What $500 will get you in 10 locations around the globe, from a resort keep in Thailand to a tiny-home cottage in Iceland
In Chiang Mai, Thailand, $500 may pay for a sustainable lodge, tie-dye workshop, and a go to to an elephant sanctuary.
Paula Bronstein/Getty Photographs
With some planning, you’ll be able to stretch your price range far in Chiang Mai, nothern Thailand’s mountainous metropolis with lush greenery and historical temples.
For about $200, you’ll be able to spend two nights on the Veranda Resort, a boutique lodge close to native villages and scenic rice terraces.
The lodge follows sustainable practices like utilizing energy-efficient lighting and water-saving home equipment, based on Reserving.com, and has a rooftop infinity pool with scenic views.
For a Thai full-body therapeutic massage or a facial, head to Lila Thai Therapeutic massage. In accordance with its web site, the enterprise employs former inmates to provide them a brand new begin, and coverings vary from about $10 to $40, relying on the size and kind of therapeutic massage.
And if you wish to have an elephant encounter in Thailand, it is vital to take action responsibly and ethically. Tourism-driven practices like driving the animals is taken into account a type of animal cruelty that may result in bodily disfigurement, based on CNN. Bathing the elephants can be unethical, based on the Phuket Nature Elephant Reserve, because the shut interplay may cause the animals stress, and it is also pointless, since elephants naturally bathe themselves.
Keep away from companies that provide driving or bathing elephants, and as a substitute go to an elephant rescue sanctuary like Kindred Spirit Elephant Sanctuary, which is a number of hours’ drive from the town of Chiang Mai. As of Could 2023, the property is dwelling to 6 elephants, and the animals are free to roam 4,000 acres of neighborhood land, based on the sanctuary.
For about $300, you’ll be able to e book a two-day, one-night keep on the sanctuary, which incorporates lodging, meals, and transportation to and from Chiang Mai. In the course of the go to, you will take guided hikes by means of the forest to search out and observe the elephants of their pure habitat.
