Berkenhof Tropical Zoo (butterfly garden glasshouses)

Berkenhof's story is that of a family business. According to the zoo's website, Johan and Leny Antes, from Brabant, bought a run-down farm near Kwadendamme in 1979 and moved there the following year. A keen gardener and collector of unusual plants, Johan gradually turned the hectare of fallow farmland behind the farmhouse into an ornamental garden with borders, oriental ornaments and many water features, and built up a large collection of fuchsias. The garden opened to the public in 1994 as Sier- en Fuchsiatuin Berkenhof.

After creating a covered 'subtropical oasis' and travelling to places such as Belize, Costa Rica and Florida, the founder conceived an indoor butterfly garden. Vlindertuin Berkenhof opened in 1997 in a small single-glazed horticultural greenhouse of 400 m², together with a first restaurant. It proved so popular that in 2003 it had to be enlarged with a large glasshouse of a further 1,200 m².

In 2008 the restaurant grew to 200 seats and Berkenhof obtained a full zoo licence. From spring 2010 the family put that licence to use: the tropical garden took in many colourful animals and the site became Berkenhof's Tropical Zoo & Restaurant. A fossil mine and a dinosaur exhibition (2012), a covered play jungle (2013) and further attractions followed. The founders' son and his wife now run the business.

The tropical zoo is no showpiece conservatory: it occupies horticultural-type glasshouses whose designer is not named. The first butterfly garden was fitted out in 1997 in a small single-glazed growing house of 400 m². In 2003 a further large glasshouse of 1,200 m² was added; Dutch Wikipedia now gives the zoo more than 1,400 m². In OpenStreetMap, the outline of the building named Berkenhof Tropical Zoo, taken from the Dutch buildings register (BAG), covers about 3,270 m², without separating the glasshouses from other spaces.

Under glass, the site presents itself as a 'Zeeland mini-jungle' in which tropical vegetation forms the setting for free-flying butterflies; animals that cannot roam freely are shown safely behind glass or mesh. The complex was extended with a covered children's play jungle in 2013, while more recent additions, such as the water-play garden opened in 2020, are outdoors.

Dutch Wikipedia lists about fifty species of tropical animals. Mammals include an armadillo, dwarf mongooses, common and pygmy marmosets and cotton-top tamarins; birds include a toucanet, a lory and a white-cheeked turaco. Among the reptiles are a tortoise, a Cuvier's dwarf caiman, a green iguana, a ball python, a frilled lizard, a Parson's chameleon and several geckos, including Phelsuma; the amphibians include red-eyed tree frogs, a tiger salamander and poison frogs such as Dendrobates tinctorius and Phyllobates terribilis. A pond holds koi.

Butterflies remain at the heart of the visit: the list names the atlas moth, morphos, passion-flower butterflies and owl butterflies. Other invertebrates complete the collection, among them the giant millipede Archispirostreptus gigas, a tarantula and leaf insects. The tropical planting of the glasshouses is not described in the sources; outdoors, the legacy of the original garden, known for its fuchsia collection, remains.

Berkenhof lies in the hamlet of Langeweegje near Kwadendamme, in the countryside of Zuid-Beveland in Zeeland. Because the tropical section is fully covered, it works on rainy days too; the site is aimed mainly at families, with a fossil mine, a dinosaur exhibition, a covered play jungle, a play wood, a water-play garden and a minigolf course, as well as a large restaurant. In February 2026 it received Go-Kids' 'Goud' award as the best children's day out in Zeeland.

Just to the north, Kwadendamme station is served by the Stoomtrein Goes-Borsele, a tourist steam railway running on a protected former line, so the two outings can be combined.