When holidaying with pre-schoolers in Spain, relaxation usually comes first, and excursions come second. At the same time, if you're spending a holiday with your child in the Costa Brava, you can turn an ordinary excursion into an educational one. You can go to a butterfly park near Empuriabrava. It's a veritable rainforest without predators, snakes or poisonous insects but with butterflies, parrots and other harmless creatures.
The entire park is inside a vast greenhouse to stabilise the temperature and humidity. On any given day, it's +28°C, and the humidity is kept at 80%. The glass in the greenhouse also protects against outside noise so that you can hear the natural sounds of the forest: the rustling of leaves, the murmuring of streams, and the sound of birds...
Most people come here to see the butterflies. The 20,000 winged beauties of different sizes and colours flutter about or sit on leaves, allowing you to admire them and take pictures. In the park, you can see all stages of a butterfly's transformation to an adult insect — find caterpillars and pupae or watch a short film. Note that butterflies are particularly active on sunny days.
The butterfly park in Costa Brava also has many excellent bonuses. For example, the birds and reptiles that live there are not frightened of people and are happy to interact with them. Buy special treats or water at the entrance, and a child can feed a parrot, toucan, turtle or iguana right out of their hand. Feeders with succulent food are also available for the animals. By the way, butterflies don't skimp on nectar-they come to the table laden with orange, banana, pineapple and other sweet fruit. Bats live in a small cave in the greenhouse.
Tropical plants deserve no less attention. One might even wonder: who in the impenetrable forests grows such beautiful flowers? In the park, you can also see orchids, which have become popular as house flowers, and predatory plants, which don't mind snacking on small insects.
After the tour, you can take a walk through the town of Castelo d'Empurias, near where the park is located. The town has unique Catalan architecture dating from the fourteenth to the fifteenth century.
