Activities

KHAO SOK ACTIVITIES

What to do in Khao Sok once you have arrived?

A lot of visitors come to Khao Sok just to marvel the beauty of the nature, but you can also enjoy your time taking part in some of the various activities different tour operators and guest houses may offer.

Meet Majestic Elephants up close

Experiencing an Asian Elephant (Elephas Maximus) up close is an experience you will certainly not forget. It is often seen as the highlight of visitors’ experiences in Khao Sok, so we made sure there is an Elephant Experience included in any of our recommended tours.

During this Elephant Experience you will get close to these magnificent animals, get an insight into the secrets of their mahouts, and experience hands on what it is like to interact with real life elephants! You will prepare one of their daily meals and then get up close and personal feeding them their daily treat, while you can watch them bathe and roam free. Fully trained guides will supply plenty of information on elephants, their conservation and their care-takers, the Mahouts. It is truly a once in a lifetime chance to experience the Asian Elephant, the largest land animal in this part of the world!

Please note: You will not sit on or trek with the elephants. If you were thinking about riding an elephant, please first consider reading Elephant Experience vs. Elephant Trekking.

Jungle trekking

One of the most popular activities is experiencing the tropical rainforest on foot with a knowledgeable local guide. Khao Sok National Park and the surrounding parks offer quite a few different trekking possibilities for people of all ages and abilities. Treks leave from various places throughout the area and along the length of the parks, including but not restricted to the National Park Headquarters. Rafflesia treks and other quieter treks will leave either east or west of the main entrance.

When booking a tour a TAT licensed tour guide is usually included in the price of that tour. When traveling on your own to Khao Sok you can also hire a local guide from National Park Headquarters. Please follow the National Park rules, take enough water with you, remember to bring all trash back to park headquarters, stay on the marked path, and don’t touch anything you don’t know so you and everyone else can have a pleasant visit to one of the oldest rainforests in the world.

For tour packages with jungle treks to quieter and less crowded areas of Khao Sok check our recommended 3 day Jungle Lake Safari. All the tours we recommend are operated by a reputable tour company with all proper licenses and fully trained English speaking Thai tour guides with TAT licenses.

Canoeing, kayaking and bamboo rafting

Sok River is a perfect place for a relaxing canoe ride down the slowly moving stream. Especially if you have a canoe man to do all the hard work and you can entirely concentrate on taking in the breathtakingly beautiful scenery. Paddlers are usually experts in spotting wildlife along the river, too.

Most commonly seen animals include birds, such as kingfishers and herons, snakes, frogs, monitor lizards and, if you are lucky, maybe even some wild monkeys. Besides the animals, you can see stunning limestone cliffs covered with dense jungle, as well as some rural life along the river like locals fishing, washing laundry and getting their daily household water from the river.

If you are interested in paddling your own canoe, the best place to do so is Cheow Larn Lake.

Boat tours to Cheow Larn Lake

Definitely one of the most fascinating places in Khao Sok is the Cheow Larn Lake with its majestic limestone mountains rising hundreds of meters above the turquoise waters of the emerald green lake.

If you are visiting Khao Sok it is highly recommend to go on a day or even an overnight trip to the lake. It is possible to visit the lake for one day to marvel its beauty or stay overnight in one of the many floating bungalows in the heart of the Khao Sok National Park. Staying overnight enables you to visit stunning stalactite caves full of bats, trek in the national park and look for animals in the early morning light or late in the evening. Wake up in the morning to the sounds of the rainforest and calls of endangered Lar Gibbons.

For overnight trips staying at luxury tented accommodation far away from civilization we recommend the 3 day Jungle Lake Safari.

Other activities

Why not just relax and look around? Sit at your guest house terrace and enjoy the views. Bird watching is one of the possible activities and Cheow Larn Lake offers great possibility to spot hornbills, for example,a bird species as old as the Himalayan mountains.

For further activities, please contact your local guesthouse, National Park HQ or check our Recommended tours page.