Private Tour | 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 chance 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 pm till 5:30 to 6 pm
Wildlife tours in Kui Buri National Park are strictly 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 smaller/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 vehicle is an 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 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.
Tour details in short:
- Duration: half day
- Type: Private tour
- Price: 1,050 to 3,500 Baht per person
- Group size: 1 or more people
- Grade: Easy
- Transport: Safari vehicle
- Start: 2:30 pm
- End: 5-30 - 6 pm (depending on time for sunset)
What to bring:
- Rain clothing
- Insect repellent
- Sunblock lotion
- Hat or cap
How much?
Our half-day safaris are private tours. You'll be accompanied by an English speaking licensed guide and no other people will join you; the best way to explore Kui Buri Wildlife Watching area!
| Pax | 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 |
Tour rates include:
- Entrance fees
- English speaking guide
- Drinking water
Reviews from our guests
By: Ryan Black | posted Sat 5 Oct, 2024
Great tour saw about 15 elephants. This is a national park that’s care about its wildlife with limited hours and only a few viewing areas where you can walk around.
By: Gail Cochrane | posted Sun 15 Sep, 2024
My family and I had a wonderful tour. The guides were fantastic answering my questions about the different trees and identifying birds for me.
We did not see any herds of elephants, but did see two - which was amazing !
One of the elephants we had no idea how the guide could even spot it as we drove along the road - it was so well camouflaged and could only be seen by watching its ear flap behind bushes.
I will definitely come back and take the tour again, Gail
> Tour operator's response
Thank Gail for your kind review.
I'm glad to hear you had a wonderful trip. It's amazing right, how such a large animal can at times be so hard to spot even in the fairly open forests of Kui Buri.
Nature is unpredictable, it's definitely not uncommon that only 1 or 2 elephants show up, and actually on a bit less than 5% of the trips no elephants are seen at all. Though actually up until now, your trip was in elephant numbers the least successful this September. In fact on the trip after yours the guests saw 40! It's unfair, haha, and amazing how much it can vary from day to day. That's only one short of the highest number we have recorded since we started recording the sightings in 2023 (we've been running the tours many more years before, but unfortunately have not recorded observation numbers prior to that).
Thank you for joining the tour. And you are of course very welcome to return in the future, or visit one of the other great parks.
By: Kelvin Chin Fat | posted Sun 18 Aug, 2024
Highly recommend the Kui Buri Elephant Safari and their guides. Our guide Som was great, explaining things and communicating information about the park and the elephants that live in the park and their interaction with the local people. We saw 28 elephants in in 5 groups all up. The guides also communicate with each other via walkie talkies to give you the best chance of seeing elephants.
By: Monica | posted Fri 9 Aug, 2024
Siamo stati al parco in Agosto 2024 abbiamo visto diversi elefanti e bufali. Bellissimo!!! Bello vedere gli animali liberi. I ranger sono stati gentilissimi e disponibili. Andate a vederlo ne vale la pena !!!
By: Libby Jewitt | posted Thu 25 Jul, 2024
Our transfer was prompt and a very comfortable private air conditioned van.
Our guide was friendly and informative. She took us to the 4 viewing points and we waited patiently in the hope of spotting elephants. As we waited she showed us native animals in a book but between 2-5.30pm we didn’t see many actual Animals. Just a wild cow and a few birds. I think this is because this national park is quite new, with small trees and open area, so will need more time to establish and encourage more animals in.
Our guide provided us with water and a cheese wafer as a snack mid afternoon.
Whilst this is probably obvious - it’s good to remember to liberally cover yourself in insect repellent as there are lots of bugs and I got bitten badly on my back where I forgot to spray the repellent.
As we drove back out of the park we were in luck! We saw 4 adult and 3 baby elephants come up a track and walk over the road we were on! We were excited to see them as it made the whole trip worthwhile!
So overall it’s not the most diverse park for animals but if you’re lucky you may see an elephant in the wild.
By: Pimpa Molkul | posted Tue 23 Jul, 2024
Our family very much enjoyed safari tour on July 18, 2024. Every staff/tour guide were very nice and friendly. The van driver was polite and drove very carefully. All perfect! Will recommend others for sure.
By: Vicky De Ceuster | posted Sat 13 Jul, 2024
It was amazing, the guide was fun and we saw several groups of elephants. Great to seee them in their natural environment.
By: You Leong Tan | posted Tue 11 Jun, 2024
Very enjoyable. The guide is very knowledgeable and helpful.
By: Ute Schweizer | posted Sat 25 May, 2024
It was a Great experience for us to see all the different animals, especially the elefants and the gaurs. Our Guide was very interested and sympathic. All in all it was a very organised, interesting and funny Tour. Thank you
By: Julie COLEMAN | posted Fri 16 Feb, 2024
We loved our trip to the National park to see the elephants and we had a wonderful guide, Som who was very helpful and pointed out lots of things to us on our trip. So lucky to see a herd of wild elephants towards the end of the day. A magical day which we will always remember.
