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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
Feeding an elephant by hand Why no ridingThe short version: an elephant's back is the wrong place for a saddle. An elephant in the mud pool What to bringSwimwear, clothes you don't care about, and a camera that survives water. The 400-metre skywalk above the elephants Watch from above400 metres of skywalk. No water, no contact, no queue. Elephants on the grounds of a sanctuary The usual questionsLunch, children, cancelling, and whether you really get in the water.

One rule decides everything on this page. If riding is on a camp's price list, nothing else in its description counts for much. On all four places here, it isn't — two of them say so in capitals in their own programme.

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. You mix the food, you feed them, you watch. No bathing, no lunch. For a lot of people that is enough.

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

    You look down from a 400-metre walkway while the elephants move below. An observer, not a participant. Transfer is optional — you can drive yourself and just hold a ticket.

    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: mud and water. Two of the three include a vegetarian lunch.

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

    Half a day by private vehicle, Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Zodiac Park, the Na Muang waterfall, a viewpoint temple — and forty minutes feeding two elephants at the clinic. Priced per vehicle.

    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
Duration
2,5 h or half a day
You do
Feed · bathe · mud pool
You eat
Snacks, no lunch
Worth knowing
Vets and Livestock Development officers on site. Plans the island’s first elephant hospital.
See visits →
Elephant Sanctuary SamuiBophut, east
Duration
about 4–5 h
You do
Feed · walk along · pool and mud
You eat
Vegetarian lunch
Worth knowing
Ten hectares of jungle. A retirement home for elephants out of logging and tourism.
See visit →
Elephant HavenSouth of the island
Duration
about 4–5 h
You do
Feed · watch · mud pit and pool
You eat
Vegetarian meal on site
Worth knowing
Quiet on purpose. Its own programme calls it the opposite of an animal show.
See visit →
Elephant KingdomSouth, with the skywalk
Duration
short, your own timing
You do
400 m skywalk, watch from above
You eat
Nothing included
Worth knowing
Veterinary care for captive elephants. Feeding times are fixed, so the ticket is sold ahead.
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

The four places

Elephant Home and Elephant Haven in the south, Elephant Sanctuary Samui near Bophut in the east, and Elephant Kingdom with its 400-metre skywalk. All of them take in animals that previously worked in logging or in tourism.

What a visit involves

Helping prepare the food, feeding by hand, walking alongside them, watching them use the mud pit and the pool. At two of them you get into the water with them. At none of them is there riding.

How long it takes

From a feeding session of about two and a half hours to a half day of roughly four to five. Hotel pickup on Koh Samui and a guide are included; two half-day programmes include a vegetarian lunch.

The private option

One private half-day trip combines elephant feeding at the clinic with the Zodiac Park, the Na Muang waterfall and a viewpoint temple. It runs on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

Booking and cancelling

Every visit here can be cancelled free of charge up to 24 hours before the date. Bookings close at 23:59 two days ahead, Thailand time.