Elephant Pride Sanctuary — Local services in Chiang Mai Province

STOP IT! Stop scrolling through review after review of elephant "sanctuaries"" around Chiang Mai. You've done it. You've found it! You've found the perfect place! An actual elephant sanctuary!

My girlfriend and I just visited this place and it's everything (and more) that we hoped it would be. To sum it up this is why you should go:

they truly care about the well-being of the elephants and don't force them to do anything they don't want to do the elephants are never in chains, no riding etc. They roam freely around their big wonderful sanctuary, even during the night where they have 24/7 staff watching the herd their farm (unlike other places) is located far from the road and noisy cars they currently have a lovely herd of 7 elephants with more coming soon as two of the elephants are pregnant. They even have the cutest little baby elephant called Dido who is 3 months old as I'm writing this the owner Chanchai and his staff are extremely nice and you can instantly feel that they genuinely care about the elephants and not (only) about making money they limit the amount of daily visitors to 14 (!) which makes a huge difference, both for you but also the elephants. In our group we were only 4 people because we booked directly through their website (WhatsApp contact with the owner) which resulted in a really personal experience. I urge you to do the same! The other group was 10, because they booked through an agency.

Our tour included feeding, walking, mud bath and swimming. Everything with the elephants! They even tried to take our small group of 4 down to the river for a swim with the baby elephant and his mother, but since the elephant mother thought the water was too cold for the baby when we reached the river, we walked them back. They could have forced the elephants to go swimming with us, but this just goes to show the kind of respect they have for elephants. Chanchai even told us before the tour that everything they do is for the elephants, so the daily itinerary depends on the elephants, which we thought was great.

All in all, we couldn't have asked for a better day and a better guide. The owner Chanchai is the best person you will ever meet, the sanctuary is beautiful and the herd of elephants are lovely.

Obviously we also heard great things about the well-known Elephant Nature Park, but since it was fully booked we found this place and I'm so happy we did. Wouldn't have missed it for the world!

If you read this review and don't book this place, you're making a mistake. :)

PS. Thank you for driving us around Chiang Mai afterwards to find an SD card for my GoPro, Chanchai. Really appreciate it. Best of luck to you and we hope to be...

BOOK THIS EXCURSION!! It's amazing. On-time pickup from the hotel. It was only myself and my husband on this tour. So we rode in their SUV. The guide spoke great english and explained anything we had questions on and more! This is a family run tour and the elephants have been their family pets for over 65 years! The owners love the elephants like pets and open their home to interact with the elephants. No malpractice. The family is genuinely so kind hearted.

The drive to the elephant sanctuary took 1hr and 45 minutes. About halfway through you stop to go to the bathroom and spend 15 minutes at the local market. It is very windey roads going up the mountain so bring dramamine just in case. I didn't need it though.

The tour starts with feeding the elephants so they get used to you. Then you go into the mother and baby's pen. After that all the elephants take a short stroll. 200ish feet total. We follow their lead for how long they want to be out on a walk. You can tell they love it. Then we eat lunch prepared by the tour guide's wife. It was very good and filling! Then we changed out of our normal clothes and put on our swim suits to give a mud bath to the elephants. Then we walked to the river where we cleaned the elephants.

Tips: You will get dirty. From sitting on the dirt ground or the elephant snot. The short stroll can be done in flip flops but I'd suggest wearing tennis shoes because there's slippery leaves. Then after lunch, no shoes in the mud. Wear sunglasses to protect your eyes in the mud. Then wear water shoes in the river. The mud may not come completely out of your swim suit after washing it. The tour guide takes LOTS of pictures so you really don't need to take your own except for the very end when you're feeding the elephants and want some more "posey" photos. Bring your phone for photos for all parts except the mud bath and river washing. There are bathrooms with toilet paper and showers to rinse off after the river dip. Bring...

We visited this beautiful elephant sanctuary on our 3 weeks honeymoon trip and it was one of the best experiences we had in Thailand . The elephants are owned by a family and you can see and feel that they are happy and relaxed and part of the family . Two days before we came here , we visited another sanctuary and were 30 people for 4 elephants, it was horrible so that's why we decided to visit the pride family for a good experience where you don't feel guilty afterwards.

First of all we experienced the day with only one other visitor , which is the concept of the pride family . Not more then one "tour" per day and also only in small groups. That made the Day so much better, special and private for us .

We were picked up by a cousin of the family which was really nice and fun to talk to with good english skills. Then we got to know the elephants and got many Infos about the elephants and the life they life there and fed and spoke to the elephants. It was an amazing start . Afterwards we toured the nearby hills with the elephants and just experienced their day to day life. It was a mesmerizing experience. Afterwards we had tasty food in banana leafs and gave the elephants a mud bath, it was so much fun. Meanwhile the guides took pictures of us all the time , memories you will never forget . The final was a dive in the nearby river where we cleaned the elephants and also ourselves. You can feel the joy of them the whole time and you feel their relaxation and that they are not forced to this activities. The family also is such a joy and so hearty with good english skills and made it also that much beter. We came home with a smile and made memories for a lifetime , i couldn't recommend anything more then doing this day trip to the...