The 10 Best Things to do Good for Big Groups in Gainesville, Florida (FL)

Visit downtown Gainesville like a local! Join residents, Caroline and Ryan, on a 3 hour downtown historical walking tour and try tastings 3-5 local establishments. Experience downtown Gainesville, one bite at a time!

**The Butterfly Rainforest exhibit is open to the public. To ensure a safe environment for all visitors, the exhibit has limited entry, a mask requirement and follows a one-way path. Daily Butterfly Spotlights are temporarily paused. For more information, visit www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/museum-blog/covid-19-update.** The Butterfly Rainforest is a 6,400-square-foot screened exhibit exposed to typical Florida weather conditions, resulting in a more natural environment for the butterflies and plants. This living exhibit features hundreds of free-flying butterflies, typically more than 50 species at any given time, birds from around the world and an assortment of other animals including turtles and fish to experience firsthand. The lush landscape is planted in tropical trees and colorful flowering plants amid waterfalls and a walking path. Skilled interpretive staff are available to help answer questions and provide visitors with a personal and highly engaging experience.

Not for profit exotic animal rescue and endangered species animal park and breeding center. Large beautiful nature park with 28 species, over 75 animals including big cat feeding demonstrations.

Before you contact us, please visit our website to learn about our tree-climbing events and instructional courses. After you have read over the information, you can book a climbing event by clicking any "BOOK NOW" button on the website. Please choose any available date and time slot. If the system does not let you book a particular date and time slot, that simply means it is already booked and/or not available. Please choose any other available date and time slot. Our minimum requirement is a 4-person event. Sorry, we cannot make any exceptions to this minimum requirement. You must pay the full amount upon booking an event. Booking an event is the only way to guarantee a date and time slot. Please note, Canopy Climbers is required to give our local municipalities (the owners of the beautiful local parks in which we climb) at least five (5) days notice to climb trees on premises. We cannot book a climb any sooner than that. We regret any inconvenience this may cause, but we must respectfully follow their rules. Please be advised that we cannot book events over the phone. However, feel free to email us with any other questions you may have. ABOUT US: Canopy Climbers is an award-winning, tree-climbing adventure and education company located in Gainesville, Florida. We guide people into the treetops using safe and sustainable arborist rope and saddle methods. We also provide tree-climbing courses, instruction and education for those who wish to safely climb trees on their own. Thank you for choosing Canopy Climbers for your next adventure.

Depot Park is a signature city park in downtown Gainesville providing a space for unique public outdoor enjoyment. Depot features a children's adventure play area with a custom splash pad of waterfalls, water soakers, and ground jets. A water's edge promenade hosts special events like food truck rallies, art festivals, and musical performances. The park is fully staffed and free of charge.

Herb and botanical garden displaying unusual plants from around the world.

**The Florida Museum is open to the public. To ensure a safe environment for all visitors, the Museum has limited entry, a mask requirement and follows a one-way path.** Open to the public continuously since January 1998, Powell Hall houses exhibits and public education programs. It is located between the Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art and the Curtis M. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts in the UF Cultural Plaza at 3215 Hull Road, just east of Southwest 34th Street on the western edge of the University of Florida campus. Visitors to Powell Hall will encounter exciting featured exhibits and signature permanent exhibition halls that explore the state’s unique habitats and rich cultural history, including information about some of Florida's early Native peoples. Visitors may view a Calusa Indian welcoming ceremony and mammoth and mastodon skeletons from the last ice age.

Nature area with woods and swamp as well as an information center describing the wildlife in the area.

The Santa Fe College Teaching Zoo houses 70 species, and over 200 individual animals in its collection, including white handed gibbons, red ruffed lemurs, ocelots, bald eagles, Galapagos tortoises, American alligators, and Matschie’s tree kangaroo. The Santa Fe College Teaching Zoo is Gainesville’s community zoo and the training facility for the Zoo Animal Technology Program. Situated on 10 forested acres, students in the Zoo Animal Technology Program provide daily care for the animals as well as tours of the zoo grounds.