National park trails
and waterfalls

How to use this guide

This selection is for walking Rincón de la Vieja National Park on the standard ticket, without a tour. The summit has been closed since 2011 and the volcano is in its most active phase in years, so everything here is a trail in the two open sectors, Pailas and Santa María, which have different access roads and different closing days.

The Pailas sector, reached via Curubandé, holds the best-known sights and fills a day. Start at 8:00 a.m. on the waterfall trail and pick one: La Cangreja waterfall, 10 km there and back, or Escondida waterfall, 8.6 km. Both take 4 to 5 hours, and you can only set off before 12:00 noon. If you are back with time to spare before the 3:00 p.m. closing, add the Las Pailas trail, a 3 km loop of about 2 hours past fumaroles and mud pools. With half a day, do Las Pailas alone; if walking is hard for you, the sector has a 1 km stretch with a concrete track and a handrail leading to a viewpoint.

The Santa María sector, east of Liberia, is for a second day and for anyone after fewer people: an adobe ranch house, a hummingbird trail, small waterfalls and an almost flat path of about 3 km to the Santa María sector hot springs, which you can walk to but not bathe in. Swimming is not allowed at any of these stops, so if you want hot water, save the afternoon for a private hot spring centre with a day pass, such as Río Negro (Guachipelín) or Borinquen.

Tips

• Entry is compulsory and only sold online through the SINAC system, not at the gate. It costs $16.95 per non-resident foreign adult and $5.65 per child aged 2 to 12.
• Pailas is closed on Mondays and Santa María on Tuesdays and Wednesdays: from Thursday to Sunday you can choose either.
• On the way to Pailas there is a ₡800 per person toll for crossing a private farm. For the waterfall trail, bring plenty of water and a hat: much of it crosses open pasture in full sun.
• For Santa María, the last 2.5 km are gravel and pumice: go in a high-clearance vehicle, ideally a 4x4 when it rains.
• Stay on the path by the fumaroles, which reach 78 to 106 °C, never hire anyone offering to take you up to the crater, and keep away from the riverbeds on the northern flank.