
Phang Nga Elephant Park Thailand
Posted 2015
We offer more than just snorkeling tours and increasingly people have been asking us about elephant tours. Many people want to see elephants and interact with them but not see trick shows, not even necessarily ride on the elephants. They definitely don’t want to feel that elephants are mistreated in any way or are being exploited for the tourist dollar.
So we did some research and the best elephant park that we’ve found is Phang Nga Elephant Park hidden away in the Kapong district of Phang Nga.
It was set up fairly recently by a young Phang Nga native called Jake. His family has kept elephants for 200 years, and although Jake was educated in the UK he is now back on his family’s land where he has created a beautiful environment for anyone interested in elephants to come, and interact with them in a way that considers the welfare of the elephant’s first.
They currently have 11 elephants at the park which covers about 200 rai of hillside land. Visitors can do trekking, elephant bathing or a combination of both.
The future aim is to do away with the trekking (or at least remove the howdah’s (saddles) in favour of more educational interaction experiences.
If you want to visit you can drive yourself or we can arrange a private transfer for you. Booking is preferred so no one has to wait around. As the park is 400 metres off the concrete road down a dirt track it is only accessible by car or minivan, big buses can’t reach it.
Phang Nga Elephant Park is used for the elephant bathing on our very popular Kapong safari day tour from Phuket.
Just south of the park on the way back to Phang Nga town is an excellent little restaurant on a viewpoint over the valley that serves very tasty and cheap Thai food.