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Brilliant, the scenery is simply fantastic. Take the oportunity to ride the elephants and the canoe ride. An experience never to forget.

Nous avons fait 2 excursions : - Le bain des éléphants - James Bond IslandPour le bain des éléphants nous avions un guide très sympa qui s'est investi pour que nous passions une bonne après-midi. Pour l'excursion en elle-même c'est plutôt moyen : la promenade d'une heure à dos d'éléphant dans la jungle est en fait un chemin juste à côté du camp. Et le bain des éléphants est une piscine à éléphants dans le camp, contrairement aux photos du prospectus qui ont l'air d'être dans la jungle. Autre point : après avoir voulu en savoir plus sur les éléphants d'Asie en rentrant à l'hôtel je suis tombée sur un article disant que les éléphants des camps sont maltraités pour mieux les dompter. Je ne sais pas si c'était le cas pour ce camp mais ça fait quand même reflechir. Après le bain nous avons déjeuné dans un resto à côté des chutes d'eau puis visite des chutes qui étaient presque à sec et retour à l'hôtel. Le plus de la visite c'est quand même de pouvoir approcher et toucher les éléphants, chose qu'on ne peut pas faire en France.Pour la 2ème excursion nous avons visité James Bond Island. Nous avons choisi cette excursion car nous voulions juste prendre le bateau quelques jours avant pour visiter la baie mais il n'y a en fait que des rabatteurs et cela ne me plait pas. C'est pour cela que nous avons tenté l'excursion. Après quelques minutes de bateau on vous emmène faire du canoë dans les grottes et c'est le meilleur moment ! C'était tôt le matin et nous avons pu être seuls. Ensuite visite de l'île puis visite et déjeuner au village de pêcheurs. Et enfin visite du temple dans la grotte avec les singes. Le guide n'avait pas l'air très concerné par son métier, j'ai trouvé ça dommage!Bref un bilan un peu mitigé : les guides anglophones sont inégaux.Mais j'ai bien aimé le contact avec les éléphants et la balade en canoë dans cette magnifique baie.

I'll start with the positives: the scenery we saw was stunning - the islands and crystal clear water are postcard perfect. The snorkeling itself wasn't great as a lot of the coral has been destroyed, but there were some pretty fish aroundUnfortunately the negatives outweigh the positives: when we arrived at the pier where the boat departs, we and about 50 other people had to sit and wait for an hour until a (very) late transfer arrived carrying the rest of the guests. They were late because the guests themselves weren't ready for their pick up. Sorry but you shouldn't make all your other guests wait an HOUR just for a few. Other tours I have been on make a point of not doing this The speedboat we were on felt overcrowded with approx 25 guests + crew onboard. In retrospect I'd pay more for a tour with less people. The lunch that was provided was awful... I love Thai food but I could barely eat any of it. 4 dishes were provided - 3 were seafood and one was chicken. I'm not vegetarian but the fact they didn't provided even 1 vego option was crap, as the chicken and seafood options were gross - the chicken was boiled and a horrible grey colour that still had the skin on. 2 seafood dishes contained shellfish which I can't eat (not their problem, I know) but the fish dish was full of tiny bones and not a nice flavor. I ate the steamed rice. During the whole day, we only got to do 1 hour of snorkelling (2 half hour swims) which was super disappointing. Then as we were making our way back to the mainland, we ran out of petrol!!! So our boat was stranded about 15 minutes from land and we had to wait another half hour for about carrying fuel to come save us. I do not recommend this tour at all!

Nous avions réservé nos transferts aéroport avec eux et nous n'avons pas été déçus. D'abord, ils sont moins chers et tout était parfait. Nous avons donc, par la suite, réservé deux excursions : Hugues est passionné par ce pays et il transmet sa passion à tous (c'est la première fois que ma fille pré-ado écoute et se souvient des explications données pendant les excursions). Nous aurions bien fait plus d'excursions mais il n'y avait plus de place, dommage !

My wife and I went on the half day elephant trek in Khao Lak.We saw a waterfall before going to the elephant trek. The waterfall was pretty but not too much to see. At the time of our visit, there hadn't been much rain so the waterfalls were lacking compared to usual apparently.We stayed at the waterfalls for around 30 mins before heading off for around 15 mins to the elephant trek.We were in minibus with two other couples, so six people in total.Once we arrived at the elephant trek we got straight to it, and got onto the elephants.Each elephant has a seat strapped on top, which seems reasonable secure. At least as secure as a seat is ever going to be on top of an elephant! The elephants were pretty easy to get onto as there is a custom stand that the elephants stand along so you can side step on.Once my wife and I were on our elephant, we made way following one of the couples in front.We went out as a group of three (we were in the middle). We headed off down a single lane dirt track which was reasonably shaded.The elephants did appear tired to us, and this was in the morning, and think we were only the second or third outing for the elephants.After a short time the elephant in front decided to side step to pay some interest into some elephant poo. The "keeper" who was in charge of this elephant shouted at the elephant and grabbed some of the poo from the floor and rubbed it into its face/mouth. The elephant then decide to continue on as normal, the elephant looked a bit upset by this. The three keepers were all talking Thai and appeared to find this really funny.My wife and I are great animal lovers and we were unsure what to think of this situation. Is this normally how a elephant should be corrected when it's done wrong? Maybe it is... Strange way to do it though.We continued on down a track where the keepers took our cameras and took photos of us, which was nice.After around 30 mins we turned around and all headed back.To us it seemed the elephants were slapped with a bamboo stick where at times it didn't seem necessary. ie our elephant was walking on, on the track. It hadn't stopped or gone off route. The keepers seem to also not paying too much attention. One elephant was around 20 metres ahead of us while his keeper was talking to ours. They were all very casual, and maybe this is fine, but it's a new daunting experience for us so I guess we were more on edge.We would like to be clear by saying we do not know how a elephant should be treated but with this going on and the poo incident we felt uncomfortable and bad that we had paid for such excursion.We would also like to state the elephants looked well. They didn't seem unhappy etc.Once we got back we paid for some pineapples and fed our elephant. This was really nice and allowed us to touch our elephant and thank it appropriately.After this we had a drink and some pineapple. The booking stated we would get lunch, but a few pieces of pineapple we wouldn't classify as really lunch. The tour also allowed us to buy two photos that they took of us for 350 baht, which we bought. Apparently the money goes towards the elephants medical bills.We then headed back to our hotel.Our guide was "Nimm". She was really good.Overall we enjoyed the tour but at times wondered about the elephants welfare based on the above comments.