Half-Day Elephant Safari in Kui Buri National Park
The reserve is widely renowned as the best place in Thailand for spotting wild elephants and gaurs. To give you the best experience, this tour provides a perfect mix of wildlife tracking and enjoying the natural scenery—featuring an open-air safari drive, and stops at key wildlife viewing areas.
At a Glance
Booking Tip: As we have a limited number of specialist wildlife guides, booking well in advance is highly recommended to secure a guide for your preferred date.
Detailed Day Itinerary
Meet up & Registration
Tour starts at the elephant observatory site in Kui Buri after registration and getting assigned an open-air vehicle.
Wildlife Tracking
The tour will begin by driving slowly into the reserve on the main dirt road north heading to the main grassland areas. While driving slowly, we will search for any wildlife including birds or any other smaller/bigger animals.
Elephant Viewing Area
Our first stop will be a viewing area where we leave the vehicle in hope to spot wildlife, mainly elephants.
Gaur Viewing Area
We will later on continue to the next viewing area at the end of the road, best known for spotting gaurs, but also elephants and sometimes bantengs.
Tour ends
The tour continues until 5:30 to 6:00 pm in the park, ends at the elephant observatory site.
Where & When?
Kui Buri National Park lies about 1.5 hours driving distance from Hua Hin and nearly 4 hours from Bangkok. We can offer private transfers from Bangkok, Hua Hin or other destinations. The park is open all year round.
What to Pack & Preparation Tips
- Attire: Lightweight, breathable clothing in neutral or muted colors is recommended to blend in with the environment and protect against the sun and insects.
- Sun & Insect Protection: Mosquito repellent, sunscreen, sunglasses, and a hat.
- Gear: A camera or binoculars are highly recommended for observing elephants and gaurs from a distance.
How much?
All rates are per person in Thai Baht (THB) for a completely private group.
| Pax | Rate per person |
|---|---|
| 1 | 4,700 THB |
| 2 | 2,600 THB |
| 3 | 1,900 THB |
| 4 | 1,600 THB |
| 5 | 1,400 THB |
| 6 | 1,300 THB |
Reviews from our guests
By: Donatas | posted Sun 30 Mar, 2025
The tour was amazing. Our guide was so sweet. They never gave up on trying to find one right up untill the last minute. We could all see that the staff is really pationate about their jobs. Would recommend to anyone.
By: Joe Stretton | posted Fri 21 Mar, 2025
We had an amazing time on Kui Buri half day safari.
Our guide, Som, was informative, helpful, and maybe most importantly, has a great eye for spotting wildlife!
We saw many elephants and gaur. Some from a distance, some a little closer, but all was amazing.
Booking the tour was straightforward and the provider was extremely helpful to us.
Overall an amazing experience we’ll remember forever, thanks!
By: Johannes Ehsan Fischer | posted Sun 16 Mar, 2025
Great guide, she knew very much about the wildlife and was very well prepared. Unfortunately, we just saw one elephant. But that's the risk of nature. Had a great time!
By: Dirk Raes | posted Tue 4 Mar, 2025
Despite the rain, we were able to spot 8 Elephants.
Also a group of Goars and a Hornbill.
Our guide Son was very friendly and we had a good time.
By: Elizabeth W | posted Tue 25 Feb, 2025
We loved our private elephant safari at Kui Buri. The guide was so knowledgeable and shared to much information with us. We are avid birders and plant lovers. The guide not only answered all of our questions about the elephants and guar, but also about the other birds and plant life we saw in the park. The park itself is beautiful, and seeing elephants in their natural habitat was a very moving experience. I can't recommend this experience enough to others, it was the highlight of our trip to Thailand!
By: Michael Gouldsmith | posted Sun 19 Jan, 2025
We were very lucky to see 2 separate herds of elephants and enjoyed the experience.
