Kerchor​ Elephant​ Family​ Phuket — Attraction in Kathu

Honestly, you get what you pay for- I went for half day with them: includes transport, for us was very on time! When you arrive you put your stuff on locker, get a shirt to wear on the day, get to have coffe/drinks, you make your dye patterneted cloth and try some coconut pancakes. You get a brief of the elephants and sanctuary (please read more below as I will explain), after you get a choice to feed milk to babies for 100 thb, you see how they make vitamin balls and you help them, You then feed elephants (I think it's sugar canes, bananas, vitamin balls). After small trek (5-10mnts) to go feed elephants more sugar cane, you then go for mud spa, then wash elephants in small pond and scrub them, then a baby elephant will come and you have chance to wash and scrub him/her in the floor, then you can have a shower in their facilities with soap (no towels provided- bring you own), then a small lunch (papaia salad, pad Thai egg, rice, vegetables, chicken wings, chicken soup, broth, for drinks it's only water, red squash type juice and coffee i think), you get certificate at the end (child-like), and then you can download pictures for free. You have option to buy framed photos too (200tbh). Now all this was fun, of course I saw elephants, they are beautiful, a lot of photos and the elephants posed for us.. it was an adventure but...

The bad things, now listen, only those who genuily who care about animals will pay attention to this. Some people just want to see animals and take photos and don't care how the day or how the elephants feel blabla. I paid attention to this detail a lot today! And I saw a lot of small signs to make me think that this sanctuary may be not very ethical.

They do say that the money from tourists and packages goes towards animal welfare and protection, of course I believe this to some extend however, they could put a bit less pressure on these animals.

There was a lot of pulling of ears, I felt sorry for the little babies- they were pulled so many times to make their trunks curl up, to pose for pictures, to forcefully make them go on the floor to have a shower, all the time the staff were BEHIND US "take pictures take pictures" they know that tourists like this, there were times I said I DONT WANT. Pulling of ears hurt elephants and they are very sensitive to this so they use this trick- it's easier to do on babies- so they use babies a lot for pictures! The grown ups looked less stressed, I assume that as they are grown ups of course humans can't do much! They make babies take up water from trunk and splash on you- this is fun for us of course, but my god I saw those babies so stressed, they were dragging their feet on floor and clearly didn't want to do none of that.

THIS IS NOT FUN. I would much rather prefer you just bring the babies and I can take a normal picture or just feed them- no need for fancy trunk curling up! Please! Don't do this. It does hurt them!

Apart from this, I did enjoy my day but am I coming back? Of course not! Because they were obsessed with making tourists happy but I saw how the babies were stressed particularly and it made me rather sad. Elephants were not very free- they are guided by the staff there, they don't hand around alone, theres one person per elephant and they control these elephants.

I would love for tourists to be honest with their reviews. Here on klook many said that it was all ethical. Please have a look at the mini details and small things they do to these animals that still makes it unethical. It's a sanctuary built for the sole purpose of tourists and making money and whatever money left after is what goes towards welfare of these creatures.

I'm glad I went, if I didn't I would be able to see whether it's completely...

We took part in the feed and bath program, with my family, and it was a once in a lifetime experience. I highly recommend going on some elephant related programs if you have the chance, because they are really amazing, loving, caring and smart animals, and I really recommend going to this elephant sanctuary, the Elephant Family Phuket, because the caretakers are friendly, helpful, they explain everything, answer your questions. And definitely because of the elephants, who are friendly, and joyful, and you can tell, that the people working there take good care of them. You can feed them, with cucumber, sugar cane, vitamin bombs, after that you can have a mud spa with them, then bath with them in a small lake and shower them. It was an amazing, first hand experience, that you cannot get in a simple zoo, or at other places. They have 4 elephants, and it may be true that there are sanctuaries, that have more, but all 4 of them are really friendly and happy (you can tell when you see in their eyes, that they are). They are enthusiastic, and really enjoy the bathing and everything, they play with you, they hug you with their trunks, they splash you with water and everything, mostly because 3 of them still young (one of them is 3, two of them is 5 years old, the fourth one is 36, and she's pregnant - she's a little bit less playful probably because she's an adult, but still nice and friendly). They are really beautiful animals, and if you enjoy the activity, the caretakers show you how to treat the elephants, what do they like, how to brush them, so you can enjoy the activity even more. But if you don't want to go in the mud, you don't have to, you can just sit outside and watch the others (but I reccommend to go in, because it's so much fun). Also, after the activity, we got padthai and it was delicious as well. To sum up, it was an amazing experience and I really recommend to go there, I know it's not the cheapest activity (although this sanctuary is among the cheaper ones), but definitely worth, because you really get to get in touch with their elephants, who are amazing animals, and are taken care of. And I would like to thank again our great time at Elephant Family Phuket, it was an amazing activity, probably the best one we had...

I do not recommend this place.

I went as a group and my friends had a really good time. It is as advertised but think carefully about what you want to experience. I did not find this place ethical and I felt bad for the elephants. I also didn’t find the staff friendly.

Firstly, the elephants have rope collars. One of them looked too tight. You can see the collars in photos. The handlers pull on the collars fairly often. Posing for photos was a coerced activity. There’s quite a bit of posing going on. The handlers will ask the elephants to lie down for you to wash them. They will also keep trying to get them to lift their trunks for photos.

Secondly, I felt very rushed through the experience. The park seemed to have booked too many guests during our visit (10 June 2024) and we were the last group to hang out with the elephants. There were more than 30 people and the park has 9 elephants. This also meant that the elephants were often being led away when it was our turn.

Thirdly, the guide (Floo?) was NOT having a good time. He was cracking jokes at first but that didn’t last. Sure, there was a group of tourists whom he kept saying weren’t listening to him and holding the group back but he was so annoyed that it was killing the vibe. I felt like he was taking it out on the guests.

He actively tossed water NON STOP during the mud and bathing activities. I felt I was being attacked. Too many people during these activities, I felt overwhelmed, much less the 2(?) elephants.

Finally, the park had put us in the wrong group with a shorter duration, when we had booked the longer one. We asked them and they insisted, until we checked again and they put us in the right group.

Throughout the experience, except the first half hour, the guide was pushing us along. Lunch was rushed because the drivers were already here. We thought we would leave around 12pm (it is a 2.5 hour activity starting at 9am) but we had to go ASAP without taking our time for lunch. Some people had barely started eating.

Overall, I did not have a good time. However, the rest of the...