UC Davis Tours

The guide is in blue and walking backward

You may have seen them passing through the MU, or getting in the way during a high bike traffic part of the day, but you know you love them. UC Davis tours run 7 days a week, providing walking tours to prospective students. Family walking tours depart from the Walter A. Buehler Alumni & Visitor Center Monday thru Friday at 9:00am and 1:00pm. Weekend tours depart at 11:00am. More tours are usually added during the spring and summer, when most prospective students visit. Many students take them before coming to UC Davis and more than likely found the 1.5 hour trek daunting yet exciting! The award winning UC Davis campus tour seems to serve as a gateway into campus life. As well, the tours are led by an amazing team of tour guides who not only point out important aspects of campus and field often obscure questions, but do it all while walking backwards!

*interesting tour stories and anecdotes are not only welcomed but encouraged*

• Students of all ages come on tours of UC Davis. I once took a group of 50 brownie girl scout around the campus, and despite the fact that we had so much diversity in majors, nationally awarded programs, world-renowned professors, and the largest dining hall on the west coast, the only thing these "prospective students" cared about were the squirrels...

  —SteffiChristiana

• I once got a question about whether or not there are fights on campus. Realizing that students from high schools may be accustomed to delinquent-related violence, I assured the group that fights were extremely rare on campus and I had never actually seen one myself. As luck would have it, we were walking through the center of the quad, and there was a group of about fifteen students having a pillow fight. "Avert your eyes, ladies and gentlemen," I said melodramatically. "It's a fight!"

  —KatherineHarnack

• While crossing the street by Cruess Hall, I spotted some money in the middle of the bike circle and commented on it. This was clearly a mistake, as my entire tour group sprinted into the middle of the bike circle and started fighting over the handful of bills. Keep in mind these were grown men, not high schoolers...

2005-12-26 10:03:48   In the spring whenever they come through the dorm areas, I always have the irresistable urge to say, "Observe the freshman in its natural habitat, but be careful. They may become aggressive when threatened." —AllisonEriksen

2006-04-11 23:40:09   Allison, are you even a tour guide? Or are you one of those random people who yell out at the tour groups? —ChuckMelton

2006-06-08 21:58:33   Whenever I see a tour group passing by, I walk into the middle of it and start following the guide... at least for a few blocks. It's fun. I get to learn random trivia about the school, and the touring students seem to find it amusing. —NumiaCairaguas

2006-06-09 08:32:11   I'm no tour guide, but I have yet to actually yell at them. —AllisonEriksen

2006-09-06 20:47:26   As a tour guide, I have to admit...we may actually say that once in a while :-) —SteffiChristiana

2006-12-13 16:05:43   Allison, I got to give you credit, I say your line on my tours now, and I get laughs everytime! Thanks, —EricFriedman

2009-11-19 00:15:47   how does one apply to be a tour guide? —HarrisonNoah