Thung Salaeng Luang National Park

Thung Salaeng Luang National Park is Thailand’s closest landscape to an African savanna — open grassland plateaus dotted with scattered trees, instead of the dense tropical canopy that covers most of the country’s parks. The name translates roughly to “large field of yellow grass,” and the fields do turn a pale gold late in the dry season. The park straddles Phitsanulok and Phetchabun provinces and covers around 1,262 sq km, with entry at 500 THB for foreign adults (300 THB children) and 40/20 THB for Thai nationals — daily 08:30-16:30.

Sambar deer are the headline sighting, grazing the open plains most reliably in early morning and late afternoon; barking deer turn up on the same trails. Gaur and elephant live in the park too, but keep to the higher forest and rarely show themselves to day visitors — don’t plan a trip around seeing them. Bird life is easier: hornbills and kingfishers work the tree-lined edges of the grassland, and the mixed pine and deciduous forest at higher elevation gives a genuinely different feel from the plains below. During the rains, seasonal wetlands form across parts of the grassland and draw migratory birds.

Insider Tip: Drive the grassland loop road at dawn rather than midday — deer feed in the cooler hours and retreat into tree cover once the sun is up, so a 10 AM arrival often means empty fields.

Watch out: The foreigner entry fee here (500 THB) is among the highest of any Thai national park. There’s no way around it, and staff check ID at the gate.

Camping is allowed at the designated grounds near park headquarters, and with no towns nearby to wash out the sky, star-filled nights are one of the park’s real draws — pack a warm layer even in the hot season, since the plateau’s altitude keeps nights cooler than Phitsanulok town. For a shorter add-on, the waterfall at Namtok Kaeng Song sits closer to the city, and hikers chasing a second highland park can continue to Phu Hin Rong Kla National Park further north.