Visiting a Wheelchair Accessible Elephant Sanctuary in Thailand

During my recent trip in Thailand, I was able to do so many incredible things. I visited various temples, relaxed on the beaches in Hua Hin, ate my way through night markets, and I even got a Sak Yant tattoo in Ayutthaya. While all of that was amazing, my favorite part of my trip was visiting an elephant sanctuary in Kanchanaburi, Thailand! 

Elephants are my favorite animals by far. I literally cried when I saw an elephant on safari in South Africa for the first time, and I got a tattoo of an elephant after traveling in India, so I’m a bit obsessed with them, to say the least. I knew that if I had the chance to visit an elephant sanctuary in Thailand, it’d probably be the happiest day of my life, but I wondered how wheelchair accessible Thailand’s elephant sanctuaries would be. 

Aside from accessibility concerns, I also wanted to visit a sanctuary that was ethical and actually cared for elephants. At many elephant sanctuaries in Thailand, they offer things like elephant rides, where the elephant has to work for you, or they force the elephants to perform tricks or paint. I knew that I didn’t want to support a place like that, so I expressed my concerns to the accessible tour company that we visited Thailand with, Nutty’s Adventures. 

Nutty’s Adventures said that they knew the perfect place and it was located in Kanchanaburi, just a few hours drive from Bangkok. The sanctuary was called Elephants World and at this elephant sanctuary, they assured me that it would be wheelchair accessible and ethical. Immediately, I started researching Elephants World and I was happy to see on their website that “guests work for the elephants… the elephants do not work for guests”. They provide a safe haven for old, abused, and disabled elephants. 

I was more excited for this experience than anything else during our trip, and I’m happy to say that it surpassed my very high expectations. Elephants World is a remarkable place and luckily, it was wheelchair accessible for me, so I was able to participate in most experiences. Here’s what my day at this wheelchair accessible elephant sanctuary was like – 

We started by driving from our resort in Kanchanaburi, the Plakan Resort, which I’ll tell you all about at the end of this blog post. It was a 45 minute drive and with each passing minute, I was getting more and more excited. Once we arrived at Elephants World, I could see several elephants as we were pulling in and one even stood behind our van and blocked me from getting on the wheelchair lift for a few minutes. Needless to say, it was a perfect start to the day! 

Once I was out of the van, I rolled up a ramp (it was steep, but manageable with my wheelchair) to a large platform area. From this platform, I was able to feed some of the elephants and interact with them for about an hour. In total, there were probably a dozen elephants, ranging in ages and size. 

I was able to feed the elephants a variety of fruits, including watermelon, which they loved. It was so much fun to watch them eat and I couldn’t believe how close I could actually get to them. Surprisingly, none of the elephants acted scared of my wheelchair. They really just treated me like any other person that was there and loved accepting food from me. 

After the morning feeding experience, our driver from Nutty’s Adventures took us to a different area of Elephants World, where we were able to make some food for the elephants. We mixed pellets with bananas, which was pretty messy since we did this with our hands, but it was fun. With this mixture, we formed it into balls for one special elephant. 

We gave the banana/pellets mixture to a beautiful elephant that was over 80 years old (did you know that elephants can live as long as humans?). Since she’s older, she now has a difficult time eating hard foods, but she loved these soft treats that we made. I was able to place the treat directly in her mouth and I even felt her tongue, which was interesting, but I loved every minute of it. She was such a sweet girl and we were able to take some photos with her after she ate as well. 

Next, we headed to another part of Elephants World that was right by the river. If you’re able, you can get into the water with some of the elephants here. I couldn’t get in the water, but my friend Kayla did and she was able to help bathe a couple elephants. I did enjoy watching the experience from a wheelchair accessible viewing area. 

While we were at the river, a couple of the guides asked me if I’d like to meet two of the elephants once Kayla finished bathing them. Of course, I said “Yes!”, so they guided them to me for a few minutes of interaction. And the best part? One of the elephants sprayed me with water! It was a highlight of my day, even though I was a bit soaked afterwards. 

To end our day at Elephants World, we enjoyed a lunch buffet. There were a variety of Thai foods on the buffet and everything was delicious that I tried. We also had a gorgeous view of the river from our table, which was nice. After feeding elephants for most of the day, we were hungry and this was a perfect lunch. 

Elephants World has several different ways that you can visit. You can choose to do a half day visit or a full day. We were there for a half day and within that timeframe, we were able to meet all of the elephants, so I was really happy. But of course, you couldn’t go wrong by spending even more time with the elephants, so I’m sure the full day option would be amazing as well. 

Overall, I was really impressed by the wheelchair accessibility of Elephants World. The staff did a phenomenal job of ensuring that I was able to enjoy as much of the sanctuary as possible, which I was grateful for. If you love elephants as much as I do, I would definitely recommend visiting Elephants World while you’re in Thailand. It’s truly a magical place. 

Watch the short video below to see my full experience at Elephants World –

.

Where to Stay in Kanchanaburi: Plakan Resort

While in Kanchanaburi, we stayed at the Plakan Resort for two nights. It was only a 45 minute drive from Elephants World and it was near other attractions and restaurants as well, including the iconic Bridge Over the River Kwai. 

Plakan Resort is on the River Kwai, so the views from the resort area are great, and there is an on-site restaurant. We had breakfast and dinner in the restaurant during our stay and the food was really good. I loved that the dinner menu had so many options… something for everyone’s taste buds! 

Our wheelchair accessible room was on the ground floor. It was spacious and had two single beds, plus one rollaway bed. The main beds were 25 inches tall and had clearance underneath for a hoyer lift. 

In the bathroom, there was a pull-under sink, fold-down grab bars on both sides of the toilet, and a roll-in shower. The roll-in shower had smooth entry and a shower seat was available. 

The room really couldn’t have been better for my needs and if I’m ever back in the area, I would certainly stay at Plakan Resort again. If you’d like to learn more about this resort or book a stay of your own, you can check out their website here. 

My time in Kanchanaburi and at Elephants World was exceptional. I can confidently say that it was one of my favorite travel experiences ever and I hope that I can return and do it all again one day. If you have ever dreamed of having an experience like this at a wheelchair accessible elephant sanctuary, know that it is possible no matter what your abilities are and start planning your own adventure today! 

.

.