One Day Elephant Experience

The one-day program is the camp's main experience and the one to choose if you want unhurried time with the elephants. There is no other activity competing for the day; you spend the morning and afternoon with the animals and finish at a waterfall. It suits families, solo travellers and anyone who would rather watch elephants slowly than tick off attractions.

Pickup in Chiang Mai is between 08:00 and 08:30. The drive south takes about an hour and a half through farmland and forest, with a stop at a local market. At the camp you change into a camp shirt and your guide explains where the elephants came from and how they behave. Then you make vitamin balls or tamarind treats, feed the elephants bananas, sugar cane and grass from a basket, and spend time close to them while they eat and wander. Lunch is a buffet of Thai dishes and fresh fruit. In the afternoon you join the elephants for a mud spa, so wear your swimsuit underneath, then walk to the river to bathe and brush them. Before the drive home there is a stop at a waterfall for a swim. You are back at your hotel around 16:30 to 17:30.

The camp sits in a village in Mae Wang district near a national park. It has taken the saddles and chains off its elephants and does not offer riding; you walk with them, feed them and bathe them instead. Apart from pickup, the times are approximate; the camp does not run to a timetable, so you get as much elephant time as the day allows.