Animal Sleepover Encounters Near LA

1. Santa Barbara Zoo — Santa Barbara

This beautiful small zoo may be best known for its beachside location, ocean views, and the chance to feed a Masai giraffe by hand, but its Family Safari Sleepovers are pretty special too. Glamping this is not; families bring their own camping gear, including tents, sleeping bags, and flashlights—plus a wagon, if you like, for toting your gear from the car. Eat dinner beforehand so you’ll be ready to enjoy s’mores by the fire, then pitch your tent or sleep out under the stars on a peaceful grassy hilltop.

Being here in the quiet nighttime and early morning hours means you’ll be among the lucky few to hear the powerful roars of Ralph, the African lion, from the comfort of your sleeping bag (he sleeps most of the day) and various bird calls from the aviary nearby.

After breakfast, you’ll enjoy seeing featured birds or cool reptiles close up in a supervised animal encounter and riding the Zoo Train; then explore the rest of the zoo on foot. Fun to see: Two capybaras share space with a giant anteater, and the 40-plus Chilean flamingos always put on a great show.

Be sure to stop by to brush the mini Nubian goats in the barnyard, and watch the animal nutrition team prepare meals for hundreds of animals through a huge window. And don’t miss the Kallman Family Play Area: Kids love sitting on a piece of corrugated cardboard and sliding down the hill there, and popping in and out of the giant dinosaur eggs.

Animal Sleepover Encounters Near San Diego

 
Roar & Snore with the lions. Photo courtesy of the San Diego Zoo Safari Park

2. San Diego Zoo Safari Park — Escondido

If a Safari Park day trip is just too short for your animal-loving family, you can extend it by booking a Roar & Snore package and spending the night: Choose a basic tent equipped with sleeping pads; a tent outfitted with cots and a space heater; or a tent decked out with a queen bed fully made up with pillows and linens, plus your own electrical outlets (be sure to keep your phone fully charged for photos and videos at all times) and a couple of cots for the kids. The tents overlook rhinos and giraffes in the East Africa savanna habitat, and you’ll be lulled to sleep by lions roaring in the distance; with your eyes closed you can truly imagine you’re on safari in Kenya's Masai Mara National Reserve. 

All Roar & Snore packages include after-dark walking tours to observe nocturnal animal behavior; you might see stunning Sumatran tigers stalking prey along the Tiger Trail or spot a platypus foraging for food (they sleep all day and are most active around dusk and at night). Also included: a ride on a private Africa Tram and, of course, the essential s’mores around the campfire. The dinner buffet includes kid-friendly summer-camp-style foods such as burgers, hot dogs, and barbecue chicken. 

After dinner, guests set up sleeping bags (or fold down their comforters, if their tents are so equipped), followed by a night tour, those s’mores, and later on, hot chocolate, plus a rousing round of bingo or another game for those who want to play, before lights out at 10:30pm. In the morning, there’s breakfast (French toast casserole, scrambled eggs, fresh fruit, vegetarian sausage, cereal, and more), and up-close viewing of an animal that might include an anteater, a porcupine, an owl, or a Brazilian three-banded armadillo. 

The chance to see the lions in the morning before feeding time, when they’re active and alert (instead of sleeping in the sun), is a special treat. After check-out, you can return to the park and spend the day exploring anything you like. There’s plenty of ground to cover: The park holds 3,100-plus animals representing more than 340 species and sprawls over 1,800 acres.

3. Spooky Campover at Lions Tigers and Bears Animal Sanctuary — Alpine 

This big cat and wildlife sanctuary in the countryside near San Diego opens its grassy area for a sleepover only once a year, right before Halloween. At the Spooky Campover, families can pitch tents and camp out under the stars with the sanctuary animals—including white tigers, grizzly bears and American black bears—as their neighbors. Campfire songs will be sung, spooky stories will be told, food will be grilled (vegetarian and carnivore grills are provided; the food for grilling is not), marshmallows for s’mores will be roasted, and pumpkins will be carved—but the big event happens the next morning, at the Pumpkin Bash.

Nutritious treats for the tigers and bears get tucked inside pumpkins carved by campers the night before, and the pumpkins become a feast for the waiting animals. Watching the animals—who include the well-known and beloved black bear Meatball, famous for being rescued after dining on Costco meatballs he took from a Glendale, California, home’s refrigerator in 2012—gobble up their Halloween treats is something you and your family won’t soon forget.

4. Living Coast Discovery Center — Chula Vista

Be sure to pack your sleeping bags when you sign up for the Sweetwater Snooze at the Living Coast Discovery Center, which is situated in the San Diego National Wildlife Refuge, near the Sweetwater Marsh. You won’t need cooking gear, though, as dinner (usually pasta and salad), snacks (including popcorn and granola bars), and breakfast (cereal, fruit, juice, and coffee) are all included, nor will you need a tent, as you’ll be sleeping indoors, in a big auditorium space. Be sure to note that all participants must be 5 or older.

