After a tip from a friend, I set off on a rainy season morning to Dubua Cafe located about an hour drive north west of Bangkok. I wasn’t sure what to expect as I hadn’t done any research. All I hoped is that it would keep my two boys suitably occupied and happy. Here’s what I found…

Dubua cafe is a family oriented combination of a farm park, street food, markets, plush cafes and large ponds filled with fish, ducks and geese. The overall vibe is relaxed and friendly and the prices are acceptable especially as there is no entrance fee.

Getting There

The only real option is to drive or take a taxi. The route to get there is quite windy and care needs to be taken on some narrower roads closer to Dubua. 

At one point I thought I must have the wrong address as we seemed to be driving around the edges of mud fields and on roads that were not of the best quality. Still we stuck with it and got there after about an hours drive.

On Arrival

There was plenty of parking available and the car park was just under half full at 11 o’clock in the morning on a Saturday. There were enough people there to make it feel busy but not enough to prevent you from enjoying the attractions and getting good service. 

Once you enter through the main entrance you turn left and walk towards the main farm park area. On this stretch of pathway and onwards you will find bicycles, and cute scooters which are free for adults and children to use.

You can literally just take them and use them and leave them wherever you want inside the park. Most people still seemed to walk around but this was another nice touch that made you feel as though your custom was valued. Thank you Dubua cafe!

The Grand Tour

There are a plethora of animals on display which require you to walk in a large loop alongside different animal pens. Most of the animals can be hand fed and the food is left outside each animal’s cage/pen.

You pay for the food on an honesty basis. There are large red boxes which you put twenty baht notes into before you can then take a packet of food you can then feed to the animals.

I guess you could simply not pay and take the food but no one was doing that and it would seem to be against the spirit of things seeing as though there is no entry fee.

We went around the park in an anti-clockwise direction and soon found ourselves hand feeding silky hens, geese and ducks in a nicely tendered garden area where the animals were wandering freely.

Our second stop was to feed reindeer! This one I didn’t expect, I don’t think I’ve ever seen them in Thailand before but there they were. Of course, the kids loved feeding these as well as the goats which were nearby as well.

We then passed a peacock which the boys had never seen before and were treated to a full display of the peacock’s tail being fanned creating quite a spectacle.

At this point we found some lovely wooden swings on a platform at the edge of one of the main ponds and we spent quite some time enjoying these as well as the general peace and quiet and sounds of the animals and nature, very relaxing.

At this point, the clouds rolled in and we made for one of the main cafes to sit out the rainstorm. Here we had some great value cake. This huge peace of cake was only 170b and was of surprisingly high quality, definitely recommended.

Coffee Time

The coffee I had was perfectly fine and a good price at 50b. I was impressed with the fair pricing throughout our visit but I guess if the prices were higher a lot of people might not make the effort to get there.

Once the worst of the rain had passed we had a great time feeding fish at the entrance to the rabbit pen and then feeding the rabbits in a very well kept rabbit pen. The rabbits were super cute and friendly and my kids loved handling the and feeding them. 

There was a vending machine buy selling rabbit food for this one, unlike the honesty boxes used elsewhere.

We also checked out cages of meerkats, racoons and parrots before hand feeing horses and water buffalo on our way around. This was a really fun experience for the kids. Everything was close together and the park was well signed and so easy to navigate.

We found this size of park and number of animals to see just right for us. Our boys are 2 and 4, and so two or three hours is enough for them. Sometimes the bigger attractions like Safari World can be a bit too tiring to walk around all day and of course they are much more expensive.

Food

We had mixed experience with the food, my wife had some delicious street food noodles but the chicken and rice (Khao man gai) we got for the boys was sadly below par. Still you can’t win them all and we finished the day off in a pedal boat for a quick tour of the main pond.

The pedal boats were free in the same way the bicycles were, again another nice touch which may well see us go back again at some point.

Best bits

According to my boys the pedal boat on the lake and feeding the rabbits and fish were the best parts of the day. 

For the adults, the ease of getting around, ample supply of toilets and fair prices for food and drinks made the visit a happy one.

Recommendation

If you have got young children then I absolutely recommend you make the effort to get there. There are plenty of opportunities to get up close and personal with animals of all shapes and sizes.

It is a largely relaxing place to visit with plenty of lush green plants, gardens, ponds and rivers around to make you feel as though you have had a break from big city living!