Ban Fang Tha Wildlife Preservation Village

Ban Fang Tha Wildlife Preservation Village is a community-run ecotourism settlement in Pak Nam Pran, on the Pran Buri River in Pran Buri. Entry to the village is free, daily 08:00-18:00. The main activity — a long-tail boat trip through the surrounding mangrove forest — is arranged separately on arrival, typically around 400 THB per boat for up to eight people, roughly 40 minutes each way.

The boat trip follows the river through mangrove stands the community has worked to protect, past fish traps and the birdlife that depends on tidal forest — herons, kingfishers, and egrets are common sightings from the water. Away from the river, the village runs pesticide-free vegetable plots and orchards growing pineapple, coconut, pomelo, and mango, open to walk through with a local guide. A women’s group demonstrates paper-making from pineapple leaves and shares recipes for fermented rice — small-scale craft rather than anything staged for a tour bus stop.

The village is part of Thailand’s community-based tourism network, where residents rather than a private operator manage the boat trips, farm visits, and homestay bookings. That means the pace is set locally: a scheduled tour group gets priority, but an independent visitor who calls ahead can usually join whatever trip is already forming that morning.

Morning is the better time to arrive: the river is calmer, the heat hasn’t built up, and birds are more active feeding along the banks. The village sits directly on the road linking Hua Hin and Pran Buri, making it an easy stop by car rather than a destination that needs its own day trip. For a slower visit, homestay rooms are available for travellers who want to stay past the boat trip and farm walk.

Insider Tip: Call ahead on 0 3262 3003 before turning up. Boats go out around whoever’s present rather than on a printed schedule, and arriving without notice on a quiet weekday can mean a wait while the community works out numbers for the trip.

Watch out: This is a working fishing-farming community, not a staffed visitor centre — there’s no restaurant or shop on site, so bring cash for the boat fee and your own water.

The village pairs naturally with two other river-and-mangrove stops nearby: Sirinath Rajini Centre for Mangrove Forest Studies, which explains the ecology the boat trip only shows in passing, and Pran Buri Forest Park, a boardwalk through denser mangrove a short drive away.