Private Tour | 1-day wildlife tour with night safari in Khao Yai
Why?
Besides what a 1 day tour offers, combining one day tour with a night safari well after the dark will give you a chance to see both diurnal and nocturnal wildlife of Khao Yai National Park.
What?
A 1-day tour will start in the morning and end well after the dark. Activities include hiking in the jungle, safari driving among the roads in search of elephants and other exciting animals, safari drives in the morning and later afternoon, visiting a viewpoint and one of Khao Yai's impressive waterfalls and finally ending the day with a night safari.
Itinerary
The itinerary below is just an example and can easily be turned upside down due to the length of different activities. We adapt to mother nature and customers' interests.
We will meet you at your hotel or other pick-up location we agreed on.
The tour always starts around 8 to 8:30 am with a slow drive through jungle and grasslands in search of wildlife. Once we arrive at the first hiking point we continue the trip in the rain forest between huge trees in search of any type of animal.
After lunch the first stop will be Haew Suwat Waterfall, known from Leonardio Di Caprio's "The Beach" movie, possibly continuing the tour to one of the best viewpoints of the national park. Last couple of hours before dinner will be an ideal time for searching for elephants.
After the dinner break our tour will end with a night safari in search of nocturnal wildlife, thereafter you will be returned to your hotel or other location we agreed on around 8 to 9 pm.
Where & when?
Khao Yai National Park is around 2.5 hours from Bangkok, easily accessible with public transportation with minivans being the fastest way. Our private guides will meet you in your hotel in Pak Chong -which is the nearest city- or anywhere between Pak Chong and Khao Yai National Park.
We can arrange a taxi from Bangkok on request. It takes 2.5 hours, it costs 2,200 Baht one way or 3,200 Baht for a round trip within the same day.
The park is open and accessible all year round but for night safaris we strongly recommend to avoid week-ends and public holidays when there are too many vehicles on the roads, reducing the chance to see animals significantly. The weather can be pretty cool during the cold season around November to February, so a sweater is a must!
Important note
Please confirm with us before booking a hotel in Khao Yai area as we don't offer pickup if your hotel is too far away. Or because some hotel owners don't like their guests to be picked up by tour operators.
Tour details in short:
- Duration: 1 day(s)
- Type: Private tour
- Price: 1,900 - 6,400 Baht per person
- Group size: 1 or more people
- Grade: Easy to moderate
- Transport: Safari vehicle
- Start: 8 - 8:30 am
- End: 8 - 9 pm
What to bring:
- Long trousers
- Rain clothing
- Sweater or light jacket
- Hiking or sport shoes
- Insect repellent
- Sunblock lotion
How much?
You'll be accompanied by a private guide and no other people will join you; the best way to explore nature! Our tours are all-inclusive except for the accommodation.
| Pax | Rate per person |
|---|---|
| 1 | 6,400 THB |
| 2 | 3,500 THB |
| 3 | 2,900 THB |
| 4 | 2,600 THB |
| 5 | 2,300 THB |
| 6 | 2,100 THB |
| 7 | 2,000 THB |
| 8 and up | 1,900 THB |
Tour rates include:
- Entrance fees
- English speaking guide
- Transportation from/to hotel or other meeting point
- Lunch & dinner
- Snacks & fruit
- Drinking water
- Leech protection socks
Reviews from our guests
By: Joanne Chan | posted Mon 20 Mar, 2023
Our guide, Lek, is clearly one notch above the rest! We were waiting for the appearance of a herd of wild elephants at the Khao Yai National Park alongside a small group of other tour guides and tourists when Lek took the initiative to enter the trails to attempt to track them. He concluded they were not in that area but further up the road on their way to the salt lake. So he drove my husband and I to that area, where we stopped, got off the car, and listened for signs. We could hear them moving about inside the jungle and they appeared on the road after 10 mins! He is obviously passionate and super knowledgeable about animals and their habits.
By: Lovinglife_withmisha | posted Fri 17 Mar, 2023
We had an outstanding experience in the Khao Yai national park. We booked the one day + night safari tour and saw soo many animals, learnt so many new information about the species living in the park thanks to our very knowledgable guide. We truly had a blast, it is worth the cost! We were quite tired after the full day, so next time we might skip the night safari.
By: Aoi Kosugi | posted Wed 1 Mar, 2023
It was wonderful experience for us, we really enjoyed this tour.
Our guide, Rickey(I’m not sure his name spelling) is kindly and knowledgeable.
I wonder why he could find many animals so quickly!
Fortunately, we met elephant, great hornbill, White-handed gibbon, Finlayson's squirrel(maybe), Malayan porcupine, deer, jackal, and many colorful birds. We appreciate this luck and thank you Rickey!
