Thailand is one of my favourite destinations. A beautiful country that I have been fortunate enough to visit on 4 occasions. On my last visit in April 2016, I was looking for a new adventure in the Land of Smiles and having booked many clients to Elephant Hills Luxury Tented Camp in Khao Sok National Park, I knew this was now at the top of my ‘must do’ list.
I chose to do the most popular 2 night, 3 day Jungle Lake Safari so that I could experience a variety of activities. We were picked up by complimentary transfer from our hotel in Krabi and driven 3 hours through beautiful scenery to our first stop, Elephant Camp, where we were greeted with ice cold face towels. We were then taken to our tent, one of 35 at the camp… not just any tent but a luxury tent with all the mod cons.
Various activities are included in the package our first being a scenic canoe ride down the Sok River. From here it was straight onto the most eagerly anticipated part of the day…our Elephant Encounter!!!
Elephant Hills is now home to 12 female elephants who were rescued after the Thai government made logging using the giant animals illegal. Many elephants in the country were made homeless as their owners had no use for them. Elephant Hills now looks after these ladies and they lead a well-cared for life.
First we watched the elephants interact with their Mahouts, their human caretakers who look after them and build an incredible relationship with their animals. We learnt about the animals and watched 3 of them have fun in a muddy pool. It was then our turn to get up close to these wonderful creatures as we got to wash them down with hoses and scrub their skin with coconut husks. The elephants also got their turn to get us with some water, which was very welcome in the Thai sun.
Once we had cleaned up these 3 the rest of the elephants were brought to us where we chopped up a variety of food to hand feed them. It really was an amazing experience that I’ll never forget!!
It should be noted that Elephant Hills have been highly commended in the Thailand Green Excellence Awards and were the only finalist from Asia in the 2016 National Geographic World Legacy Awards for ‘conserving the natural world’
Our evening was then spent back at Elephant Camp where we watched a film about elephants, were treated to some Thai dancing and enjoyed a cookery demonstration followed by a delicious meal.
The next part of our adventure started the following morning when we waved our goodbyes to Elephant Camp and made our way via a local market to Rainforest Camp on the Cheow Larn Lake in Khao Sok National Park. Here 20 luxury safari tents float on the water in a beautiful, incredibly picturesque natural setting. These are fully furnished with hot and cold shower, a proper bed and electricity generated by solar and wind energy.
Wildlife in the area includes Gibbons, Wild Asian Ox, Macaque and one of the activities included in the package is a trek into the rainforest. We opted for a more laidback afternoon and enjoyed jumping in the refreshing lake directly from outside our tent and taking our kayaks out on the lake. The setting really is something else and it was a very enjoyable afternoon.
In the evening we enjoyed more delicious food and enjoyed the company of our fellow guests before turning in for the evening. We enjoyed a nightcap sat outside our tent and I don’t think I’ve ever seen the stars shine so brightly, as there’s no light pollution.
We were woken at daybreak by an almighty whooping noise. The whole jungle had come alive with the sound of gibbons calling to each other. We sat out to listen and watch the sunrise before having another few hours snooze.
After breakfast it was time for the final activity which was kayaking with a knowledgeable guide to show the surrounding rainforest and it’s wildlife by water.
After lunch we said a said farewell to Rainforest Camp and took our boat back to the mainland where Elephant Hills then provided a complimentary transfer to my next destination of Khao Lak.
Elephant Hills provide complimentary transfers from Krabi, Phuket, Koh Samui and Surat Thani so it’s very easy to fit into a Thai multi centre holiday. It really is an experience that I would highly recommend to anybody travelling to Thailand. The combination of the elephant interaction which is both ethical and in a small group setting, as well as enjoying time in some of the world’s most beautiful natural scenery is a definite winner.
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Have used eshores for over 12 years for bespoke holidays and can honestly say every single holiday has been faultless.. we have had the pleasure of assistance from Emma since 2014 and will continue to use them for our holiday needs.. Emma has recently just booked us flights and a car to Florida as we…
Have used EShores on 6 major holiday trips since 2023 and wouldn’t dream of using anyone else. Our travel consultant (Emma) is amazing. Nothing is too much trouble to her and she is a pleasure to deal with.
I am so pleased I found this company. I was struggling to book a touring holiday myself. Rob has been very helpful and we have now planned and booked our holiday. Thoroughly recommend.
We have just booked a twin centre trip for 2027 with eShores, we had a quick response to all our planning queries, booking was professional and friendly. Thank you
Great service by Zack, listened to what we wanted, not pushy, accommodation suggestions were realistically priced, made any changes we wanted until we got the perfect package. Very pleased!
Helpful, flexible and not pre-packaged! Holidays arranged how they should be. Matt is always super sensible to do business with and is part of a well run team.
Dealing with Michelle, she was patient polite and nothing too much trouble. All question and adapting our holiday she never appeared phased . Mixhelle is the reason I booked with Eshores she isca star and is customer aware . Brilliant Service
Very iffcient and professional
Claire at eShores has been so helpful in researching for us to ba able to book a tailor made holiday to Thailand for Jan 2027. We were looking for a bit of everything from a few days in fast paced Bangkok,sightseeing for a few days in Chiang Mai followed by a week in Phuket for…
We have used Eshores for the past 15 months since we have started travelling again and booked several holidays with them. We feel that we have our own personal travel agent ie Chris who has got to know us snd our needs. I would highly recommend this company for their personal touch, advice and excellent…
So far so good excellent service on point and fast. Delivered what we needed. Prices climbed due to flight availability so no fault of the operator. We are happy we found eshores. Booking the holiday of a lifetime 3 weeks in Mexico and Matt understood exactly what we wanted and fixed it fast. Very pleased…
Megan is 100% patient and helpful but I can't write a proper review till after our trip.
Kelly, our trip advisor was very good in changing anything we suggested to make our trip special, replied to any questions in a very short time after requesting them and always polite with any queries.
Michelle at Eshores was incredibly patient with us while we went through different options. She was very informative with different suggestions and managed to find us a holiday within our price range.
This is the first time ive used eshores and Daves help was great. We gave him an idea of our itinerary and he pulled something together really quickly. The cost was considerably cheaper than a quote we received from another company so we were delighted. Roll on June 2027
We have recently booked our third trip with eShores having used them for the first time last year to organise a mini Greek Island hopping holiday - we had a wonderful time and things went very smoothly. The Travel Consultant we were fortunate enough to first contact is Kadie and she has assisted us with…
Over the last 3 years, Kadie has booked our Thailand and Australia trips and now our New Zealand trip for 2027. She has been absolutely amazing putting together our itinerary (for 4 people with different requirements) and booking all 3 trips. She has taken all the stress out of booking flights, accommodation, transfers, car hire…
We have dealt with dave felton on many occasions, he has always been extremey helpful, giving us several choices of hotels and destinations. He will always make sure you are happy with everthing. Would highly recomend him and his team.
Recently had to cancel a holiday I had booked with Eshores. The whole process was dealt with quickly and professionally. I had my refund within 2 days. I then booked another holiday which was very last minute. Michelle found me exactly what I wanted for a very good price and I had my ticket package…
Many thanks to Emma at eshores ,her knowledge and very helpful manner were a big part of us using them as our holiday consultants.
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