A friend visiting Chiang Mai once told me excitedly, “It’s not everyday you get to play with real tigers!”. Tiger Kingdom in Mae Rim, Chiang Mai, is indeed a fun place to visit - unless you’re an animal activist who gets upset with the idea of using wild animals to make money from tourists, in which case, Tiger Kingdom probably isn’t a place for you.
Having said that, though, Tiger Kingdom is a lovely, clean and well-kept park. To me, the tigers look pretty happy and healthy. The enclosures are quite large. It’s free to walk around and view the tigers from the terrace of the restaurant. Charges apply if you go inside the cages to “play” and take photos with the tigers, under the supervision of handlers, of course. Prices range from 420 baht for 15 min in enclosures with “Big Tigers”, 420 baht with “Medium Tigers” and 520 baht with “Small Tigers”.
If you don’t want to get too close, you also have the option to have a meal at the restaurant’s terrace and watch other people enjoying their time in the enclosures - which is probably even more interesting than watching the tigers!
The food is at the restaurant is also pretty good and both Thai and Western food are available. My 3.5 year old nephew couldn’t wait to get into the pineapple fried rice! You can order a-la-carte, or if you’re there at lunch time, the restaurant has a good buffet for 200 baht/person.
There is also another fun activity for children - feeding fishes!
Nearby attractions: Bungee Jumping, ATV, Monkey School, Snake Farm, Long Neck Village, Mae Sa Elephant Camp, Mon Cham.
For more information or to book a tour in Chiang Mai, please contact us!
on Oct 28th, 2011 at 12:49 am
Hi! This is my first comment here so I just wanted to give a quick shout out and say I truly enjoy reading through your posts. Can you recommend any other blogs/websites/forums that cover the same topics? Thank you so much!