La Paz Waterfall Gardens Nature Park is a privately owned ecological attraction in Costa Rica. The park sprawls over 70 acres of land that constitutes 40 acres of cloud and rain forests and 30 acres of pastureland. As the name says, La Paz Waterfall Gardens Nature Park is best known for the La Paz waterfall and four other waterfalls. But a visit to La Paz Waterfall Gardens Nature Park is not just about waterfalls. The park also houses an animal sanctuary that provides home to wildlife that cannot live in the wild anymore for various reasons. In this post, we are going to share everything you need to know about how to visit La Paz Waterfall Gardens Nature Park.
How to reach La Paz Waterfall Gardens?
La Paz Waterfall Gardens Nature Park is located in the Alajuela province of Costa Rica. About an hour’s drive away, this ecological park is an easy day trip from the central valley region of the country. The distances from the major cities are as follows:
- San Jose: 46 km
- Heredia: 35 km
- Alajuela: 32 km
The road to the park is a scenic drive through the countryside. As you drive along the narrow roads, you leave behind verdant green fields and hills.
How to buy tickets for La Paz?
You can purchase tickets online on the ‘Buy Park Tickets’ page of La Paz Waterfall Gardens website.
Entry fees
- For foreign nationals: 48 USD + taxes
- For citizens and residents: 28 USD + taxes
Other important information
- Hours: 8:00 am – 5:00 pm
- Parking: Available
- Restrooms: Available
- WiFi: Available
- Food options: 1 buffet restaurant (14 USD) and various other restaurants and bars
Note: In case you wish to stay overnight at the location, the property also houses a luxury resort, The Peace Lodge.
What is the best time to visit La Paz?
La Paz Waterfall Gardens Nature Park is open round the year. Rainy season runs from April/May until November/December in Costa Rica. However, we say rain should not stop you from visiting the waterfall gardens. According to us, the tropical rainforests of Costa Rica are at their prettiest when it rains. Also, the walking trails at La Paz Waterfall Gardens have spots where you can take cover in case you need it.
Please note, as with most places in Costa Rica, it can rain any time of the day, any day of the year. So, even if you choose to visit La Paz Waterfall Gardens in the dry season, the chances of rain are not zero. We visited the nature park in February and got to enjoy a fresh afternoon shower at the end of a bright sunny day.
What to wear for your trip to La Paz Waterfall Gardens?
The hiking trails at La Paz Waterfall Gardens add up to almost 4 km. So, you are definitely going to need comfortable walking shoes.
Wear clothes of breathable and dry-fit fabric, particularly pants/shorts that allow you easy walking. Carry a raincoat (in case of rain), and a light jacket (in case of drop in the temperatures). When we visited in February, we did not need any light jacket, still we recommend to keep one handy.
What to see inside La Paz Waterfall Gardens Nature Park?
It is fairly easy to navigate through the different attractions at the nature park by yourself. Although you can hire a guide, we think a self-guided tour should suffice when you visit La Paz Waterfall Gardens Nature Park. You just need to follow the well laid out trails with clear direction boards.
La Paz Waterfall Gardens website recommends to have at least 2 hours at your disposal for the visit. But we recommend reserving the entire day for this trip. This will allow you to slow walk through all the attraction areas and also have plenty of time to take pictures. Here is what we did. We explored the animal sanctuary area in the morning hours, had our buffet lunch and then proceeded towards the waterfalls trail in the afternoon. It worked out fine for us. But before you start your trip, remember to take a photo of the map wall-hanging or grab a brochure with map at the reception.
Wildlife Refuge
Indranil and I love to watch wildlife in the wild. Costa Rica provides plenty of such opportunities, whether it’s birding in the valleys or wildlife spotting in the rainforests. We enjoy the experience of patiently waiting for a sloth to move its limb or for a hummingbird to finally sit on a branch for a few seconds. So, the idea of an animal sanctuary that creates artificial natural habitats to protect wildlife did not excite us initially.
However, we realized that the Wildlife Refuge at La Paz Waterfall Gardens Nature Park provides home to the wildlife that need it. Costa Rica Wildlife Ministry confiscated animals and birds that were once illegally taken away from their natural habitat. The Ministry entrusted the park with the responsibility of caring for these creatures as they cannot live in the wild by themselves anymore. You will also find a board explaining this.
The Wildlife Refuge at La Paz Waterfall Gardens is split into different sections based on the type of wildlife. It has sections for birds, butterflies, monkeys, sloths, snakes, frogs and jungle cats, including puma and jaguar! La Paz Waterfall Gardens is like an entertainment packed trailer of the wildlife movie of Costa Rica.
Words of wisdom: Do not forget your telephoto lens at home like we did! We had to make do with our phone camera clicks for the photos of animals and birds.
