BangKaew Elephant Camp in Phangnga

It is marketed as one of the most ethical elephant sanctuaries in Thailand but my partner and I were a bit disappointed when we left.The mahouts use their ankus (a sharp metal hookto get the elephants to go where they tell them and do tricks to entertain the guests. We also learned that a male elephant is kept in the jungle tied up by a chain. Its a shame as we really wanted to like this place but we left feeling bad.The volunteers were great and seemed to care about the elephants and it appears that the elephants get their medical health looked after. However we would have much preferred to observe the elephants going about their natural behaviour and interacting with us if they choose rather than being forced to perform tricks for entertainment and photo opportunities.

Bathing with elephants is not ethical. Hopefully you’ll consider ending this practice.

Phang Nga Elephant Park replenishes my soul! I recommend this experience with my whole heart!

Great experience, the workers very welcoming and friendly, specially Anna , we loved the little 14 y old elephant that got 2 banana 🍌 baskets 😅 she was happy at the end... They care a lot about elephant and take care of them and treat them well... recommend

Fantastic experience feeding and bathing the elephants. The elephants seem to be really well taken care off which is great. Would definitely recommend. Elephants are very tame and stay calm when you are near them

So so…200 bath for adult or child to see the elephants and get explanations. The guide was a native English speaker and explained everything well. The elephants are treated well. With all that, in retrospect , it was not worth the drive. Unless you are planning on pricier activities, such as feeding or washing the elephants (which I can’t comment on), the tour is not worth it.BTW, for some reason you need to fill in some paperwork before the tour starts, we didn’t see this practice anywhere before in Thailand. This was not a big issue for us, just a bit strange…

I don’t know where to start with this place! Amazing from top to bottom! The experience itself was something you can only imagine. Then on top of that was our lovely tour guide Anna, the elephant handler and the amazing food. The elephants are very well cared for. We were lucky enough to experience it with just my husband and I. Anna was very informative about all the elephants. And having a good chat in between! Just a friendly warm and welcoming place! Can not recommend it enough!

Great place with very friendly volunteers (Finn).Food was awesome as well

amazing place! they are taking such a great care of the elephants and doing an amazing rehabilitation work. this is a REAL sanctuary, so dont expect to ride one the elephants or to see some silly show. Instead they will let you observe from a close distance, feed them some bananas and take pictures with the elephants. BUT, this is what you want. its very important to only support the places that actually help elephants, and stay away from the shows and circuses that exploit the animals and treat them badwe came as a big family and everyone from age 2 to 70 had an amazing time

Had great time there with the kids and the lunch was delicious. One of the few places out there where elephants are actually treated in an ethical and fair way.

Very good! We had an amazing experience, the staff is really nice and helpful and the elephant is kind and well trained 😀

Great, family run and family friendly place where the Elephants welfare is top concern.

This place is a real example of how elephants should be treated! Very good!

Nice place, you can enjoy elephants in your natural place.

They love their elephants so much. They are kind and gentle and it was an amazing experience for my 4 year old daughter. I support ethical elephant tourism, make sure you research where you interact with them and what their purpose is.

Elephants are in a very good condition. Very friendly and playful. Very well looked after. Quite a distance from Phuket. More than 2 hours drive one way. Worth it if you include it with a tubing activity close by.

Amazing experience. Excellent booking and pick up. Detailed experience about elephants history and live. The elephants are really well treated. These guys are passionated about elephants. The experience of having a bath with the elephants was unforgetable. I strongly recommend to visit this place.

A fantastic day. They treat the elephants with the respect that they deserve and everyone is so incredibly friendly.

Amazing visit! Emily (our guide), F (our mahout/kwan-chaang), and Prevksa whom was our beautiful elephant made it a really special day. My fiancee and I have been fortunate enough to go to a number of elephant care facilities in Bali and Thailand previously and this has to be one of the best weve experienced. The love and care you witness from everyone for and of these gentle giants is humbling and wonderful. Kudos!

