My husband and I are still in Thailand on our 2 week honeymoon (going back home in 2 days 😢) and we've booked elephant sanctuary and bamboo rafting for the second time for tomorrow since we got here... It's my absolute favourite part of this whole trip. 10/10 would recommend, also the kayaking I agree is great for pictures and the nature but our only problem was the lack of shade, my husband got burned lol 😂
Hi Soph. Thanks for the video. Can you put link to the three recommended excursions you mentioned (kayak, raft trip and elephant sanctuary? Also did you rent a car or take taxi’s to locations?
Hi Danny, we booked them through our rep but you should be able to find them here - www.tuimusement.com/uk/ . Transport to and from the hotel was included 👏🏻
We did the Phi Phi Islands (including snorkelling) on the second half of our trip which was based in Phuket - there’s a Guide to Phuket video on my channel explaining more if you’re interested ☺️ ruclips.net/video/xA8uxICZg_M/видео.html
What a great video, I will be staying at the Haven in a week and was wondering how you got from the Haven to the beach restaurant Nong Prew? You said it was a 15 min walk but google maps showed an hour or so. Is there a shortcut? Also loved your Haven video
Thank you so much! If you go onto the beach from the pool area, turn left and keep walking straight along the beach then you can get there really easily. Just make sure you go at low tide, there’s a narrow section where the tide comes right in if you time it wrong 🙈
Yes, this was enjoyable -- I've been to many of the places shown on the video several times and intend to return soon. Some good selections. It was fun to revisit them. One minor suggestion: Might want to check into the proper (local) pronunciation of some of the geographic names.
@@ItsLifeOfSoph ... didn't intend to sound snarky or condescending -- it's been an ongoing struggle with me too. Actually, the Thai people are very gracious and forgiving about this -- I've had to ask some of my friends there to correct me when I repeatedly mispronounce things. One of the most basic fundamentals that I often forget is that combinations of letters like "ph" or "th" do not make a third sound as they do in English... they prounounce BOTH letters -- it takes some practice and is easy to forget. ...and emphasis on syllables is often different than we often hear. But they are so polite, they seldom correct us. Just got back from a visit there -- learned that the word "papaya" is not pronounced like I've heard it my ENTIRE life... the emphasis is on the LAST syllable -- never knew that and would have guessed
Hi Soph, thanks for the great video! Heading to Khao Lak in March with Tui. Can you remember which trip you did the river rafting on. I take it was a Tui trip?
@@ItsLifeOfSoph thanks for the quick response. My wife has a supplementary😩. Wife here 😉….bathing elephants is a bucket list thing for me, but really concerned about the the welfare of these animals and tourist attractions. Did you feel it was a genuine place of sanctuary for them and their welfare was put first? TIA x
I felt the same way about animal welfare! My view was that Tui wouldn’t put their name on something that was cruel or inhumane, and the elephants seemed well cared for. We also had a lot of explanation about the sanctuary workings, eg. only using female elephants for bathing with guests because they are calmer than males. But on the other hand, as someone commented earlier on, you could argue that bathing with elephants is unnatural and therefore inherently cruel. It’s hard to say overall but I didn’t see anything that concerned me, and I was happy that Tui would have done their checks to ensure that the sanctuary was as kind as possible to the animals
@@ItsLifeOfSoph even big tour companies like TUI will still advertise things like this unfortunately, like they did with Sea World. Campaigners fought hard to stop these big companies from advertising and selling tickets to Sea World and a lot of them stopped which was good, and I think TUI was one of them if I remember correctly. Anyway I just came back from Khao Lak and I found it hard to know which sanctuaries are ethical tbh, and we didn’t go to one at all in the end. By the way, was Chelsea your tour guide for one of those tours? We had her and she was great 😃 we also went with TUI!
Oh that sucks to hear 😞 I’ll definitely look into it more if I ever do something like this again. No we had a man, I can’t remember his name but he was so lovely!
The second area you discribe is NOT Khuk Khak but Nang Thong (Spinach restaurant etc)...Khao Lak areas is total 20 kms.The best is to discover with a local person; Ning in Khao Lak!!
