Thai Elephant Home

I spent a month here enjoying the elephants and the Thai family that run this Beautiful Elephant sanctuary. Definitely a experience of a lifetime, if you love Animals, nature, simple environmental living and don’t mind getting your hands dirty. A welcome respite from chaotic society; to really living off the land located In a secluded rice paddy’s surrounded by lush tropical forest. Looking forward to my next trip to the Thai Elephant Home…. Thank you For all you do for these wonderful elephants and the environment, the world needs more people like you!

It was a great experience to ride and play with an elephant!! The contact with the elephants and the nature is an experience of a lifetime! The elephants were well treated and the staff was kind! It’s hypocritical to say that the riding of an elephant is an animal abuse!

An amazing experience with Elephants that are clearly loved and cared for. The whole day was wonderfully planned, with informative guides and so much time to play with, feed and ride the elephants (I know this is a subject of debate but if you ride horses, or have domesticated house pets, then you should understand that unnatural does not mean painful, or negative for these magnificent animals)
Plus the lunch at the end was absolutely delicious and even nice hot showers to clean up before departure

While other travelers went to cheaper elephant visits and received a cheaper experience, I had a very authentic and memorable time with some baby and full grown elephants. I think the elephants here are treated as good as any elephants in this human populated world could be. With beautiful grounds and a nice home cooked meal I highly recommend this place.

Geniunly one of the best experiences of my life and you can tell the elephants are happy! After searching long and hard for hours for a properly ethical elephant sanctuary I finally was recommended this one by my friend, and im so glad I listened to her. The people are some of the nicest, funniest people you will ever meet and even the drive there was made fun by chit who we did kareoke with! Once we arrived the whole experience was well thought out, good fun, mesmerising and above all ethical! The elephants were clearly healthy and cared for and were allowed to free roam the area. The waterfall and the lunch they give you are other highlights bur if u wanr a sanctuary that truly puts elephants first, come here without hesitation.

Ethical, convenient and honestly incredible. Easy booking via WhatsApp, collection from hotel, half day experience for around 2500 Baht. Great people who live with and care for the animals, no chains or beating or anything like that. Amazing experience

Great place to meet elephants, staff is really nice and helpful. Safety standards in Thailand are low so use your own judgement if you decide to ride the elephants bare back.

Very friendly staff! They give you clothes to change into and lockers. You get to ride the elephants right on their backs and play with them in the river (that was the best part) we had such a fun time with these amazing animals! We also got to feed them bananas and they love them! It was nice to use their showers after and get all cleaned up. For sure would recommend this!

This was one of our favorite stops in all of Thailand! The people here are so kind and really do love their elephants. After spending two and a half weeks in Thailand you quickly know when an elephant is treated correctly or not and the elephants here definitely have a good home.

there are a lot of people who think all elephant riding is unethical. They claim that it damages their spines. While I would agree that the elephants equipped with the big boxes on their backs are treated unethically, places such as the Thai Elephant home that only allow one writer per elephant does not hurt the animal. Humans have been riding elephants for centuries, they are massive animals unlikely cannot notice a tiny human riding on their neck, one of the strongest areas of their body.

The instruction from the employees was very clear and thorough and the trip down to the river was just amazing. The elephant's loved playing in the river and getting washed. When we got back they showed us pictures and fed us some amazing pineapple and other fruits. I could have spent a week at this place.

I researched a lot of places before deciding to go here, and I'm glad that we went to this elephant home because the elephants are treated well and the staff was so friendly.

Amazing place, welcoming and warming people & atmosphere

We looked for several places to do elephant riding. The experience in the Thai Elephant Home was amazing. They pick you up in your hotel, take you up to the site (about 50 minutes from Chiang Mai). They offer you some coffee, they give you some clothes for you to change and then they take you to the elephants. The elephants live in really good conditions, and they take good care of them. The riding is about two hours long (each person riding his own elephant). They take you to the river where you have the opportunity to interact with them. The team takes photos of you all the time, and offer you a free DVD at the end with all the photos. Really nice experience and good price-quality

What a wonderful experience! Amazing animals and kind, talented staff.

