Elephant Ride in Siem Reap Cmbodia

[krillsister]

Has anyone done an elephant ride in Siem Reap while doing a river cruise. I was wondering how you go about booking this? Time of day?? I don't think it is part of any river cruise excursion.

[ewizabeff]

It's an optional excursion with Uniworld and, on that trip, is done at sunrise (offered two days if demand warrants)

[krillsister]

I'm on Amalotus so I don't know if it is included

[alexandra cruiser]

that we took 2 yrs.ago, their were elephants at 2 of the sites we visited. You could opt to NOT take AMA tour and do this on your own. Only 2 couples did and said it was so so, just got up and walked around for 20 mins.with guide who spoke little to no English. Sort of like riding ponies at zoo,etc.

[solareclipse]

Also curious about this. Anyone know the cost? Is it even worth doing and getting up super early, especially if it's just a zoo-type photo op?

[roaming_kiwi58]

We did a cruise with APT on the Amalotus in December. We had two nights in Siem Reap after the end of the river cruise. On the last day in Siem Reap we had "Freedom of Choice" excursions in the morning. There were about 8 different options to choose from, one of which was an elephant ride around the Bayon Temple. We were transported to Angkor by tuk tuk, then had about 35 minutes on an elephant. You could get your photo taken if you wanted. We enjoyed it very much. It was a different view of one of the Angkor temples from up there on the elephant, and it was quite relaxing.

 

Note, however, we were on a trip with APT, which included land and river cruise. We started in Hanoi for 2 nights, then had 2 nights on a Halong Bay cruise, flew to Saigon for 2 nights, joined the Mekong cruise for 7 nights, then finished with 2 nights in Siem Reap. Everything was included in the package, and there were no optional extra excursions, though there were choices of which excursion you wanted to do on a number of occasions.

 

There were people on the Amalotus who were only doing the river cruise, and they did not have the pre cruise time in Saigon or the post cruise time in Siem Reap. Though I believe there were people who did the cruise plus the time in Siem Reap, who had the the same options as us in Siem Reap.

 

All the options and inclusions were clearly stated in our documentation.

 

So I don't know what package you have bought? Anyway, if you have to do the elephant ride on your own, all you need is transport to the Bayon Temple, where people were just joining a queue for the elephant ride. The concierge at your hotel would be able to organise a tuk tuk for you. It would probably also be useful to know how busy the elephants were at any specific time - like when our big group showed up, so you don't have to waste time in a queue. I am sure your hotel could help with this.

 

Also note, our elephant ride was not at sunrise - it was mid morning. We went to Angkor Wat for sunrise the previous day and it was a big disappointment - not worth getting up at 4am! But we stayed on after the sunrise for a tour of Angkor Wat, which was absolutely amazing and well worth the visit! The sunrise was disappointing because of no colour in the sky - and there is no knowing in advance whether you are going to strike it lucky there!

Edited April 17, 2015 by roaming_kiwi58
Additional info.

[makeupartist40]

we did the elephant ride as well.. it was an OK experience.. nice to do if you can make it work easily, but I wouldn't go through hoops to do it

[krillsister]

Thanks for all the responses. Roaming Kiwi, we are doing the land/river tour with Amawaterways. Almost the same itinerary as yours. So it appears that I will have the opportunity to ride an elephant. If you have any other tips about this cruise, they would be greatly appreciated.

Edited April 17, 2015 by krillsister

[alexandra cruiser]

under member review section.Lots of good tips, use search function.

 

Also.look at you tube .Lots of info out there.When I took it ,read up on all of them ,so felt prepared as much as possible.

 

Since its third world area, ex.for big citiy hotels,etc(and ship).Try to pack ALL the things you MAY need.Hard to find(such as camera battery,etc....)in many places.

 

Google and see you tube videos of elephant rides, may give you more ideas if its for you.