Elephant sanctuaries which we do & don’t support

Thailand

Elephant Nature Park, Chiang Mai
This sanctuary acts as a 'retirement home' for rescued elephants. It does not promote elephant riding or performances, and is considered a pioneer in the treatment of captive elephants.

Phuket Elephant sanctuary
The Phuket Elephant sanctuary is leading the way when it comes to the ethical treatment of retired/rescued elephants. Not only do elephants roam free but they also bathe freely too with the only tourist/elephant interaction allowed at feeding time. Please note that there are parks impersonating them in brochures so make sure you are being taken to the sanctuary in Paklok. They are not affiliated with any other elephant park or sanctuary on the island.

Elephant Freedom Village, Chiang Mai
This sanctuary works alongside local Karen hill tribe communities, whose lives are often intertwined with elephants. As well as helping to feed and bathe the elephants, visitors can learn about hill tribe culture with a series of experiences such as traditional meals in a village house, and helping with the coffee harvest. The elephants spend 90 percent of their time at liberty in the forest, and sleep in sheltered paddocks with staff members sleeping next door to monitor their wellbeing.

Friends of the Asian Elephant Hospital, Lampang
Not to be confused with the Thai Elephant Conservation Centre (also in Lampang) where elephants perform shows for tourists, this is the first elephant hospital of its kind in Thailand. The Friends of the Asian Elephant Hospital pioneers new methods and technologies to heal sick or wounded elephants and even has its own prosthetics centre.

Elephant Hills, Khao Sok
One of the few completely chain free elephant parks in Southeast Asia. It's a luxury tented jungle camp offering natural encounters with elephants but no riding or performances.

Mahouts Elephant Foundation
This organisation is working towards establishing a shift in attitude within tourism that facilitates the return of captive, working elephants to a protected forest habitat. They currently run a project with hill mahouts in Thailand to oversee the return of previously captive elephants to a protected forest area while finding an alternate income stream for their mahouts. You can join their Walking With Elephants programme in Thailand to help with funding this.

WFFT Thai Elephant Refuge, near Hua Hin
Wildlife Friends Foundation Trust takes an active stance against elephant exploitation. They offer a meet, greet and feeding experience with no bathing or riding etc.

Boon Lott's Elephant Sanctuary (BLES), Sukhothai
All profits from this sanctuary are reinvested into elephant conservation. Guest numbers are kept low and elephant welfare is put first.

Kanta Elephant Sanctuary, Chiang Mai
We have tentatively added Kanta to our list of sanctuaries we support in 2023, as we can find nothing online to give us concern. Retired elephants, rescued from the tourism and logging industries, are able to roam freely while visitors can help feed and bathe them. We would be very interested to learn the first-hand opinions of any travellers who have visited and seen the sanctuary for themselves.

Samui Elephant Sanctuary, Koh Samui
This multi award-winning elephant sanctuary on Koh Samui has opened a second site in Chaweng Noi. Putting the elephants’ welfare first, they do not permit bathing them so as to allow the animals to behave naturally. Visitors can walk with the elephants, and take part in feeding sessions.

Laos

ElefantAsia
Described as a conservation centre ‘protecting the Asian elephant’, guests are allowed to sit on the elephants and go on longer treks with a howdah-style contraption for carrying luggage.

Elephant Village Sanctuary and Resort, Luang Prabang
Elephant Village now claims to have stopped all forms of elephant riding, though it seems that it will still be offered for visits booked before this decision was made. We are waiting for independent confirmation of this change.

Manifa Elephant camp This camp offers mahout experience programs where riding on the elephant is permitted.

Thailand

Elephant Mahout Project, Pattaya
Offers 'volunteer' placements where participants learn to ride the elephants like a mahout. Update: we believe this has now closed.

Thai Elephant Home, Chiang Mai
Offers an ‘own an elephant for the day’ experience which includes riding your ‘own’ elephant. It also operates a captive breeding programme, and visitors are invited to ‘play’ with the baby elephants. Habituating them in this way ensures they cannot be returned to the wild.

Chiang Dao Elephant camp, Chiang Mai
Training young elephants to paint and perform. Buys and breeds elephants, which are then trained to perform and kept in captivity permanently.

Patara Elephant Farm, Chiang Mai
An elephant breeding farm which offers rides . The babies are bred to be kept in captivity.

Maesa Elephant Camp
Maesa is now under new management and it looks as though significant changes have been made. According to their website elephants are no longer chained, giving them complete freedom of movement, and mahouts do not ride them or use the hook to control them. We are waiting for independent confirmation of these changes, and that ‘elephant performances’ no longer take place, before moving Maesa off this list.

Elephant Stay, Royal Elephant Kraal Village, Ayutthaya
A tourist focused 'working elephant village', visitors are given branded t-shirts, ride elephants as part of learning to be a mahout, and pose for photos with elephants.

Thai Elephant Conservation Center, Lampang
Not to be confused with the hospital, this is a separate, government owned elephant camp with daily elephant shows and rides.

Surin Elephant Round-up
This festival has been reported for its abuses of elephants including getting them to perform tricks for tourists, engage in mock battles and an 'elephant buffet'.

BMP Elephant Care project
The elephants here reportedly don't live on site but are in fact rented and brought to the camp daily. When not in the camp they are being used for riding, trekking and shows elsewhere. There have also been multiple reports of cruel behaviour at the hands of the people looking after them as well as of grown adults sitting on baby elephants for photo opportunities.

Anantara Golden Triangle Camp
This luxury hotel has an onsite elephant camp/mahout village. It does not offer rides, but instead organises various experiences with the elephants, including dinner, picnics and sunset tours.

Elephant Jungle Sanctuary (EJS)
We’re hoping for more information on this Chiang Mai sanctuary before we can recommend visiting. We are unclear on where their elephants come from, but their website features several photos of babies, making us suspicious that they are being bred in captivity for tourism rather than genuinely rescued. If that is the case, then we are also concerned that for elephants to be safe around humans for activities such as bathing, they must have their ‘spirit broken’ which often involves very cruel practises. If you visit, please let us know your impressions especially around where their elephants may be coming from. They also have sanctuaries in Phuket, Pattaya and Koh Samui which we are similarly interested in.