Elephant Village — Attraction in Rajasthan

It's important to understand there are numerous businesses running within the village. It seems your experience very much depends on which unit you visit. Our guide for our Jaipur day was an animal lover and wasn't keen on us going anywhere as so many elephants are mistreated around Jaipur.

We pushed a bit and I'm happy that in the end, we got a good one. If you want a genuine guy who very much seems to love his elephants, try to find Luca at plots R and S.

We paid no entry fee because our driver and guide are regulars. We paid a little more than we perhaps should have (8000 rupees each with two people) but we got a great value experience for £80 each.

First, we were offered drinks and also offered them at other points in the experience. We negotiated our price and I made it clear that I would leave without paying if I found any aspect of the treatment of the elephants unsatisfactory. Luca then explained to us about the unit system and alluded to other places being less kind and loving. He offered me the chance to inspect the elephants and facilities before paying anything and, I chose to trust him.

Once the experience began and we were up close and personal with Rani it was clear to me that she showed no signs of abuse or unhappiness. She was guided purely with vocal commands and seemed happy, calm and relaxed. I'm no elephant expert, but it seemed obvious she could have chosen not to co-operate if she so wished. We fed her for as long as we wished which was beautiful and fun! We spent time letting her drink and then sat up on her for a shower of both her and us. After another Chai, we headed of for a ride round the area. I guess it was about 30mins of riding. We chose not to paint her; I thought she may feel embarrassed by my poor art skills!!! All in all, I feel happy. I suspect I could have paid less however, I beleive that my money will go to sustain the elephants and keep them well...

We came here yesterday by a referral from our cab driver. I know culturally when they see tourist they hike up the price, however my husband is native Indian and they tried to push 7k Indian rupees on us for each person. That is an insane amount of money to pay, especially when the pictures don't look as appealing as another Elephant sanctuary. When I called Elefun, there competitor, they offered me a flat rate of 3500 IRs per person, which is posted on there main page as well. No bargains, no discounts, just 1x fee and that seemed reasonable. The owner agreed to price match it to us, as we were already there.

Our elephant was Masa, she was a friendly gentle giant that I felt it checked my box of encountering an elephant in my lifetime. The most time spent with her was feeding her, while the rest of the activity seemed quick. We colored on her for 5 minutes, bathed her for about 10-15 min and then took a stroll down a small road only to come back up to the main quarter.

For the price, I guess I can not complain as I have no other experience to compare too. However if I paid the initial price or even slightly more then I really did, I would have felt ripped off. Nothing about this elephant village looks appealing except the elephants. There are no activities for them, aleast non that we saw. They each have a room, which houses 12 at a time, 5 separate areas of elephants. We didn't see anything but Masa and another elephant tied up, who honestly looked sad.

If I had to rate the elephant Masa and her care giver, I would give them 10 stars, however the place itself and the guy we haggled with has brought it down to an average rating.

I would highly suggest the owner of this place to look at its competitors, take a visit there and experience another sanctuary that way they know what a reasonable price is to pay for the place they...

Please please read the reviews before you go. If you are indian who doesnt look western influenced, you may be okay. They won't overcharge you. However, if not be prepared to pay at least it 7000inr. And yes i know it might not be too much considering in euros or usd, but still that is not the right price.

We went because our guide/ driver suggested saying that this is the biggest one and he had brought other tourists who enjoyed it. Well little did we do our research, we were charged 3500inr for a ride and giving food to elephant.

The ride was okay. But you will not see any other elephants around. I wanted to see them in the field, eating, interacting -well that didnt happen. And food too - they give us bread to feed the elephants which i dont know if that would be healthy for them.

Now that we read the reviews after thinking it was scammed, realizing it now that this was not right. Also to note, everyone you interact with will ask for tips continuously. You really dont have to give them tips if you dont want to (especially when you paid sooooo much)

Besides the money - they will tell you they have 90 elephants in the span of 4 acres, or some other person may say 120 elephants. But then you will also hear 20-30 elephants. We tried to walk around everywhere to find them and the only few we saw probably total to maybe 10 or less. So you see how nothing was probably true here.

Looking back, i would rather do the elephant ride up to the Amber palace.

To the owner or customer service - if you see this and think that this was NOT the right thing that the employees did, please please contact us and kindly offer us...