What an amazing experience! Terrific staff, the food was unbelievable delicious, and the elephants were magnificent to see. Extremely well treated, the elephants were more loved and respected than ones own kin. They loved being washed as we swam around with them in the watering hole, and we fed them, hugged them, and free loaded with them like a parrot on a pirates shoulder. The park staff were filled with information about the humane treatment of elephants throughout Thailand and cleared up misconceptions about abuse. Truly an incredible experience, one I would recommend to everyone, especially those who believe these wonderful people mistreat this revered animal.

Second time visiting here. It always surpasses expectations. Wonderful people here. Beautiful elephants. Lovely food. And a great experience. Highly recommend.

if you want to see happy elephants, this is the right place to visit.

Mixed feelings....I think the owner is really trying to make a difference and has support from some very good volunteers who believe passionately in the welfare of the elephants. However, even after 3 years, all the elephants were teathered as the main free roaming compound is still unbuilt. I also witnessed a relatively harsh act on an elephant (bang on cheek with stickfrom one of the Mahouts. However, I suspect the conditions are far better than on a logging plantation and the company are certainly trying to make a change. It was also a great experience to get close and personal to these magnificent animals...who are clearly used to human contact and I can understand why they might not survive in the wild. Finally, it was a very expensive half-day trip at 4,400 THB per person - probably why so few people showed up but at least it was much more personal. I wish them well and I do hope the compound is built ASAP so the elephants can be free to move around more.

Such an amazing experience. The guides and mahout are fantastic and very knowledgeable. The elephants are not chained up like some parks and are really looked after. I highly recommend

Had a really amazing experience doing the mourning half day with Finn, and Baramee, our elephant for the day. The place is very big on conservation and ethical tourism, while encouraging more interaction with the elephants than some places. The whole experience was finished off with a very tasty home cooked meal.The guide was very knowledgeable and entertaining, the mahouts very nice, and the elephants... truly magical.

Beautiful experience if its your first time with elephants. I wish they would spend more time explaining about the elephant and their life rather than why the park is ethical (felt it was a bit over doing it). Overall, pleasant experience, friendly staff and nice to see elephant rather in a good environment.

Today my two children (aged 7 and 10and I visited this park. I had chosen it because every article I could find about this place ranked it as being one of the most ethical - a claim they strongly make on all their marketing and throughout the visit. However I felt very duped almost immediately on arrival and feel conflicted that (although I didnt participateI have now contributed to this business. Everyone is strongly encouraged to ride the elephants (we did not but had to say no several times). Our guide said the elephants had not had their spirits broken but bonded with their mahouts through trust - a lie, because an elephant will NOT let you ride it unless it has had its spirit broken. Plus, the sharp spike they press into its ear implies they do what they do through fear and force, not trust (this was used to make an elephant squirt water in the lake to amuse us, and another elephant had a bleeding inner ear). The elephants are tethered by chains outside the mahout huts for most of the day - our guide said this makes them feel safe and they are like lapdogs and want to be close to the mahouts all the time. Im not buying that. One elephant (constantly swaying and tetheredhad two big open wounds on her head. When I asked how she got those the guide started saying it was probably from banging her head on a branch but then decided to confess that she had been beaten by a mahout and they then sacked him. Im not buying that they sacked him. Three of the elephants were swaying constantly - the guide explained this was just a bad habit due to stress theyd experienced when they had previous owners. Yep, Im not buying that either. The only positives I can say are that the elephants seemed to be well fed and not over worked, but I felt sick that I thought I was supporting ethical tourism but actually we were lied to by our guide throughout and these elephants do suffer for our experience. Im amazed there are not more negative comments about this place, but the guides are very charming and convincing. Please find a better place to visit.

Incredible! As a welfare specialist, and having worked with elephants, its comforting knowing this place does it right! The education is spot on and the horrible misconceptions put to bed. Not only are they backed by over 150 years of family experience with elephants, they are also apart of the Elephant Management Association. With veterinarians and elephants experts on staff, it is beautiful to see these animals in their natural habitat, Thai culture, conservation, and outstanding standards in one place. It isnt about making you pity animals to get your money--they want you to learn and understand so you can respect elephants properly and take that knowledge with you.Thank you for being a model institution!

