to go in the Poconos. My sister-in-law from Scotland couldn't believe how amazing this place was. Enjoy this hidden gem! read more

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If you're looking for a fun half-day Summertime activity to participate in, and maybe have children who can be trusted not to squash bugs; check out Bear Mountain Butterfly Sanctuary. It's got plenty of parking, the fares are reasonable, and you can personally interact with lots of butterflies. It's a neat experience! They're attracted to bright colors too, so be careful if you show up wearing white! The owner is very energetic, knowledgeable and passionate about her business. She puts on a show that was very informative! Check it out. It's by Jim Thorpe, so you can make a day of it! read more

We stopped by on a rainy afternoon during our vacation week here and everyone in our family enjoyed this little place. The owner gave an entertaining and educational presentation in the classroom end of the building - we learned a lot about butterflies and moths. The next room was the Poison Dart Frog room and that was very cool. We had fun in the butterfly room holding feeding sticks with a Monarch butterflies perched on the ends. Other Monarchs flutter around the ceiling. One landed on my baseball cap to my children's delight. We also spent some time in the room with arts and crafts activities and puzzles/building activities. There is a well-curated gift shop which offered a range of items, from $1 toys for kids all the way up to more elaborate educational toys, all within the butterfly/bug theme. Other gift-shop items are on display throughout the butterfly sanctuary, and I especially liked the hand-made, fair-trade items. This is a small museum, but there is a lot to see here if you take your time looking around. read more

I went here for my 31st birthday over Memorial Day weekend. It was incredible!! The woman in the butterfly room is a wealth of knowledge. There are several different species of butterflies and even a wall of caterpillars in their cocoons. While I was there, I got to see one break through its cocoon and start drying his wings, before taking flight for the very first time. I was in awe. I would recommend Bear Mountain for people of ALL ages. I can't wait to go back and bring my father! read more

For the 10 and under group this was perfect. Coming from Philadelphia museums it was a shock how really small it is. That said, my kids were so excited that you could actually feed the butterflies with sugar water. And they were everywhere! Great pictures of the butterflies landing on their heads, their clothes, etc. Really cool. We'll go back again. read more

Went here with our Girl Scout troop! It was amazing the girls earned their bug badge & learned so much!

One star only for the young kid at the register who was helpful and friendly. Rest of staff rude, very small rooms and too crowded. Would not waste my time or money again. Definitely not worth traveling far for. read more

Cool little spot to stop if your in the area. They have a room where the butterflies roam around and even land on you. My kid loved it.

This is a great place. The staff is so great and full of so much information. The butterfly show was very informative and fun. I love going into the butterfly room and seeing all the butterflies fluttering around one even landed on me. I'm going back soon. read more

I really wouldn't even give this place one star. What a disappointment!!! I sure hope you aren't traveling far to see this place. If you're already in the area, then yeah, it's an ok place to stop in for 5 minutes. there isn't anything here that won't take you but a half an hour to see. a handful of frogs and 2 handfuls of butterflies. they also sold my children 2 caterpillars in a container with absolutely no holes in it accompanied by directions that state leave the lid on. Suckered me into buying the mesh habitat and now we have no use for it! Needless to say they didn't make it. The money you pay isn't worth it. It really, truly isn't. My family even went on family discount day. The least they can do is give you a freakin magnet! I would never recommend this place. read more

I'm sorry to say that this was very disappointing. I've had the pleasure of visiting a few butterfly sanctuaries and this, by no definition, is a sanctuary. The very small room that houses the insects has mostly monarchs, many of which are literally rough around the edges. I felt bad for the butterflies as they seemed trapped and were fluttering desperately near the small windows. I expected to see many species flying in a greenhouse type setting as well as some attractive flora but that didn't happen. The presentation (including a very corny video, a talk given by a high school/college student with photos of various butterflies, and an audience participation segment that quite cleverly dressed the person up as a butterfly) was not worth an extra $2. This is the kind of place that you visit once because you don't know any better and never return. read more

What an amazing experience! I'm a Girl Scout Troop Leader from the Lower Macungie area (outside of Allentown area) & I brought my troop to the Sanctuary. The girls are ages 7-8 yrs old. Mari was awesome to work with - extremely knowledgeable, patient, friendly, helpful, & spoke directly to the girls on their level. It truly was one of the BEST experiences we've ever had. Definitely something everyone must experience! Of course our favorite part was the butterfly room where we got to hold & feed the butterflies. We can't wait to go again! read more