Up-close animal encounters here may include falcons, owls, snakes, or geckos. (If you sign up for the Sea Turtle Slumber Party instead, your experience will include sea turtle encounters, naturally.) The folks who run this nonprofit work with schoolchildren all week, so they really know what kids like: In addition to observing native wildlife and vegetation around the marsh (all sorts of shorebirds) and on the trail to the marsh (rabbits, squirrels, and snakes), there are plenty of engaging activities for kids, including crafts and games, and as the evening’s grand finale, a movie screening in the auditorium. 

5. Morning Song Farm — Fallbrook

On a farmstay here, in the hills near San Diego, you can spend time with alpacas and goats, and then sleep over in one of five comfortable, family-friendly houses. The largest one, called “Bunny Hill with Hot Tub,” sleeps eight and has views of the organic farm and the hillside beyond—with plenty of bunnies to be spotted. In the morning, you can gather freshly laid eggs, interact with alpacas, chickens, and peacocks, and take cheese-making or jam-making classes. 

Kitchens, flatscreen TVs, outdoor decks with plenty of seating—and, of course—the hot tub—mean that this option will disappoint anyone interested in actually roughing it, but it’s on a farm, so you can still feel close to the land. And its location fae from city lights means you can add excellent star-gazing in a dark night sky to your list of activities. Abundant wineries in Temecula and Fallbrook are close by enough for any off-duty parents to explore while kids are napping, and there’s a you-pick farm about a mile away. 

Animal Sleepover Encounters On the Central Coast

RELATED: Santa Ynez Valley: a California Paradise of Kid-Friendly Wineries 

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Choose your animal encounter! Photo courtesy of Conservation Ambassadors in Paso Robles

6. Conservation Ambassadors — Paso Robles

When you sign up for Wild Nights at the Zoo, you and your family (up to five people) can spend the night in a comfy safari tent with beds, reading lights, ceiling fans, a deck, and a firepit at the Conservation Ambassadors rescue zoo not far from town. Upon arrival, guests are greeted by an animal, maybe a baby kangaroo in a pouch, a blue-tongued skink (resembles a big lizard), a frog, or possibly an alligator.

Before you can book accommodations, you’ll sign up for an animal encounter, where you can meet animals such as owls, monkeys, and two playful North American river otters. Among the animal interactions that are possible, you might get to feed a baby kangaroo from a bottle, carry a monkey on your shoulder, hold hands with an adult kangaroo, scratch a capybara’s tummy, or cuddle a black-and-white ruffed lemur—or all of these things.

The animal encounters are tailored for each group. Some people are reptile-averse, but others are delighted to hang out with a snake. Almost everyone wants to hold the impressively large Eurasian eagle-owl, and of course, the chance to sit on a sofa beside a friendly capybara is not to be missed.

With vineyards all around and the tent’s location right next to a 3-acre pasture, nocturnal sounds will include geese, ducks, emus, donkeys, and lemurs. Great horned owls live in the trees next to the tent, so don’t be too surprised if one swoops right overhead while you’re hanging out on your tent’s deck.

Because there’s a huge fridge and big grills available, dinner is not provided (though Doordash and Instacart will both deliver here), but complimentary adult beverages, soda, juice, coffee and snacks are included, as is a self-serve continental breakfast. There’s also a central restroom and shower.

7. Alisal Ranch — Solvang

According to its website, Alisal is “a luxury dude ranch.” But it’s more of an upscale hotel with plenty of outdoorsy things to do, some of which feature animals. Among its many on-site activities, which include axe-throwing, horseback riding (offering lessons geared especially for kids), archery, and kayaking, there’s the Alisal Barnyard, brimming with miniature horses, miniature cattle, goats, pigs, and chickens.

If you’ve never petted a miniature horse, prepare to be awed. Alisal Ranch is worth a visit just for this. And all of the animals in the barnyard are on the perfect scale for young children. Regular packages, though pricey, include all meals, and children under 6 don’t have to pay the per-person rate. 

An Animal Encounter a Bit Farther Away

8. Safari West: The Sonoma Serengeti — Santa Rosa

About a 7-hour drive from Los Angeles, you can stay overnight at Safari West in a luxury safari tent imported from Botswana, complete with a deck, bathroom, hardwood floors, and beautiful background music provided by some of the 800 resident animals, including hyenas, cheetahs, zebras, and fennec foxes.

If you book an animal-view tent, you’re likely to see gazelles, llamas, and even giraffes strolling by. Other tents face the trees, of which there are many; Safari West is located in an old-growth oakwood forest.

Continental breakfast is included; other meals are not. Barbecues, movies, safari tours (children must be 4 or older for these), visits to the walk-through aviary, and s’mores are all on the menu. Kids especially love the one-hour animal enrichment tours, where the activity includes creating species-specific enrichment items like puzzle feeders or sensory toys tailored to an individual animal’s needs. Then you get to deliver what you made and watch the animals explore, engage, and interact right in front of you. You can book this activity with a ring-tailed lemur or a giraffe, among many other options.