Thank you very much for your videos. Could you please tell me if around Khao Lak they take credit cards payments? Where and how do you tip? Thanks. Cheers.
Glad you enjoyed them ☺️ it was mostly cash payments, from memory there weren’t many places that had card machines. We tipped in restaurants and taxis but I don’t think there’s any particular guidance on how much - we just tended to “round up” or give an extra 10 or 20 baht here or there
Sophie we had the BEST time! What a wonderful experience! We also got to meet the keeper at the Turtle sanctuary and got to hold the turtles! Thanks so much for this fabulous recommendation!
We a been in khao lak last march nothing special no very good restaurants very boring place we hire a car and visit Phuket for one day but long day travel because of traffics. Obviously Thailand change so much for worse. We don’t back again to Thailand very shame but is more nicer countries
My review of The Haven hotel is now live! You can watch it here -
ruclips.net/video/1Nykdj52jEI/видео.html
Nice Video ! Keep on doing this !!!
Thailand is the paradise and the second home for all visitor !!!
Very informative video and well explained. Greetings from Germany
Thank you so much (or danke!) ☺️
Thank you for your video! Lots of ideas for when I travel there for the first time this November 🤩 my trip is also with TUI so was really helpful
Hope you have an amazing time! ✈️🌴
Verry good for us ( Thailand newbies ) 😂😂 We came in March.
My husband and I are still in Thailand on our 2 week honeymoon (going back home in 2 days 😢) and we've booked elephant sanctuary and bamboo rafting for the second time for tomorrow since we got here... It's my absolute favourite part of this whole trip. 10/10 would recommend, also the kayaking I agree is great for pictures and the nature but our only problem was the lack of shade, my husband got burned lol 😂
Very well described and beautiful video
Cool
Hi Soph. Thanks for the video. Can you put link to the three recommended excursions you mentioned (kayak, raft trip and elephant sanctuary? Also did you rent a car or take taxi’s to locations?
Hi Danny, we booked them through our rep but you should be able to find them here - www.tuimusement.com/uk/ . Transport to and from the hotel was included 👏🏻
We’re coming in august next year staying in the TUI blue. Looking at elephant bathing, pi pi islands and snorkelling. Recommendations welcome
We did the Phi Phi Islands (including snorkelling) on the second half of our trip which was based in Phuket - there’s a Guide to Phuket video on my channel explaining more if you’re interested ☺️
ruclips.net/video/xA8uxICZg_M/видео.html
What was the name of the elephant tour? Where to book it??
Where did you find your holiday rep? I am looking at going to Thailand. Thanks
When showing something on Google maps, use satellite view. What you used here doesn't really show how the area looks from above.
Loved the video thank you so much ..We are arriving in Phuket this fall late November. How do you get to Khao Lak from the airport?
Thank you so much! We had a taxi transfer included with our travel agent so I’m not sure of the available options, sorry!
The excursions were not near Khaolak. Much closer to Phuket or Krabi.
What a great video, I will be staying at the Haven in a week and was wondering how you got from the Haven to the beach restaurant Nong Prew? You said it was a 15 min walk but google maps showed an hour or so. Is there a shortcut? Also loved your Haven video
Thank you so much! If you go onto the beach from the pool area, turn left and keep walking straight along the beach then you can get there really easily. Just make sure you go at low tide, there’s a narrow section where the tide comes right in if you time it wrong 🙈
@@ItsLifeOfSoph Thank you so much for replying I look forward to trying it out
Yes, this was enjoyable -- I've been to many of the places shown on the video several times and intend to return soon. Some good selections. It was fun to revisit them.
One minor suggestion:
Might want to check into the proper (local) pronunciation of some of the geographic names.
I acknowledge that my pronunciation was probably terrible 😂🙈 but I did my best!
@@ItsLifeOfSoph ... didn't intend to sound snarky or condescending -- it's been an ongoing struggle with me too.
Actually, the Thai people are very gracious and forgiving about this -- I've had to ask some of my friends there to correct me when I repeatedly mispronounce things.
One of the most basic fundamentals that I often forget is that combinations of letters like "ph" or "th" do not make a third sound as they do in English... they prounounce BOTH letters -- it takes some practice and is easy to forget.
