Río Celeste Waterfall Hikes: Tours to the Blue River in Tenorio
Twelve of the 20 tours add a sloth sanctuary, and the plain hike day sits in the 60 to 120 EUR band. The park's management puts the waterfall at about 30 m, not the 90 m many guides repeat.
Of the 20 Río Celeste tours on this page, 12 pair the river with a sloth sanctuary, and one of them adds Llanos de Cortés for a 12-hour day. Only six are plain hike-and-lunch days, and they sit in the 60 to 120 EUR band against 120 to 250 EUR for the shared sloth combos. The hike is the same in all of them: the trail in Tenorio Volcano National Park to a waterfall the park's management puts at about 30 m, not the 90 m many guides repeat. This page covers what makes the water blue, when it is not, the park rules that tours work around, and which of the three kinds of day is worth the money. For the other waterfalls of the country, the Costa Rica page compares them.
Three things are missing from most listings. The park ticket is sold online only, with no sales at the gate since 1 August 2023. The entry window closes at 13:45, so a late departure is a problem. And the final staircase to the waterfall was partly closed in early 2026 after landslides, according to a travel blog, so check the park's own page before you pay for a day that ends at the viewpoint. Prices are those the operators list, and the operator's own page has the final word on what a booking includes. We list the plain hike days first in the numbers because they are the baseline: everything else on the page is that day plus something, a sloth stop, a private group or a swim on a farm.
Llanos de Cortes Cliff Jump, 1-Hour Rio Celeste Hike and Sloth Walk
Swim and cliff jump at hidden Llanos de Cortes, hike about an hour to the blue waterfall, then look for sloths on a short walk with Spring Paradise guides.
Private Rio Celeste Hike and Bijagua Sloth Reserve Tour for 4 to 22 Guests
A private group of 4 to 22 hikes Rio Celeste at its own pace with 506 Transfers and Tours, with a separate driver for larger groups and a sloth reserve stop.
Private Rio Celeste Waterfall Hike with Sloth Sanctuary and Bijagua Lunch
Only your own group joins the guide on the Rio Celeste trail, the sloth stop at Spring Paradise Bijagua and lunch at El Sabor de Doña Carmen, with no rush.
Private Rio Celeste Waterfall, Sloth Sanctuary and Butterfly Farm Day from Playa Flamingo
A private full day from Playa Flamingo with a naturalist guide, a 1.5-hour sanctuary stop, the Rio Celeste waterfall walk, lunch and a butterfly farm.
Rio Celeste 2.5-Hour Hike, River Swim and Private Wildlife Reserve Visit
A 2.5-hour waterfall hike is followed by a swim, a family-run coffee shop lunch in Bijagua, a reserve with sloths and photographs of the day at the end.
Rio Celeste 5-Mile Hike with Teñideros, Hot Springs, Sloth Sanctuary and Meal
Leaving at 7:30 am, the hike passes Los Teñideros and volcanic vents, with a dip in natural hot springs, then a sloth sanctuary and a traditional meal.
Rio Celeste Combo: Tubing, Blue Waterfall Hike and Wildlife with Lunch
A local guide leads the blue waterfall hike, a 1.5-hour tubing run with fruit snacks and swim stops, a typical lunch and a souvenir market stop on the way back.
Rio Celeste Expedition: Llanos del Cortez Falls, Sloths and Coffee-Chocolate Farm
Start with a swim at the tall Llanos del Cortez waterfall, hike to Rio Celeste, then visit two local families: a sloth property and a coffee and chocolate farm.
Rio Celeste Four-Hour Hike to the Blue Waterfall from La Fortuna
Meet at the Red Lava Office, hike about four hours in Tenorio Volcano National Park, then eat lunch and take a short river dip before the return to La Fortuna.
Rio Celeste Hike, Llanos de Cortes Falls and Sloth Sanctuary from Tamarindo
Hotel pickup from Tamarindo and nearby beaches, a swim at Llanos de Cortes, a 2-hour Rio Celeste hike and a sloth sanctuary visit in Bijagua after lunch.
Rio Celeste Hike to Bride's Veil Waterfall, Viewpoint and Hot Springs
Learn why the river turns blue where the Buena Vista and Roble rivers meet, then reach Bride's Veil, a volcano viewpoint, hot springs and volcanic mud ponds.
Rio Celeste Hike to Los Teñideros, Waterfall and River Swim at Don Alexis Farm
Seven Tours Costa Rica pairs the Rio Celeste waterfall and Los Teñideros with a river swim, a hammock rest and a Costa Rican lunch at Don Alexis Farm.
Rio Celeste, Llanos de Cortes Swim and Sloth Watching Rainforest Day Trip
Warm, shallow Llanos de Cortes comes 25 minutes from Liberia, followed by a guided walk to Rio Celeste and an easy sloth trail with six listed pickup spots.
