Chiang Mai/Things to do/ wildlife
A Chiang Mai elephant sanctuary
Chiang Mai has a great many elephant venues. Four clear our scoring bar, and what they have visitors do with the elephants differs more than their names suggest.
What we checked, 18 September 2026
Four Chiang Mai elephant venues with real samples clear our bar of 9.0 out of 10 and 50 reviews, and all four are listed rather than one being presented as the obvious choice. What each involves is quoted from its own listing below. A guest score measures whether visitors enjoyed their day; it is not a welfare audit, and we have not been to any of them.
Verified via. All four operators below were read off their own Klook listing pages on 18 September 2026, where the score, the review count and the programme description come from the listing itself.
Who runs it
Separate companies, listed separately. We do not average scores across operators, because the average would describe a trip you cannot book.
| Operator | Score | Reviews | From |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Elephant Home Elephant Conservation Centerklook | 5/5 (10.0/10) | 3,826 | varies by package |
| Elephant Jungle Sanctuary Chiang Mai Experienceklook | 4.8/5 (9.6/10) | 3,069 | varies by package |
| Chiang Mai Kerchor Elephant Eco Park Tourklook | 4.8/5 (9.6/10) | 2,275 | varies by package |
| Elephant Sanctuary in Chiang Mai by Elephant Dream Projectklook | 4.9/5 (9.8/10) | 340 | varies by package |
These are affiliate links. If you book through one we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It does not affect which operators clear our bar.
Chiang Mai has a great many elephant venues, and the ones we checked sell a day of feeding, walking or bathing rather than riding. Four clear our scoring bar with thousands of reviews between them. The question worth your time is not which scores best but what each one actually has you do.
In each venue’s own words, from its listing:
| Venue | Score | Reviews | What the listing says |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Elephant Home | 5.0 / 5 | 3,826 | “Enjoy preparing food for the elephants and vitamin balls” and “Walk around and see the elephants with interesting commentary from a friendly guide” |
| Elephant Jungle Sanctuary | 4.8 / 5 | 3,069 | “a revitalizing mud spa and a refreshing natural river bath”, with a separate “WATCH ME Experience - Peaceful observation” |
| Kerchor Elephant Eco Park | 4.8 / 5 | 2,275 | “you’ll feed, bathe, and play with the animals” |
| Elephant Dream Project | 4.9 / 5 | 340 | “Observe elephants in their natural habitat, watch them bathe and participate in feeding sessions” |
Reading that table. New Elephant Home describes preparing food and walking round to see the elephants, and mentions no bathing. Elephant Jungle Sanctuary sells bathing and a mud spa but also an observation-only programme, so the choice is yours at booking. Kerchor is bathing and play. Elephant Dream Project describes watching the elephants bathe in one line and visitors bathing them in another, so ask which you are getting. New Elephant Home’s listing is also marked as auto-translated, which is worth knowing when you read its wording.
On the scores. New Elephant Home reports a perfect 5.0 from 3,826 reviews, which is what the platform shows and which we publish as shown. Three of the four listings state that the venue has passed Klook’s own onsite welfare assessment. That is Klook’s assessment, not ours and not an independent one.
What we will and will not tell you. We have not been to any of these places, so we are not ranking them on welfare. What we can say is that the less a programme asks the elephants to do with strangers, the less it depends on elephants that tolerate it, and the descriptions above let you choose on that basis.
No prices here. Klook quotes in US dollars across several programmes per venue.
Best for
A day with elephants that does not involve riding them
Skip if
You are choosing on score alone. All four score well; the difference is in what the day involves for the animals
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