Costa Rica has plenty of natural attractions but one of the most treasured ones are their waterfalls. Waterfalls can be found in every corner of the country and it’s one of the best ways to enjoy the natural beauty of Costa Rica. One of these waterfalls we recently explored took our breath away and that one is the majestic Nauyaca waterfalls.
The Nauyaca Waterfalls
Location
Directions
The Nauyaca waterfalls are located near Playa Dominical in Costa Rica’s Southern Zone.
The entrance is on the road from Dominical to Platanillo, about a ten minute drive from where you turn onto Route 243 from the Costanera highway on the way to San Isidro de General.
There are signs leading to the entrance and you will see a large “Nauyaca waterfall” sign at the office. Once you see the office, you will see a road entrance about a kilometer north. The trail head is below from this entrance and you can park in the lot where the horse stables are.
Getting to the Waterfall
Nauyaca Waterfalls is on a private property so you must enter through the office of Don Lulo, the owners. You have two choices: to walk or take a horseback riding tour. To hike, the entrance fee is $8 per person and the horseback riding tour is $70 which includes breakfast, lunch, horseback riding and guides. The trail is about 4 kilometers each way.
The trail is the same for both hiking and horseback riding. It’s a beautiful one with plenty of trees, wildlife and a river to enjoy. It’s not an extremely difficult hike, but it is a bit long so be prepared when you go with lots of water and snacks.
Once you come to a clearing, you’ll see signs for waterfall 1 or 2.
The Nauyaca Waterfalls
Upper Falls
The upper falls comprises of several cascades and you can’t swim or bathe in this area. You can walk around the rocks (careful it’s slippery) to get amazing views of the upper fall and the top of the lower falls.
Lower Falls
This is where most people spend their time, the lower falls. There is a lovely deep pool you can swim and bathe in and plenty of rocks to sit on. You get a stunning view of both waterfalls surrounded by lush green jungle and the sounds of nature.
You can have a picnic, lay around, swim, or jump off the ledge of the waterfall. The local guides tie a rope onto the rocks and help visitors up so they can climb up and jump off. Be very careful and don’t try to climb up there on your own if there’s no guide, it is quite slippery!
See the Nauyaca Waterfalls From the Air
Yeison brought his drone and took an amazing video of the Nauyaca waterfalls from the air. See what it looks like from above and watch one of the guides leap off a high ledge of the waterfall. Truly amazing!
Tips for Visiting the Nauyaca Waterfalls
- You can bring your swimsuit and change there. There are facilities in the area where you walk down to the waterfalls
- Bring lots of water, bug repellent and sunscreen
- There are no food or snack stands so bring your own
- You don’t need to call ahead or make a reservation if you are going to hike. Just go to the office and pay the entrance fee. You do need to make reservations for the horseback riding tour.
- Bring waterproof equipment if you plan on bringing electronics
- Wear good shoes (not flip flops) since it get muddy/steep on some parts of the trail and the rocks are slippery at the waterfall. We wore our KEENs and they were perfect
If you’re in the Dominical area or even Manuel Antonio/Jaco/Quepos, make a trip out to visit this waterfall. It is one of the most magnificent natural attractions I’ve ever seen in Costa Rica and now one of my top favorite waterfalls along with the Catarata Llanos de Cortes in Guanacaste and Catarata del Toro in the Central Valley.
After a long hike, it’s the perfect way to cool off in the beautiful Costa Rican jungle and will create long lasting memories for your amazing trip to Costa Rica. It was certainly the highlight of our Dominical trip!
Looking for more things to do in Dominical? Check out our top 10 things to do in Dominical and Uvita post!
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About 25 minutes
How long is the drive from Uvita?
Beautiful video!! good info too! thank you!
Thanks!
Going in a few weeks , is the waterfall still worth the hike in the dry season. Went to a few last year in feb. that were just a trickle
I think so – the pictures in the post were taken when we went in February 2015 and it was gorgeous. Way better than when we went last August when it had way too much water
Hi! How much time do we estimate for the whole trip including the horse back riding part to the waterfalls 🙂 We plan to head out there from Manuel Antonio
Hi Saana, around 6 hours from Manuel Antonio but it all depends of how long the group will stay at the waterfall and traffic.
Could you give me an idea of how long it would take to vist this waterfall. We are driving from San Jose to Uvita and wondering if this would be a good stop. Our flight gets in at 11 so there is no way to get an early start.
Thanks
The hike 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) each way so you won’t be able to stop by on your way to Uvita. It gets dark at 6 PM and by the time you drive from San Jose to Dominical, it’ll be at least 2 or 3 PM and the waterfalls close at 6 PM. You should do it the day after or during your time in Uvita since Uvita and Dominical are very close. You need at least 5-6 hours for this waterfall/hike.
Manuel Antonio to Dominical is a fairly straightforward, paved road. However, if you are planning on driving to the waterfall do know that the property’s parking lot requires a SUV because the road down although short, is not paved and very steep with lots of holes. YOu may be able to scrape by with a sedan but even the tour people and property owners told us it’s better to have a SUV. You can get a short glimpse of what the road is like in this video of the horseback riding tour here: Nauyaca waterfalls horseback riding tour
Ok, the thing is we’re planning on renting a sedan because we’re only using it to go from San Jose to Manuel Antonio and Puerto Viejo, but we want to go to the waterfalls, and i can’t find any information on tours departing from Manuel Antonio and going to the waterfall. So renting a SUV just for that part of the trip it seems a little too much.
You can probably do it with a sedan, just be super careful because it is a bit steep and unpaved. But if it rains, it might not be possible since it’ll be super slippery and muddy. So you can probably get away with a sedan for that area (I think I remember seeing a Honda Civic in our group), just drive very carefully.
We just went there few days ago.
Here is the scoop.
There is 4 kilometers steep and pretty bumpy road that we drove to the point where the parking is. We had AWD and it was pretty rough, so I would NOT recommend sedan at all, even to get to their parking lot. Then, there is another 4km to the falls that you can either walk or ride a horse.
After parking lot there is about 1-1.5 kilometers you still can drive down, but ONLY if you have 4WD, but then – there is absolutely no way. There is a huge boulder on the way and the road is pretty much impassible by any vehicle. So, we hiked for another 2.5 kilometers.
Now, if you don’t might hiking, I would recommend rather to do that, since if you manage to get there before (or after) the horseback riding group does, you have the place pretty much to yourself, except may be very few people that also were walking by their own (or none). We did that and that was awesome, but then – bid group of horseback riders arrived and it got little crowded. Not to mention the price difference.
Enjoy.
Hi! How’s the road to get there driving from Manuel Antonio? Can you do it in a sedan?
great thanks 🙂
Could you please explain the difference between the Nauyaca Waterfalls and the Baru Waterfalls? The internet shows pictures of them both as the same thing, it’s very confusing hahah
I have no idea, maybe Baru was their previous name. Never heard of it
Is there a specific opening time for entrance to the waterfall?
The office opens around 8 AM. You have to stop by there and pay your fee.
A friend of mine used to live in Costa Rica, and the more stories she tells me about that place, the more I want to go there.
And this post certainly helps. Such a beautiful waterfall!
Hi Zascha, glad you enjoyed it. It is a gorgeous waterfall! Hope you can visit one day!