Flight: TG2251 Bangkok - Surat Thani 07.55 - 09.10

Meet & Greet: On arrival at Surat Thani Airport, you will be welcomed to Thailand by a hotel representative and then transferred to your hotel to check in and relax.

Accommodation: Stay tonight at the Aava Resort & Spa (Deluxe Bungalow)

At leisure: You are free to do as much or as little as you like. Khanom has a wonderful beach with a few bars and restaurants dotted along it. If you are lucky, you will see the area's famous pink dolphins swimming close to the beach.

Accommodation: Stay tonight the Aava Resort & Spa (Deluxe Bungalow)

Meals: Breakfast

Thai Cooking class: This morning you will be picked up from the hotel and taken to a nearby cooking school, for a hands-on introduction to Thai cuisine. Begin with a tour of the local market, where you will pick up ingredients for your forthcoming meal. Then head on to the school itself, which is located in a traditional Thai house, allowing you to taste the real ambiance of traditional Thai whilst you cook. Under the instruction of your tutor, you will create a selection of traditional dishes, which you can sit down to enjoy at the completion of the class. Please note this will be a shared class with other pupils.

Accommodation: Stay tonight the Aava Resort & Spa (Deluxe Bungalow)

Meals: Breakfast & Lunch

Optional wellness activities: Aava Resort & Spa offers a variety of wellness activities that will help enhance your overall wellbeing. Improve your fitness with a session of Muay Thai (Thai Boxing), increase muscle flexibility and blood flow with yoga and stretching, enjoy a massage or achieve the unique calmness of meditation. You can book and pay for today's activities at reception or the spa.

Accommodation: Stay tonight the Aava Resort & Spa (Deluxe Bungalow)

Meals: Breakfast

Private transfer: This morning, you will be picked up from the hotel by a representative from Elephant Hills and transferred to Khao Sok, passing small rural villages, rubber and oil palm plantations – glimpses of tropical rural life here in southern Thailand can be caught. Upon arrival at Elephant Hills Camp, a buffet lunch awaits you.

Elephant Hills Experience: After lunch, you can relax during a jungle river canoe trip down the Sok River. The canoes are very stable and safe; life jackets are provided, as well as a local river guide to paddle the canoe. Drift along the jungle river passing Limestone Mountains and cliffs covered with exotic tropical vegetation. Sometimes hornbill birds can be seen flying high overhead or reptiles basking in the sun on the riverbanks. From the canoe, you can experience some of the last areas of primary rainforest, a world that has changed little in thousands of years.

Get out of the canoe and head over to the elephant park. Here you can see, touch and learn about the life of Thai elephants and about the Elephant Hills elephant conservation project. Your guide will also teach you about the mahout, the elephant caretaker. While participating in our amazing Elephant Experience, you will get very close to and even get your hands on these magnificent animals, you will have the chance to interact with them and learn the secrets of their mahouts. You will prepare and feed them one of their daily meals, including their dietary supplements that help with their digestion and their overall well-being. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to really experience the Asian Elephant, this part of the world’s largest land animal!

Overnight camping: In the late afternoon, return to Elephant Hills for dinner and overnight in your luxury tent. The jungle bar will be open for people wanting to exchange stories of their day’s experiences at the lake, and as extra entertainment, you can witness a different movie, a different dance performance and a different cooking demonstration today – enough program to keep you busy until dinner, and enough action to ensure sweet dreams, after you have been lulled to sleep by the background symphony of insects and frogs.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner

Breakfast at your camp: Wake up to the sounds of nature and birds calling from the bushes next to the tent. By the time the sun comes up and the mist over the rainforest-covered mountains to the south of Elephant Hills clears, gibbons’ territorial morning calls echo down the valley. Tea and coffee making facilities are available in your tent for early risers; breakfast is at your leisure.

Mysterious Mangroves: Transfer to the West Coast. Board a speed boat near Takua Pa to explore the mysterious maze of channels in the mangrove forest, it really feels like some primeval swamp. Our well-trained guides keep an eye out for wildlife that might be spotted along the way, like mangrove cat snakes, reticulated pythons or red-tailed racers. Also a wide variety of bird species inhabit the area – make sure you bring your binoculars.

Cruising through the channels we finally meet and board a classical Burmese junk. Bathroom facilities are available, and lunch will be served on board, but not before you had the opportunity to explore the nearby mangrove creek in a self-paddled canoe – a silent journey into this dense, green world, full of natural wonders waiting to be appreciated by you. Very few people live in this area, so little has changed here in hundreds of years. Being out here gives you the feeling of traveling back in time when nature was still untouched and mobile phones didn’t exist. The panoramic views of distant mangroves and banyan trees stretch to the horizon. On the way to Elephant Hills, you will stop at a local market, before you are safely transferred to the camp.

