Ran-Tong Save & Rescue Elephant Centre

Wonderful Experience!! We spent 1 week volunteering at Rantong Save & Rescue Elephant Center. The staff were so kind, hospitable and helpful and also do an excellent job of caring for the elephants. We felt so blessed to spend a week with these beautiful, emotional and intelligent creatures. The accommodation was a private cabin overlooking the sanctuary and the entire valley - beautiful!! The whole experience was very hands on, immersive and enjoyable. We were involved in every aspect of the elephants’ care and also had the opportunity to assist with (and eventually lead) the tour groups that were doing half day and full day tours at the park. There was no riding of the elephants (out of respect for their well being) but there was plenty of up close and personal interactions with the elephants including feeding them, walking with them, bathing them, kissing and hugging them (and of course picking up their poop 😜). We learned so much about these gentle giants and enjoyed being able to contribute to their well being and care. Highly recommend visiting this facility if you want to experience elephants in an ethical and immersive way.

A small elephant sanctuary with seven adult elephants and three young ones. Our guide O is very knowledgeable and shared with us many interesting facts about Asian elephants. Her love for and and the mahouts' bond with the animals is clear.

As visitors, we got to take part in the elephants' daily routine - preparing their feed, giving them treats, walking them to a pool and bathing them.

The elephants are rescued from logging or entertaining, and clearly domesticated. They are such gentle giants but also a bit mischievous, and knew exactly where to find their treats.

The half-day visit ended with a delicious vegetarian pad thai and fruit platter. We had free flow of water, tea, coffee throughout.

It is a more intimate experience than Elephant Nature Park, which we also enjoyed. This is better for children and more interactive.

A great small park if you're looking for something with more activity and interaction with the elephants without riding or mistreatment.

great experience! worth the trip! happy elephants, and good opportunity to connect with them. our guide was the best. i helped him with english, he taught me about elephants :) the lunch was fantastic- traditional pad thai and fresh fruit

What an experience and a must when visiting Chiang Mai. While the hotel pick-up situation was a little chaotic (ended up waiting an hour post pick-up period), you forget all about it and get sucked into the mesmerizing elephants. Once you arrive, you’ll be given a full outfit, including boots. Our guide “Brad Pitt” was really nice and had a great sense of humor (hence his nickname). His English is broken, but if you understand English well, you’ll get out the main points. The activities include an overview of the Asian elephants and the sanctuary, preparing food and feeding both the adult and youth elephants, bathing the adults, and ending with a nice vegetarian pad thai meal with fresh fruits. In total, we were at the sanctuary for about 2.5-3 hours, which I thought was a perfect amount of time. Highly recommend!

We had an amazing half-day experience here. They explained to us backstory of elephants and how do they take care of them. Elephants are free to roam around, are not chained and don’t look stressed out.

We were given clothes and flip-flops when we arrived. At first, we fed small elephants and then big ones. Later we had a bath with them and in the end we had amazing lunch. During the whole experience, there was water, tea and coffee available.

They had to send 3 male elephants to other sanctuaries during covid, because they didn’t have money from visitors like us. Government gives them nothing and each elephant eats 400kg of food a day. In the end you can leave a tip for Mahut’s who take care of the elephants and work very hard every day.

Amazing experience, led by our brilliant and funny guide Oo-oo! Elephants were happy and interactions with them happened in a natural way, such as feeding or cleaning. Would highly recommend.

You get up close and personal with the elephants and you’ll get to love them. They do great work and seem to genuinely love the elephants.

This was a highlight of our trip so far. We were allowed to help care for the elephants by feeding and bathing, these animals were truly rescued from logging camps where they had endured harsh conditions and labor. The Centre doesn’t exploit the animals by allowing tourists to “ride” them or such; they just allow us to view and help care for them. Such a great experience. It’s a MUST-DO if you are in Chiang Mai, only ~hour out of town. Fantastic!!!

So much fun!! They love these elephants, and it really shows. The staff is super friendly and knowledgeable about the care for these animals.

10/10 experience
Love the vibes and people here, elephants seem to be in good hands.
Also love the lunch prepared (Pad Thai and Fruits and Mango sticky rice) very delicious!!!

Amazing time taking care of those big guys, elephant day spa and mud bath is 10/10. Friendly and helpful staff, strongly recommend.

It was such a great experience! The elephants don‘t really care about you if you are not having food with you and that is good, they can mind the‘re own business. Our tour guide was seven, he was kind and passionate. Ocerall a must do if you are in Thailand, unforgettable moments created :)

We had an unforgettable experience! We got to feed and bath the elephants. The caregivers were really nice. Absolutely recommended!

Had a great time on this tour. Rambo was very enthusiastic and knowledgeable as a guide l.

We had a really good half day here. It was nice to feed, bathe and get close to the elephants. They seemed well looked after. As an added bonus there were puppies there so lots of animal love. The lunch was also pretty awesome.

What a great experience!
We had the opportunity to spend a day in this beautiful place cuddling the elephants.
The staff takes really good care of the elephants and they're free to walk around and play with each other. The owner is a good host and a great person and all the members of the team are friendly and good English speakers.
Highly recommend:)

Simple and short elephant tour. Perfect for someone who doesn't want to walk very far or make an entire day out of it. The perfect amount of time with the Elephants and a really impressive Pad Thai at the end! Super friendly environment! Highly recommended

I’ve spent one month as a volunteer in this camp and their only goal is to protect and take care of these amazing animals, they show people how to feed them and then you have the option to go have a swim with the elephants.

Perfect for families with young and teen kids as the activities are hands on and very educational!

We cut pumpkin, made up and wrapped vitamin balls, fed those to the elephants and bathed in the pond with them! The resident volunteer guide O was very experienced and gave us just the right amount of information without droning on. The shower facilities are great, very clean and airy. Dinner was lovely too - Pad Thai and a beautiful mixed fruit platter. Very, very recommended!

Great and humbling experience under guidance of "O" and caretakers. Elephants are treated fairly, they seem happy and they are not forced to do anything (such as bathing). The park is situated in a beautiful valley. Would recommend if you're looking for an ethical sanctuary without riding and other stuff like tricks.