Elephant Sanctuary in Plettenberg Bay Review
The Elephant Sanctuary in Plettenberg Bay is an interactive experience for those who want to get up close and personal with friendly elephants.
Open year-round, the Elephant Sanctuary is a good option for travelers along the Garden Route who want to fit in as much as possible on their itineraries. I visited with my siblings on Christmas Day, and it felt like we had a private experience because there were no other tourists.
My highlight of the day was literally holding an elephant’s trunk! And feeding them treats and carrots.
The basics:
- The Elephant Sanctuary is open 9am-5pm
- It is located just 20 minutes outside of Plettenberg Bay
- You can book in advance online
- Walk trunk in hand with Elephants Tour
The Trunk in Hand experience details:
- 1 hour experience to walk, touch, and feed African Elephants
- Tours available on the hour between 8am-12pm, and on the half hour between 1:30-3:30pm.
- Cost: R695/pp
First, we learned a little bit about the history of the sanctuary and the elephants. We then got paired with an elephant to walk (literally) trunk in hand with the elephants on a small trail into a forested area.
Elephants in groups often walk holding the elephant’s tail ahead of them with their trunk when the herds are in densely forested areas. This prevents the elephants from getting separated. Their trunks were so much heavier than what I imagined!
Once we were in the forest area, we switched up elephants and got to meet each of them up close.
Our guide took so many amazing pictures of us with the elephants. It felt like we had our own personal photographer. There is also a videographer that will take your video and you can buy the DVD if you want to.
There was complimentary tea and coffee available for us when we returned from our tour. We also browsed the curio shop and thought the bathroom “cows” and “bulls” sign was funny.
The elephants
There were five elephants on the reserve when we visited in December 2021. The elephants were rescued from national parks across Africa, either because they had been separated from their herds or their herds were culled (eek!) due to land management practices or because herds began to attack humans. According to our guide, we learned that entire herds had to be culled if one elephant displaced violence against humans because the other elephants would learn that this is okay to do.
Our guide and the elephants’ handlers were super nice and answered all our questions. We learned about how the elephants mostly do their own thing around the sanctuary and are motivated to act on a set of cues (that must be followed in the same order) so that they get treats. However, the elephants have plenty to each every day; they basically just want dessert when they engage with humans. You can tell how each of the elephant’s handlers is bonded with them.
Check out the site here. There are a couple of other tours available, including a full-day experience, but the Trunk in Hand is what I would recommend.
Just a quick note that I’m sharing my personal experience from the sanctuary and sharing what I’ve learned directly from the guides and elephant handlers.
What do you think of my Elephant Sanctuary in Plettenberg Bay Review? Let me know in the comments!