Chai Lai Orchid Elephant Sanctuary

Elephant Sanctuary:

Address: 202 หมู่ที่ 9 Mae Win, Mae Wang District, Chiang Mai 50360, Thailand

Website: https://www.chailaiorchid.com/

Thailand was a BLAST! One of our stops while in Chiang Mai was the Chai Lai Orchid Elephant Sanctuary. We had an amazing time and most importantly, they treat their elephants ethically!

I would highly recommend visiting a sanctuary that has a good reputation. Look for sanctuaries that have ethical practices and avoid the ones that don’t. Our group wanted to ride the elephants (which I would not recommend), and this sanctuary offered bareback rides (the only way you should ever ride an elephant outside of not riding them at all!). Plus, as an added bonus our money went towards elephant conservation. We were very pleased with how the elephants were treated.

We started off our tour on a scenic ride to the sanctuary. Upon arrival, we had to brave the suspension bridge to get over to the elephants.

Included in the price of admission is a bamboo raft ride! After a quick trip to another part of the sanctuary, we went on a scenic, peaceful, bamboo raft water ride.

Our bamboo ride brought us back to the sanctuary and that’s where we got to get up close and personal to the elephants. It was an amazing experience 10/10 would recommend.