Sometimes, despite your best intentions, you can’t bring your dog along — but that doesn’t mean you won’t be able to enjoy some four-footed furry love when you get where you’re going. Be creative. Chances are you’ll find a way to interact with animals no matter where you go!
Try a volunteer vacation…
Take your love for animals a step further by planning a volunteer vacation. Animal Experience International matches clients with animal-related volunteer opportunities at sanctuaries, hospitals, wildlife rehabilitation centers, conservation projects and government programs.
You can choose from vacations helping dogs in Nepal, Sierra Leone or Mexico—or one of many other species in equally exotic locations. Trips also include cultural experiences and sightseeing excursions.
Go mushing…
Seavey’s Ididaride in Seward, Alaska, offers sled dog rides year-round. Meet 85 Iditarod race dogs and take a two-mile summer dog-sled ride.
For the more adventurous traveler, Ididaride offers Alaska Glacier Dog Sledding. After a helicopter ride through the mountainous valley, you arrive on the glacier where you’ll embark on your dog sled tour.
You’ll learn all about Alaskan Huskies, driving a dog team, a musher’s lifestyle, and the famous Iditarod trail. If you want, you can learn to drive the sled yourself, or you can settle back in the sled and just enjoy the ride.
And by the way, yes the Seaveys are those Seaveys, the first family of the Iditarod; patriarch Mitch Seavey won it in 2004 and 2013. Son Dallas took the crown last year.
On top of that, Dallas is the current record holder as youngest winner, while his father Mitch holds the title of oldest winner.
Foster an island dog…
Hiking with Hounds, a new partnership between the Virgin Islands National Park Service and the Animal Care Center of St. John, pairs tourists with shelter dogs on a ranger-guided exploration of the island’s trails.
The free weekly morning hikes are a chance for the dogs to leave their kennels and socialize while giving visitors a narrated look at the park. Keep in mind: New volunteers must visit once before the trek to be paired with a dog.
