Elephants

[Toasty280]

My mum aged 70, no mobility issues, would like to go somewhere to see elephants in the wild. Don't want it too hot, max 10 hours flight, budget £1200 each. Would be a great for both of us. Any suggestions I thought Sri lanka?

Just coming here to say Sri Lanka!
We went July/Aug 2019. About 30C but very humid.
Flights around £750 then. Out of school holidays would be cheaper.
You can travel safely on a wide range of budgets. Many hire a car and driver. We used trains and buses.
Have also been to Kenya and Masai Mara but my gut feel is that would be harder on your budget (although wild life was utterly amazing).
Having been to kenya first, I'd wondered if I might be disappointed by Sri Lanka's wildlife, but we were still wowed. Saw so many elephants.
I've heard mixed things about the elephant orphanages. We stuck with a national park.
As for the rest of the holiday, we loved it. Sri lanka is amazing. So much to see and do.

We did a Sri Lankan Safari 2 years ago - Yala and the North. We saw Leopard, Bear, Deer species, crocs, monkeys and lots of elephants. The bird life is fantastic. We went in August, hot but the drives are early and late in the day.
You have to work harder to see wildlife than in Africa, think Jungle instead of scrub. Different but fabulous. Be very careful about the elephant charities - not all are scrupulous and we felt it better to give money to the national parks.

Just seen your budget - think you may struggle. Food is cheap but the park passes can add up. Its also worth paying for a really decent guide in the parks as the wildlife can be difficult to spot. I paid about £12,000 2 years ago for 4 people for 2 weeks.

We went to Sri Lanka 2 years ago and I agree £1200 might be stretching it if you can only do direct flights. I paid £1400 for non direct flights for the 3 of us leaving in April, another £250 for transport between locations , £300 for days out (transport, entrance fees), £800-£900 for hotels (4 star). You could pay less for hotels but depends how much your 70 year old Mum would be prepared to rough it (I know mine absolutely wouldn’t!).

DH works in International Animal Welfare and has been involved in ethical elephant tourism campaigns. You will definitely see wild elephants in Sri Lanka (we went to Minneriya and used their own park guides - some of the private guides did from what we saw get too close to the herds and at one point separate a bull in musk from a group of females by driving in between them - pretty risky!). There is some very unethical elephant tourism in Sri Lanka - for example, elephant rides are available at Sigiriya and their are numerous elephant orphanages that offer tourists the chance to ride, bathe and feed elephants. An ethical sanctuary is one that offers very minimal opportunities to interact with elephants - less fun for tourists wanting selfies but far better for their welfare.

I’m not sure what the cost of an East African Safari might be currently but I imagine more than £1200 each. Having lived in Kenya as a child, while you’ll see wild elephants in both East Africa and Sri Lanka, the variety of wildlife in Africa is definitely superior. That’s not to say we didn’t enjoy our days Safari in Sri Lanka.

£1200 won’t get Near East Africa. Not a chance.

I went to Sri Lanka a few years ago and one of the trips I did was the elephant orphanage one. Something about it just didn't seem right, it was definitely run as a tourist attraction rather than for the welfare of the elephants, it left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. We also did one game drive in Yala but didn't manage to see any elephants, however if you were going specifically to see elephants you could do lots of game drives and would have more chance of seeing them.
The place where I've seen the most elephants in the wild was Botswana, I can't remember the name of the park but there were loads of them. Probably over budget though.

Minneriya is the best National Park in Sri Lanka to see wild elephants - however I’d choose carefully who you went in with (the parks own guides are excellent) as quite honestly some of the private companies from what we witnessed were effectively getting too close from both a welfare and safety perspective. However, tourist numbers have probably fallen significantly since we went so there might not be the jeep pile on of small herds that we witnessed so much now.

Botswana is a great shout for elephants but it’s very expensive. No direct flights and lodges are small and mostly expensive. £1200 won’t get you near Botswana.

Wild dogs at Mana Pools is next on my list!

Definitely Minneriya in Sri Lanka. Fabulous olace

The best parks for elephants in Sri Lanka are Uda Walawe and Minneriya.

South Africa could be done on that budget. I think. Drive yourselves to the Kruger and stay in one of the camps run by the national parks. Lots of elephants.
Personally I find the security situation in S Africa a worry, but lots of people are very happy travelling there.

Few tourists have issues in South Africa. You must take reasonable precautions and be sensible about where you go but I would say that about South America and a few other places.

Sri Lanka is amazing, we saw so many elephants amazingly close in Udawalawe, was the best travel experience I have had. We were backpacking but stayed in guest houses and ate out for less than £20 a day each.

I was really excited to see elephants in Sri Lanka. On our first safari we saw one and then took sooooo many photos of it, so amazing to see them up close. We then traveled for about ten seconds, turned a corner & there were literally hundreds of them! I’ve since seen them in. Botswana & South Africa but nothing beats the memories of Minneriya for me.

I would stick to Sri Lanka over South Africa in terms of budget. I think it’s definitely do able for 2 people on a shared budget of £2400. We did a family of 5 there for 2 months on £3k a month.

Kenya? Can be done super cheaply as a range of accomodation options, and food (if you eat local food) is very, very reasonable.

A cheaper option for South Africa may be Addo rather than Kruger. Flights to South Africa are usually expensive, and are likely to increase now due to the long travel bans they have had in place.

We did a tour of Sri Lanka with kuoni 10 years ago. It was within your budget then, not sure about prices now but it was a brilliant holiday.

South Africa for sure!! Best place I've ever been! You can rent a cheap car and drive in to the National Parks yourself....off the top of my memory think its about a £30 conservation fee per day to enter in your own vehicle. Addo National Park is a great choice!

There's no need to get a guided tour although you can if you want, its not expensive. We loved driving around just the 2 of us and finding "our own" animals! Theres no shortage of elephants there and you'll see zebras, lions, giraffes etc as a bonus!

£1200 won’t get Near East Africa. Not a chance.

You'll easily do Kenya on this budget. You'll find flights to Mombasa for around 400 each if you book in advance. Food and drinks are cheap. Stay someplace like Diani Beach, you can share a nice room in a nice place for around 40 a night and do a 3 day/2 night guided tour to Tsavo National Park (you can get this for around 200 each), you'll see plenty animals.

I'd still recommend South Africa over Kenya though.

You can easily see elephants in Kenya for under 1200 per person. Mombassa or Nairobi (with the added option of visiting the Elephant Sanctuary in Nairobi).

There's an awesome Eco camp close by the sanctuary, you are close to Nairobi national park, and you can do a short multi day trip to other parks.

Also recommend Sri Lanka
We went to Yala and saw them also went to the elephant orphanage

Please @Toasty280, if you do choose Sri Lanka, DO NOT visit the elephant orphanage (Pinnawala). It’s a known poor welfare venue. The issue essentially is the chaining of the elephants and surreptitious use of bull hooks. Venues like this cannot continue to operate or be forced to change if they aren’t getting tourist income.

This is written by a tourist not a wildlife specialist but will give you the general picture:

handluggageonly.co.uk/2017/06/14/heres-never-visit-pinnawala-elephant-orphanage-sri-lanka/

On a more positive note, if the elephant sanctuary @OctupusObsidian is referring too is the Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage in Nairobi, completely different kettle of fish. I used to visit it as a kid.

Yes, Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage (I wasn't aware there was another in Nairobi).

There wasn’t in my day @OctopusObsidian , you just confused me with the word sanctuary so I didn’t know if you meant the orphanage or some other place I’d never heard of that had popped up in the many since I’d left 🙂!