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When we traveled to Chiang Mai, Phil and I really wanted to spend a day with elephants as it was a must do activity when visiting northern Thailand. We heard mixed stories on the elephant sanctuaries in Chiang Mai. From some, elephant camps were tourist traps, while from others, we heard that the elephant camps were a wonderful once in a lifetime experience. We didn’t want to ride the elephants and we didn’t want to support a place that treated its elephants poorly. But, if I could, I wanted to get that up close and personal experience with these magnificent creatures.

There were so many organizations to choose from with different experiences and different pricing, but a good friend recommended Happy Elephant Home, which had reasonably priced experiences where guests feed, care for, and bathe the elephants. It was a wonderful experience and totally worth it to spend a full day with these beautiful elephants. Keep reading to learn more about experience.

We started out the morning by feeding the elephants to get to know them a little bit better – they loved snacking on the bananas and sugar cane!

Then we got ready for our day with some colorful outfits which kept us relatively clean and protected us from the sun. We were also given totes to carry around more treats for the elephants.

Once we were outfitted appropriately and given the introduction and run down of the day, we ventured out to the mud baths, which to be honest, became the elephants’ toilet hole. While most of our group jumped right into the mud hole playing with the elephants, Phil and I hesitated. I only put my feet into the mud and gave the largest elephant on the farm a good mud scrub, but Phil refused to enter entirely.

After the mud bath, we washed up and had a light lunch at the main house. It was fun getting to know some of the people in our group.

After lunch, we visited a sugar cane farm where we learned how to cut fresh sugar cane for the elephants. Believe me when I say that it’s hard work hacking sugar cane! We all took turns cutting and peeling the sugar cane and my hands were aching by the time I worked through just one.

With extra sugar cane in hand, we headed down a trail to the river to give the elephants a bath. The river became the elephants’ second toilet hole, but this time, we were much more willingly to jump in because at least in the river, there was a current (we just tried to stay upstream).

While the others attended to the two younger elephants who were much more playful, I fell in love with one of the larger elephants on the farm who was about 20 years old. She used to work in the circus and had a large scar from her training days. She moved slowly, but she was so graceful.

Our experience at Happy Elephant Home was pretty great and we highly recommend a visit if you’re in Chiang Mai!

Check out our little video at Happy Elephant Home here.