The Elephant Sanctuary – Plettenberg Bay

Tourism attractions - Plettenberg Bay

The Elephant Sanctuary is situated in a beautiful part of The Crags near Plettenberg Bay, in the scenic and famous Garden Route of South Africa. This is one of the main Tourism attractions in the Plettenberg Bay area. The Elephant Sanctuary is directly adjacent to Monkeyland and the Birds of Eden sanctuary, giving you three world-class experiences in one stop.

Elephant educational programs in South Africa

The Elephant Sanctuary hosts a unique and fully guides educational program that sets itself apart from anything else that South Africa has to offer in terms of elephant interaction. Guest numbers are limited to ensure personal attention and maximum elephant interaction for each guest, making this a truly memorable and enriching experience.

Learn about elephants

Visitors can learn more about elephant habits, behaviour, different personalities and anatomy through up-close and personal interaction.

Touch Elephants

ONE-HOUR TRUNK-IN-HAND ELEPHANT EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM
An experienced guide introduces you to the elephants, sharing with you their backgrounds, behaviours, personalities and more. You can touch, feed, interact and walk trunk-in-hand with the elephants.

Elephant back riding

ELEPHANT-BACK RIDE
This includes the full trunk-in-hand educational program followed up by a ride of approximately 10 to 15 minutes – a privilege historically reserved for kings! The Elephant Sanctuary conducts their elephant back riding program in a controlled environment to make it a safe yet exciting experience. Elephant rides are done bare back to enhance your contact with the animal. Long pants and closed shoes are recommended.

Elephant Training Programs

EARLY MORNING ELEPHANT BRUSH DOWNS
During this very special interactive program you take part in the morning or afternoon grooming and brush down of the elephants. Afterwards you join the training- and stimulation program the handlers do with the elephants every day. This is followed by the educational trunk-in-hand program.

Elephant experience in the Garden Route

AFTERNOON SUNDOWNER ELEPHANT EXPERIENCE
This program includes all the other programs for the full elephant experience in the Garden Route: the trunk-in-hand educational program, and the elephant back ride followed by the elephant brush down program.

The Elephant Sanctuary - Plettenberg Bay

For contact details and more information on the The Elephant Sanctuary at the Crags near Plettenberg Bay click here

About the Elephant Sanctuary Plettenbeg Bay – an elephant experience for life!

The Elephant Sanctuary provides a "halfway house" or temporary home for young African elephants in need of a home. The Elephant Sanctuary is the only elephant sanctuary in South Africa that provides in this way for elephants and it is our vision to release all the elephants back into a semi wilderness area once they are older and experienced enough to fend for themselves in this type of environment. The herd consists of five female elephants and one young male.
This is a very well balanced family structure and forms part of the reason why we have such a happy and relaxed herd of elephants. The elephants are exercised and stimulated daily, which provides a firm foundation for trust and bonding between the elephants, their handlers and visiting guests.

The team at the Elephant Sanctuary do properly researched stimulation exercises on a daily basis with the elephants. The exercises do not just stimulate the elephants emotionally, but also improve their physical wellbeing and bowel stimulation.

As part of the constant research done at the Elephant Sanctuary, they are also busy with an elephant "body language" study. The results of this study will be published in their newsletter – "Only at the Elephant sanctuary".

Elephants in captivity have always been and will always be a controversial issue. The Elephant Sanctuary, as responsible elephant owners, constantly strive to improve the relationship between the elephants, their living environment, health and emotional conditions and also with the animal welfare organisations and other experts in the field of elephants in captivity. The Elephant Sanctuary has always had a very professional relationship with animal welfare organisations. The Elephant sanctuary also support and sell goods on behalf of some animal welfare and anti poaching units to provide funding for those units.

The Elephant Sanctuary is proud that it has never removed wild elephants from the bush for the purposes of tourism or entertainment. The Elephant Sanctuary merely took responsibility for the elephants after they had been removed from their natural environment by other people for various reasons.

The Elephant Sanctuary has the best and most modern stable facilities available and the stables have been designed with the elephant’s health, safety and wellbeing first and foremost in mind.
The Elephant Sanctuary hosts a unique and fully guided educational program that sets itself apart from anything else that South Africa has previously had on offer in terms of elephant interaction and touching elephants. Guest numbers are limited to ensure personal attention and maximum elephant interaction for each guest which makes this a truly memorable and enriching experience.

For more information on visiting the Elephant Sanctuary click here <

About the Elephant Sanctuary Plettenbeg Bay – an elephant experience for life!

The Elephant Sanctuary provides a "halfway house" or temporary home for young African elephants in need of a home. The Elephant Sanctuary is the only elephant sanctuary in South Africa that provides in this way for elephants and it is our vision to release all the elephants back into a semi wilderness area once they are older and experienced enough to fend for themselves in this type of environment. The herd consists of five female elephants and one young male.
This is a very well balanced family structure and forms part of the reason why we have such a happy and relaxed herd of elephants. The elephants are exercised and stimulated daily, which provides a firm foundation for trust and bonding between the elephants, their handlers and visiting guests.

The team at the Elephant Sanctuary do properly researched stimulation exercises on a daily basis with the elephants. The exercises do not just stimulate the elephants emotionally, but also improve their physical wellbeing and bowel stimulation.

As part of the constant research done at the Elephant Sanctuary, they are also busy with an elephant "body language" study. The results of this study will be published in their newsletter – "Only at the Elephant sanctuary".

Elephants in captivity have always been and will always be a controversial issue. The Elephant Sanctuary, as responsible elephant owners, constantly strive to improve the relationship between the elephants, their living environment, health and emotional conditions and also with the animal welfare organisations and other experts in the field of elephants in captivity. The Elephant Sanctuary has always had a very professional relationship with animal welfare organisations. The Elephant sanctuary also support and sell goods on behalf of some animal welfare and anti poaching units to provide funding for those units.

The Elephant Sanctuary is proud that it has never removed wild elephants from the bush for the purposes of tourism or entertainment. The Elephant Sanctuary merely took responsibility for the elephants after they had been removed from their natural environment by other people for various reasons.

The Elephant Sanctuary has the best and most modern stable facilities available and the stables have been designed with the elephant’s health, safety and wellbeing first and foremost in mind.
The Elephant Sanctuary hosts a unique and fully guided educational program that sets itself apart from anything else that South Africa has previously had on offer in terms of elephant interaction and touching elephants. Guest numbers are limited to ensure personal attention and maximum elephant interaction for each guest which makes this a truly memorable and enriching experience.

For more information on visiting the Elephant Sanctuary click here <