Wonderful place to have an all day fun and learn about elephants, which are amazing creatures. Phang Nga is one of the five (if I remember correctlyethical parks in Thailand.

A must!!! AWESOME experience. Not a tourist trap!!! A wonderful time spent riding preparing their fruit and feeding them. Plus giving them a scrub down in their pool. The elephants are so well looked after and part of their big family!The must see near Krabi!!!! Our guide Cameron was so enthusiastic and full of information! They gave us a very tasty lunch and plenty of water! Loved it all!!!!

Brilliant time at the sanctuary, I will take my experience here to the grave. Appreciate what these guys are doing with the elephants that have had a hard working life. Beautiful animals, great people. Highly recommended.

Riding an elephant is something many dream of, very few do. However, Phang Nga Park was one the the places that you could ride one bareback and know that you are supporting a preservation that donates everything to the well-being of these beautiful creatures. If I am ever lucky to receive a chance to go back to Thailand, I would immediately go back to this reservation. 10/10

If you want to "do" the elephant experience in Thailand then do it properly, do it here! Here, its all about the elephants, their mahouts and their families.Our guide (Shia), was knowledgeable and no question was left unanswered. In our group of 6 people we never at any time felt under pressure to "move on" or hurry up.Pick up from our hotel was punctual and clean, as was the return journey at the end of our experience.We felt looked after from the minute we arrived till it was time to depart.We both had a wonderful few hours with a magnificent elephant (Kawwan- we rode, fed and bathed with her! We are both animal lovers, and love to see them as natural as can possibly be, and we felt moved to be able to share a few hours with her.Truly a remarkable experience that we will never forget!The only negative comment - we booked from the UK, and got an instant response asking us about our hotel etc. When in Thailand, and leading up to our "day", we got a bit worried that despite several emails we didnt receive our pick-up time till the evening before we were due there. I think they should put in one of their original responses that you will be notified the evening before you are due to be picked up about timings etc. This would help reduce a little bit of worry or negative thoughts that we had at the time!

Forget about riding elephants. On this adventure you will get to swim with elephants and be like an elephant. A very natural experience with people who are very kind to their elephants. Our guide Cam, a nice young chap from the UK was excellent. Very well organised from pickup from our hotel to a nice gluten free lunch.

Absolutely amazing! Truly an exceptional experience provided by ethically sound trainers. You can really tell they care about the elephants and about teaching you about them. Took my family and they all loved it. 10/10 would recommend to anyone looking to interact with elephants! On another note Shai is an awesome guide, if you get her youre in for a treat.

Great place and great staff. They really care for the animals. We went here mom, dad and three kids and they loved it.

Wonderful experience! Its a small elephant park so feels very personal and the elephants seem to be very well taken care of

Excellent experience. Volunteer guide from UK. Knowledgeable. Elephants treated very well.

Me and my wife can only recommend this place if you care about helping elephants. Pickup from our hotel was included in price and was on time. The whole programme really is worth the pay. People here live for their elphants and it was a pleasure to be there and see them, ride them, feed them and wash them in a pool. All elephants looked really satisfied and happy. Most of them are saved from logging work. The volunteers are from outside thailand and you can see they love doing their job plus you get 100% english native speakers to introduce you to the park. We loved it! Thank you

A good park that clearly looks after its animals. From what I understand it is by far the best and most ethical venue in southern Thailand. Elephants in tourism is an ethical minefield and, after the basics such as proper care, comes down to whether you believe they should be worked at all. Here they are worked - you get to ride bareneck, feed and wash them. A great experience, but I still cant say for sure whether its the right way for humans to interact with elephants. Regardless, I learnt a lot more about this complex issue at Phang Nga. Matt was an informative and engaging host, and the Thai lunch was lovely. Transfers from Krabi (an hour and forty minutes awaywere smooth and comfortable.

