City: Albuquerque, NM

Category: Tours & Attractions

Telephone: (505) 768-2000

Address: 2601 Central Avenue NW

Description: This is a great combination destination for kids of all ages. The botanic garden includes a children’s Fantasy Garden, guarded by a 14-foot-high dragon. Inside the warren-like garden, adults and kids alike are dwarfed by sculptures of giant ants, bees, flowers, and vegetables, and you can walk through a two-story-high pumpkin. Nearby in the botanic garden there’s a lake and a model railway village in the Railroad Garden running around two 400-foot loops. Inside the seasonal PNM Butterfly Pavilion, brightly colored butterflies flutter around your head or—if you stand still long enough—might come to rest on your arm. See cows, goats, sheep, pigs, and horses at the Heritage Farm and creepy-crawlies at the new Insectarium. The Insectarium is opening in stages from fall 2009 to the main launch in 2010, with 8-inch emperor scorpions and foot-long millipedes from Africa; walking sticks up to 20 inches long from Asia; and tropical beetles, mantids, and tarantulas. From the end of November through December, the botanic garden hosts a River of Lights holiday light show with light sculptures and fiber-optic lit snowmen, and skaters can take to an outdoor ice rink on selected evenings.At the Albuquerque Aquarium, a 285,000-gallon ocean tank is home to brown, sand tiger, blacktip, and nurse sharks, and you can watch twice-daily shark feedings and see divers descend into the tank daily through the 38-foot-wide floor-to-ceiling viewing window. Kids also love walking through the eel tunnel and spotting seahorses and jellyfish. There are also seasonal touch pools.One entry fee covers admission to both the aquarium and the botanic garden. These two attractions, along with the neighboring Rio Grande Zoo, are part of the Albuquerque Biological Park. See the Attractions chapter for detailed information on all BioPark facilities, including the narrow-gauge Rio Line train that runs between them, and discount rate combo tickets. Free admission for under-3s. Open seven days.