However, the advertising for the tour mentions other animals which are not in the park area - especially in the dry season. This should be explained on the website
> Tour operator's response
Dear Michael,
We're glad to hear you enjoyed the trip.
I am sorry to hear you had expectations of certain animals that are not to be found in the accessible area.
On the tour package page we mention: Elephants, Gaur, Sambar Deer, Wild Boar and Banteng. All of which have been seen on our tours. Surely, the most commonly seen species are the elephants (>95% of the tours) and the Gaur (~90% of the tours), and the other species are less common, but they are certainly present. And there is more than what is mentioned, like occasional sightings of Golden Jackal, Stump-tailed Macaques, Hog Deer (introduced), Red Muntjac, quite some years ago one of our guides even had the extreme fortune to see an Asiatic Golden Cat. The park rangers have even seen tiger in the elephant observation area many years ago, but unfortunately in the past 10 years there have been no tiger records even on camera trap records until very recently when a tiger known from the Kaeng Krachan forest complex was camera trapped in Kui Buri again after many years of no records at all. But even though theoretically there would be a chance to see such rare animals, we would never advertise that on the tour page because it is not in our advantage to set high expectations for something that with near certainty cannot be delivered. But the tour is sold as an elephant safari because with >95% success rates it is as close as it gets to guarantees of wildlife sightings. The elephants are the primary target of the trips. Although in the communication prior to the booking, we always warn that there is no guarantee for elephants either. It's wildlife after all.
Perhaps you've looked at the wildlife list that is mentioned for the entirety of the Kui Buri national park, then yes there are plenty of species on there which are not in the area of the park that is open to visitors. The ThaiNationalParks.com platform records all wildlife observation in the parks (and also outside protected areas). That includes all habitats in the park, not just the elephant observation area. But nowhere is claimed that those can be seen on the tours. We don't own the ThaiNationalParks.com page, we are just a tour operator partner of a number of the tour packages on this web platform.
But the ThaiNationalparks.com platform is a lot more than just a place for booking tours. It is first and foremost a platform sharing information about many of the national parks in Thailand, how to visit etc.
Hopefully the disappointment of the lack of certain species didn't spoil the trip too much for you.
Thank you for your feedback.
By: Gail Cochrane | posted Mon 13 Jan, 2025
This is the second time I have booked a visit and it was again a wonderful experience.
The last time we saw 2 elephants, that was fantastic to see.
I didn't have high expectations to see more this trip, but we were very fortunate to see a full herd of about 20 individuals - including a very young baby.
We were able to watch them for over 30 minutes as the herd amble by eating as they went.
Our driver, guide and wildlife spotter were fantastic again ( I was happy to see we had the same escorts as last time).
It is a visit I would recommend most people visitors do - but remember this is not a zoo and you will not be guaranteed to see everything every time !
> Tour operator's response
Dear Gail,
Thank you for joining our tour again.
And great to hear you saw a big herd of elephants this time.
You are right it is never guaranteed. Since April 2023 (even though we have been running these trips for many years prior to that) we have started to collect statistics of the elephant and gaur sightings in Kui Buri on our trips.
Up until now the percentage of successful trips on which elephants have been seen, is 96.7%. For Gaur the percentage is a bit lower, currently at 91.7%. Unlike your previous trip, you were not lucky this time to see Gaur, if I've been informed correctly. January seems to be the least productive month for Gaur with only about 70+% of the trips being successful. In October it has so far been 100%.
Thanks again for joining us.
By: Fiona | posted Tue 7 Jan, 2025
We had an enjoyable afternoon with your knowledgeable guide Som. The lift you organised for us was on time and we had a courteous driver.
By: Christopher Campese | posted Mon 6 Jan, 2025
We had an incredible experience seeing elephants and guars. Our guide was extremely knowledgeable, friendly and informative. Her English was also fantastic, which made it easy for us to understand. We saw many elephants, including, babies. We really loved this experience.
By: Karina | posted Mon 6 Jan, 2025
Nice Tour