Worth traveling the extra miles,paying a little extra,joe our host was passionate about what he does as were all the staff. This experience was truly outstanding from beginning to end. Elephants were well taken care of. Truly worth a visit

Cant say enough good things about this elephant park. The staff is kind, informative and courteous. One of the highlights of our trip. The group discussion and info session included plenty of time for Q&A. The elephant trek through virgin jungle forest is amazing and just the right distance. Bathing the elephants was unforgettable. The lunch was on point. We recommend doing the morning session. If you are in this part of Thailand and want an ethical elephant experience then do yourself a favor and book this trip. We stayed near Patong beach and they sent a shuttle for us. Great experience.

Amazing park, well worth the travel time. Here the elephant comes first. You get to ride them at there lesiure, and swim with them and feed them all without chains or cruelty. Very freindly staff, excellent amenities and great food and drinks. Highly recommended.

There Are many elephant parks in Thailand. But the work these people do in order to preserve the life and well-being of the elephants seems to be above par. Elephants are well taken care of and they do bareback riding. Instead of riding in a cage on top of elephant. Bareback riding is supposed to be better for the elephant, but also really enhances the experience. It is worth the cost, it is a little bit more expensive. But overall the experience and education is worth it. One of the highlights of our Thailand trip

Fantastic place to visit an eco elephant park. The bareback riding is amazing and washing them afterwards is a dream come true. I did the cooking class to and had a great time. The staff are very friendly and seem to look after the elephants very well. Highly recommended.

I highly recommend this place to anybody who wants to see and cares about these beautiful animals. From start to finish we were kept well informed of how the elephants are treated, where they had come from and you can honestly just see how happy they are to be there. Our tour guide, Joe, was english and that in itself was great to be able to learn everything without a language barrier. The mahouts were great with their elephant. You could see the bond they had straight away. The whole place, human and elephant are like one big family. Finishing off with bathing with the elephant was great. You could see they appreciated it and they have so much fun. The mahouts have great personalities aswell. Ours was very cheeky, and you could see that reflected into the elephant aswell. This experience is worth the extra mile to get there and the extra dollars. 100% support this place.

We booked our tour via K&P tours in Khao Lak.We told them in the beginning that we want to visit a camp where the elephants are treated well.This camp was not what we expected.The guide arrived with the elephant and we took a seat to start the tour. Unfortunately the elephant had no interest to follow the route. The guide was sitting on his head and permanent kept hitting him to make him follow his will.Thats something you dont want to see.So we aborted the tour very quickly and told the guide to go back.Its quite understandable that we dont had any further interest to do the planned elephant bathing.Camp refused to refund any money as the fault is with us because we aborted the tour for no reason.Absolutely not ok and I cannot recommend it.

Absolutely MAGIC! THE BEST EVER!I couldnt have imagine a better experience with elephants. To bath an Elephant was my dream, but it was very difficult to find an ethical place where I can do this.. This park was the perfect place. I can see the love in their elephants. Jake, one of the owners is GREAT! Is a family business and they are amazing people.. Such a cozy place.. Lovely people .. The food is delicious. Believe me.. IS TOTALLY WORTH IT. You may find cheaper options.. But none of them are as ethical as this park.. My elephants name is Aoy.. I fell in love with her.. So playful.. So happy... So HEALTHY!

This has been one of the most amazing experiences our family has had the privilege of doing. Jake and Dan were fantastic hosts and Jake was truly inspirational with his vision and his commitment for saving elephants. The park was set in beautiful surroundings. The facilities and lunch far surpassed our expectations. The highlight of our trip.

Such a great place! Promoting the ethical treatment of elephants in Thailand, this park is about a 2 hour drive from the south end of Phuket. It is 100% worth the extra time and money!!They teach you about the mahout life and how domesticated elephants should be treated. For the mahout for a day experience you get your own elephant to ride bare back, feed, and bathe. Its an incredible experience. On top of all that we also got to learn how to make some Thai food for lunch.The park is a beautiful space and Jake the owner has so many ideas and aspirations for it, including a retirement home for old logging and tourist trekking elephants.Keep up the good work!