Welcome to Hidden Forest Elephant Reserve
We are a genuine ethical elephant sanctuary in Phuket, co-founded by elephant experts P'Kong from Thailand, and Louise Rogerson from Manchester, UK. Louise has been rescuing and rehabilitating Asian elephants for the last 16 years, advocating for improved welfare standards, and she brought the first non-bathing project to Phuket in 2016.
Hidden Forest was opened in December 2023 and our stunning forest is nestled in the hills of Chalong, southern Phuket. We are home to 10 beautiful elephants who previously worked in the logging, riding and bathing industries. Along with high welfare standards, our key focus is to socialise our elephants into natural herds and rebuild the social bonds they were denied for most of their lives.
Our sanctuary is peaceful and we keep our visitor groups small. You will enjoy an unforgettable experience - feeding our elephants respectfully, learning about, and observing as they roam, bathe, socialise and play freely. Each tour finishes with a delicious Thai vegetarian / vegan buffet at our Forest Restaurant overlooking the ponds where the elephants cool off and throw mud over themselves in our free-roaming area.
We look forward to welcoming you into the beautiful world we have created for these magnificent animals we are dedicated to protecting.
Proudly listed and endorsed by World Animal Protection and Responsible Travel
Visit our beautiful elephant reserve in Chalong,
Southern Phuket
-
40 minutes from Patong
-
25 minutes from Karon and Kata
-
25 minutes from Phuket Town
-
20 minutes from Rawai
-
15 minutes from the Big Buddha Hill
We are a genuine ethical elephant sanctuary
Our elephants are free to roam, socialise, and play naturally in the ponds, streams, and muddy wallows across our forested land, giving them a life they once only dreamt about.
After a short introduction video, you will meet and respectfully feed our elephants before setting off on a scenic forest walk. Along the way, you will relax at our Bamboo Observation Huts placed throughout the sanctuary, where you can sit quietly and observe the elephants as they go about their day. Our tours are peaceful and slow - we don't rush - and you will spend your entire visit immersed in the presence of these magnificent animals. It's precious time for you to unwind and de-stress, and enjoy all that nature has to offer.
While some projects fill their tours with additional activities, we do things differently. For the full duration of your morning or afternoon tour, you will simply be with the elephants - fully present in their world.
Our sanctuary is also a safe haven for an abundance of wild birds with daily sightings of eagles soaring the skies, egrets swooping to the pond, and butterflies and dragonflies dancing in the breeze. You will also meet our resident rescued cats and dogs, our rescued white geese - Grace and George, and our resident chinese brown geese - Mick Jagger and Keith Richards - aptly named because they love attention and behave like rock stars! :)
Why We Don't Offer Bathing With Our Elephants
In 2016, our co-founder, Louise Rogerson brought the first non-bathing project to Phuket. She holds a firm belief that elephants should enjoy their time bathing and playing on their own, and not with humans crowding around them.
Bathing freely allows elephants positive mental and physical stimulation after a lifetime working hard and being controlled. Wild elephants bathe in rivers, ponds, streams and muddy wallows without human interaction and this is exactly what our rescued elephants should enjoy too.
Elephants need space to splash, roll around, submerge, play, socialise, and cover themselves in mud and they are perfectly capable of doing this without people in the water or mud crowding around them. It is not only dangerous but also very stressful for the elephants as it inhibits their natural behaviours and the mahouts must control the elephants so nobody gets hurt. It is also unhygienic to bathe with elephants as they urinate and defecate when in the water, and people may suffer from eye or skin infections and sickness.
Bathing with elephants does not put the welfare of the elephants first. We want our elephants to enjoy their day just as much as you, which is why we do not offer this activity at Hidden Forest.
The video of Ton Oi really says it all! Imagine if there were people in the water with her, she wouldn't have any freedom to wade through the pond, fully submerge herself, play with the reeds and clumps of roots, and she certainly wouldn't be able to chase away wild egrets! You may also notice the silence in our video too. There aren't crowds of people bathing with or rubbing mud on the elephants, instead there is nothing but the silence of the forest... just as it's meant to be for elephants.
3 Elephants rescued recently!
June 2025 - rescued Wan Mai
25 Jan 2026 - rescued Khai Muk (Pearl)
11 Feb 2026 - rescued Fah Sai
Since we opened in Dec 2023, we have rescued a total of 11 elephants.
We rely entirely on the income from our tours to sustain our sanctuary, our elephants, their food and daily care, and making future rescues possible. Because of the incredible support from our wonderful visitors, our elephants have a safe, loving, permanent home, and we are truly grateful to everyone who visits us.
Below is the rescue video for Wan Mai (meaning 'A New Day' in Thai) whom we welcomed in June 2025. She is 59 yrs old and had a hard life working in the logging and riding industry. When she arrived she was very scared and emaciated, however with time and patience, she slowly integrated and became best friends with Wassana, Nong Fai & Boon Yen and now enjoys her freedom in the forest everyday.