About a half hour drive from the town of Las Terrenas brings you to four different entrances to the waterfalls. At each entrance they’ll offer you horseback rides and guides. We found the best price for horses was $10 USD plus a tip for your guide. However we decided to use our own two feet and skip the ride.
We parked our rental scooter in a large grassy field and paid a local 100 pesos ($1.75 USD) to guard it. Then began an uphill trek that brought us through a tropical farm that passed by coffee trees, passion fruit vines and coconuts.
It was an hour hike through some extremely muddy spots and a river crossing. I recommend river shoes. You’ll see tourists wearing rubber boots provided by their guides. It had also been raining for several days which added to the quagmire.
After we passed the smaller falls with no other tourists we joined the main path where dozens of tourists on horseback and guides on foot are passing by. If you’re on foot you have to get out of the way. Up next is a ramshackle ‘bar’ selling rum drinks in fresh coconuts, a souveneir shop and the booth where you pay 50 pesos. Then its another 250 steps down the final stretch. There were LOTS of tourists there with their guides and a crazy horse ‘parking lot’ with horses tied up all over the jungle side by side.
Once you reach the bottom you can swim in the cool refreshing water under a 170 ft waterfall, the highest in the Dominican. Local boys are climbing up and jumping off. There are caves behind the falls and an amazing back massage if you stand directly underneath.
In summary, it’s worth the 1.5 mile (one way) muddy hike to this beautiful spot. Depending on your method of travel you can have parts of the trail all to yourself. Gracias to the DR for sharing this treasure!