!!! Have been trying, for the past two weeks, to book a 1 day elephant riding programme at the Elephant Conservation Center in Lampang and finally today i get the answer that they are all booked up.

Does anyone know are there any alternative centres in more or less he same area? We liked the idea of the Elephant Conservation Center because, whilst they clearly do a lot of tourist work, it also seems to be a working/activ place rather than just a zoo...

Grateful for any tips!

You could go to the elephant conservation center just to see bathing and the show if you liked. If you wanted to do an elephant ride, I've heard that the Mae Sa elephant camp is quite good...but don't have any personal experience. I can't remember how many days you are in Chiang Mai, but have you tried alternative day requests? You might also ask if they have one elephant available you might share the experience. They offered us 2 elephants for the 3 of us, but we changed our dates to have our own elephant each. I'm surprised it took two weeks to figure out your booking...my experience was almost instant replies, but I read here another person had trouble getting e-mails too.

You can go to the elephant conservation center without a reservation and see the elephants bathing, see the show, take a ride and take a tour of the center. You just can't go through the mahout training. This is the only place I would go to see elephants. Just make sure you get there early enough in the morning to see the bathing.

Thank you Gloria. This is excellent news. We are staying at the Lampang River Lodge the previous night so we should be there nice and early.
Thanks!

In October 2004, while we were on a tour, we went to Maetamann Elephant Camp and Rafting outside of Chiang Mai. I do not know if a reservation is needed, and I do not know the cost. The elephants were healthy looking, and we fed them during our ride. After the ride, we watched the bathing and then the show. The baby elephants were out so we could feed them and have a picture taken next to them. Art work that the elephants painted was available for purchase. The elephants did not look mistreated.