Field Trips

With new safety protocols in place, we welcome school and community groups to visit VanDusen Botanical Garden for inspiring outdoor field trip experiences. Scroll down to explore your options and email hmoran@vandusen.org to confirm date, time and to receive a booking link.  If your preferred  date and time is not available, you will be provided with similar available options. This is to ensure we maintain capacity limits as outlined in our COVID-19 Safety Plan.

If you don’t already have one, create an online booking account. It’s free, easy and secure.

Program Cost
Self-guided $125 for 30 participants
Guided (Fantastic Flowers, Pond Peering) $175 for 30 participants

Guided Program

This year, our guided programs will look a bit different to ensure the safety of participants, the public and staff. However, our goal of engaging youth in environmental themes with interactive learning remains unchanged. These new programs will involve an engagement station with lessons and activities in addition to a self-guided scavenger hunt for groups to help teachers and students explore the Garden after the lesson.

June: Pond Peering Guided Program 

Hidden beneath the surface of VanDusen’s ponds, lakes, and streams is a diverse world of beautiful and strange life. Students explore and learn about the pond environment, use nets to dip into a pond and identify the creatures they find. Teachers will also receive an aquatic scavenger hunt! (K – 4)

Self-guided Program

Browse our selection of self-guided tours, lesson plans, guides and scavenger hunts to design the perfect day for your students at the Garden. A self-guided program allows for customized tours with ample time for a visit to VanDusen’s Elizabethan Maze.

VBGA Education staff will work with teachers before their visit to identify the best resources for their classes. We will greet the group upon arrival for a short orientation and review of the Code of Conduct before you explore the Garden.

  • +Covid-19 Program Adaptations

    To ensure the safety of participants, staff, and the public, school programs have adopted an adapted format that allows VBGA education staff to engage youth in environmental themes in a distanced manner. Please see COVID adaptions below:

    • Guided Programs will use an engagement station where VBGA educators will provide a dynamic and interactive presentation outside in the Garden. Engagement station location will depend on your program of choice.
    • Guided Programs will now provide teachers will a scavenger hunt or learning resource to utilize in the Garden after the engagement station.
    • All programs, guided and self-guided, will now enter VanDusen Botanical Garden through Gate 2 located at the far side of the free parking lot off West 37th ave to avoid crowding in the Visitor Centre.
    • In order to maintain our contact tracing records, we do ask that teachers provide names and an email or phone number for all participants in attendance. Such documents will be permanently deleted or shredded 3 weeks after the program.
    • Teachers will be asked to confirm a Health Declaration on behalf of themselves and all participants that confirms:
    • No one has returned from international travel in the past 14 days
    • No one has a fever, sore throat, runny nose, cough, or any other symptoms of COVID-19
    • No one has been in contact with a positive COVID-19 case or asked to self-isolate by public health officials
    • No one in attendance lives in a household with anyone who meets the above restrictions
  • +F.A.Q.

    Q. How long can we stay in the Garden? Can we stay after our tour is over?
    Classes attending either Guided or Self-guided Field Trip Programs can remain in the garden until closing time.

    Q. Can we eat lunch or snacks in the Garden?
    Yes! There are picnic tables, benches, and some seating spread throughout the Garden. Feel free to ask your VBGA staff representative for lunch location suggestions upon arrival.  Please ensure that your class packs out their garbage.

    Q. Are there washrooms in the Garden?
    There are washrooms available in the Visitor Centre, as well as portable toilets and hand sanitizer in the Garden.

    Q. Are masks required in the Garden?
    Masks are not required while out in the Garden but are mandatory inside the Visitor Centre for those over the age 12. However, we do encourage mask-wearing for all ages at all times while onsite.

    Please reach out to the Youth Programs Manager, Hailey Moran at hmoran@vandusen.org with requests for weekend bookings, questions about our 2021 Field Trip Programs, and any questions about our COVID adaptations.

Kits for Schools & Home Learners

Bring the Garden to your schoolyard, backyard, or local green space! We’re excited to offer nature-based teaching kits with some of your young learners’ favourite field trip activities, along with access to our online course, Flower to Fruit.  With books, experiments, and games, kits are curriculum-linked and sure to engage students from Kindergarten through Grade 4. Contact learn@vandusen.org to order.

Teacher Testimonies

“Our instructors were amazing! Very knowledgeable and great with the children!  They learned a lot and I will be back next year.” 

“My students learned a lot through hands on, real life experience. They have only learned about some plants and birds, but this was the first time they actually got a chance to see the real thing.”

“This is the best field trip I’ve been on in 15 years.”