On our recent trip to Bali the concierge at our resort recommended that we spend a day going to see the Elephant Park. Our hotel was located in Nusa Dua in the south and the Safari Park is in Ubud in the centre of Bali. The bus ride took around 2-1/2 hours, I was very glad I remembered to bring water as the bus was very warm. The park was designed and is run by an Australian conservationist in an effort to save the Sumatran Elephants which are being killed to make room for the rising human population in that area of Indonesia. I only include this information to set this tour in a higher category than some of the other “parks” in similar destinations that treat the animals poorly. The Elephants all look healthy and seem to enjoy the human interaction. My wife and I rode around the park on elephant back while getting a bit of history of our particular animal and its journey to Bali. After the ride there was a show in which the elephants played soccer, basketball, painted pictures and generally made the crowd cheer. I recommend viewing the show from the second level for a better view (and you stay dryer). After the show we had lunch at the buffet which featured mostly local and Australian dishes. We did not end up staying at the resort but it looks very nice, and for a day or so would be worth it. I would recommend this for a day trip.

This Lodge is about 2 hours out of Denpasar and will cost $US50 if you take their service. THe location is beautiful though. We got that about 10am as we had to leave early the next morning for a flight. We completely screwed up their itinerary but they squeezed all the activities into one day for us. In total we probably only spent 3 hours doing everything the park offers.

While the elephant tour was only about 20 minutes etc, the highlight for my fiancee was the swimming with the Elephant, Mr Wong. The elephant would dive in and out of the water and go on its hindlegs. It was a rare experience for her and she loved every second of it.

As for the room, this is where things went down hill a little. The room was ok, the pictures were a little misleading in my opinion. There was no bath tube and the fan in the bathroom was broken. Once we turned it on we couldn't shut it down and it was quite noisy.

Come dinner time, we took an elephant ride down to the restaurant. It was pissing down rain and we werent offered any rain protection except an umbrella which kept getting caught in the trees. A poncho or something similar would have been very suitable in these conditions.

The restaurant is not cheap but acceptable, however, for Rp200,000 for the buffet you are better off just ordering off the menu. The buffet food didn't look very appetising. The menu food was simply amazing though (don't order the Ox tail, this was pretty crap) and well worth it.

Oh and the fruit basket we received in our room had ants all over it. Let's just say I lost my appetite for fruit.

In summary, it's well worth it for a night. I certainly wouldn't book for more than 1 night though.

We went here on our 2nd day in Ubud and I would have to say it was one of the most beautiful experiences of our lives, to hear the elephants make their trumpeting and rumbling sounds, watching the babies with there mothers, going for a swim in the pond was just fantastic, it was one of the highlights of our 5 weeks in Bali. The park itself is a credit to the owners and carers, a little expensive for Bali but one of those once in a lifetime experiences you should not miss.

We stayed 3 nights 4 days and had the most amazing experience and would not hesitate to recommend it highly, especially for families, it's an absolute 10/10. We've traveled the world and taken safari's through Kenya, Tanzania, Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Swaziland, Egypt, Tanzania and Thailand and you will not find a better environment for elephants anywhere else in the world, other than roaming free in the wild. Unfortunately, WE have ruined their world and this wonderful place makes an enormous positive impact on regenerating this endangered species, as they have bred well in this park. I don't know what the Bambi brigade are complaining about....they paid money to ride an elephant, why, if you don't agree with this philosophy? The negative comments reflect a lack of worldly experience, so if you took the time, not one based on a one hour ride and run, you would see all the elephants are given plenty of time to roam freely with their mahouts, without chains, passengers or tricks. If they weren't restrained at night they would eat out the entire village, the very reason they are being killed in Sumatra...hello??? Out of all the elephants there are only a few who walk across a tree trunk and kick a ball (that's the extent of the "show"). They are constantly fed and regularly swim in a pool which is 3 times the size of the one at Taronga zoo. These elephants were working elephants so carrying people a few times a day is not detrimental to their wellbeing. Most of the mahouts don't use the stick but the ones that do don't hit them at all. They use it gently like a blinker to direct them. Before putting negative comments online be thoughtful enough to understand the damage your uninformed comments do to such an amazing organisation. The staff, food, accommodation and service was all 5 star at the Elephant Safari Park & Lodge so it's worth every cent.