Waterfalls
Eco Chontales Waterfall Hike
Off the radar. A hidden waterfall and pristine pool through untouched jungle.
A waterfall with nobody else at it.
Nauyaca is the waterfall people arrive knowing about. Eco Chontales is the other answer: a walk in through the forest to a fall dropping into a pool broad enough to swim across, and it is the less crowded of the two.
The trail is a proper trail rather than a stroll. Those notes also call the terrain a little steeper than Nauyaca, and there are built sections with handrails where the ground demands it. Nothing about it requires you to be an athlete; it does ask for shoes you can get wet.
The trail is longer, and that is exactly why it is quiet.
More about this tour
The pool at the bottom is the point. It is cold in the best way, and you can spend as long in it as the group is willing to wait.
There is one thing here you will not find on the other waterfall days: a natural clay scrub at the falls, which is exactly as undignified as it sounds and rather harder to stop doing. Lunch is local, and it is included.
Here's how the 7 hours unfold.
Every step is planned so you can focus on the experience, not the logistics.
Picked up at the hotel.
Collected from the lobby. It is an early start because it is a full day and the walk is better done before the heat.
The trail in.
Into the jungle with a naturalist guide, down through the forest towards the sound of the water. Built steps and handrails on the steeper sections.
Swimming and the clay.
Time at the pool below the fall, and the clay, which is worth the state it leaves you in.
Lunch, cooked locally.
A local lunch, included in what you have paid. Then the walk back out.
Back at the hotel.
Dropped at the lobby around seven hours after you left, muddy in the best possible way.
Everything that's included, and everything to bring.
What is included
- Hotel pickup
- Naturalist guide All officially certified guides.
- Lunch A delicious Costa Rican lunch.
What to bring
- Swimsuit To jump into the waterfall.
- Hiking shoes Ones you don't mind getting wet.
- Towel Beach towels from the front desk please, not our nice bathroom ones.
- Bug spray
Photographs from this trip
Real photos from this tour. Click any image to open the gallery.
The local shortcut.
We will say which falls
Three waterfall days run from here. Tell us your group and how far you want to walk.
Same rate, no markup
You pay the operator rate. We do not add a margin for booking it.
Door to door pickup
Collected at the lobby and returned there. No hire car, no directions, no parking.
A pool to come home to
A seven hour day. Ours is the hotel with the waterfall in the garden when you get back.
Before you book, a few answers
Let us get you out there.
Reserve your spot, or message the concierge team with questions.