Have you ever wanted to paddleboard with a corgi in Florida’s pristine waters? Or skateboard with a bulldog in Lima? Or hang with alpacas in Denver? Or kayak near penguins in Cape Town? Or meet the arctic foxes of Iceland? Or learn about urban beekeeping?
The answer to all of those is obviously yes, and now it’s all possible, thanks to Airbnb’s new Animal Experiences.
The home-sharing company announced today that it has added Animal Experiences to its dossier of travel fun, available to book across 1,000 cities worldwide. That means that when you’re planning a vacation in Spain, you can make time to canoodle with a donkey or two, or if you’re heading to Costa Rica, you can book a macaw-watching trip along with your Airbnb, or if you’re on a work trip to L.A., you can carve out a little time to make friends with a rescue horse. These new Animal Experiences are the perfect way to immerse yourself in a new city or culture, or even have some local fun in your own town.
[Photo: courtesy of Airbnb]
Getting to hang with a chill bulldog isn’t even the best part about the new Experiences. The best part is that Airbnb worked with World Animal Protection to make sure that the animals involved are all well taken care of by the people leading the tours. None of the experiences harm animals. There are no tiger selfies or enslaved elephant rides in Thailand or sad roadside zoos in Florida or miserable ponies being forced to give children rides under the hot sun or swimming with captured dolphins who just want to be free.
Instead, these experiences are designed to help humans better understand the animals that share the planet with them. Plus, over 100 Airbnb Animal Experiences are also so-called Social Impact Experiences, where proceeds from bookings go to nonprofit organizations such as conservation, animal rescue, and veterinary care. All that and you get to cuddle with cows on the Big Island of Hawaii, go on a multiday safari booked through Airbnb or, my personal favorite: help rescue puppies lost within the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.
These new Airbnb Animal Experiences are designed to not only be an antidote to those typical, sad animal-themed tourist attractions, but a new way to immerse yourself in a new city with new furry friends. Beach day with rescue pups, anyone?
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