Phuket Elephant Sanctuary: An Ethical Elephant Experience in a Tropical Jungle Setting

Experience the first and only ethical elephant sanctuary in Phuket, where rescued elephants roam freely in a tropical jungle setting. Support sustainable and compassionate elephant tourism. Endorsed by National Geographic, Lonely Planet, and The Guardian.

Duration: 3 hours, 30 minutes
Cancellation: 1 day learn more
Highlights
  • Phuket Elephant Sanctuary - A morning with the elephants is an eye-opening and inspiring experience. Following a scenic drive along a local village you will arrive at Phuket Elephant Sanctuary, a picturesque jungle dotted with ponds, wide open fields and hillsides for the elephants to roam around.

Your visit starts at our Tree Top Lounge, where we will show you a presentation and educational video to prepare you for your encounter with the elephants, and to help you understand why they need to be protected.

Next up, the elephants are fed. While they enjoy their baskets of bananas, pineapples and cucumbers, you have a chance to learn from our guides about the background of each elephant.

Once the elephants are fed, we follow them down into the jungle. By keeping a safe distance and watching them from our Observation Salas, the elephants have the freedom to express their natural behavior, from bathing and playing in our pond to socializing with each other.

The program ends with a delicious Thai vegetarian meal.

What's Included
  • Bottled water
  • Boots, Socks, Umbrellas, Rain Coats, Mosquito Spray
  • In-vehicle air conditioning
  • Welcome Snacks, Coffee, Fruits, Juices & Filtered Water
  • Lunch
What's Not Included
  • Roundtrip Transfers - If option is not selected
Additional Information

Phuket Elephant Sanctuary is the first and only ethical elephant sanctuary in Phuket where elephants roam around, bathe and socialize freely across 30 acres of lush, tropical land bordering the Khao Phra Thaeo National Park in North East Phuket. We buy all rescued elephants to ensure that Phuket Elephant Sanctuary is their final home, and we offer professional veterinary care for old and injured elephants. By visiting us, you are supporting a sustainable, ethical and compassionate approach to elephant tourism where elephants have the freedom to live naturally. National Geographic, Lonely Planet and The Guardian have all endorsed our ethical approach.

Location
Phuket Elephant Sanctuary
Phuket Elephant Sanctuary, 100, Moo 2, Paklok, Phuket, Thailand. If you selected Program Only (No Transfer), please meet us at our office in Paklok. Parking is available.
Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Customer Ratings
4.9
(968 Ratings)
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Marianne_k
Sep 26, 2024
Amazing ethical sanctuary - This was such an amazing experience. I was so moved by how much they are cared for and just able to live in a natural environment. You could tell just how happy these elephants are. Very informative guides. What a wonderful ethical sanctuary. I highly recommend this experience
Review provided by Viator
Robertli2816qq
Sep 26, 2024
"Phuket Elephant Sanctuary: an ethical, animal-friendly place where 15 rescued elephants enjoy a happy retirement." - Here is the English translation of your text: "Initially, we were a bit skeptical, an elephant sanctuary... yeah right, probably just another way to make money by exploiting these beautiful animals? But after reading several reviews, we decided to visit Phuket Elephant Sanctuary anyway. And wow, are we glad we made that decision. What a beautiful, animal-friendly, ethical, ecological, natural, and welcoming place this is for injured, abused, disabled, and traumatized elephants. Fifteen elephants are enjoying a happy retirement in 30 hectares of jungle. You can tell from everything that both the animals and the caretakers are happy, content, and like family. What a beautiful place and a wonderful initiative. Everyone should go!"
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Kelvin_r
Sep 23, 2024
A Better Way - Knowledgeable and courteous staff. Pleasant experience and truly better outcomes for the animals involved. Especially after seeing them on the streets and such. We should not be using elephants for work or tourism in the manner in which they previously were. They are intelligent animals and deserve our respect and kindness to make their lives more enjoyable. After all, it was us humans that moved in on them. Many thanks.
Review provided by Viator
Bigworldlittlepea
Sep 22, 2024
A wonderful visit to an ethical sanctuary. - We loved this trip and we're really pleased with our decision to visit here above some of the other elephant 'sanctuaries' around. The day was so well organised, with pick up, breakfast, our tour, lunch and drop off all running smoothly and being super easy to navigate. The welcome and service we received was excellent and it was lovely to see how well cared for the elephants were. Food was great and the sun umbrellas and cold towels were so appreciated on a hot day. We loved feeding the elephants, learning about them and spending time in the high walk as well as among them and watching them cool off in the pond. Great day all round and we were left with a clear conscience knowing that we were helping support a good cause.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Martina
Sep 20, 2024
A must do - This is. Seriously the best place we have visited that truly cares for the elephants. The work they do here is so incredibly important and relies on visitors to keep going. If you want to see what ethical looks like for the care of elephants is is the lace. Warning the video will bring you to tears
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Suze2014
Sep 18, 2024
Amazing experience among the elephants!!! - A well-run and amazing ethical experience with the elephants. Transportation to/from our hotel was provided. We arrived to coffee/juice/snacks for breakfast. After the introduction and safety video, we got to feed a couple of the elephants. There are no other petting opportunities aside from being allowed to pet one during feeding, which is fine. We actually walked among the elephants in the sanctuary, keeping safe and respectable distance. But we were able to get close enough to some of the more gentle elephants for amazing pictures. It is wonderful seeing the elephants happy in their natural habitat and not having to perform for humans. After guided tour through the sanctuary, there was a very tasty vegetarian buffet lunch. Truly amazing experience.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Caitlinco845pn
Sep 18, 2024
Great elephant experience - Fantastic experience! Very well run and caring towards the elephants. It was rainy the day we went and they provided gum boots/ponchos/umbrellas, so it was very manageable. The guides were very knowledgeable. Feeding the elephants was a highlight. Would recommend to all.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Davidr635
Sep 27, 2024
Great experience - We have a great visit to the park to see and hear about the elephants and how they have been rescued and the great care that they receive now. You get around 2 hours with the elephants and your guide walks you around and provides information and answers any questions about the elephants. Plenty of opportunities to take close up photos. You also get to feed an elephant at the start of the tour. This is questionable as to the ethics as some say you shouldn't have any interaction. But this didn't bother us too much. It is obvious that the elephants had a terrible time in the past and were abused and mistreated. It was good to see them being looked after and living a better life. We went in the morning and you get morning tea when you arrive and then they show a presentation video and introduction. After the tour you get around an hour to enjoy lunch which was enjoyable.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Fred
Sep 20, 2024
Fun visit to well-groomed elephants - Nice experience to see well-groomed elephants and hear their story. Very nice landscape and well maintained with good facilities for both humans and elephants.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Jamesno5331pb
Sep 16, 2024
Great Place Doing Important Work - They were doing very important work and I was very happy that our visit helped support that. I was hoping for a little more interaction with the elephants but these were more rescued animals rather than trained for close interaction.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
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September 2024
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