Phuket Jungle Tours: Rafting, Elephants and ATV

What happens on the rafting and elephant day?

You get wet early. We collect you at 06:50; by nine you are at Suwan Kuha, where a reclining Buddha lies under stalactites and monkeys wander down to inspect the minibus. There is a lakeside park, and at 11:20 the briefing, helmets and life jackets — then five kilometres of river, rapids included.

An instructor sits in every raft, so beginners are fine (minimum age six). Thai lunch at 13:40, then the elephant village: mud, bathing, a shower for the elephants, a baby elephant show. You get one programme — bathing or a ride, you choose — and a ride as a second one is 300 ฿. A waterfall to swim in at the end, and the minibus heads back at 16:30.

Pack a change of clothes. Seriously.

Can I add quad bikes to the jungle day?

The rafting, elephant spa and ATV day follows the same morning and adds 250cc quad bikes after the river: a track with bridges, a tunnel and obstacles, and enough mud to justify the change of clothes. The elephant programme on this one is the ride and the baby elephant show, and the waterfall rinses everyone off before the drive home.

Basic experience with motorbikes or quads helps, and reasonable fitness makes the active parts much more enjoyable. This is the day to book if the point is to be tired by evening. Children under four travel free.

Unsure which? I would take the ATV version if everyone in the group is up for it — and you will be very glad of the waterfall at the end. With younger kids or anyone nervous on a quad, stay with the plain rafting day.

Is there an elephant day without rafting?

The Khao Lak safari is the broad overview of the mainland. It runs north through rubber and fruit plantations to the Suwan Kuha cave temple, a local zoo, the elephant spa with bathing and a ride, bamboo rafting or canoeing down a jungle river, a turtle farm, a waterfall and a fruit market where the guide makes you taste things.

Elephant beach, Samet Nangshe and Mantra Spa is the slower version. The elephants are fed and go into the sea with you on a real beach, then there is lunch at the Samet Nangshe viewpoint over Phang Nga Bay and an afternoon at an open-air spa with mineral pools, herbal baths and mud treatments. The Phang Nga and Samet Nangshe day combines the viewpoint, a longtail through the mangroves and the elephant spa with a ride.

What are the longer jungle days?

The Avatar world day is the one I would pick for a small group: twelve people at most, 07:00 to 19:00. A café built around giant water lilies, an elephant bath, bamboo rafting, ATV trails with a bridge, a swing and a maze, a waterfall — and then hot springs on Natai beach at sunset, pools around 40°C.

Cheow Lan lake goes much further north, into Khao Sok: sunrise at Samet Nangshe, then a longtail across a jade lake with cliffs up to 960 metres (the drive is about two and a half hours each way, so it is a long one). Secrets of Krabi does the same thing south-east — the warm Emerald lake, a hot waterfall, the Tiger Cave temple.

• →River, elephants, waterfall — rafting and the elephant spa
• →Maximum adrenaline — rafting, elephant spa and ATV
• →Temple, zoo, elephants and a raft — Khao Lak safari
• →Elephants in the sea and a spa to finish — Elephant beach and Mantra Spa
• →Landscape over action — Cheow Lan lake

What should I know before I book?

Several of these days include temples, which require shoulders and knees covered; cover-ups can be hired for a small fee. A rain jacket is not included, and on the rafting and safari days it is worth bringing one. On most jungle tours children aged 4 to 9 pay the child price, and every elephant activity listed on the card is already in the price unless the card says otherwise. Every tour in our catalogue runs with an English-speaking guide.

Questions people ask