An hour between classes is long enough to be tempting and short enough to waste. It is easy to spend it in the same chair in the Wilkinson Center. This is the list for the rest of the hour: what fits, how far it is on foot, and what it costs, which is usually nothing.
How the walking times work. Every time on this page is measured from the student center: the Wilkinson Student Center at BYU and the Sorensen Student Center at UVU. We take each building's coordinates from OpenStreetMap, multiply the straight-line distance by 1.3 for the paths between buildings, and walk it at 3 miles an hour, rounded to the nearest five minutes. It is the same method our apartment pages use for distance to campus. Treat the results as good estimates, not stopwatch times. Hours were checked on September 29, 2026, against each place's own website.
Planning for right now? The Things to Do Today planner takes the hours you have, who is coming, your budget and the live weather, and builds a plan from this list and the rest of our guides.
The rule of thirds for a 60-minute gap
A five-minute walk leaves you fifty minutes. A ten-minute walk leaves you forty. A twenty-minute walk leaves you twenty, which is enough for a small museum and not much else. Anything thirty minutes away is a plan for a longer gap, and the list below says so when that is the case.
The Tuesday hour
Tuesday at 11:05 a.m. is different at BYU. That is the weekly devotional or forum, usually in the Marriott Center, and campus organizes itself around it: the Harold B. Lee Library closes all of its services from 10:45 a.m. to noon on Tuesdays. If your Tuesday gap falls there, the devotional is the obvious use of it. The Marriott Center is about ten minutes' walk from the Wilkinson Center, and most addresses are broadcast live on BYUtv if you would rather watch.
The 60-minute list
1. BYU Bowling and Games Center (inside the Wilkinson Center)
No walk at all: it is on the first floor of the Wilkinson Student Center. Fall-semester hours are 1 to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, with shorter hours in summer and closed on Sunday. You do not need to be a student to use it. Our bowling guide
2. The Cougareat food court (inside the Wilkinson Center)
No walk at all: the large food court on the Wilkinson Center's second floor, with Chick-fil-A, Wendy's, Subway, Taco Bell, Papa Johns and more alongside BYU Dining's own counters. Hours vary by restaurant. BYU Dining
3. The BYU Store (inside the Wilkinson Center)
Open 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, closed Sunday and on university holidays. On Tuesdays it closes from 10:45 a.m. to noon for the devotional. BYU Store hours
4. Milk & Cookies (inside the Wilkinson Center)
On the west side of the Cougareat in the step-down lounge, according to BYU Dining: the quick sweet stop between classes. BYU Dining
5. Harold B. Lee Library (about 5 minutes)
Open 7 a.m. to 11:45 p.m. on weekdays, with exhibits throughout the building and small-case exhibits in the Special Collections foyer on the first level. The Bagel Bubble café runs 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays. Remember the Tuesday closure from 10:45 a.m. to noon. Our study-spots guide
6. BYU Museum of Art (about 5 minutes)
Free, and a gallery or two fits comfortably in a 50-minute window. Closed Sunday, open until 9 on Friday. Our guide
7. BYU Creamery on Ninth (about 5 minutes)
The scoop between classes. A single scoop is $3.99 on BYU Dining's menu. Our guide
8. Bean Life Science Museum (about 10 minutes)
Free, open 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, with live-animal programs at set times each day posted on the museum's site. Our guide
9. The Tuesday devotional or forum (about 10 minutes)
Tuesdays at 11:05 a.m., usually in the Marriott Center. The fall schedule is on BYU's speeches site. BYU Speeches
10. Richards Building (about 10 minutes)
Indoor pools, basketball courts and fitness facilities, covered by tuition for BYU students and open to employees and dependents with a current BYU ID, as our indoor-activities guide explains. A swim fits a 60-minute gap if you are quick in the locker room. Our indoor guide
11. Kiwanis Park (about 10 minutes)
A city park about ten minutes east of the Wilkinson Center, with a shaded playground, walking paths and a small stream under mature trees. The place to eat lunch outside on a warm day. Our parks guide
12. BYU Museum of Paleontology (about 20 minutes)
Free, open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, across the street from LaVell Edwards Stadium, with a working fossil lab that visitors can often watch through the windows. At twenty minutes each way, it leaves you twenty inside, which is enough for a first look. Our campus visitor guide
13. A meal near campus
When the hour is really lunch. Our guide to food near BYU covers the places students actually walk to. Best food near BYU
14. A better study spot
If the hour has to be work, it may as well be somewhere better than the chair you are in. Our study-spots guide
15. Roots of Knowledge at UVU (about 5 minutes from the Sorensen Center)
For UVU students: the 154-foot stained-glass mural in the Bingham Gallery on the first floor of the Fulton Library, free and open during library hours. Public guided tours run Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 2 p.m. UVU's visitor page
For the longer gap
Two places show up on lists of things to do near BYU that do not fit in an hour. The Y Mountain Trailhead is about 30 minutes' walk from the Wilkinson Center before the climb starts; see our Y Mountain Trail guide for an afternoon with room for it. The Museum of Peoples and Cultures sits away from the main campus, also about 30 minutes' walk away by our measure. Both are better for a free afternoon than a free hour. UVU students have a longer-gap option of their own: the university's art museum has moved, and the former Woodbury Art Museum is now the UVU Museum of Art at Lakemount, 260 West 1800 South in Orem, free and open Tuesday 1 to 8 p.m. and Wednesday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., about 30 minutes' walk from the Sorensen Center.
Related Guides
- The BYU Student Guide
- The BYU Campus Visitor Guide
- Things to Do in Provo on a Monday
- Free and Cheap Things to Do in Provo: The $0, $5 and $20 Lists
Frequently Asked Questions
What can you do between classes at BYU with an hour free?
When is the BYU devotional?
Are the museums on BYU's campus free?
Can you use the BYU library if you are not a student?
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What is Roots of Knowledge at UVU?
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