Elephant Experience - Three days, two nights 
Bukit Lawang and Tangkahan

Suggested itinerary

Day 1

Your friendly English-speaking guide and driver will meet you at  your accommodation or the airport in Medan.
Drive 2.5-3 hours to Bukit Lawang in private air-conditioned transport.

Arrive in Bukit Lawang and be transferred to your accommodation at Sam’s Bungalow located across the river from the National Park. Enjoy some light refreshments in the riverside restaurant while discussing the plan for your trek on day 2 with your guide.

You are then free to spend the day enjoying the local atmosphere. Enjoy a refreshing swim in the river, wander around the cafes and curio shops or just kick back and relax in your accommodation. We can also arrange a variety of short tours in the local area. If this is something you may be interested in check out our cultural tours and contact us to discuss the options

Day 2

After a relaxing night at your guest house or homestay and an early morning breakfast, your guide will collect you to begin your half day trekking adventure in the Gunung Leuser National Park.

Your trek begins at the park boundary where the terrain consists of gentle sloping foothills. Depending on the time of year you may encounter wild orangutans and other primates such as long-tailed macaques, pig-tailed macaques, silver langurs and white-handed gibbons. While your guide will happily discuss the human-wildlife conflicts that happens in the area, we encourage you to move through the Park boundary area swiftly as this is where a large majority of tourists are taken to see orangutans and often becomes crowded.

We will lead you away from the main tracks to maximise your chances of seeing the wildlife in their natural states. As with all of our treks we adhere to strict wildlife watching guidelines, which you can read by clicking here. Along with the orangutans and other primates, you may also encounter the endangered Siamang, Great Argus pheasant and various hornbill species.

As you enter the National Park itself your guides will point out fauna and flora of interest, including tracks and signs of wildlife and stories passed down over the generations of our family. 

During your trek you will want to stop frequently to watch wildlife but please remember we enforce strict rules on maintaining a safe distance and time in close proximity to the orangutans and other primate species in the area (read the wildlife watching guidelines here).

Around 1pm you will return to the village and your accommodation, where you can relax at the river and enjoy a delicious lunch at a restaurant of your choice before packing up.

Around 3pm, your guide will collect you from the accommodation and take you to your private transport where you will be driven along the bumpy back roads for a 2.5 hour journey to Tangkahan, known as Leuser’s ‘Hidden Paradise’. Along the way, you may want to stop for photographs of the remote Karonese villages or oil palm industry which lines the route.

On arrival in Tangkahan your guide will take you to your accommodation at Jungle Lodge where you will be welcomed with a refreshing drink. Spend the rest of the day and evening relaxing at a local restaurant, enjoying a refreshing swim in the beautiful river or soaking in the hot spring directly opposite your accommodation.

Day 3

After a welcome sleep and an early morning breakfast, your guide will take you the short stroll to see the elephants of Tangkahan. The Tangkahan Conservation Response Unit, or CRU, established in 2002, cares for a herd of trained, captive elephants. In their early years of operation, the elephants, rescued from training camps in southern Sumatra, were used to patrol the National Park in the fight against illegal logging, once rampant in the area.

Now this has been stopped in the local vicinity, the elephants are used purely as an ecotourism attraction. With no chance of returning to the wild, the CRU uses the funds gained from tourism to feed and care for the elephants.

At 9am, you will join the daily elephant bathing ritual! Spend around an hour with the elephants at the Buluh river where you can chat to the CRU mahouts and give the elephants a good scrub as they laze in the river shallows.

As a responsible tour operator, we do not support elephant riding at Tangkahan but we are happy to contribute to the feeding and upkeep of these hugely important animals with the bathing ritual.

Following the bathing, you are free to enjoy the river and atmosphere in Tangkahan before leaving for your onward journey to Medan, which takes around 2 hours.

All of our tours are flexible and can be altered to suit your requirements and budget. 

Contact us to discuss your options.

 

Be a Responsible Tourist

Please be aware that as ecological experts with over 20 years’ experience in the area, to reduce the risks of disease transmission we strictly follow the IUCN Guidelines for viewing wild primate populations (please read the wildlife watching guidelines here). Orangutans and other primates are extremely sensitive to common human illnesses and so joining a trek while you are experiencing any sort of cold, flu or gastrointestinal sickness puts the whole local population at risk. Please let us know if you are experiencing any symptoms before you embark on any trek.

Our guides will never feed, touch or encourage our guests to touch or feed orangutans or any other wild animal, so please do not ask and if you witness other tourists doing so, please share the guidelines with them.

What’s Included?

• Private air-conditioned transport from Medan to Bukit Lawang, Bukit Lawang to Tangkahan and Tangkahan to Medan.
• Expert, English-speaking guide and assistant.
• One-night accommodation in a Deluxe double room (upgrades are available if discussed at time of booking) at Sam’s Bungalows and Restaurant in Bukit Lawang.
• One-night accommodation in a deluxe double room at Jungle Lodge, Tangkahan (upgrades may be available if discussed at time of booking).
• Welcome drink at Bukit Lawang and Tangkahan.
• Half day trek in Bukit Lawang with fresh fruit snack and 1.5L mineral water.
• Entrance and camera permits to Gunung Leuser National Park.
• Entrance fee for Tangkahan.
• Tickets for elephant bathing in Tangkahan.

What’s not included

• Food and drink at your accommodation (except welcome drink on arrival).
• Bottled water (aside from the 1.5L provided on the trek).

What you need to bring.

• Clothing suitable for hot, humid jungle.
• Sturdy walking shoes or boots.
• Two or three changes of lightweight clothing.
• Long socks.
• Small backpack to carry camera. 
• Sun block
• Insect repellent.
• Extra water.
• Rain gear if bad weather.
• Swimwear
• Towel or sarong.
• Plastic bag for wet clothes (you will get wet bathing the elephants!).

 

• Minimum of 3 people up to a maximum of 6.
• Single supplements apply so we may recommend joining with other solo travellers. 

Please read our frequently asked questions section for information on what else to bring or Contact us for prices and more details