05 Mar 2023
I wanted to visit the temple and Big Budha of Phuket so I booked this tour. Even though the tour guide was friendly and helpful, I wished he shared more about history and culture of Thailand, about the backstory of the sights we were seeing. We also stopped at multiple stops like Tiger Park and Elephant park where others guests rode elephants and took pictures with the tigers (I did not book these activities). I would have never booked this tour if I knew I would have been a part of these unethical activities. The elephants were chained up and tourists rode them. We were also taken to a bee farm and a cashew nut factory, pearl and diamonds shop, none of which was said to be in the itinerary when I booked the tour, I only found on on the day. I wanted to spend more time at the temples and the big Budha but these activities took most of the time of the tour, so the whole tour was incredibly rushed. I'd only recommend this to those tourists who would like to take pictures, have little time to see everything and are not much interested in learning about Thai history or cutlure, who do not mind contributing to unethical care of animals. I would not do it again and would not recommend it to my friends.