Amazing experience. Absolutely unforgettable. I put a lot of time into researching a place that took good care of their elephants. Yes, this is still supporting the industry but they are leagues above the abuse and mistreatment of other locations. So there is a humane way to enjoy this experience. They love and care for their animals. Felt safe the entire time. If you are making a choice between this location and another, choose this one. We did the afternoon ride. Each of us had an elephant. The guide took amazing photos and gave us a dvd with all of them. Now I just have to find a way to get my pics off the dvd...

An awesome experience... Great for the kids too! They provided us with clothes to wear. We feed the elephants and then rode them to the river. We bathed them and rose them back. A towel and hot shower was provided and a snack. Very knowledgeable staff, with good English... A great morning...

We did the elephant barebackriding here and it was incredible! It is definitely a small group, personalized experience. The place and elephants were really clean. They give you clothes to change into and lockers for your stuff. Then you feed them a little and get to know the elephants. The ride was long, maybe over an hour with a stop towards the end to play in the river. Then shower and change back. Fruit and water are served. They also give you a cd of pics to take home.

INCREDIBLE. The staff is really friendly, helpful and fun. We did the 2 hours ride and the baby elephant nursery. The elephants are well treated by the staff, you can see it and feel it. They come to pick you up and bring you back at your hotel (1 hour away from Chiang Mai), they give you a delicious pad thai for lunch and fruits, water, coffee and tea.

I wouldn't recommend the Long Neck Village tour, it's a tourist scam.

we really enjoyed this place, elephants are very well treated, bareback riding is amazing experience as you are closer to to them and you can literaly "feel" them. mahouts are proffesionals and speak well english so they can answer your questions. we were very lucky as we were only visitors that morning so it was sort of private experience. everyone took a extra care of us. walk thru the trail and palying with those giants in river is u forgettable experience.
thanks for that Elephant home team!

My wife and I chose to go with an excursion through Thai Elephant Home and couldn't be happier with our experience. We did the full day "Trail of the dinosaur with elephant riding" and it was a great way to get the full experience.

Our tour guide named "yo" spoke excellent english, and had a great sense of humor which is important since you have a 1.5 hour car ride each way to and from the elephant reserve. We first went to their nursery where you get to become acquainted with the mommas and their babies and play with them in the fields. Then we trekked through the jungle with Yo for about 5 hours (with plenty of stops) on a well-groomed yet off the beaten path trail that Yo and his boss Joe made themselves. The trek allows you to really experience the atmosphere, landscape, flora and fauna that Chiang Mai has on tap along with some great vistas along the way. After passing the "elephant spa" where the Thai Elephant Home has their own mud-bath for their elephants, you turn a corner and arrive in the part of town where all the elephant tours are located. To be completely honest, walking through the town and seeing how so many of the elephants were treated was gut-wrenching and more than a little sad. For a moment it made me reconsider if we had made the right choice contributing to this industry at all. After hiking through the town and up into the mountainside you find the Thai Elephant Home and we knew we had made the right choice. They had extensive staff, huge grounds, plenty of food, shelter, and space for the elephants to roam. You got the vibe right away that this operation was different in a good way.

They then gave us a change of clothes for the elephant ride and we spent about 20 minutes getting familiar with all the elephants we would ride that day. After teaching us the commands and pairing us up, we hopped on top of their neck bareback (the only way you are humanely supposed to ride an elephant) and rode them through town into the river area for a bath. Bath-time was a ton of fun and you could see how happy these gentle giants were are play. After the river time we hopped back on and rode them back to the home where we showered and had tea and fresh fruit with the staff while they burned us each a CD with all the photos they take of you (for free).

TLDR: If you want an authentic and humane experience that allows you to meet, understand, and ride these gentle giants the Thai Elephant Home is the best place to do so

Incredible experience, very caring, educated staff and a wonderful day.

This is one of the earliest elephant care "homes"... And an example of how bringing humans into contact with elephants could be sustainable. Yes, it is not a sanctuary but if you are interested in voice control mahout training as well as really natural connections in a beautiful setting.. this is for you. There are many opinions on what is and isn't ethical, especially by western standards but after spending vast amounts of time here on various visits... It is obvious how blessed these ellifriends are to have been spared a life of trekking, begging and abuse.
My particular favourite is swimming in the river with these precious beings as their love of water is infectious... It was also an incredible priveledge to meet a four day old elefriend.