It's a little bit of a drive to get to the sanctuary from Teignmouth, but a lot of the journey takes you through Dartmoor National Park, which is one of my favourite places and completely beautiful. You also need to know where you're going - or at least have GPS at the ready - or you could miss it, which would be a real shame.
Once you arrive, you can choose between a single ticket that allows you to see the butterflies and otters or a joint ticket that also allows you to visit South Devon Railway and Totnes Rare Breeds. We opted just to go to the sanctuary, which cost only £8.50 for an adult ticket - a cost that was well worth it.
As well as being incredibly pretty, you'll find lots of plaques throughout the enclosure explaining why there are plates of certain fruits out and telling you a bit about every type of moth and butterfly. The butterflies seem quite happy with people being in the enclosure, with several deciding to chill out on my husband's hat and others chilling out for ten minutes or so on the same leaf, allowing us all to get close enough to take detailed photographs.
As well as being able to look over the fences into each enclosure, there are also ways to look inside the holts where the otters sleep, as well as underwater viewing windows so you can see some of the otters swimming.
Most of them were outside when we visited though so we got to see them wandering around outside. One otter, called Sam, was in the pool and so we watched him swim around. It turned out that he was a bit of a show off, as he spent ages diving in front of the viewing windows and performing somersaults.
There was also a couple helping with the feeding as part of an experience day, which I am now convinced I need to try if only so I can get closer to the otters. They got to go in the enclosures of the smaller otters, which sat on their laps to get fed, and were able to throw food to the others.
If you're in Devon, it's definitely worth visiting, especially as all the money you pay goes to looking after the otters, butterflies and other animals. It also means they can carry on rescuing otters and providing a 24/7 service.