Hummingbird garden
There is also a hummingbird garden where strategically placed feeders naturally attract various species of hummingbirds. If you have not seen a hummingbird before, this is a good place to learn about hummingbirds in general, and its several kinds of species. Did you know that the heart of a hummingbird beats around 60 times per second?
Trout lake
La Paz Waterfall Gardens Nature Park also features a Trout Lake. Here, you can fish for your own trout. The park will provide you with the fishing equipment. You catch your fish and the restaurant will prepare it the way you like it. However, we skipped this activity as just the week before La Paz, we went to Trucha Selva Madre in Cartago for trout fishing and brought home kilos of trout. Too much trout?
Casita de La Paz
Casita de La Paz is a replica of how typical Costa Rican farmhouses used to be about a hundred years ago. This little casita was built using only raw materials that were available a century ago. With bullock carts and tube wells outside the house, enter Casita de La Pal for a mini history tour of old rural Costa Rica.
Waterfalls
There are 5 different waterfalls at La Paz Waterfall Gardens Nature Park. Interestingly, you cannot get a full frontal view of the La Paz waterfalls though when you are inside the nature park, despite the name. But let us solve that puzzle later in this section. Walk along the waterfall hiking trail to see one stunning waterfall after another.
At the end of the trail, you can board the pickup bus offered by the nature park. It will drop you at the reception from where you can start your return journey. While disembarking from the bus, I noticed this little note near the door that caught my attention. Words so simple yet valuable.
Roughly translated, the list reads like this:
Menu of the day - Peace of the soul - Love in the heart - Gratitude for the life - Faith in your journey "Happy Day"
Templo waterfall
The first waterfall you will visit is Templo. You will need to go down a winding flight of stairs to reach the viewing platform of this waterfall. From this viewing platform, you can see the Templo waterfall plunging into the river below. As you walk towards the next waterfall, you will find a spot where you can see the Templo Waterfall from the river level.
Magia Blanca waterfall
Tracing back the same steps, you will proceed towards a tall iron frame stair case. Take this to move to the next waterfall, Magia Blanca.
For this waterfall, you also have another viewing deck from where you can see the waterfall along with its viewing deck. I guess it should not be a surprise then that Magia Blanca waterfall is often advertised as a wedding venue. Do you have a destination wedding in mind for the future? 🙂
Escondia waterfall
Escondia waterfall is the first of a two-tiered waterfall. After dropping down, the water follows a brief course of the stream before it plunges again to make another waterfall.
Encantada waterfall
This second waterfall is Encantada waterfall. As the water moves further downhill, it forms another waterfall, La Paz. From the viewing platform of the Encantada waterfall, you can also see the top of La Paz waterfall to your right.
La Paz waterfall
The top of La Paz waterfall is all you get to see from inside La Paz Waterfall Garden Nature Park. As I mentioned earlier, you do not get a full frontal view of this waterfall from inside the park. Instead, you can see La Paz waterfall flowing down in full force into a stream, from the main road outside the nature park.
Tip: If you do not wish to spend the dollars to visit La Paz Waterfall Gardens Nature Park, you just need to drive down this road to see La Paz waterfall. But the other waterfalls are visible only from the trails and the viewing platforms inside the park. So, you decide on the tradeoff.
Is it worth visiting La Paz Waterfall Gardens?
Dreams about Costa Rica are made up of tropical rainforests, waterfalls, beaches and wildlife. You can find almost all of those at La Paz Waterfall Gardens Nature Park, and it takes only a day to explore that. So, if you are in San Jose or Heredia on a business trip, take out a Saturday or a Sunday to visit La Paz Waterfall Gardens Nature Park. If you are holidaying in Costa Rica for the first time, you can visit La Paz Waterfall Gardens to familiarize yourself with the country’s fauna and flora before heading further to the National Parks of Costa Rica. With well laid out hiking trails and organized attractions, La Paz Waterfall Gardens Nature Park makes for a perfect family getaway.
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Beautifully written and great photographs…Definitely planning a trip here soon:)
Thank you! 🙂
Oh this looks absolutely beautiful! Thank you for the details about the waterfall. I didn’t know that there is a wildlife refugee there! great post
Thanks Pam. Yeah, I was surprised to learn that many of my (local) colleagues did not know about the animal refugee there either.
I wish i could remember the waterfalls that I went to in Costa Rica. It was on a volcanoes, had lots of waterfalls and hot springs. The park is what introduced me to hiking. I love this kind of place and if I’m ever lucky enough to get to Costa Rica again, I’m going to check this one out.
Hope you get to travel to Costa Rica again Kelly. Was that Rincon de la Vieja?
Love all those waterfalls! And the wildlife sanctuary is nice that they are well-taken care of in comfort when they were rejected as pets. Adding this to my Costa Rica list!
Many of the animals were illegally held as pets. The ministry rescued the animal from there. Yes, good that now they are taken good care of.
It looks like the perfect place for a relaxing trip. Especially the animal sanctuary!