A sheet of cloud had wrapped the Rincon de la Vieja Volcano on an otherwise sunny day. It was humid and as we walked past the rainforest part of the Rincon de la Vieja National park, it looked like a desert-like area meeting the green forests at a distance. We began our exploration of the volcanic activity spots, the highlights of the Las Pailas sector of the national park.
The Rincon de la Vieja National Park, located in the Guanacaste province of Costa Rica is filled with secondary volcanic activities and couple of waterfalls making it a top attraction of the province away from the beach. Here is our guide to the Las Pailas sector of the national park and its trails.
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Plan Your Rincon de la Vieja Trip:
- Guided tour for exploring Rincon de la Vieja National Park: Book this tour
- Best hotel to stay near Rincon de la Vieja National Park: Hotel Hacienda Guachipelin
- Most convenient way of getting around in Costa Rica: Rent a car
- Must-have things on your Costa Rica packing list: Reef Safe Sunscreen, Insect Repellent and Rain Poncho
Insider Tip: Please bring sunscreen and insect repellent from your home country. The options for these products in Costa Rica are limited, and the prices can be shocking. We have seen far too many people, including ourselves, raise brows at sunscreen prices here.
Rincon de la Vieja is a recommended destination on our Costa Rica 10-Day Itinerary from Liberia.
How to Reach Rincon de la Vieja National Park?
Directions to Las Pailas Sector
The entrance to the Las Pailas sector of the Rincon de la Vieja National Park is around 25 km /15.5 miles drive from Liberia. As you cross Liberia and continue on Ruta 1 highway, look for the boards of Rincon de la Vieja National Park on the right. In about 4 km, you need to take the right from Ruta 1 that leads to the national park.
Last part of the road to the entrance of Las Pailas lies on a private property owned by Hotel Hacienda Guachipelin. So you eventually reach a gate which is managed by them and pay 800 CRC to the security person for accessing the road. If you are staying in the Hotel, this entrance fee is waived off.
After you cross the gate, you pass by farmlands, tropical dry forests and some industrial sections owned by the company ICE, until you reach the parking of the national park. The roads are well-marked and easy to follow as there are not many diversions. The signboards indicate the park’s name or Las Pailas sector.
You do not need a 4X4 vehicle to reach Las Pailas sector of Rincon de la Vieja National Park. For the convenience of having a vehicle at your disposal and flexibility of schedule, you may consider renting a car in Costa Rica.
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Read this: Should you rent a car in Costa Rica?
However, if you prefer not to drive but still wish to have the convenience of transportation sorted, you may want to book a guided tour that included transportation between your hotel and the national park.
Recommended Tour for Rincon de la Vieja
You can book this highly rated full-day tour. It offers pick up from and drop off at certain hotels in Liberia and other beach towns in Guanacaste. The tour starts with a guided hike at Las Pailas sector of Rincon de la Vieja and then takes you to the gorgeous Oropendola waterfall before finishing off at Rio Negro Hot Springs where you can relax at the thermal pools as well as get yourself a volcanic mud bath. The tour price includes the services of a guide, national park entry frees, lunch and bottled water.
Hiking the Las Pailas Trail at Rincon de la Vieja
The Rincon de la Vieja National Park has 2 main trails in the Las Pailas Sector that are currently open for the visitors.
The 2 miles (3.2 km) Las Pailas trail cuts through tropical dry and rain forests with stops at various secondary volcanic activities.
The hike starts right after the entrance office where the trail starts at an open area with few trees. The path is well-paved and properly marked. We hiked in December, at the onset of the dry season. The trees had either shed the leaves or acquired colors, typical views of the season.
We crossed the open area to enter the rainforest region and it turned cooler with the shades. After a while, we crossed a hanging bridge suspended over a river. This is not among the longer or higher ones like the hanging bridges of Monteverde, but still it is always impressive to see a river snaking through dense forests.
As you cross the bridge, after few meters, the trail splits into two. We kept to the right as that led to the volcanic activities first, which we wanted to start with.
The trail is circular, so it is a matter of choice which one to start with. However, if you start early, it is better to cover the volcanic activities first to avoid heat, as most of those spots lie in the dry areas and with almost no shade.
The volcanic activity zone starts soon after, and you will know as the vegetation changes to shrubs and grasses along with strong odor of sulfur.
Fumarolic Lagoon (Laguna Fumancilica)
The fumarolic lagoon is like a water pond with the difference being the impact of the volcanic activities at its base. The fumaroles create the bubbles in the water. The water had turned yellowish brown due to the volcanic minerals.
Water Pots (Pailas de Agua)
The Pailas de Agua or the Water Pots are similar to the lagoon, except this is drier and the water is muddy. You can stay to watch the bubbles continuously popping out.
