Ao Nang Elephant Trekking

Description

After negative feedback about cruelty to animals and rudeness to visitors, we no longer sell the tour operating near Ao Nang, we recommend you go elephant trekking at Phanom Bencha National Park, an hour from Ao Nang, instead.

Stop press Sept 2010 - we have recently received bad feedback about the way the elephants are treated at Phanom Bencha. All the elephant camps in Thailand use steel bars to control the elephants, and it seems that they all sometimes use them less than gently. We here at AndamanAdventures face a moral dilemna here. While we totally condemn maltreatment of animals, we don't wish to discourage people from elephant trekking. If we do this, the elephants will become unemployed (since the Thai government banned logging, tourism is their major employer) and we don't think they would survive. So, the choice is up to you, as the visitor. We don't promise that the elephant will be treated gently, but we do promise that your booking will help keep the animal employed and alive.

Despite the feedback about maltreatment, Phanom Bencha remains a better place to go elephant trekking than is Ao Nang, for the following reason.

Phanom Bencha is the largest area of pristine, virgin jungle in Krabi province, so the elephant trekking here is through proper jungle, not through boring rubber plantations as is the case with most Thai elephant treks, including the one based near Ao Nang.

In Phanom Bencha, your elephant trek will take you into the rain forest at the foot of the beautiful "karst" mountains, with the sheer cliffs special to this area. Often trekkers will see monkeys and birds living in their natural habitat.

Elephants cost approximately US$ 500 per month for the food and care, and we ensure that the elephants are well provided for with water, food and shade. The elephants are well trained and accustomed to being around adults and children and pose no threat.

Join-On Trip

This tour includes an hour of elephant trekking, followed by a variety of other different options.

After your elephant trek, we reccommend you visit either (a) the nearby Huay To waterfall, or (b) the Hot Springs and Emerald Pool.

After your visit to either the waterfall or the hot springs & emerald pool, we reccommend you visit the Tiger Cave Temple.

These are the standard itineraries:

Private Trips

Custom-designed day-trips are not a problem or expensive, so if you fancy combining your elephant trek with other options than the above, contact us - maybe you'd like to (a) stop for lunch at a restaurant in stilts in a small lake stocked with big fish (it's amusing to feed them, and eat them too), (b) go shopping in Krabi town (c) go for a sunset dinner to an inexpensive, atmospheric and authentic sunset restaurant near Krabi town.

That's 6 different options we can combine into a private day-trip, as follows:

It's best to choose at most four options. Contact us for help in deciding, and for prices.

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