Tiger Park Phuket — Tiger Encounter on the Big Buddha Road

Booked through Trip Thai Tour, single enclosures run from ฿820 per person for the Small or Medium tiger, ฿920 for the Smallest cub or the Big tiger, and ฿1,200 for the Giant, White Tiger, Cheetah or Newborn. The park's own gate prices for the same tiers are ฿920, ฿1,020 and ฿1,320 — every tier here is 9–10% below the counter. Play packages run ฿1,550 for two enclosures, ฿2,000 for the cheetah pairing, ฿2,280 for three, ฿3,000 for Play 4 and ฿6,250 for Play All against ฿6,920 at the gate.

The two outdoor options are ฿680 for the Canopy Forest Safari and ฿470 for the Canopy Sky Walk, against ฿750 and ฿520 at the counter. On top of your tickets there is one transport charge of ฿2,000 for the whole vehicle round trip, up to 10 people, which is included in every booking on this page. Two adults doing the Medium tiger therefore pay ฿820 + ฿820 + ฿2,000 = ฿3,640 in total, and there is nothing further to pay at the gate.

Yes, but only into the Smallest and Newborn cub enclosures. The park restricts anyone under 15 years old to those two tiers regardless of how tall the child is, and children under 2 years old enter those enclosures free. Every child must be accompanied inside by an adult holding the same Smallest ticket — a child cannot enter an enclosure alone or be watched from outside. The Canopy Sky Walk and the Canopy Forest Safari have no age restriction at all and are open to children of any age.

The practical trap is the family photograph. If the parents book a Big tiger and the child books Smallest, you are in different enclosures at different times and there is no picture with everyone in it. If a single shared photograph is what you want, book the Smallest tier for the whole family. It is also the better experience for children — a three-to-five-month cub is active and curious, while an adult tiger at midday is mostly asleep.

Newborn cubs under 2 months and Smallest cubs at 3–5 months have no age or height restriction at all. Small tigers at 6–12 months require 16 years and 160 cm. Medium tigers at 13–18 months require 17 years and 160 cm. Big tigers at 19–48 months and Giant tigers at 5 years and over require 18 years and 160 cm. The Canopy Sky Walk and Canopy Forest Safari have no restrictions of any kind.

The 160 cm minimum applies to adults exactly as it does to children — an adult of 155 cm is restricted to the cub enclosures no matter their age, and the park measures at the counter rather than taking your word for it. This is the most common reason visitors have to exchange tickets at the desk. Send us the age and height of everyone travelling and we will confirm in writing which enclosures each person qualifies for before you pay anything.

The park's own two documents disagree, and rather than pick one quietly we will tell you exactly what they say. The printed rules sheet lists both the White Tiger and the Cheetah at 16 years and over with a 160 cm minimum. The park's price board lists both at 18 years and over with the same 160 cm minimum. Every other tier — Small, Medium, Big, Giant, Smallest, Newborn — matches across both documents, so this affects only these two enclosures.

In practice this only matters if somebody in your group is 16 or 17 and specifically wants the cheetah or the white tiger. If that is you, say so at enquiry and we will get the park to confirm the current rule in writing before you pay anything. Anyone 18 or over and 160 cm or taller qualifies under either reading, so no confirmation is needed. We will not sell a ticket that might be refused at the gate.

Yes — every booking on this page includes the private round-trip transfer and it cannot be removed. The reason is practical rather than commercial: Tiger Park is on Soi Yot Sane 1, the road climbing Nakkerd Hill toward the Big Buddha, there is no useful public transport up it, and while getting a ride out is easy, finding one back down when you are ready to leave is not. Guests left standing at the gate waiting for an app to find a driver is a bad end to a good morning.

The ฿2,000 is charged once for the whole vehicle, not per person, and covers up to 10 passengers: hotel pickup anywhere in Phuket, the driver waiting through your entire visit rather than dropping and leaving, the return to your hotel, and an optional free stop at the Big Buddha on the way back. For two people that is ฿1,000 each; for a group of eight it is ฿250 each. A round-trip metered ride with no waiting typically costs more than that from Patong alone.

Approximately 10 minutes per enclosure, and the park enforces that limit consistently. It is a short, structured, supervised encounter with a trained handler positioning you throughout — not free time among the animals. Reviews that describe it as brief are accurate, and we would rather you knew that before booking than felt it afterwards. Your own phone and camera are permitted the whole time, so there is no requirement to buy the park's photographs.

If ten minutes sounds short for the trip up the hill, the fix is booking more than one enclosure rather than expecting longer in one. A Play package runs each tier as a separate enclosure with a rest in between: budget around 90 minutes inside the park for Play 3 and roughly two hours for Play 4. Adding the Canopy Sky Walk and Forest Safari extends the visit by another 45 minutes or so, at no age or height restriction.

The park photographer charges ฿500 through us for 50 shots transferred to your phone, or ฿590 for 50 shots plus short video clips delivered on a USB stick — against ฿550 and ฿650 at the counter. The detail almost no listing explains is that this is priced per cage for up to 5 people, not per person. Five people in the same enclosure split one ฿500 fee rather than paying ฿2,500 between them, which changes the maths completely for a family.

