This post shares everything you need to know about visiting Catarata del Toro. One of Costa Rica’s most impressive waterfalls with a thundering 90 m / 300 ft drop into an extinct volcano crater.
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About Catarata del Toro
Catarata del Toro is one of Costa Rica’s most impressive waterfalls. A single 90 m / 300 ft drop tumbles in to an old volcanic crater, dripping with lush greenery. The rock is streaked with shades of red and orange, from its volcanic origins, and the entire scene looks like something out of Jurassic Park.
The name Catarata del Toro is often confused with the region in which the falls are located, Bajos del Toro. Just two hours north of San Jose, and around 1.5 hours south of La Fortuna this area is a hidden gem full of waterfalls! But surprisingly, remains well off the tourist radar, meaning you can experience some of Costa Rica’s most impressive cataratas almost all to yourself!
Bajos del Toro is the perfect detour between San Jose and La Fortuna. Most visitors to Costa Rica have La Fortuna on their itinerary, but we would highly recommend adding a day or two in Bajos del Toro on the way. You won’t find waterfalls as beautiful as these without the crowds anywhere else in the country! Check out our Bajos del Toro travel guide here.
Catarata del Toro quick facts
- 📍 Location: Google Maps
- ⏰ Opening hours: Monday – Saturday (CLOSED SUNDAYS), 7 am – 5 pm (last entry 4:30 pm)
- 💰 Entrance fee: $15 USD or $25 USD combo with the Blue Falls
- 🥾 Hike length: ~ 3 km / 1.8 mi
- 🪫 Difficulty: Easy – moderate
- 👙 Swimming: No
- 💡 More information: Catarata del Toro website
How to get to Catarata del Toro
Catarata del Toro, and all the waterfalls in Bajos del Toro, are best visited with your own rental car. There is very limited public transport around the region, and even if you were able to reach Bajos del Toro via bus, it would be nearly impossible to move between the waterfalls.
🚘 Browse for rental cars in San Jose here
Catarata del Toro sits on Route 708, which is where most of the region’s waterfalls are clustered. Although it’s possible to drive all the way up 708 from the south, we would recommend driving to Catarata del Toro via Route 126, which means you will actually loop around and approach the waterfall from the north.
It’s much quicker to drive via Route 126, and connect with Route 708 in the north, as you will avoid the very heavily pot-holed section of 708 in the south. The trip is easily done in a normal car, no 4×4 required.
The road is winding and climbs through the mountains, but it’s in relatively good condition. Once you’re in Bajos del Toro, Route 708 is paved, but even in the northern section there are some enormous pot holes. It is definitely passable with any car, you just need to drive slowly and carefully.
👆🏼 Visualise our suggested route on our interactive Bajos del Toro map
Costs and opening hours at Catarata del Toro
There are a couple of different tickets you can choose from at Catarata del Toro, and we were able to pay by card or cash.
If you just want to visit Catarata del Toro, the entrance fee (at the time of writing) was $15 USD per person. However, we would highly recommend going for the combo option with the Blue Falls, which is $25 USD per person.
Owned by the same people, this incredible attraction is just down the road and is absolutely worth a visit. We wrote all about the incredible Blue Falls complex here, complete with 6 sets of falls and miles of lush trails to explore.
Catarata del Toro is NOT open on Sundays. It seems strange for a popular tourist attraction, but it is very important you remember that!
The waterfall is open from Monday – Saturday, from 7 am – 5 pm. Arrive as early as possible to beat the crowds, and avoid weekends and holidays if possible (although crowds in Bajos del Toro isn’t really much!).
Amenities at Catarata del Toro
When you arrive, you will find a large gravel car park, offering free and secure parking. There is a lodge-style building that houses the ticket booth, restaurant and toilets. The restaurant is more of a coffee shop with drinks, cakes and a few snacky items like hot dogs and tacos.
Regardless of whether you’re eating or not, we would highly recommend hanging out in the restaurant for a while. The owners have set up a number of sugar feeders for the hummingbirds, and it is hummer heaven! We even saw a squirrel munching on an empty avocado skin.