I feel good enough about all this tour (great guide, wonderful nature, pretty animals, good meal). I recomend this tour when you visit Bangkok.
By: Daniel | posted Sat 25 Feb, 2023
This Was the most fantastic day! The whole experience was wonderful. The lovely tour guide arrived early, he was very very knowledgable and interesting. He knew all the information and answer's to the countless questions we had about the wildlife, the forest and everything in between. The restaurant, food and staff were divine. Everything about this day was wonderful. We highly recommend this tour for the money, time, information and food! A must do if you visit Thailand. Plus it is just the most beautiful place!
By: Ravindra Potnuru | posted Wed 28 Dec, 2022
Jum was a great host and we got to see lots of animals. The night safari was a bit disappointing though.
> Ravindra Potnuru
Food was also really great!
> Tour operator's response
Dear Ravindra,
Thank you for your review.
About the night safari, it is indeed a bit hit and miss. It is for that reason that in our first message to you we wrote the following:
"Before booking a tour with a night safari, please read our post on why the quality of the night safaris varies and why we have no influence on how this activity is carried out."
And included a link to a post with further explanation.
Unfortunately the quality is out of our hands for that particular activity.
Thank you for booking with us.
By: Hannah H | posted Wed 16 Nov, 2022
We had an amazing day with Lek touring the national park. Picked us up promptly on time. We saw elephants, gibbons, monitor lizards, deer, jackals, hornbills, and more! Lek was extremely knowledgeable about the park and the animals. We had the most amazing lunch, we are vegetarian and he was easily able to accommodate. We did the night safari as well and I wouldnt really recommend it. It is only a 40 minute tour, but adds on a few hours for dinner and transport back. We didn't see much, it was very cold, and we were already exhausted by that point, going home would have been nicer. Overall would highly recommend for a day trip, it was a magical day!
> Tour operator's response
Thanks Hannah for the nice words!
Unfortunately national park regulations restrict us with the night safaris. We are required to use the national park staff vehicles with park staff drivers and assistants which is one reason we have virtually no control over this part of the tour. They have to follow the standard route and time frame. Extending it, is unfortunately not an option.
It is unfortunate that the national park authorities/staff not fully understand how to properly execute a night drive.
We like to believe we could provide a higher quality service if our own guides would be allowed to drive and spotlight by themselves, just like they have full control over the daytime activities of the trip without interference of national park staff. But unfortunately the regulations do not allow us. Despite these complications we have decided to keep this activity in some of our tour packages because it offers the rare opportunity (in Thailand at least) to see some nocturnal wildlife. But just like in daytime, it requires luck. Some night drives are great, other times it turns up very little. But that can also be said about any other activity during the day. Some jungle walks are very productive, next time the same walk may reveal very little.
It is unfortunate it didn't turn out to be productive for you.
Thanks for booking with us!
By: Laura | posted Fri 4 Nov, 2022
Loved our tour! The guide was very knowledgeable and spotted so many animals we otherwise would have missed. Thanks!
By: Anna | posted Thu 27 Oct, 2022
Excellent tour and guide who did his outmost to make sure we were comfortable and got to see as many animals as possible. I also very much recommend doing the night Safari also!
By: Susie | posted Wed 12 Oct, 2022
We booked a tour for seven of us, and we all had the best time. Our guide was amazing - she was so knowledgeable, so helpful and took such good care of us (we weren't leaving the park until we saw elephants, and our guide did not disappoint us!).
Thank you so much!
> Tour operator's response
Dear Susie,
Thank you for your kind review.
And good to hear luck was on your side with seeing wild elephants.
Thank you for booking with us.
By: Doreen Lee | posted Sun 4 Sep, 2022
Our guide, Lek? (not sure the spelling of his name), arrived punctually to meet us at our accommodation, and was really friendly to us.
He was knowledgeable about the different animals we saw and also was patient with my friend and me throughout the day. We might not have told him we weren't avid hikers and so our hiking speed was rather slow, but he adapted to our speed. We were well taken care of with plenty of water provided, and he happily answered any questions about the national park. He made sure we covered all the important features such as the waterfall, hiking through the forest noticing wild gibbons, squirrels and wildlife along the way. We managed to avoid the rain for the most part of the hike and only was caught in it once we got out of the forest.
He gave us plenty of time for us to roam to take photos of wherever along the road we fancied. He brought standing binoculars and a camera with him whenever he saw a reptile or an animal far away as we did not bring binoculars with us.
For the night safari, we were fortunate that it was not raining and managed to see porcupines and golden jackals in the night.
Although there were no wild elephants sighted, the trip was worth it for we hiked through the forest and heard the flight of hornbills, macaques swinging from trees, a black giant squirrel and deers.
It was a fruitful and memorable experience and both of us enjoyed it immensely.