Kulen Elephant Forest & Kampong Phluk by Private Tour

Very memorable day! A great experience!

This private tour was very informative! We learned a lot not just about the elephants and people living in the floating village but also more about Cambodia, its history, traditions and peoples way of life. Our tour guide Seila was very accommodating and knowledgeable. He made sure we were comfortable and he was also very flexible with time— meaning he let us navigate when we wanted to leave and also was asking if we wanted to stop over some places before dropping us back. Definitely would recommend and book him again.

This was one of the highlights of our time in Cambodia. We had a private car to get to the elephant sanctuary and floating village and our tour guide Seila was very friendly and informative. Seeing the elephants up close and feeding them was awesome!

We had a great day with Mr. Kim and our driver. It was great to see and feed the elephants and visit the village and lake. Cambodia is beautiful and this tour was a great way to see it.

Highly recommend this experience if you are in Siem Reap. We had the opportunity to feed, walk, touch and learn about the elephants in their care. They do good works and provide a terrific experience. Be sure to do this in addition to typical Siem Rwap activities.

Amazing & deeply humbling in the same day. We enjoyed a magical 4 hours at the Elephant sanctuary where we got to feed, wash & walk along side the elephants as well as learn about the Sanctuary. A light lunch was provided. After this we went to the floating village at Kampong Phluk. Here we witnessed the humble and simple lifestyle of over 400 families whose homes are built on stilts to avoid flooding. This provided a stark contrast to our luxury hotel living - deeply humbling. Our guide Sum Suphon was enthusiastic and knowledgeable not just about the elephants and Kampong Phluk but also about the social history of the surrounding area . We thoroughly recommend our guide, driver & this activity.

Meak and his driver took us to the Elephant Retirement Center and to the big lake tor a boat ride. On the way to the Elephant Center, Meak gave a very informative description of religion and local history. One of the best guides ever. I said.

We had an amazing day with Salah! He was so knowledgeable and we learned so much about the history, culture and current events in the area. Both the floating village and elephants were a big hit with the kids as well. We would highly recommend the tour and especially Salah!

The experience was awesome. Both kids and parents loved the floating village and elephant tour. Saila was an exceptional guide. We learned so much about Cambodian culture. I highly recommend this tour!

We had a great time with our guide Mr. Bunhak and Mr. Kai. This is a private tour so it was only me and my husband in the group. Mr. Bunhak was great at giving us info about the different locations, taking pictures, and fielding our questions about the history and culture of Cambodia and the Siem Reap area. There are only a limited amount of people allowed at the Kulen Elephant sanctuary so I would book when and if you are able. The small groups of 8 or so at the sanctuary are to provide a comfortable space for the elephants. There are about 10 elephants the sanctuary at the moment where all but one are female. You do not get to see all the elephants but the couple or so you do get to hangout are special and have their own personality. The time to see the elephants and interact with them were around 1-2p and was about 3hrs or so. Since my husband and I attended the morning session of this tour we first went to the Kompong Phluk to see the stilted houses. We were able to opt for a lovely canoe ride under the mangrove trees nearby. Then we went to eat lunch which was local cuisine and finally we went to the Kulen Elephant Sanctuary. At Kulen Elephant Forest were were informed about the history of Kulen Elephant Forest and community nearby. Our Kulen Elephant guide Tom was great and fielding our questions about elephants and providing his own knowledge from working with the elephants for over 5 years. We were tasked to make snacks for the elephants and then were able to feed the snacks to the elephants. We were able to stand close by to the elephants to take a few photos then we walked with them at a distance throughout their sanctuary. They would play in their pools and get their own snacks from the forest. The elephants that come here are retired from a harsh life from previous treatment as hauling elephants. This reminded me a bit of Paddington 2 where there is a retirement home for elder bears. The two female elephants we walked with have a personality of they're own and were great to observe. From what I could sense and learned about the sanctuary I felt it was humane. The elephants have keepers at night to ensure that they don't damage neighboring fields and property (or eat crops), and to prevent any infighting between the females over food. Since there are only a couple tours per day and a limited amount of visitors so the elephants are not overwhelmed they get to spend the rest of their time as they pleased. Our pair of elephants had a great time splashing and cooling down in their pool and expressed how happy and excited they were in their body language. I could not think of a finer way to retire than grazing all day and playing in the water. There are roughly only about 400-600 Asian elephants in Cambodia. Knowing this fact, I respect the effort that this sanctuary is trying to provide a space for the elephants. The day was about 8am - 5pm. We had another tour close to the ending time and not only Tom and the sanctuary but our guide Bunhak and driver Mr. Kai were so helpful and accommodated this time crunch. I do feel the price was a bit steep but when we learned that the elephants eat about 350kg each day I slightly understood why it was a bit costly. However, we had a great time with Mr. Bunhak, Mr. Kai, Tom, and the Kulen Elephant Forest and are grateful for the memories we get to have of our once in a lifetime experience with the retired elephants.