It is entirely optional. Your own phone is permitted inside every enclosure and produces good results in the cub enclosures, which are well lit and where the animal is close. The professional equipment earns its money in the Big, Giant and White Tiger enclosures, which are larger and darker. The Play All package includes the photographer free for one cage on USB.

The Canopy Forest Safari is a 15–20 minute ride in an open-sided electric car through the park's landscaped outdoor territory, where the tigers have considerably more space than the interaction enclosures — you will typically see animals resting under trees, cooling in water features and occasionally crossing in front of the vehicle. The Canopy Sky Walk is a raised wooden walkway built above that same ground, looking down onto the outdoor enclosures with Nakkerd Hill behind them. Our prices are ฿680 and ฿470 against ฿750 and ฿520 at the gate.

Neither has an age restriction or a height restriction, which makes them the answer for children under 15, for adults under 160 cm, and for anyone who wants to see tigers without sitting next to one. Together they come to ฿1,150 and make a complete visit with no enclosure at all. Two notes: take them before your cage rather than after, because they settle nervous children and orient you to the site, and both are marked non-refundable by the park the moment the ticket is issued.

This is the most common question asked before booking and the most common accusation in negative reviews, so here is the direct answer. Tigers sleep between 16 and 20 hours a day. They are nocturnal hunters that evolved to conserve energy through daylight heat, and a tiger lying flat at noon in 33°C Chalong is behaving precisely as a tiger behaves in the wild at noon. That single fact explains the large majority of what visitors read as sedation. The cub enclosures, at three to twelve months, show visibly active, curious and responsive animals — particularly in the morning.

That is an honest explanation, not a complete defence, and we will not pretend otherwise: Tiger Park is a commercial wildlife attraction rather than a conservation centre or a sanctuary. Visit between 09:00 and 11:00, choose the cub tiers if seeing active animals matters to you, and form your own judgement on the ground. If the underlying question troubles you, the Sky Walk and Forest Safari let you see the animals without entering an enclosure, and our Phuket elephant sanctuary day is a no-riding, observation-only alternative we would genuinely rather sell you.

No — they are two entirely separate venues run by different companies, and mixing them up is the most common booking error on this island. Tiger Park is in Chalong at 82/2 Moo 10, Soi Yot Sane 1, on the road that climbs Nakkerd Hill toward the Big Buddha, at coordinates 7.8319° N, 98.3266° E. Tiger Kingdom is in Kathu, on the other side of the island toward Patong. Different addresses, different prices, different rules, different animals.

Every ticket sold on this page is for Tiger Park in Chalong. If a confirmation from anywhere else shows a Kathu address, it is the other venue and this page's prices do not apply to it. The practical reason to choose Chalong is the Big Buddha: it sits 3 km further up the same road, reopened on 3 March 2026, is free to enter, and your waiting driver turns it into a one-hour detour rather than a second day out.

The park is open daily from 09:00 to 18:00 with no closing day, and 09:00 to 11:00 is clearly the best window. The air is cooler, the animals — especially the cubs — are noticeably more active, and the light through the enclosure structures is directional rather than the harsh overhead sun you get from late morning. After about 11:30 the heat builds, the adult tigers settle, and photographs pick up hard shadows.

A morning visit also sets up the rest of the day well. Finish the enclosures by 11:00, take the Big Buddha 3 km up the road before midday, and you are back at your hotel in the early afternoon with the rest of the day free. Weekday mornings are quieter than weekends, with shorter waits between enclosures if you have booked a Play package.

Tiger Park is on Soi Yot Sane 1 in Chalong, in the south-east of the island. From Patong it is roughly 14 km and around 30 minutes over the hill. From Karon and Kata, about 20 minutes. From Rawai, Nai Harn or Chalong itself, under 10 minutes. From Phuket Town, around 20 minutes. From Phuket International Airport it is closer to 45 minutes, which matters if you are trying to fit the park into an arrival or departure day.

Your ฿2,000 private vehicle covers pickup from any of these, waits through the entire visit and returns you afterwards, so the distance does not translate into a second fare or a wait at the gate. There is no practical public transport up the hill road, which is the reason the transfer is built into every booking rather than offered as an option.

Bookings are for a minimum of 2 people and close 24 hours before your chosen date, which gives us time to confirm your enclosures with the park and collect your tickets before you arrive. Send ages and heights for everyone travelling at enquiry and we will confirm eligibility in writing before taking payment. The park's published prices were last updated in February 2025 and the park reserves the right to change them without notice — if anything has moved we will tell you before you pay, not after.

Cancellations more than 7 days before the tour receive a full refund; between 7 days and 48 hours a 50% refund applies; within 48 hours, or for no-shows, the booking is non-refundable. Note that Canopy Sky Walk and Canopy Forest Safari tickets are marked non-refundable by the park once issued. Cancel or reschedule on WhatsApp at +66 89 949 6235, and see the full terms at tripthaitour.com/cancellation-policy.