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Koh Samui · rescued elephants

No riding.
Just elephants.

Four places on the island where you can visit elephants: feed them, walk alongside them, watch them get into the mud. Two of them describe themselves as retirement homes for animals taken out of logging and tourism work. None of them puts anybody on an elephant's back.

See the visitsWhy no riding
  • Picked up at your hotel
  • Two and a half hours to a full half day
  • Free cancellation until 24 hours before
Elephants at a sanctuary on Koh Samui Visitors preparing food for the elephants An elephant in the mud pool
Start here

How much elephant do you want?

The visits differ less in what you see than in how long you stay and whether you get in the water with them. That is the choice, and it is worth making before you compare prices.

  1. Feeding onlyabout two and a half hours

    Late morning at the Elephant Home in the south of the island: you help mix the food, you feed them, you watch them for a while, you go back. No bathing, no lunch. The cheapest way to stand next to an elephant on Koh Samui, and for a lot of people it is enough.

    Show the feeding visit →
  2. Walk above themshort visit, your own timing

    The Elephant Kingdom has a 400-metre skywalk you look down from while the elephants move around below. You are an observer here, not a participant. The transfer is private and optional — you can also drive yourself and just hold a ticket for a fixed feeding time.

    Show the skywalk visit →
  3. Half a dayroughly four to five hours

    Morning or afternoon, at one of three sanctuaries. Feeding, watching, and then the part everybody remembers: the elephants go into the mud and the pool. At the Elephant Home you are in the big bath with them; at the other two there is a pool and a mud area and swimwear is on the packing list. Two include a vegetarian lunch.

    Show the half-day visits →
  4. Private, with more of the islandabout five and a half hours

    Not a sanctuary visit as such: a private half-day trip on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays that takes in the Zodiac Park, the Na Muang waterfall, a viewpoint temple — and forty to fifty minutes feeding two elephants at the clinic. Priced per vehicle, in bands from two to nine people.

    Show the private trip →
The four places

Which sanctuary is which

They are genuinely different, and the names do not help — three of them contain the word "elephant" and little else. What actually differs is where on the island they are, what the visit includes, and whether there is food for you as well as for them.

Elephant HomeSouth of the island
What you do
Feeding on the short visit; on the half day also the bath and the mud pool.
Food for you
Snacks and soft drinks, no lunch.
Worth knowing
Works with veterinarians and Department of Livestock Development officers, and plans what would be the island's first elephant hospital.
See visits →
Elephant Sanctuary SamuiBophut, east
What you do
Feeding, walking with them, pool and mud area.
Food for you
Vegetarian lunch on the grounds, soft drinks.
Worth knowing
Ten hectares of jungle land, set up as a retirement home for elephants taken out of logging and tourism work.
See visit →
Elephant HavenSouth of the island
What you do
Feeding, watching, then the mud pit and the purpose-built pool.
Food for you
Vegetarian meal in a small restaurant on site, soft drinks.
Worth knowing
Quiet and deliberately low-key — the programme describes itself as the opposite of animal shows.
See visit →
Elephant KingdomSouth, with the skywalk
What you do
Walk the 400-metre skywalk and watch from above. No feeding programme.
Food for you
Nothing included.
Worth knowing
Focus is veterinary care for captive elephants. Feeding times are fixed, which is why the ticket is sold in advance.
See visit →

We arrange these visits and are your contact if anything changes; the sanctuaries themselves are run by local operators. What this page says about them is what their own programmes say — we have not inspected or certified anything, and we won't pretend otherwise.

Elephant visits on Koh Samui

Elephant sanctuaries on Koh Samui — visiting without riding

Koh Samui has four places where you can visit elephants: the Elephant Home and Elephant Haven in the south, the Elephant Sanctuary Samui near Bophut in the east, and the Elephant Kingdom with its 400-metre skywalk. All of them take in animals that previously worked in the logging industry or in tourism, and none of the visits on this page involves riding. Depending on the sanctuary you help prepare the food, feed the elephants by hand, walk alongside them and watch them use the mud pit and the pool; at two of them you can get into the water with them.

Visits run from a short feeding session of about two and a half hours to a half day of roughly four to five hours, with hotel pickup on Koh Samui and a guide included. Two of the half-day programmes include a vegetarian lunch. There is also one private half-day trip that combines elephant feeding with the Zodiac Park, the Na Muang waterfall and a viewpoint temple. Every visit listed here can be cancelled free of charge up to 24 hours before the date, and bookings close at 23:59 two days ahead, Thailand time.