The fire and smoke near Ojai caused the cancellation of our plans to surprise our son with a 40th birthday party with many friends and family. On only 2 days notice, Alisal helped save the party and accommodated our large group with caring hospitality. We enjoyed the breakfast ride, cycling and wine tasting and our grandchildren loved the kids' activities. Alisal is a special spot for us as our son chose Proposal Point above the lake to propose years ago, as well as a place we have celebrated birthdays and anniversaries.

My husband and I started coming here before we had kids and always liked it, and now that we have two kids we enjoy it even more. The rooms and facilities are nice, but you come here for all of the ranch activities that keep the entire family entertained. There are activities for kids all ages (my niece and nephews are 12, 9 and 8 and loved the archery and craft room and horseback riding), but our two boys (3 and 5 years old) absolutely love the barnyard and the lovely lady, Dawn, who puts on the "critter corner" with all of the little birds, lizards, bugs, and other reptiles (snakes!). Dawn is so sweet with the kids and lets them hold all the critters and tells the kids all about them, and just on this recent visit my mother-in-law fell in love with all of the sweet birds too. In the barnyard, there's a full petting "zoo" where kids can collect eggs from the chickens, go inside the guinea pig room and feed the guinea pigs that crawl right onto their laps, brush the goats, cows, pigs and little horses, and even visit a big old tortoise. I don't know why other ranch-inspired resorts don't have similar programs - every year when we're here we look forward to it and my boys are thoroughly entertained and love learning about the animals. Thank you, Dawn, and the barnyard crew, for another fun and memorable trip!