Phuket Hidden Forest Elephant Reserve Sanctuary Experience

one of the few places you should go if you want to see elephants and actually care about them ! the whole experience is so cute and worth every penny. they truly care about giving these rescued elephants a good retirement and don't force them to do anything! never partake in bathing as it is abusive to the elephants. at the end they feed you a really delicious meal buffet and you get to sit in this cute area and watch the elephants swim on their own if they want to and it's not forced. it's a beautiful space and they teach you the background of each elephant. the pickup was easy and nice and air-conditioned and they were easy to talk to on what's app.

the only actually ethical elephant experience. This should be the only way to interact with elephants. it's a magical and peaceful experience where your can learn a lot. The buffet meal provided was also delicious and vegetarian

Really lovely experience, very knowledgable and friendly guides, a leisurely and informative morning strolling watching and feeding the elephants! Certainly no bathing or touching the elephants. It's more like a retirement home for their 6 ageing/rescued females. It's great to know there are increasingly more people aware of the harm and stress done to elephants in the tourism industry, and are opting for relatively non-intrusive ways to see them up close. These elephants are very used to humans because of their earlier experience, so can still get close to them which is nice. The harm caused to elephants by the tourism industry is very serious. I hope more people can choose this way to get close to elephants, don't bathe them, let alone ride them. You can search online for how those elephants were tamed. Bathing with elephants is actually very unhygienic, especially don't bring children. The 6 elderly female elephants in this place were bought from the tourism/logging industry, which is equivalent to an elephant retirement home! You can see them interacting in a habitat close to nature. You can feed the elephants but touching them is not encouraged. The explanation is in English (also in Finnish haha). It is not recommended to come if you don't have a good command of the language. It seems that there are no staff who can speak Chinese. If you can't understand and communicate, it will be less fun. Bring your own water cup and refuse disposable plastic bottles. The lunch is simple and delicious.

I made sure to do extra research in order to find a place that was truly ethical in Phuket and came across Hidden Forest Elephant Reserve, who only offer feeding and observation activities. Elephants here are extremely well looked after by the staff & mahouts 24/7 and the tour focused on observing these elephant’s behaviour with little to no interference from visitors! Elephants were never forced to do anything they didnt want to do and the lunch provided was delicious also! Highly recommend for people wanting to see Elephants in Phuket in an ethical way

wonderful educational experience for both adults and kids and an opportunity to contribute to an important cause.

Nice people, great cause and Carine for the animals !