When you are going to Thailand, you probably want to see some elephants. It makes sense; everyone seems to be going on about how it was the best experience they had on their trip. It’s true, nothing beats meeting these animals up close, but beware: the elephant tourism is big in Thailand and it’s not always right.

I will tell you all about my amazing encounter with elephants but before I go into details, I want to make sure you understand the difference between ethical and harmful elephant experiences. There are many ways to meet elephants in Thailand and some of them should be avoided.

Do Your Research!

This part is extremely important. When you are in Chiang Mai, you find tourist offices on literally every corner, with all of them offering trips to many different elephant camps. You can easily pick up maybe 15 different leaflets from a single tourist place. You just want to see elephants, so how do you know where to go??

Keep in mind that elephants mean business for Thailand and at the end of the day they are a tourist attraction no matter where you go. Elephants are amazing creatures and I understand you want to meet them but PLEASE just make sure you pick a place that causes the least harm to the animals.

Most importantly, never EVER support a place where elephants are ridden.

I’ll say it again: NEVER RIDE AN ELEPHANT.

Why You Should Never Ride an Elephant

I hope most of you already know why this would be a bad idea since the truth about elephant mistreatment has been circulating the media for a few years now. But just in case you have never heard of this, let me fill you in:

It is not natural for elephants to wander around with people on their backs. When the elephant tourism first started, these beautiful animals were tortured at a very young age in order to make them obedient enough to carry tourists. You can find many disturbing pictures and videos of this on the Internet that should put you off elephant riding forever. It also physically hurts them and damages their spine.

Every time you ride an elephant, you are supporting their torture. Unfortunately, many tourists are still not aware of this – don’t be one of them.

Choose Your “Elephant Sanctuary” Carefully

We have established that riding elephants is an absolute no-no but that still doesn’t mean that every place where elephants are not ridden is a good place. The elephant tourism is changing and in order to attract tourists, most elephant camps and parks call themselves sanctuaries these days. It’s their answer to the increased demand for ethical elephant experiences.

I looked into many different sanctuaries and read reviews from visitors – and surprisingly, a lot of so-called sanctuaries still turned out to be places where elephants are not treated 100% right. My advice is, read independent reviews and read them carefully – people are always sure to mention anything that seemed off. (Like this girl who posted about elephants being shackled overnight in the Elephant Jungle Sanctuary.) 

Always check how big the tourist groups are! Twenty people dancing around one elephant? Not great, is it? Pick a place that ensures no more than ten people are visiting at one time.

The best and safest choice would be to go to the Elephant Nature Park where you are 100% guaranteed the animals are being treated the way they should and are roaming free in their natural environment. However, you should know this place is the most expensive (although the money goes into supporting rescued animals) and it’s highly popular so you might have to book a few months in advance.

Or you can visit the Dumbo Elephant Spa like I did…

MY ELEPHANT EXPERIENCE

After hours of research and gathering friends’ recommendations, I finally decided to book a half-day tour with the Dumbo Elephant Spa. And it turned out to be an excellent choice!

Getting Personal with Elephants

Like with all tours, a van picks you up at your Chiang Mai accommodation around 7am and you are being driven for about 1,5 hours up to the mountain jungle where you get to meet their elephants.

I was extremely happy when I found out we were only five people on the tour and the sanctuary had five elephants. You can do the maths, right? One elephant each! We were given some sugar cane branches and fruits (the “elephant candy”) and were invited to meet the amazing animals up close.

Don’t Be Scared

Let me tell you – when your hands are full of food, the elephants will be coming straight to you trying to steal everything you have with their trunks. There’s no need to be afraid!! Elephants are amazing and kind and they really don’t intend to harm you. The only injury could occur if you are not paying attention and the massive elephant foot happens to step on yours – it is very unlikely though, they are moving slowly and it’s easy to anticipate their movements.

While we were feeding the elephants and interacting with them, there was enough mahouts looking on and making sure no accidents happened. We also all had our personal “photographer” who took our phone or camera and was capturing the experience for us – meaning we could focus on the elephants without worrying about photos! (And one of the mahouts was also taking photos for their Facebook page.)

Elephant Bath

After the elephants were fed (just kidding, they keep eating all day), it was bath time! We went to the river to wash and brush them. It was a hot day and they looked really satisfied in the water. While washing the elephants, we also received a lot of refreshing splashes from the mahouts (they thought it was hilarious)…

The tour ended with a great lunch of local food and fruit and smiles all around. Hanging out with elephants just makes everyone’s day so I highly recommend it! 🙂

If you have any questions about the elephant sanctuary I visited, let me know! All the elephants looked very happy and relaxed and their carers were all nice guys who answered our questions. You can even spend a full day with the elephants and enjoy a mud spa if you want 😀 You can find all the information on their website. (This is not a sponsored post, I just really liked the place and want to promote an ethical choice for elephant tourism.)

Have you ever been to an elephant sanctuary? Tell me about your experience! 🙂

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