We could not visit northern Thailand without seeing elephants. After some deliberation, particularly trying to find an ethical park that does not treat elephants like circus animals, we settled on a trip to Elephant Nature Park.
It wasn’t cheap, costing about $140 for both of us for a half day, but we figured it was for a worthy cause. All of the elephants at this park are rescue elephants. We booked a morning time slot online to avoid the heat of the afternoon. Make sure you book a few weeks in advance or you might miss out. This park is quite popular and the half day time slots do fill up (full day and other visiting options are also available).
A passenger van picked us up at The Astra at about 8:00 AM. At that time of day you will see silver passenger vans everywhere in Chiang Mai moving tourists around. We made a few other stops, filling up our van with ten tourists.
Elephant Nature Park is in the mountains well outside of town, about a two hour drive away. We had a 15 minute stop at a travel center about mid-way through the drive.
Upon arriving at the park our group of ten joined another group of ten for a tour. The tour consists of walking around a large dirt field in the sun, accompanied by a guide, to see a lot of elephants up close. The elephants are basically free to roam in an area that is the size of several football fields. Take some water to drink during the tour as there isn’t much shade.
Tourists are not allowed to touch, bath, or feed the elephants. Each elephant is under the supervision of a mahout (basically a handler). Some will let you stand nearby for photo opportunities. Unless told otherwise, you’re expected to stay reasonably clear of the elephants.
We quickly learned that elephants can move pretty damn fast and are absolutely silent when walking on dirt. Several times our guide yelled at folks in our group to get out of the way, and fast, to avoid being run over by an elephant coming from behind.
Our walk among the elephants lasted over an hour. Afterwards it was time for lunch. Elephant Nature Park provides a buffet lunch with Thai dishes. We had about an hour to eat lunch, visit the gift shop, and watch elephants from an observation deck before heading back to Chiang Mai.
One couple in our group (not us) skipped lunch, bought a few beers, and spent their hour of free time sitting in the shade, drinking beer, and watching elephants from the observation deck. Not a bad idea.
On arrival at the park we were informed that there are a lot of rescue dogs on site. Those with red collars are known to bite people. We were warned to steer clear of them. Yep, there sure are a lot of dogs roaming around, and about half have red collars. There are also several cats and at least one goose.
Even Stephanie, dog lover that she is, made it a point to steer clear of all the dogs, red collar or not.
Apparently I made the mistake of walking too close to a red-collard dog. Before I knew it the damn dog bit my leg, letting go when I starting dragging him across the floor. Luckily I was wearing long pants and the dog’s bite did not break the skin. But I was left with a pretty good size bruise for a few days.
Anyway, avoid the dogs.
After lunch and some free time, our tour concluded. We had a two hour drive back to Chiang Mai, without a stop at the travel center, and were dropped off at the Astra at about 2:45 PM.
All in all it was an expensive but worthwhile and enjoyable day.
Garrett and Stephanie
P.S. If you are interested in helping, Elephant Nature Park has a week long volunteer program.
If you have not already done so, read our other posts about Chiang Mai:
Chiang Mai, Thailand (January, 2025, Part I). Learning to love local markets. On the Monk’s Trail to Wat Phra Lat and Wat Phra That Doi Suthep.
Chiang Mai, Thailand (January, 2025, Part III). Wats, wats, and more wats.
For additional posts about Thailand, or elsewhere in the world, check out our Travel Blog. It contains collected links to all of our travel posts.
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Very Interesting. If you haven’t read THE ELEPHANT COMPANY, it’s a great read.
In her book Elephant Company, author Vicki Constantine Croke reveals how “Elephant Bill” and his brigade of pachyderms climbed a 300-foot cliff, but also discusses how the contemporary logging industry in Myanmar helps protect the Asian elephant and how elephants improve the lives of people.Simon Worrall from the National Geographic sat down with Croke to talk about the book.