Kui Buri elephant safari, half day
Kui Buri National Park is known to be the best place in Thailand to spot elephants and relatively good chanse to spot gaurs, and that sometimes in big herds. Gaurs are the biggest cattle species and the fourth biggest land-mammal species in the world. Other possible sightings during the tours include sambar deer, banteng and wild boar.
What?
Due to strict regulations this half-day wildlife safari tour doesn't include any hiking activities apart from leaving the vehicle for short walks to viewing areas, we will only be allowed to do safari driving. During our tour we scan the forest edges on grassland areas known to be prime elephant habitat in hope to see mainly elephants and/or gaurs.
Tour itinerary
From 2:30 p.m. till 6 p.m.
Wildlife tours in Kui Buri National Park are strickly regulated and limited to certain hours. After a mandatory registration we will get assigned an open-air vehicle with driver and an assistant. 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 other smaller as well as bigger animals. Our first stop will be a viewing area where we leave the vehicle in hope to spot wildlife, mainly elephants. 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.
During the tour, your guide will give you information about the habitat, wildlife and history of the park.
The type of assigned vehicles is open-air pick-up truck driven by locals. It is the Kui Buri National Park's policy to let locals do the driving, a policy that showed to be a success in reducing the poaching in the park.
Where & When?
Kui Buri National Park lies at about 1.5 hours driving 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.
How much?
These half-day safaris are private tours, please send an inquiry for rates.
| Group size | Rate per person |
|---|---|
| 1 | 3,500 THB |
| 2 | 2,000 THB |
| 3 | 1,600 THB |
| 4 | 1,300 THB |
| 5 | 1,200 THB |
| 6 | 1,150 THB |
| 7 | 1,100 THB |
| 8 | 1,050 THB |
Tour rates include:
- Entrance fees
- English speaking guide
- Drinking water
Reviews from our guests
We appreciate your feedback after the tour when booking with us.
About: Kui Buri elephant safari, half day
By: Delphine Millet, France | posted Sat 18 Aug, 2018
The guide was excellent, thank you very much for this amazing experience with nature.
About: Kui Buri elephant safari, half day
By: Svend Ulstrup, Denmark | posted Mon 9 Apr, 2018
Perfect Day. Felt very welcone, Nice guide full of exceiting information. We had a wonderful Day where we Saw a lot of Wild Elephants
About: Kui Buri elephant safari, half day
By: Chloé Deloos, France | posted Mon 26 Mar, 2018
The tour in Kui Buri was perfect! Ton has organized the taxi from Bangkok, the safari and the accommodation in Kui Buri. The place was wonferful and quiet.
The guides were very nice and very professional! We have seen several elephants.
Thank you for this amazing experience!
About: Kui Buri elephant safari, half day
By: Marta Glogowska, Poland | posted Sat 17 Mar, 2018
Visiting Kui Buri National Park with our 2 kids (1 year and 3 years) was an amazing experience and definitely highlight of our holiday in Thailand. Our guide was very knowledgeable and patient with spotting animals. In fact, we believe that he was the reason why we were able to see 10 elephants and several other animals during our trip. Additionally we highly assess their flexibility. They knew that we’re family with little kids so they sugessted we can make our trip shorter as March tends to be hot and animals would probably show up only later in the afternoon. This way we saved our kids an hour waiting in the sun while still saw many animals. Our kids were crazy about this trip!
Tour operator's response
Thanks Marta for your kind words.
Good to hear you and your kids enjoyed the trip in Kui Buri.
About: Kui Buri elephant safari, half day
By: Tanel, Estonia | posted Sun 4 Mar, 2018
Nice trip. Excellent guides who noticed hidden animals in the forest. We saw few elefants and several different birds.
About: Kui Buri elephant safari, half day
By: Beat Hafliger, France | posted Sun 18 Feb, 2018
We liked the national park very much. However, we would have loved it to be more intense physically and too bad we could no more go back early in the morning. It was sometimes a bit noisy with up to five cars gathered around the same spot. The guide was good, the accommodation OK but no exchange with local guide and driver.
We could spot shortly four plus on elephant and two gaurs but only in the secondary forest and for a few seconds only.
Any other suggestions for us for our next Thailand visit?
Regards,
Beat and Marie-Claire
Tour operator's response
Dear Beat and Marie-Claire,
Thank you for your review.
A shame we had to cancel your overnight trip with morning hike due to new restrictions of the park authorities.
Sadly for the afternoon program the only option allowed is the safari drive as you did it. Even though we wish we could go further, either by car or on foot, sadly we are limited by the restrictions the park authorities decide.
Thailand has the potential to grow as a wildlife watching destination, but not when the park authorities add all these limitations. It's definitely still worth it, but if it was up to us, it would be a lot better.
The local guide assistants and drivers lack English speaking abilities, that's why we provide an English speaking guide on our tours, but by employing the local assistant guide and driver we are still able to support these local farmers.
As for other suggestions. You have already been to Khao Yai, and currently we have no guides in Kaeng Krachan and Huai Kha Khaeng, so I guess you'd have to try another park. Maybe Khao Sok. We do not offer tours there, but there should be enough operators around to offer trips.
Thank you for your feedback!
About: Kui Buri elephant safari, half day
By: Jan Behrens, Germany | posted Sun 11 Feb, 2018
Dear Thai National Parks,
our stay in Kui Buri National Park was fantastic!
Our guide Bill was very nice and had a broad knowledge of all the traces and animals we saw during our walking and driving safari. Our highlight: a big group of elephants!
The food was delicious. We especially enjoyed the fresh organic pineapple (from Bill´s own plantation).
Thank you very much for organizing our trip! ขอบคุณครับ kòbkûn kráb
Jan and Matthias from Germany
About: Kui Buri elephant safari, half day
By: Frank Ryder Pil, Denmark | posted Sat 27 Jan, 2018
We was all 4 very happy for our trip in your Park. It was the best tour we had. You trip was very good organize. We like that the elefant have a much better life. Thank you for a very good trip.
Best regards
Frank Pil
About: Kui Buri elephant safari, half day
By: Donald Bushell, United States | posted Sat 6 Jan, 2018
We had an excellent trip with our guide, Som. She was very knowledgeable and kept us all engaged. Her English was excellent and we all liked her very much. She was patient when we wanted to spend a long time looking at the elephants. If we were to come again, we would be very happy to have her as our guide.
Tour operator's response
Thank you Donald for your kind review.
We will pass the word of thanks to our guide Som!
About: Kui Buri elephant safari, half day
By: Ryan Dunn, United States | posted Wed 27 Dec, 2017
Bill was a fantastic guide and a great host at the bungalow. Can’t recommend him highly enough. Thank you for a fantastic experience.
Tour details in short:
- Duration: 0.5 day
- Type: Private tour
- Price: 1,050 to 3,500 THB per person
- Group size: 1 or more people
- Grade: Easy
- Transport: Safari vehicle
- Start: 2:30 p.m.
- End: 6 p.m.
What to bring
- Rain clothing
- Insect repellent
- Sunblock lotion
- Hat or cap
Elephant safari
Every day is an elephant day in Kui Buri
Elephants in Kui Buri National Park
Elephant in Kui Buri National Park