Patara Elephant Farm, Chiang Mai Overview

Patara Elephant Farm is a interactive park aimed at the care and conservation of elephants. Visitors can feed them, ride on their backs, play with them in their natural habitat and even assist in their healthcare activities. The farm also allows people to become elephant owners for a day, which is a great opportunity to establish a loving bond with the species.

'Elephant Owner for a Day' is a unique program allowing human interaction with elephants as elephant owners. Through this, they learn about the elephant's temperament and how to deal with it. It also includes slightly more questionable things like riding the elephant.

A lighter version of the 'Elephant Owner for a Day' program is Patara's 'Elephant Day Care' trip, where also you learn about elephants and how to take care of them. But the focus is on the maternal comforts and security of the pregnant elephants, mother elephants and their small babies here, and this trip doesn't include riding the elephants. It is ideal for animal lovers and those who believe in the ethical treatment of animals.

Things To Do at Patara Elephant Farm

There are a host of activities at this elephant farm in Chiang Mai. These are clubbed under two kinds of programs –

Elephant Owner for a Day
'Elephant Owner for a Day', which is a more exhaustive program. There are two kinds of sessions under this program –
Morning Session: 7:30 AM - 3:30 PM - A longe session
And Afternoon Session: 1:00 PM - 6:30 PM - A slightly shorter session

Elephant Day Care
And 'Elephant Day Care' trip, which is shorter more suited for those who are against things like riding an elephant. There are two sessions for this program -
Morning Session: 7:30 AM - 13:00 PM
Afternoon Session: 1:00 PM - 6:30 PM

Elephant Owner for a Day

This is the signature program of Patara Elephant Farm. It's a unique program that allows people to interact with elephants as elephant owners.
The tagline Elephant Owner for a day means that an elephant is allocated to you for the day.
From feeding them to bathing and brushing them, learning to communicate with them through commands to learning how to ride them, being an 'Elephant Owner for a Day' entails a lot.
You also learn how to take care of the elephant's health and how to develop a good rapport with your elephant.
Like an authentic Mahout, you can bare ride the elephant and explore the forest and waterfall within the farm, as a part of 'Elephant Owner for a Day' program.
You can find out more about their care and routine from the guides as a part of this program.

Elephant Day Care

This is a slightly shorter and much more ethical program that allows you to interact with and understand elephants, without riding them. This trip allows you to interact with the baby elephants, their mothers and other pregnant elephants as well.
As a part of this program, you can also learn more about this Elephant Farm's conservation philosophy 'Elephant Conservation in Action'. Here you can observe the healthcare routine of the elephants at the farm. This includes their health inspection, walking with the elephants so that they get adequate exercise, feeding them. You can also bathe them.
Best of all, you can observe them interacting with their families in their natural environments, without disturbing them.
You can find out more about their daily care and health care from the people guiding this tour.

How To Reach Patara Elephant Farm

AC van commute to and from the Elephant Farm in Patara is included in all the farm packages. So you don't need to make any additional arrangements. It takes about 45 minutes to an hour to reach the farm, depending on where you are staying in Chiang Mai.

You can either visit their website and book the package most suitable to you through the reservation section - http://reservation.pataraelephantfarm.com/
Or you can contact them on the following numbers to find out more about both the packages and transport -
+66-985493644
+66-624939644
+66-819922551

You can also mail them on this email id to learn more about their van timings to and from the farm - [email protected].

Visitor Tips

Wear a T-shirt and Long Pants.
Carry a change of clothes because you could get dirty while brushing and bathing the elephants.
Wear comfortable and waterproof sandals or slippers as you have to step into the water with elephants and also walk through uneven forest terrain with them.
If you want to swim with them in the river, carry a swimsuit with you, or wear it underneath your clothes.
Apply plenty of sunscreens, as both the programs require you to be out in the sun most of the day.
As you will be in the middle of a tropical forest, apply and carry an insect repellent with you.
Carry a camera with you to click lots of pictures of your day with these beautiful creatures. But ask others to take photos of you, instead of trying to take dangerous selfies, especially if you are riding an elephant.