...and emphasis on syllables is often different than we often hear. But they are so polite, they seldom correct us.
Just got back from a visit there -- learned that the word "papaya" is not pronounced like I've heard it my ENTIRE life... the emphasis is on the LAST syllable -- never knew that and would have guessed
Oh wow, I didn’t even notice that when people were speaking! Thanks for sharing - and you didn’t sound snarky so no worries!
Im wondering, the busses you hopped on to, is it easy to find one and how much do you pay for a ride?
Hi Soph, thanks for the great video! Heading to Khao Lak in March with Tui. Can you remember which trip you did the river rafting on. I take it was a Tui trip?
Hi, thanks and I’m glad you enjoyed it! I think the bamboo rafting day was called Khao Sok eco tour - and yes it was with Tui ☺️
@@ItsLifeOfSoph thanks for the quick response. My wife has a supplementary😩. Wife here 😉….bathing elephants is a bucket list thing for me, but really concerned about the the welfare of these animals and tourist attractions. Did you feel it was a genuine place of sanctuary for them and their welfare was put first? TIA x
I felt the same way about animal welfare! My view was that Tui wouldn’t put their name on something that was cruel or inhumane, and the elephants seemed well cared for. We also had a lot of explanation about the sanctuary workings, eg. only using female elephants for bathing with guests because they are calmer than males.
But on the other hand, as someone commented earlier on, you could argue that bathing with elephants is unnatural and therefore inherently cruel.
It’s hard to say overall but I didn’t see anything that concerned me, and I was happy that Tui would have done their checks to ensure that the sanctuary was as kind as possible to the animals
@@ItsLifeOfSoph even big tour companies like TUI will still advertise things like this unfortunately, like they did with Sea World. Campaigners fought hard to stop these big companies from advertising and selling tickets to Sea World and a lot of them stopped which was good, and I think TUI was one of them if I remember correctly. Anyway I just came back from Khao Lak and I found it hard to know which sanctuaries are ethical tbh, and we didn’t go to one at all in the end.
By the way, was Chelsea your tour guide for one of those tours? We had her and she was great 😃 we also went with TUI!
Oh that sucks to hear 😞 I’ll definitely look into it more if I ever do something like this again. No we had a man, I can’t remember his name but he was so lovely!
Fried banana weird? I don't think I've ever been to a Chinese takeaway in the UK that doesn't do it. It's a staple!
The second area you discribe is NOT Khuk Khak but Nang Thong (Spinach restaurant etc)...Khao Lak areas is total 20 kms.The best is to discover with a local person; Ning in Khao Lak!!
Ah, I was going off of what our Tui rep told us - sorry for the error!
Ning is superb guide
Thank you very much for your videos. Could you please tell me if around Khao Lak they take credit cards payments? Where and how do you tip? Thanks. Cheers.
Glad you enjoyed them ☺️ it was mostly cash payments, from memory there weren’t many places that had card machines. We tipped in restaurants and taxis but I don’t think there’s any particular guidance on how much - we just tended to “round up” or give an extra 10 or 20 baht here or there
Thank you so much for all your answers, very usefull. @@ItsLifeOfSoph
This cannot be the James Bond Island
This lad be like ‘the restaurant was great with lovely service but the food was okay’ Nevertheless, nice video about what to do in khao lak
Soph did you have to do much walking before or after doing the bamboo rafting?
Not at all, we were dropped off and picked up really close to the water ☺️
Thanks for your prompt reply. We are going in an hour. 😊❤️
Oh wow, hope you have an amazing time!
Sophie we had the BEST time! What a wonderful experience! We also got to meet the keeper at the Turtle sanctuary and got to hold the turtles! Thanks so much for this fabulous recommendation!
Thank you so much for all the love on this video! Make sure to set your alarm for my guide to Phuket, which is coming on 10th February! ⏰
Please research elephants when you visit khao lak as what you have done is supported something very cruel. Disappointing.
We a been in khao lak last march nothing special no very good restaurants very boring place we hire a car and visit Phuket for one day but long day travel because of traffics. Obviously Thailand change so much for worse. We don’t back again to Thailand very shame but is more nicer countries
I plan to go to Khao lak in April, I hope to have a good time