Tamarindo

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Rio Celeste Hiking, Sloth Sanctuary & Llanos de Cortes Waterfall Tour

Name: Rio Celeste Hiking, Sloth Sanctuary & Llanos de Cortes Waterfall Tour
Brand: Native's Way Costa Rica
SKU: 17279P13
Price: 135.00 USD
Rating: 4.5 (495 reviews)

Guanacaste, Costa Rica

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From USD 135.00

Price varies by group size

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Up to 24 hours in advance.

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Guanacaste and Northwest Playa Flamingo Santa Cruz Playa Hermosa Liberia Sámara Monteverde Jaco San Jose San Salvador Roatan Guatemala City Panama City Central Pacific Central Valley

12 hours (approx.)
Pickup offered
Mobile ticket
Offered in: English

Overview

Get an up-close look at Costa Rica's hidden natural wonders on this Rio Celeste and Llanos de Cortes waterfall tour. Follow an expert local guide through breathtaking scenery, rugged trails, and truly beautiful attractions. This is the perfect way to explore outside the city and see what makes Costa Rica a top attraction for nature lovers.

Tour of Rio Celeste and Llanos de Cortes Waterfall
Experience the beauty of Costa Rica's natural landscapes
Follow a local guide through stunning rugged terrain
Round-trip hotel transport and lunch included

What's Included

National park fees
Lunch
Driver/guide
Professional bilingual guide
Hotel pickup and drop-off

Gratuities
Round Trip Transport from Andaz, Planet Hollywood, Fours Seasons $50 per booking

Meeting And Pickup

You can head directly to your preferred meeting point, or request pickup.

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End point

This activity ends back at the meeting point.

Pickup details

Self Drive Option: SELF DRIVE OPTION - Meet Guide at 9:00 am at Llanos Del Cortes or at Tenorio Volcano Park Rio Celeste at 11:30 am. Follow your guide throughout the tour in your own vehicle. Pick up offered from: JW Marriott, Tamarindo, Langosta, Grande, Conchal, Flamingo, RIU Guanacaste/Palace, Catalinas, Playas del Coco, Playa Hermosa (Occidental, Villas Sol, Condovac), Playa Panama (Secrets Papagayo, Mangroove) Fours Seasons, Andaz, Planet Hollywood & Liberia. Please see extra fees below.

What To Expect

Cataratas Llanos de Cortes

1 hour • Admission Ticket Included

Rio Celeste

2 hours • Admission Ticket Included

Jungle Life Costa Rica - Rainforest Tours

1 hour • Admission Ticket Included

Native's Way (Pass By)

Tamarindo Beach (Pass By)

Playa Matapalo (Pass By)

Playa Langosta (Pass By)

Playa Conchal (Pass By)

Tamarindo (Pass By)

Playa Hermosa (Pass By)

Playas del Coco (Pass By)

Playa Panama (Pass By)

Playa Flamingo (Pass By)

Additional Info

Confirmation will be received at time of booking, unless booked within 12 hours of travel. In this case confirmation will be received as soon as possible, subject to availability
No heart problems or other serious medical conditions
Not wheelchair accessible

Not recommended for travellers with back problems
Travellers should have a moderate physical fitness level
This tour/activity will have a maximum of 15 travellers

Operated by Native's Way Costa Rica

Cancellation Policy

You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.

For a full refund, you must cancel at least 24 hours before the experience’s start time.
If you cancel less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time, the amount you paid will not be refunded.
Any changes made less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time will not be accepted.

Cut-off times are based on the experience’s local time.
This experience requires a minimum number of travellers. If it’s cancelled because the minimum isn’t met, you’ll be offered a different date/experience or a full refund.

Traveller Photos

Featured review

Myriam_B

My guide was the best. Rio Celeste was by far, my favourite activity from the 5 excursions that I did and I've already recommended it to many people. I needed this nature hike and get off the resort a bit. Sloth Sanctuary was very fun and our guide was very knowledgeable but it felt very very rushed. Llanos de Cortés was just ok in my opinion. Might have been better if we had done it last.

Reviews

4.5

495 reviews

Total review count and overall rating based on Viator and Tripadvisor reviews

Reviews by Viator travellers.

Showing 1-10 of 495 reviews

Just do it!

