Elephants or Cheow Lan Lake: Choosing a Land Day from Phuket

What do the elephant days involve?

Plenty. The Khao Lak safari picks up at 06:50 and keeps moving: Suwan Kuha cave temple, a small local zoo, the elephant spa with bathing and a ride, bamboo rafting or a canoe on a jungle river, Thai lunch, a turtle farm, a waterfall, a fruit market. You head back at 16:50, tired in the good way. Which of our jungle days gives you a bath, a ride or both is listed on elephant bathing on the rafting and ATV tour. Which of the two jungle days suits you, the Khao Lak safari or the Avatar world, is the subject of this side-by-side. The safari's case for and against is on is the Khao Lak safari from Phuket worth it.

Rafting and the elephant spa also starts at 06:50 — five kilometres of river before lunch, elephants after, a waterfall to finish. The elephant beach day is the slow one: you feed the elephants, they walk into the sea with you, lunch is at Samet Nangshe and the afternoon ends at Mantra Spa. The Avatar world day puts an elephant bath into a longer day with bamboo rafting, ATV trails and hot springs at sunset. For families with young children, is the Avatar world tour suitable for children goes through it hour by hour. Prefer to stay off the sea for a day? See land tours from Phuket. Elephants also come with the Phang Nga and Samet Nangshe day, which we compare with the James Bond island boat trip on Samet Nangshe or James Bond island.

Which would I pick? With kids under ten, the Khao Lak safari — something new every hour. With teenagers, rafting. For a couple who has seen elephants before, Cheow Lan, no contest. Cheow Lan also starts at Samet Nangshe, at 08:00; Samet Nangshe at sunrise or in the afternoon compares the viewpoint times. For the case for and against the Avatar world day, see Avatar world tour from Phuket: is it worth it. The Khao Lak safari, with its elephant spa and ride, is described on Khao Lak from Phuket.

What is the Cheow Lan lake day?

A long drive for a very big view. We leave at six, stop first at the Samet Nangshe viewpoint over Phang Nga Bay, then head north for about an hour and a half into Khao Sok. The drive back starts at 17:00. It's the open viewpoint, not Beyond Skywalk; Samet Nangshe or Beyond Skywalk sorts out the names.

At 11:20 you step into a longtail and cross a jade-green lake between limestone walls up to 960 metres high, jungle hanging off them. Lunch on a floating restaurant. Then tilapia fishing, a swim, a short walk in the rainforest, and Bang Tong temple, where one of the monks paints. Up to thirty people. Is Cheow Lan worth five hours on the road? Is the Cheow Lan lake day trip worth it answers that honestly.

Which one is more tiring?

Different kinds of tired. Elephant days are physical — mud, water, rafting, walking from stop to stop — and you come home wet. Cheow Lan asks nothing of your body and a lot of your patience: the card says around two and a half hours of road each way, and most of the lake time you are sitting in a boat or at a table on the water.

Cheow Lan suits children from about three, the card says; rafting needs them to be six. And both kinds of day stop at temples, so bring something for shoulders and knees.

• →Busy day with animals and water — Khao Lak safari
• →River rapids plus elephants — Rafting and the elephant spa
• →Elephants in the sea and a spa — Elephant beach and Mantra Spa
• →Scenery and quiet — Cheow Lan lake

What does each day include?

Cheow Lan lake includes transfer from anywhere on Phuket, a guide, insurance, lunch at the floating restaurant, the boat trip, entry to the Samet Nangshe viewpoint, fishing on the lake, the temple and the jungle walk. Bring a light layer, since it can be cool on the water.

The Khao Lak safari includes transfer, a guide, insurance, Thai lunch, national park fees and the full elephant programme with bathing and riding; drinks with lunch and a rain jacket are not included. Comparing the lake with a sea day instead? See Cheow Lan lake or James Bond island.

How does the Cheow Lan day run?

The morning stop at Samet Nangshe gives time for photographs over the limestone islands of Phang Nga Bay. The drive north then runs through the jungle into Khao Sok national park, and at 12:00 the longtail reaches the limestone walls rising almost a kilometre out of the water.

Lunch at 13:00 is served at a floating restaurant in the middle of the lake. At 14:00 there is fishing for red tilapia and a swim, at 15:00 a short trek through the rainforest, and at 16:20 Bang Tong temple, with its painter monk, before the drive back to Phuket at 17:00. It is two of the best landscapes of southern Thailand in one day, and neither of them is a beach.

How do I book?

If the sea is rough, either one works as a replacement for an island day, because neither depends on boats at sea. If you can only do one land day, choose elephants for activity and Cheow Lan for landscape. For the elephant beach day that ends in Mantra Spa's pools, see is the elephant beach and spa day worth it.

Booking happens in the chat. Children aged 4 to 9 pay the child price. Every tour in our catalogue runs with an English-speaking guide.

Pickup times depend on your hotel and are confirmed in the chat the evening before.

Either way, pickup times depend on where you stay; we confirm them the evening before. The Cheow Lan day also collects from Khao Lak, as do the Similan boats; Similan Islands from Phuket or Khao Lak covers that side.

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