Seeing the mighty Catarata del Toro
Once you’ve paid your fee, you’ll find a clearly marked trail. Most of the way the trail is paved or well-maintained gravel. There are white signals – to the waterfall, and green signals – the garden trail.
We recommend following the white trail first to the waterfall, and then on the way back up follow the green trail, which takes you back via the garden. The circuit is around 3 km / 1.8 mi total, and it took us 90 minutes with stops for photos, and to admire the view.
The beauty of Catarata del Toro is that you can see the impressive waterfall with little to no effort! Once you’ve walked through the entrance gate, you have an incredible view of the waterfall from above at the first lookout.
Once you’ve managed to prise yourself away from the view (I promise there are more coming!), continue down the path. Within a few hundred metres you’ll encounter another three lookout points, where you can get an aerial view of the waterfall from all angles.
From memory, one of these lookouts was a very small diversion from the main trail, definitely take it as the view is worth it! There are some benches to rest on, but at this stage, the trail is still relatively flat and easy.
You will eventually hit the stairs, which is the toughest part of the hike. It’s now time to descend down into the crater to see the waterfall from below.
You might be wondering just exactly how many stairs you have to go down to get to the bottom of the Catarata del Toro? Well, there are almost 400 stairs.
They’re mostly concrete in the beginning, but turn to dirt/gravel towards the bottom. Unless you have bad knees, going down is the easy part!
There are a few more tiered lookout points near the bottom, with plenty of benches to rest or have a snack. When you reach the bottom, the trail flattens and you can walk out onto a rocky area that takes you as close as you can get to the mighty waterfall.
Be careful, as the rocks are constantly wet from the spray of the waterfall, making it very slippery. There is a safety rail marking the point you cannot pass, but it doesn’t interfere with the incredible views.
As you near the railing, you can feel the spray and wind of the falls. It’s incredible to be standing underneath so much power, and you can truly feel the immense scale of nature. It’s not possible to swim here, because the waterfall is so strong, but it is still so impressive regardless.
You can really see up close the different colours streaked through the rock walls. If you wander to the right of the rocky area, you can see the water continuing its flow down the river, with mossy walls and more coloured, textured rock.
Going back is the toughest part, as you’ve got to tackle all those stairs you came down! If you’re reasonably fit it won’t take you too long, and you can break as many times as you need. Unless you encounter a fitness freak, everyone else will be huffing and puffing too – I certainly was!
When you’re back at the top of the stairs, this is where you want to follow the green signs to the garden trail. It loops around the back side of the property, rather than going directly back to the main entrance. It’s not too much longer, and it’s flat the whole way, so even if you’re tired, I would highly recommend doing this.
The trail first opens up into a grassy field, and it is lined with flowering plants that hummingbirds love. We stood still for about 5 minutes, and just watched as hummingbirds of all shapes and sizes zoomed around our heads, landed and fed on the flowers and chased each other around. It was really special, and something we didn’t expect to see at Catarata del Toro.
The trail then enters some quite dense rainforest, which was especially beautiful as it was drizzling during our visit. The fog and low hanging cloud on the greenery was really mystical. It leads right back to where you started, and you can use the facilities at the restaurant, have a coffee or simply watch the hummingbirds some more, hanging around the feeders.
From here, we would highly recommend jumping in your car and heading just up the road to the Blue Falls!
The Blue Falls of Costa Rica
As I mentioned earlier, the owners of Catarata del Toro have another attraction – the Blue Falls of Costa Rica. Before our visit I was a little confused how it all worked, so I will briefly explain here.
Catarata del Toro has its own entrance, and is completely separate to the Blue Falls. If you just want to visit this waterfall, you simply pay the fee ($15 USD), complete the short walk and be on your way.
BUT, if you want to see more waterfalls in the area, and you’re up for the adventure, we recommend purchasing the combo ticket with the Blue Falls ($25 USD).