Overnight Camping: After all this activity close to nature, it is time for a hot shower in the unique bathroom of your luxury safari tent. Relax and enjoy the panoramic views of the surrounding jungle-covered mountains – this is 100% real nature! A wide selection of cocktails, wines and spirits is available at the “Jungle explorer’s club bar”. Optional evening entertainment includes a movie presentation, a traditional Thai dance performance from local school children and a cooking demonstration, where you learn how to properly prepare Thai specialties. At 8pm it is time for dinner in this unique location beside the rainforest, the sounds and the atmosphere will make this a memorable meal. Spend the night in your luxury safari tent with a comfortable bed, reading lights, hot water and a western-style toilet. The tents’ doors and windows are covered with mosquito netting as well as canvas flaps, so insects and reptiles will not bother you. Temperatures at night drop a little, the tents are well ventilated; blankets keep you warm in the chill of the night. This is real luxury so close to the heart of the rainforest!

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner

Breakfast at Camp: Extricate yourself from your blanket, roll up the canvas flap and greet the new day with a big yawn. After relaxing your jaw muscles, you will find it much easier to enjoy the well-rounded breakfast buffet.

Explore Cheow Lan Lake: Today you will explore Cheow Lan Lake by local long-tail boat. The man-made lake is surrounded by Limestone Mountains and cliffs covered in tropical rainforest that rise up from the shore of the lake and disappear somewhere in the far distance. The scenery has been compared to Guilin in China and Halong Bay in Vietnam. Few people know of the lake and even less have visited it. There are more than one hundred islands in the lake and it stretches over 60km from North to South. In the 70’s, the area was a hide-out for communists and students opposing the military dictatorship, which well preserved the area’s unique environment as it was spared from urbanization. You can enjoy the spectacular scenery from the boat and will have time to dip into the lake’s emerald water. Please bring your swimwear; towels are provided at the local raft house, where you will stop over for lunch and relaxation.

Evening Activities: After having splashed around enough for one day, grab your daypack and return to Elephant Hills. The choice for the evening program is yours: A movie again? Another dance performance? Want to learn how to prepare another Thai dish? Or is the hammock too comfortable? Maybe you might even keep on splashing around in the water – then our pool is waiting for you. Dinner is served at 8pm as usual, the bar remains open several hours after that. Finally, you will head to your tent – one last time (for now) in this magical environment.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner

Jungle Exploration: Start the day with a wholesome breakfast before you will come face to face with the jungle by exploring it on foot. It is not an army survival exercise, there are no prizes for the fastest, snakes and spiders do not jump out at you – it is just an excellent opportunity to explore the ecology of one of the world’s oldest rainforests, to see a great variety of exotic plants, tropical hardwood trees with huge roots, orchids, palms, ferns, bamboos, mosses… the variety is huge. Birds such as the hornbill live high up above, gibbons can often be heard calling to their mates, a macaque or a leaf monkey may be swinging through the branches, beautiful butterflies buzz around – every day is different, but it is always truly wonderful to discover the great variety of life-forms that co-exists here together. Walk slowly. Look, learn and listen. Then you too will start to discover some of the secrets of the rainforest.

Depart camp: After your morning activities, it will be time to return to the Elephant Camp where a delicious Thai buffet will be served before you depart the camp. After a refreshing shower, the onward transfer to your beach hotel awaits you.

Road journey to Krabi: After lunch, you will be transferred by road to your hotel on the beaches of Krabi. The drive will take around three hours. On arrival, check into your hotel and relax.

Accommodation: Stay tonight at the Tubkaak Boutique Resort (Superior Room)

Meals: Breakfast & Lunch

Days at leisure: You are free to do as much or as little as you like. Krabi offers a wide variety of activities and this is also a great opportunity to arrange a day trip to nearby islands.

Accommodation: Stay these nights at the Tubkaak Boutique Resort (Superior Room)

Meals: Breakfast 

Day at leisure: Today, you have most of the day free to relax or hunt for souvenirs.

Private transfer: Early evening, you will be transferred by car to the airport in Krabi, where you will check in for the Thai Airways flight to London Heathrow, via Bangkok.

Flight: TG2250 Krabi - Bangkok 19.20- 20.40

Meals: Breakfast