This Spanish Life

Last weekend we went to the new orchid house in the Botanical Gardens in Estepona. While the orchid house is finally finished and open to visitors the gardens surrounding the orchid house are still in development. I have cycled past the site several times during its construction and so it was great to finally get the opportunity to see the building up close  and to go inside. The opening ceremony took place on Saturday March 28th. At the moment entry is free and so when we went there was quite a queue and we had to wait for 10 minutes or so to get in, although typically, when we came out there wasn't a queue at all! That always seem to be the way for me! The woman on the door told me that when they do start charging for entry tickets will cost around 2 or 3€ but if you're like me and you love a freebie you should go now and save yourself some money!

Inside it’s pretty impressive. The big glass dome is as amazing from the inside as it is from the outside and the visitors follow a winding path that leads them through the beautiful displays of orchids. You follow the path in a circuit from the entrance all the way around to the exit. Now I didn't count them all but I was told by the very informative woman on the door that there will eventually be almost 8000 different species of orchid there and that these have been carefully selected so that there will always be flowering displays throughout the year . Also there is a fantastic 56ft high waterfall that you walk behind and then you go over a small bridge continues to lead you on your way in front of the waterfall, across the pools of water at the bottom from where you continue on the path up through even more orchids. 

I went with my mum, my partner and our two young children. The children enjoyed it immensely. Admittedly they didn't appreciate all of the orchids but they loved the waterfall and the bridge and they enjoyed following the path up and down and around! We were only inside for about 15 minutes although obviously you could linger for longer if you wanted to take a closer look at the orchids. 

I can imagine it being quite difficult to park there. We were very fortunate and managed to find a space right outside but the surrounding roads were lined with parked cars and spaces were very few and far between. I have heard that the parking is to be developed though and that more will be provided eventually but at the moment it's a bit trickier to park.

We were all very impressed with the orchid house and once the outside gardens are finished I think it will be an even lovelier place to visit. It is expected to receive more than 100,000 visitors per year and if you would like to be one of them then you will find the orchid house close to the end of Calle Terraza.