Full-Day Elephant Care + Sticky Waterfall

Elephant in Wild is a small sanctuary in the Mae Taeng valley, about an hour and a half north of Chiang Mai. There is no riding, and the sanctuary says it uses no chains or hooks because the herd is free to roam. You spend your time with the elephants the way their keepers do: preparing their food, feeding them, watching them roam, and joining them at the mud spa and in the river. This full day pairs the elephants with the sticky waterfall and leaves out the trek and the rafting, so it suits families with younger children and anyone who wants a relaxed day with two very different highlights.

After the drive out through farmland you change into a mahout style shirt and get a short introduction to the elephants and the herbal food balls the keepers make for them. You cut sugar cane, prepare a batch of the vitamin balls yourself and hand them over, then watch the herd roam and forage. Later they head for the mud spa, which protects their skin from insects, and then the river, where you help wash them. A Thai lunch is served at the sanctuary.

The second stop is Bua Thong, the sticky waterfall, in the same district. Spring water rich in calcium has coated the rock with a rough, porous limestone that bare feet grip, so you can walk straight up the falls on the rock itself. There are ropes on the steeper sections and pools to sit in between.

Pickup is from hotels in the city centre between 08:00 and 08:30 and you are back in Chiang Mai around 18:30. Children aged 5 to 8 pay a child rate. Bring a full change of clothes and sandals that can get wet; you will be muddy at the sanctuary and soaked at the falls.