The animals love to welcome groups! And the Best Friends staff is delighted to help you design a trip that will be hands-on and fulfilling for whatever group you bring.
You can plan a one-day sanctuary field trip, or create a week-long adventure. Whether it's walking dogs, cleaning up cat houses, making parrot toys, building trails, or weeding, the animals can always use the extra hands. And the Learning Experience staff will help you arrange a trip that fulfills both your group's needs, and the sanctuary's.
It will all begin when you arrive. Your trip starts with a short introductory video about Best Friends. Next, your group will enjoy a tour of the sanctuary. After that, your program can be individualized. Your group may choose to perform service work, enjoy talks about the issues that affect animals, or volunteer with the animals at the sanctuary.
The volunteer work day starts at 9 am and ends at 4 pm, with a lunch break from 11:30 am to 1 pm.
A $5 vegetarian lunch buffet is served at Best Friends' Angel Village for staff and volunteers, Monday through Saturday from 11:30 am to 1 pm. Or, if you prefer to bring your own lunch, there are several nice areas around the sanctuary to enjoy a picnic. For example, our staff will be happy to show you how to get to Angels Landing, a beautiful natural rock amphitheater.
What types of activities might our group participate in?
- Service Project - trail building/maintenance, fence cleaning, weeding
- Campaign Talks - spend an hour with one of our staff learning about and discussing the issues that affect animals in our world today
- Spending time with the animals - walking dogs, playing with the cats, grooming horses, walking pot bellied pigs
- Dog Training Class - Introductory Dog Training class
How many can we bring?
The ideal group size is less than 20 youths and 4 adults (5:1) or 24 adults. However, groups larger than this are encouraged to contact us at learningexperience@bestfriends.org for tour information.
How do we get around the sanctuary?
The sanctuary sits on over 3,000 acres of property and our animal care areas and facilities are quite spread out. Transportation is not provided, so your group will need to bring a vehicle to get from area to area. Beware though: because some of the roads are unpaved and narrow, large buses often have a very difficult time getting around the sanctuary.
To learn more about bringing groups to the sanctuary, please read our FAQ's.