Meagan_T, May 2023

This trip was amazing overall. The Rio Celeste waterfall was breathtaking and well worth the hike. The Llanos de Cortes waterfall was also incredible and the water was very refreshing. Our tour guid for the sloth sanctuary was not only knowledgeable about the frogs, snakes, and sloths within the sanctuary, but he was also able to answer all of our questions and clearly loved what he does. Overall this was a great experience and a wonderful way to see multiple aspects of Costa Rica

10/10 recommend

Tracy_C, May 2023

Great excursion…. Plan for a full day. It was so so so worth it. The waterfalls and animals we saw were amazing. Pura Vida

Well done tour

Amanda_W, May 2023

Really well done tour. Organized, great guides. Swimming right up to the Cortes waterfall was a highlight.

Amazing

Ecaterina_D, May 2023

Easy hike, my 9 year old daughter made it with no effort. Amazing views of both waterfalls, great guides, lunch was excellent. Worth every penny!

Absolutely Best Experience in Guanacaste. worth every cent and second!

Marisella_J, May 2023

First stop was the Llanos de Cortes Waterfall (small hike). Bathrooms and changing rooms are available. Waterfall was amazing, wish we could've stayed much longer swimming. Second stop was the Hike to Rio Celeste! Hike was good, half way to the Waterfall it's steps. Then you have to take those steps back up! Totally worth it. Not as intense as the 500 step Waterfall in LA Fortuna but close. Yet worth it! Rio Celeste Waterfall wasn't as big as i imagined it to be but it was a great experience. Next Stop was Lunch, an amazing traditional Costa Rican lunch with multiple options of protein to chose from. Last stop was the Sloths Sanctuary. This was what we were mostly looking forward to. we saw 3 out of the 5 Sloths in the park. they were tooooo cute! only one was sleeping. the other two were actively scratching and moving. One even yawned as our tour guide was showing us throw the telescope.

Good way to burn some time and see CR

ebonylindsey86, May 2023

Had a great time during this excursions. The views were beautiful, saw some cool animals such as a snake, hummingbird, sloth, and some small fish nibbled at my feet while in the water. The stop for breakfast and provided lunch had really good local cuisine. If you are looking for an extended spot to swim or aren't physically fit to hike or have issues with steep steps, you may want to opt out. There was also time to souvenir shop at the end.

Fanatic day trip for waterfalls and animal spotting!

Lizzy_R, May 2023

Great tour! Took a group transport to a meeting location where everyone got on their respective busses. This was a small market for souvenirs, food and bathrooms. We had a smaller group of 9 of us and I was the only solo person. Our guide Jorge was wonderful - very knowledgeable and engaging. First stop (about 30 minutes away) was the first waterfall you can swim in. It was a little chilly at 9am but totally worth it. Next we drove about an hour to Rio Celeste/national park. We walked for about an hour/1 mile. Made some stops along the way for our guide to tell us about the plants, animals and habitat. Took pictures at the waterfall and hiked back out. Next stop was a quick dip in the river close by the park. We had a nice lunch at a local restaurant around the park. Last stop (only about 15 minute drive) was the sloth sanctuary. Our guide, Roberto was absolutely lovely, very passionate about the animals. We saw sloths, frogs, birds and lots of beautiful plants. Took our ride back to the group meeting spot to get on our busses back to our hotels. Overall was a great experience, hit a lot of spots for a day trip. Recommend just wearing your swimsuit at the beginning and even the entire time as you’ll dry quickly and you don’t have to change multiple times. Really only tough part is the group transport as it takes some time to pick and drop everyone off, but definitely worth it! Pura Vida!

Costa Rica experience

Erick_B, May 2023

Great experience. Hector the tour guide was great and very knowledgeable about to area and the culture. The transportation was on time and clean my experience was absolutely amazing.

Recommend

Bianca_A, May 2023

Had a great time during this tour! The guide was very knowledgeable and super nice. Th good was great! Had a great experience!

Amazing waterfalls, great trip

Katelan_D, May 2023

This was a great excursion! Our guide Kevin Piña was fantastic and helped us every step of the way to ensure things ran smoothly. The restaurant we stopped at for lunch, Restaurante Metamorphosis, was delicious. The waterfall swim is the first activity so I'd recommend wearing your swim suit to start and bringing a change of clothes. My only note is that the hike is much more challenging than it seems online, especially in the heat. It's fairly long (2+ hours) with a good amount of stairs. Well worth it, but something to be aware of. Overall great excursion and would recommend!

