Elephant and Wildlife Watching in Kuiburi National Park - Private Afternoon Tour
Description
Kuiburi National Park is the only place in Thailand where more than 320 protected wild elephants live and you will have the unique 99% opportunity to see them in this untouched wildlife. In addition to Asian elephants and gaurs, the other relatively common mammals are golden jackals, various deer, langurs, white-handed gibbons, Burmese hares, Malay porcupines and wild boars. Kui Buri has a rich fauna of birds with over 260 species currently. Crested falcons, grey peacock pheasants, ferrous partridges, Tickell's brown hornbills, white-crowned hornbills, brown fish owls, yellow-ventilated green pigeons, white-fronted dwarf-eared owls, mustache hawks, red-necked hornbills, blue-collared parrots, chestnut-nickel fork tails, red-bearded bee-eaters, maroon woodpeckers.There are also birds like the Crested Fireback, Indian Roller and Asian Openbill bird or even gaurs and leopards.
Tour Options
Itinerary
Kuiburi Visitor Center is a 1-hour drive away from Hua Hin by air-conditioned car. You will swap the vehicle into a 4-wheel pick-up car, on seats on the open back of the car. Before the Tour Guide show you around the Visitor Center and give you useful information about the Park
There are still about 320 Protected Wild Elephants living in this National Park and you will see them coming out to eat. Let's also visit the beautiful dry-moist forest and we can spot some birds such as the Crested Fireback, Indian Roller and Asian Openbill bird! Sometimes we could spot some Gaurs, Leopards. Please note before making a booking: These elephants are freely in the Wildlife National Park, not in a zoo or animal garden. There is a 95% chance of seeing elephants in the wild. However, we cannot guarantee with 100% certainty that will see elephants or how many you will see. Sometimes you may see them from a distance, or they may be just a few hundred meters away There are also many other to observe, such as birds and gaur.
Visit to a local restaurant where you can share your experiences of the day together over a delicious dinner
Highlights
What's included
Pickup Locations & Times
Please wait in the hotel lobby or at your house/condominium. Our tour guide will be in touch with you.
Traveller Ratings
Important Information
- Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
- Infants are required to sit on an adult’s lap
- Specialized infant seats are available
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
Reviews(83)
One of the best experiences I ever had hands down. To be fair we were told that today was a very lucky day. We saw up to 15 elephants in total at least, two or three of which were babies. Also many gaurs and some interesting birds. We were told that the day before us they were less lucky, only seeing two elephants in total at the last minute. So do keep in mind that you are spotting wildlife and you might not be lucky. All the negative reviews here seem to be mostly people complaining about being unlucky, but if luck is on your side it is truly fascinating to see all of these fantastic wild animals. The tour guide was also incredibly friendly and enthusiastic and very knowledgeable. And the food was also very good. All in all a fantastic day, way above my expectations. I would highly recommend this activity.
Fine arranged, were as agreed by car picked up at hotel, very friendly, correct and helpful guide who could give lots of information. We were lucky to encounter group of elephants and other wildlife in the park several times. Could be different. On the way back very nice eaten in the restaurant. We are very satisfied with what is commanded.
850 Thb per car may 1200 in June, saw reviews, arrive early and share cost with others was the advice but arrive arrange sharing and then charged 1000 each couple, the person was questioned why as its 1200 per car but they insist 1000 per couple, not going to say it but there’s something fishy going on, saw elephants in the last 10 minutes after three hours, it’s ethical but take binoculars you will need them
Dear reviewer, you didn’t book your trip with us, but Tripadvisor decided to keep your review about the National Park charge linked to our company. Any questions about charges for pickup cars inside the park should be directed to the park staff if you visit on your own and book the car directly there. We only offer packages starting from Hua Hin, which include everything—transfers, a guide, entrance fees, dinner, insurance, and pickup cars in the park exclusively for our guests, not shared with other groups. If you choose to visit the park independently and manage all bookings yourself, you should coordinate or raise any concerns directly with the National Park staff.
What a perfect day! M was flexible and allowed us to customize our trip in a way that worked for us. He was an excellent tour guide and we enjoyed spending the day with him and the elephants!
From start to finish, it was five star picked up at the hotel by our guide. Got a lot of educational information on the way to the park once we’re in the park. We had a spotter and a driver that took us through the Park very informational and fantastic. Once we were done after seeing wonderful wildlife elephants and.Guri and birds we went to an absolute fantastic restaurant on the way back. The best Thai food that we had had in two weeks since we were there. It was five star experience from start to finish. Pui our guide was extremely knowledgeable very helpful highly recommend.
We booked this private tour excited for the possibility of seeing elephants and our guide, Sam, arrived to pick us up at our hotel right on time. We thought he was great - he was very knowledgeable and was always pointing things out, even on the drive to the national park. At one point he even pulled the car over to show us pineapples growing! We learned so much before the tour even officially started! The first animal we saw was a monitor lizard and we were all pretty excited about that! Inside we saw one lone elephant (a male) from a distance. We also saw a gaur at one point. As the tour was wrapping up, Sam yelled to the driver to stop the vehicle saying he saw something. It was very far away and if it were just us looking, we wouldn’t have seen anything! His ability to spot elephants was amazing! Sure enough, there were several elephants trying to decide if they wanted to come out from behind the trees to the watering hole. There were even two babies! Of course, it was quite far away and we would have loved to have seen them a bit closer but you know, they’re wild so seeing them at all was amazing. My only suggestion would be to book the private tour. I had thought about doing a shared tour and I’m so glad I didn’t. At the lookout points we would come into contact with others and one other vehicle had teenagers that didn’t want to be there (glued to their phones, arguing, complaining they lost their internet connection, overall just being loud and obnoxious). If I had to share a vehicle with that negative energy it would seriously piss me off. Just sharing the lookout points with them was hard enough. So yeah, do yourself a favor and book the private tour.
Drove two hours from Hua Hin. Nice scenery and landscapes. No elephant to see. Just a hoard of jeeps on bumpy roads all meeting to a spot. No animal whatsoever apart from a few chickens and a couple of hornbills. I think the park needs some lessons from African camps on wildlife conservation and tourist viewing
The tour itself was very well executed, and the included dinner was excellent. However, Kui Buri is only suitable for tourists who have never seen elephants in the wild. At the beginning of the Kui Buri ride, there were a hundred tourists crammed together with just one elephant. By the end, there were a hundred tourists and five elephants in the far distance. We managed to get some good pictures with a 1200 mm lens.
Thank you for this lovely review. It’s great to hear that you were lucky enough to see some elephants. On some days—especially during the high season—there are many visitors, and most tourists hope to see the wild elephants during their short holiday in Hua Hin. Their visit also supports the many people who work as rangers and drivers in the national park, helping them make a living while protecting the wildlife.
Perfect guide with a lot of interesting facts about both the animals and personal experiences. We didn’t see Elephants but we did see Gaurs and a Black Panther through the camera lens.
Before this visit I had read comments that it was possible not to see elephants I was aware that it is a nature park but not a zoo I explain the guide at the beginning of the tour tells us yesterday we saw an elephant at 16:00 We arrived at a viewpoint and waited like all the other pickups for over an hour Then miraculously at 3:58 p.m. one of the guides shouts an elephant at the bottom about 800 meters This coincidence seemed doubtful to me but I thought why not In the days that followed I met several people who visited this park years ago and confirmed to me that the scenario was the same namely appearance of an elephant around 4:00 pm It's obvious that this park makes live a lot of locals between guides and pickup drivers but I think this tour is a business and a tourist trap For information and personal opinion