We were advised to visit Catarata del Toro first, and then move on to the Blue Falls. We would recommend this, as Catarata del Toro is much quicker and you can’t swim, so it’s best to get that done before you go the Blue Falls, which takes much longer, and you’re likely to finish wet, muddy and tired!
We drove and parked our car at Catarata del Toro. This is where we bought our tickets for both waterfalls and got a combo wristband. Once we had seen Catarata del Toro, we jumped in the car, drove a couple of minutes up the road, and parked in the parking lot of the Blue Falls.
We showed our wristbands, and in we went to the Blue Falls. You can read all about our experience here, as there is a ton more to share about these falls.
💧 Read about the Blue Falls of Costa Rica here
What to bring to Catarata del Toro
You don’t really need too much for your visit to Catarata del Toro. The whole experience will only take 1-2 hours, and you can’t swim there so you don’t need to worry about towels and swimming costumes. But a few things we brought with us…
- 🥾 Sturdy walking shoes – full-blown hiking boots aren’t required, but you want to wear comfortable trainers or water shoes if you have them. The trail is very steep going down the stairs, and they can be very slippery, even if it hasn’t been raining.
You don’t have to walk through water on this trail, but we opted to wear water shoes for all our waterfall hikes in Costa Rica. I always wear my Teva sandals and Brayden has some trainer-style water shoes. - 🎒 Waterproof bag – for any activity involving water (or possible rain) we use a waterproof bag. We have both an entire backpack that is completely waterproof, and also smaller waterproof sacks that we use for the camera and drone, as an added layer of protection and peace of mind.
- 🧥 Rain jacket – this area of Costa Rica is cool and moist, so you should be ready for rain at any time! It started raining when we arrived at the base of the falls, and it was actually quite cool walking back up.
- 🦟 Insect repellent – apply before entering the rainforest so you don’t pollute the air, and consider using a natural spray.
- 💧 Water – bring plenty of water, the trail is steep in parts and hot and humid in the rainforest. Be sure to use a reusable bottle and avoid creating any more plastic pollution. The water in this part of Costa Rica is clean and safe to drink, and there is a tap in the car park that is free to fill up your bottles.
- 🍎 Snacks – there is a restaurant on-site, but we always like having some snacks in our bag on any hike. It’s a nice reward and I always look forward to some lollies, fruits or biscuits! I will admit, Brayden used the lollies to bribe me back up the stairs! We pack our snacks into reusable containers, so we aren’t bringing any plastic into nature.
Where to stay near Catarata del Toro
Catarata del Toro previously offered a couple of cabins on-site. This is no longer the case. You also used to be able to camp in the car park, but they don’t allow this anymore, so you need to seek accommodation elsewhere.
There are a handful of accommodation options around Bajos del Toro for a range of budgets. We recommend:
🏕️ If you’re camping in Bajos del Toro, as we were in our Nomad America Troop Carrier, you can camp at:
💦 Check out our Bajos del Toro travel guide for more info on where to stay in the area
Where to after Catarata del Toro?
We highly recommend staying for at least one night in Bajos del Toro, so you can visit a few other waterfalls in the area. We stayed for two nights, and in addition to Catarata del Toro, we visited the Blue Falls of Costa Rica, Paraiso Manantiales and Catarata Vuelta del Cañon. Our next stop was La Fortuna.
Final thoughts: Catarata del Toro
Catarata del Toro is easily one of the most impressive and spectacular waterfalls in Costa Rica.
The sheer height of the drop, and the lush, rainforest setting is truly magic and it deserves a stop on your Costa Rica road trip.
The hundreds of stairs are worth it, I promise!
MORE BAJOS DEL TORO POSTS
- Bajos del Toro Travel Guide – Costa Rica’s Waterfall Wonderland
- How to Visit The Incredible Blue Falls of Costa Rica
- Catarata Vuelta del Cañon – Costa Rica’s Best Waterfall
- Paraiso Manantiales Waterfall – Bajos del Toro, Costa Rica
OUR COSTA RICA TRAVEL GUIDES