Llanos de Cortes, Rio Celeste, Sloth Sanctuary

Daniel_P, May 2023

Both Jorge and Jose were excellent during our tour. We had a great time and would definitely recommend!

Don't skip over it!

Morgan_M, May 2023

Amazing experience solo, amazing patient guides, and one of the highlights of my 1 month costa rica trip :)

Fell Way Short! Cons outweighed the Positives... Late, Skipped/Missed, Waste

Qiana_R, May 2023

Only two positives: The beautiful Rio Celeste - natural turquoise color and the vehicle was nice. Well, lunch was nice - good setting, decent food. The driver was fine - did well on some tough roads... Other than that, it was late to pick us up (25 minutes), tour guide rarely chose to speak English despite being able to just fine, other passengers had to translate for us English only speaking folks (3) despite everyone else also knowing English. Additionally, we never made it to a swimming area as promised w/the pretty water, just the dirty waterfall pictured. The time was grossly mismanaged, no good communication or planning so ended up arriving to the Sloth Sanctuary 30 minutes before it closed so none were even close to being viewable outside of a telescope. The park people really didn't want to take us since they were preparing to close. So not only did we not get to go through beyond the Celeste waterfall (had many more available sites), we missed many exotic animals. To top it off, we're already beyond the listed # of hours expected for the trip yet he decides to stop at a store that some other girls on the bus wanted to go to. Literally spent nearly an hour there AND then had the audacity to make ANOTHER UNPLANNED and Uncommunicated stop for 'chicken'. But not for EVERYONE, just for the 6 bachelorette party members that he apparently had a crush on. Didn't even allow anyone else to get off and order. Instead we all just had to sit on the van and wait until they came back. Then dropped them off 2nd, despite being picked up first. The first drop off were folks that we picked up along the way... Got back over TWO HOURS Later than the estimated time - by 8:30 pm, we hardly had any food options left at our resort nor much time to shower and change. Didn't swim, didn't really see the animals as advertised and wasted time doing other unsanctioned activities that were just a huge inconvenience. We deserve a refund, at least partial and an apology. They were the only ones our entire trip that did NOT get a monetary tip - just some words of advise on customer service, and fulfilling advertised promises. I would NOT recommend!! Stay away... Recommendation to company: Stick to the script, communicate w/everyone (in English if that's your audience), be considerate and mindful of the time, make the swimming waterfall or skip the dirty one, get to the Sloth Sanctuary early enough to enjoy and catch them at eye level or at least visible... start and end on time! Those few points would've made a world of difference... there's a reason why this one is a little cheaper than my 1st pick which I had to unfortunately lose after needing to reschedule. Don't make our mistake of going this route. Native's Way, Fix it!

So beautiful

Annie_H, May 2023

These waterfalls were absolutely beautiful!! The hike to Rio Celeste is definitely not for someone who isn’t active regularly or used to hiking, so keep that in mind if you’re booking. We opted out of the second hike because we were not prepared for how hard it was, but there’s fresh fruits and restaurants at the start of the trail that you can enjoy. The sloth sanctuary was so cool too. Our guide was incredibly knowledgeable about all of the animals they had there

Rio Celeste is a MUST!!

Myriam_B, Apr 2023

Excellent day to see sloths and waterfalls

Bonnie_L, Apr 2023

The waterfalls were beautiful! The guide was fun and knowledgeable, he answered so many questions. The guide at the sloth sanctuary was clearly passionate about the sanctuary and gave us so much information, not just about the sloths but about the plants, birds, insects and frogs we encountered. It was truly a fun day.

Top Notch

Ben_S, Apr 2023

Honestly, every aspect of this tour was better than I expected, and I had pretty high hopes going in.

The waterfall was amazing...

Lisa_G, Apr 2023

The waterfall was amazing and I learned a lot. I also really enjoyed meeting a great group of people who were also on the tour.

The Best of Costa Rica in 1 day

Melissa_F, Apr 2023

The blue water of the Rio Celeste is unreal and worth the walk (which is really not bad at all). Llanos de Cortes was breathtaking as was the sloth sightseeing! If you only do one excursion in Guanacaste, Costa Rica...this is it!

The best day of our trip!

Sandy_B, Apr 2023

The day was perfect. Diego is friendly and knowledgeable and really took care of us. It was so nice having a private tour so we really got to explore at our own pace. Thanks for the memories.

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