Mud Pots (Pailas de Barro)
This was probably our favorite place among all the stops. This mud pond was more concentrated than the water pots, and the texture looked like gray colored chocolate. The sun rays peeked through the leaves surrounding the pots and the mud glowed as they burst and oozed out drops in the air. These activities were spread across different places in the mud pond and it was amazing to keep watching one erupt after another.
Little Volcano (Volcancito)
The rest of the activity areas were inside the rainforest area. The open area turned into a dense rainforest as we crossed a bridge, where the trail led.
As the name suggests, our next attraction showed characteristics of a mini volcano. The crevasse in the ground releases volcanic smoke and a strong pungent odor. We wondered how the tropical trees had survived these activities so far.
Fumaroles (Fumarolas)
The Fumaroles were the last volcanic activity found on the trail. The openings emitted sulfurous gases as well. The place being in the middle of the rainforest, the smoke and sun rays combined to create a surreal atmosphere.
On the other end, there was a pot of boiling water continuously bubbling, naturally created as evidence of another volcanic activity.
Seasonal Waterfall (Catarata Estacional)
The seasonal waterfall is the last attraction on the trail. If you are traveling during the rainy season or shoulder season around November or December, the waterfall looks pretty impressive. The waterfall is wide and during these months, it brushes down the cliff like petals dropping from a flower. However, it almost disappears during the dry months. When we hiked in December, we found the waterfall in its full glory.
Related Reading: Best Waterfalls in Costa Rica
Enjoy visiting volcano national parks? Check out our complete guides to visiting some volcanoes in Central America:
- Arenal Volcano National Park in Costa Rica
- Irazu Volcano National Park in Costa Rica
- Tenorio Volcano National Park in Costa Rica
- Cerro Tortuguero in Costa Rica
- Acatenango Volcano and Fuego Volcano in Guatemala
- Santa Ana Volcano in El Salvador
Wildlife at Rincon de la Vieja
The hikes in the Rincon de la Vieja National Park also provide opportunities to see tropical wildlife. We were able to find birds and animals in the forest regions, although not much in the dry areas.
We found couple of Crested Guans on one of the trees at the start of our hike. They were not shy and posed for photos. Shortly, a few magpie jays accompanied us for some time on the trail.
We found a gang of spider monkeys and howler monkeys multiple times in the later part of the trail in the rainforest area. The odor or the smoke had not kept them away.
There are interesting formation of trees as well in the later part of the trail. We stopped at many such places for photo-ops. The structures resembled the Twin Towers characters from the Lord of the Rings.
Related Reading: Wildlife in Costa Rica
Hiking the La Cangreja Waterfall Trail
La Cangreja is a 40 m / 130 feet high waterfall located deep inside the Rincon de la Vieja National Park. You can reach the waterfall hiking 10 km / 6.2 miles (round trip) on the trail that goes through various landscapes. The trail starts in a rainforest surrounding and mid way turns into open highlands with spectacular distant views of the Pacific ocean. The long hike rewards you with the La Cangreja Waterfall view that tumbles into a blue pool.
Read about our hiking experience and the La Cangreja waterfall in details in our post here.
Hiking the Escondido Waterfall Trail
The Escondido waterfall is the other waterfall which shares half of the trail with La Cangreja. As you reach halfway through the hike to the La Cangreja waterfall, the path splits into two. The left one leads to La Cangreja while the right one leads to Escondido waterfall.
This adds 2.6 km / 1.6 miles to the hike. The Escondido is smaller than La Cangreja and might not be equally impressive, so go ahead with the challenge if you have enough time. Also, you need to start early to have reasonable time to complete both.
Hiking the Rincon de la Vieja Volcano Crater Trail
The crater trail of Rincon de la Vieja Volcano is closed for public due to the activities in the volcano, which has made it dangerous for hiking. It is a difficult trail but said to have great views of the crater.
Important Note: You may come across people offering to take you up the trail to the volcano crater of Rincon de la Vieja volcano. Do not succumb to such proposals for the sake of your own safety. Rincon de la Vieja Volcano is one of the most active volcanoes in the country and it is strictly prohibited to hike on its main crater trail. Please respect the local laws.
Check out other attractions in the vicinity of Rincon de la Vieja National Park:
Oropendola Waterfall: A beautiful waterfall, just before the Rincon de la Vieja National Park entrance and a short hike. Also the trail includes an impressive hanging bridge.
Rio Negro Hot springs and Waterfalls: Another experience in the Rincon de la Vieja area to experience the volcanic hot springs called Rio Negro and a set of 4 waterfalls.
Park Hours, Entry Fees and Other Information
Booking Information
For visiting Rincon de la Vieja National Park, you have to reserve your slot online in advance from the SINAC website. This is the national system of managing conservation areas and national parks in Costa Rica.
