A new type of fun activity with elephants that is environmentally friendly and promotes a good life. It is ideal for your first day in Chiang Mai to sample some of the delights and attractions Chiang Mai has to offer.

The day will start with a visit to the Mae Sa Elephant Camp to learn about the elephant’s body with the aid of a skeleton. Walk in the forest with the elephants, and observe them in the stream or playing.

Here, you can choose a full-day or half-day activity program through the natural forested slopes in the Mae Sa Valley. It is an ideal area for elephants. There is a forest, grass fields, a stream, and several mud pits.

About Mae Sa Elephant Camp

Mae Sa Elephant Camp was renamed The Chang Chiang Mai in 2019. It is home to 14 elephants, mostly elderly, but with some younger ones too.

Visiting has to be by appointment only, and you must reserve either a full-day or half-day activity program. The programs are fun as well as educational. You can learn about the herbs that are used in medicine.

In 2020, businesses were closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so it would be an appropriate date to end elephant rides and the elephant show.

As land within the camp area is made available, more elephants can be moved to enjoy their lives free from chains.

The majority of the elephants still at Maesa Elephant Camp get to spend their days with their mahouts and find food in the jungle above the camp area.

No ride, no show is good to do?

For me, this is a place that has long been a good spot for elephant tourism and entertainment. Although the area will impact the communities downstream of the Mae Sa Waterfall.

As for the elephant ride and elephant show, I think they can and should be encouraged. So that the elephants can be grouped in the same area, and receive health care and good food.

The greater impact is the separation of elephants into private or small group activities at small elephant camps. Because elephants are social animals that live in large herds, there is a kinship hierarchy. They are taking care of each other.

Don’t be stuck by the fact that not having a show or sitting on an elephant will help them. If it truly helps, it’s by finding enough natural space and food. And there is no elephant camp for tourists.

How do you plan a day trip?

If you like elephants, book it for a full day. Pick-up from your hotel between 08:00 and 08:30 and return at 16:00, it’s good.

A full-day program Code: TCCM/FD
Adult: 3,500 THB
Child: 2,500 THB (4–8 years, under 4 years, no charge.)

Combine with a half-day other

If you have anything else to do in the afternoon, spend half a day here in the morning from 9:00 a.m. to noon and then go to another place nearby, i.e., Dantawada, a fantastic waterfall, or Wat Baan Den, the mixed major pagodas in Thailand.

Program Code: TCCM/HD
Adult: 2,000 THB
Child: 1,000 THB (4–8 years, under 4 years, no charge.)

Combined a half-day afternoon mini adventure at the sticky waterfall. If you want to do a full elephant package, move to 1 day Mae Taeng Elephant Park and Clinic. For more information on planning a day trip in Chiang Mai as a guideline, see the route here.