Elephant Save & Care Program Walk at a Retirement Park Phuket

The Elephant Retirement Park and the Save and Care Idea

The park sits in the green countryside of Phuket and gives a retirement to elephants that spent years hauling logs, carrying riders or performing. Thailand's ban on commercial logging in 1989 left many working elephants and their mahouts without income, and parks like this one replace riding with care-based visits whose fees pay for food, vet treatment and keepers. Each elephant here eats well over 100 kilograms of food a day, so every visitor's basket genuinely helps.

Your visit opens with a short talk on elephant behaviour and the save and care program: how elephants communicate, how to approach them safely, and how the mahouts build trust with each animal. It is a good introduction for children and first-time visitors alike. Is an elephant care program in Phuket worth it? If you want to do more than watch, and to understand why welfare matters, this format gives you both.

Preparing Food and Hand-Feeding

Next you help prepare the elephants' meal, filling baskets with bananas, sugar cane, cucumber and corn, then walk around the park to feed them by hand. The elephants know the routine well and reach out with their trunks long before you arrive, which makes for wonderful photos and a lot of laughter. This part lasts about 50 minutes.

While they eat, the guide tells the background of each elephant: where it worked, how it came to the park, and the quirks of its personality. Some are calm and patient, others greedy and playful. Feeding them yourself is the best way to feel the size and gentleness of an Asian elephant up close, always with a mahout beside you to guide the contact.

Herbal Mud Spa and Natural Pool Bath

After feeding comes the spa. You help mix a special herbal mud and spread it over the elephants' skin, then shower them off. The mud cools their bodies in the tropical heat, protects them from sun and insects and helps small scratches and dry skin to heal, which is why wild elephants roll in mud whenever they can. This part takes about 40 minutes and you will get muddy.

Then you walk with the elephants to a natural water pool, step in and learn how to brush their skin so they relax, while the guide talks about elephants and water: how much they drink, how they cool off and why they love to swim. Elephant bathing in Phuket is the moment most guests treasure, so keep swimwear on and a dry change of clothes ready for afterwards.

Lunch, Sessions and Practical Tips

The visit includes a lunch box of Pad Thai, the classic stir-fried rice noodles with egg, tofu, bean sprouts and peanuts, with seasonal fruit. In the morning session you eat at the end, around 11:00 after starting at 09:00; in the midday session lunch comes first, around 13:00, before the activities. Allow about three and a half hours in total, including roughly an hour and a half of transfers.

Pickup for the morning session is between 07:30 and 08:30, and for the midday session between 11:30 and 12:30, depending on your hotel area. The morning is cooler and the elephants are livelier; the afternoon suits late risers. The best time to visit is the dry season from November to April, though the program runs year-round. Bring swimwear, a towel, flip-flops, a hat, sunscreen and any personal medication.