Note that, before you can buy your national park tickets online, you will first need to register on the portal as a new account. We do recommend creating this because you will need this login information for booking your tickets for various other national parks in Costa Rica.
Once you arrive at Las Pailas sector, there are maps provided at the entrance. A guide will help you understand the map and provide information about the trails.
If you are not very sure of booking a self-guided hike in advance, you can book a guided tour.
Park Hours
The park is open between Tuesdays and Sundays, 8:00 am to 3:00 pm. It is closed on Monday.
If you are planning to hike the ~10 km trails of La Cangreja and Escondido waterfalls, you need to start before 12:00 noon. The entrance path to these 2 trails are blocked after noon.
Entry Fees
The entry fees to Rincon de la Vieja National Park vary by international tourists and Costa Rican nationals.
For Foreign Nationals:
- Adults:16.95 USD
- Children (2-12 years): 5.65 USD
For Costa Rican Citizens and Residents:
- Adults: 1,130 CRC
- Children and Students: 565 CRC
The entry fees include taxes. Currently, they are only accepting cards for payments.
Other Important Information
Parking: There is ample parking available near the entrance. Parking is included in the entrance fee.
Restrooms: There are restrooms in the park entrance building. There is no restroom available on any trail.
Restaurants: There is no restaurant inside the park. So pack your food if you are planning to do the longer hikes.
Where to Stay near Rincon de la Vieja National Park
Our Top Recommendation
If you wish to fully explore Las Pailas sector of Rincon de la Vieja National Park and every other attraction in the vicinity, we highly recommend staying at the Hotel Hacienda Guachipelin. This hotel has rustic rooms in a natural setting, and a restaurant, an outdoor swimming pool and a spa, among other amenities.
However, the best advantage of staying at this hotel is that the nightly room tariff gives you free access to some of the other incredible attractions in the region, like Oropendola Waterfall and Rio Negro Hot Springs and Waterfalls. For the guests of the hotel, they also offer free shuttle service to Rincon de la Vieja National Park entrance.
Click here to check availability and book your stay at Hotel Hacienda Guachipelin.
Other Hotels in Rincon de la Vieja Region
There are couple of other options of unique stays in the Rincon de la Vieja region. However, these hotels are not as close to Las Pailas sector as the one mentioned in the previous section.
- Borinquen Thermal Resort is another hot spring resort with accommodation options in villas, bungalows and suites, each of them offering beautiful mountain views. This property also has outdoor pool, restaurants and spa. Click here to check prices and availability.
- Buena Vista del Rincon, as the name suggests, boasts of great views of the surrounding nature, with accommodations featuring views of lake or mountains or garden. Click here to check prices and availability.
Hotels in Liberia
Liberia is the nearest town and also the location of the nearest international airport from Rincon de la Vieja National Park. If you want to sneak in a visit to Rincon de la Vieja National Park right after arriving in Costa Rica or on the last day before departing from the country, you can book a nice hotel in Liberia. Here are couple of popular chain hotels located close to the Liberia airport.
Stay near the Beach?
The nearest beach town from Rincon de la Vieja is Playas del Coco. It is a developed town popular among expats. But there are several secret beaches within a short driving distance from that town. If you want to stay by the beach with all amenities, this can be a good option as your base from where you can take a day trip to Rincon de la Vieja.
Rincon de la Vieja Park: What to Wear and What to Carry
Here are a few things to keep in mind while hiking the trails of Rincon de la Vieja national park:
- Watch out for and honor the safety signs as these are volcanic activity areas.
- Wear hiking shoes with good grip. Hiking shorts/ pants/ skirt with a light tee should be fine.
- Bring water to keep yourself hydrated during the hike, especially in the dry season.
- Carry raincoat or rain poncho as it can rain anytime in Costa Rica.
- Carry snacks or packed lunch, particularly when you are going for the long waterfall hikes.
- Do not forget sunscreen and insect repellent.
Check out our comprehensive Costa Rica packing guide. It includes a FREE checklist at the end.
Final Thoughts on Rincon de la Vieja National Park
Las Pailas sector of Rincon de la Vieja National Park is a great addition to your Costa Rica or Guanacaste itinerary. If you are staying at any of the Guanacaste beaches, plan a day trip to the Rincon de la Vieja region. Otherwise, you can plan to stay in the area for a couple of nights. There are several other activities and experiences apart from the national park, that can enrich your Rincon de la Vieja experience.
Resources for your Costa Rica trip planning:
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Awesome writing skill and incredible photography. People must be attracted. Feel like rushing like wind to visit the place.
Thank you 🙂
AWESOME stuff! Thank you
Glad this helps. Thanks Dubba 🙂