Gainesville, an amazing place to be around with your family and friends. Be it the Butterfly Rainforest or botanical gardens, every place has something or the other to amaze you.

Gainesville has more than one particular attraction to reveal and attract you. Here are some places that you should visit when you are in Gainesville, FL.

Butterfly Rainforest

An excellent place for nature lovers, this place is a home to a wide variety of butterflies. This place features hundreds of free-flying butterflies and birds from all around the world. Butterflies of different shades and colors are released every Saturday and Sunday, at 2 pm, 3 pm and 4 pm and Monday through Friday at 2 pm, weather permitting.

The rainforest also showcases birds, turtles, fish, bromeliads, orchids and hundreds of other vibrant flowering plants. Get here and get colorful!

Florida Museum For Natural History

This more than 100 years old museum has more than what other museums normally offer. The museum beautifully showcases flora, fauna, fossils and ancient civilization of Florida.

Powell Hall and the attached McGuire Center, the main public exhibits of the museum, are located in the Cultural Plaza, which it shares with the Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art and the Curtis M. Philips Center For The Performing Arts.

The best part of the place is that, you can enjoy most of the exhibition for free. However, there is a small fee for the butterfly forest.

University Of Florida Bat House

The University Of Florida Bat House is an abode for bats that has a single triangular shaped roof and stands 20 feet tall on five wooden poles. The bat house, one of the major tourist attractions in Florida, shelters a large colony of bats especially Brazilian free tailed and south eastern bats

Bats normally emerge out of the bat house during an interval of 15-30 minutes after sunset, except during extreme wind and cold winters. They come out of the house to drink and feed on bugs.

Many people come here during dusk to watch bats flying right above their heads. Indeed, one of a kind experience.

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic Park

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic Park was a home of a very famous author MK Rawlings. This is the place where the great author lived for 25 years and wrote The Yearling” and “Cross Creek”. She named this house “A place of enchantment”.

The homestead is completely restored and preserved like it was in the 1930s. It has a barn, tenant house, orange grove, seasonal garden and nature trail. It’s a great feeling to see the place and environment where she created some of her finest masterpieces. This place is worth visiting when you are in Gainesville.

Devil’s Millhopper Geological State Park

Devil’s Millhopper Geological State park is basically a sinkhole in the north-western part of Gainesville. This 120 feet deep and 500 feet wide sinkhole looks like a hopper of a mill. The word ‘devil’ was added before its name as some skeletons were found at the bottom when it was discovered. Many people back then believed that the skeletons were of the animals that were killed by a devil.

The site has a set of 236 wooden steps along with boardwalks and an observation deck at the bottom in 1976. Twelve different springs fill the bottom at the pond. The dense foliage, babbling brooks and waterfalls give this sinkhole a feel of a northern forest. A place where getting lost seems right!

Kanapha Botanical Garden

Kanapha Botanical garden is an organized 62 acre facility founded, developed, funded and operated by the North Florida Botanical Society, a non-profit educational organization. It consists of 24 major collection bamboos, flowers and other largest herbs in southeast. A perfect venue for wedding, wedding receptions, meetings and conferences that provides both indoor & outdoor rental facilities.

This very well arranged garden offers a sight of some Giant Victoria water lilies and Asian snake arum during warmer seasons. Gift shop inside the park offers awesome collections of natural treasures and original arts. The walking pavements inside the park also have wheel chair accessible and also provide visitors benches, gazebos and well maintained restrooms.

Haile Homestead

Haile homestead, officially known as Historic Haile Homestead at Kanapaha Plantation, was built for Thomas Evans and Serena Chestnut Haile by their 66 enslaved craftsmen.

6,200 square foot homestead is the second oldest plantation house in Alachua country and one of the few remaining antebellum homes in northern central Florida.

This house has become a major attraction because of the unusual writings on the walls, rooms and closets. Around 12,500 words are written on every room. Walls speak of joys and sorrows of that era.

Santa Fe College Teaching Zoo

It is a 10 acre zoo in Gainesville and the only zoo that conducts zoo keeper training facility in USA. There are 200 animals representing more than 75 species in its collection including White handed gibbons, Bald eagles, African grey parrots and Matschie’s Tree-kangaroo.

Other than animals, this family destination also offers play parks for children and free Wi-FI facility for parents. A perfect place for a family outing.

Thomas Center

Thomas Center is a perfect example of architecture & interior decoration that was built in a classical revival style and nestled in the heart of Gainesville, Florida. It is popularly known as Hotel Thomas.

The Thomas Center includes art galleries, 1920’s period rooms, local history exhibits a performance space, banquet rooms, and meeting rooms. It is also considered as a perfect spot for wedding in Gainesville.

Grace and Sidney knight children theater hosts a variety of exhibits and musical program in its surrounding. Thomas center is open to public throughout the year.

Stage 7 KTV

Stage 7 KTV is among the newest and most exciting places in Gainesville. If you are somewhere in Gainesville, willing to party or go for night out with your buddies, then this is the perfect place to have fun.
Karaoke is the high light of Stage 7 KTV. Big screen TVs and other Hi-Fi musical equipments will add extra fun to your party. Don’t miss out on the fun guys.