De Zonnegloed Animal Sanctuary vzw — Attraction in Vleteren

First off you have to remember this is a sanctuary not a zoo. The opening hours reflect this and you have to absolutely book online. There are two time slots available each day one in the morning and one in the afternoon. We choose to do an afternoon visit but arrived quite early we had planned to just sit in the car park till our slot but they actually close the carpark between slots so we went back to the little village nearby and had a wander. Once our slot opened we headed in they don't do maps to keep costs down but it was easy to navigate as the are 3 arrowed routes which cover the whole sanctuary and all return to the start point. We were able to walk the whole sanctuary in our time slot at a nice easy going pace and literally finished the 3rd trail bang on the slot end time. They are very astute about the slots and we saw the lights being turned off as we entered the ticket office area luckily we did not have kids with us so we were able to nip in and grab and drink and an ice cream to take back to the car so bare the time in mind if your planning on visiting the shop on your way out. The animals are all well cared for and some of them have some information on where they were rescued from it would of been nice to see this on all the animals but all in all we had a lovely couple of hours here and it was a nice way to break up our week which we had spent visiting WWI...

Beautiful animals with a heartbreaking story.

De Zonnegloed is not a zoo, it's a sanctuary! This non-profit organization rescues animals in need, ranging from animals neglected by private owners to "excess" animals from other zoo's. They have a wonderful collection of species including Lynxes, Zebras, Camels, Bears, Iguanas... Too many to mention. Most of these can be spotted quite easily (even for small children). The park was originally a petting zoo, so there is an entire area with farm animals which you are allowed to feed (€2 for a bag of dry feed).

There is also a self-service restaurant, where you can buy a small lunch or snack and a shop. There is also a tractor train that drives around.

In short: this is a must-see for all animal lovers. A surprisingly large park with lots of different animals, a handy self-service restaurant and a...

I was an 'animal caretaker for a day' (dagje dierenverzorger) as part of a birthday present, and it was an absolutely amazing experience. The staff was friendly and welcoming and told me more about the animals' histories. It was a day of hard work, I was sore all over the next day, but it was easily the most rewarding work I've done, and it made me respect the staff and volunteers who care for these animals every day all the more. A standout part of my day was working on the brown bears' enclosure. Not only did I get to see the bears up close (and safely under the guidance of the staff member), but I also go to spread honey around the enclosures for the bears' enrichment. Incidentally, my husband snapped a picture of one of the bear cubs eating honey directly afterward. The staff at Zonnegloed are truly dedicated to ensuring the animals' health...