Rio Celeste Nature Hike from the Bijagua Facilities near Tenorio Volcano
Check in with your reservation at the Bijagua facilities to start a nature hike near Tenorio Volcano that shows the area's landscapes, plants and wildlife.
Rio Celeste Waterfall and Sloth Watching Tour from San Jose to Tenorio Park
Trail walks through Tenorio Volcano National Park lead to the Celeste River waterfall in Guatuso, Alajuela, on a tour from San Jose with sloth watching.
Rio Celeste Waterfall Hike from La Fortuna with Air-Conditioned Transport
Air-conditioned hotel transport is included, with an expert-guided jungle trek to the Rio Celeste waterfall, Los Teñideros and a local lunch afterwards.
Rio Celeste Waterfall, Slothland Bijagua and Coffee-Chocolate Farm Day Trip
Lunch with a drink and dessert is included, and the Rio Celeste walk in Tenorio park leads to a sloth reserve in Bijagua and a coffee and chocolate tasting.
Rio Celeste Waterfall, Sloth Spotting and Scarlet Macaws from Guanacaste
Sloth spotting is the highlight of this Guanacaste tour, with birds, snakes, frogs and possibly a tapir, plus a walk to Rio Celeste waterfall and typical food.
Rio Celeste Waterfall, Sloth Walk, La Abeja Lunch and Coffee-Cacao Farm
La Abeja serves the lunch, a private swimming hole on the river is a short walk away, and a cacao and coffee farm tasting closes the Rio Celeste and sloth day.
Tenorio Volcano National Park Hike to the Turquoise Rio Celeste Blue River
The turquoise Rio Celeste runs on the outskirts of the Tenorio River, and this hike through Tenorio Volcano National Park is built around its blue water.
Ratings collected by Viator and Tripadvisor
Why the river is blue, and why it sometimes is not
The best explanation we found is a 2013 study in PLOS ONE. Two colorless streams meet in the park: the Quebrada Agria, with a pH of 3.1, and the Río Buenavista, at 6.8. Five meters downstream the pH is 5.0, and the blue holds for about 14 km. The color comes from light scattered by suspended particles of aluminosilicate, not from a dye. A 2023 follow-up paper disputes how those particles form, so the line in one listing, a chemical reaction between two rivers, is shorthand and not settled chemistry. The waterfall is separate from the meeting point. The park puts it at about 30 m, reported by the Costa Rican press in September 2025.
The river is not blue by nature. It is blue where two colorless streams meet, and it stops being blue when rain brings sediment down.
What the guide takes you to see
The 8-hour Seven Tours listing (in the 60 to 120 EUR band, with hotel pickup and lunch) names the stops inside the park: the blue lagoon, Los Teñideros, where the two streams meet, the bubbling pools called Los Borbollones and the waterfall. Another operator describes the trail as a medium-tough hike of about four hours. The Vamos Rent a Car guide counts 253 steps on the way down to the fall and about 7 km on foot, around three hours.
In a storm the river turns gray-brown, mostly from October to January, and the color usually comes back within hours, the same guide says. Plan the day with a margin: a tour cannot promise a color.
Park rules every tour has to work around
Tickets are electronic and sold in advance, which is why a tour that includes the entrance buys it for you. The same guide gives separate rates for foreign adults and for children aged 2 to 12 (June 2026); we could not confirm the 2026 rate on the park authority's own site, so treat the rates as a guide. Entry runs from 8:00 to 13:45 and everyone is out by 16:00. Swimming inside the park is not allowed. That explains the listings that sell a swim: the Seven Tours day drives on to a farm on the river after the park, and the combo in the 120 to 250 EUR band sends you tubing for 1.5 hours with a rafting outfit in Katira, outside the park, for a day of 10 hours.
| Start | Road time to the park | Example listing | Price band and length |
|---|---|---|---|
| La Fortuna | About 1.5 hours | Red Lava TSC, hike and lunch | 60 to 120 EUR, 8 hours |
| Bijagua, about 8 km from the waterfall | You drive or meet there | Rio Celeste Nature Hike, ticket and parking included | 60 to 120 EUR, 4 hours |
| Liberia airport area (Guanacaste) | About 1.5 hours | AyE Tours, with sloth watching | 120 to 250 EUR, 6 hours |
| Tamarindo | 2.5 to 3 hours | ShowTime Tamarindo, private, with sloths | 120 to 250 EUR, 8 hours |
| San José | About 3.5 hours | AyE Tours, with sloth watching | 120 to 250 EUR, 8 hours |
The map explains the table. The park sits between two tourist bases, and the road is why a hike that takes four hours becomes an 8-hour day. The cheapest listing is the exception: it is the ticket, the parking and water, starting at the Bijagua facilities, with no pickup and no lunch.
Río Celeste tours: three kinds of day, and what each costs
The chart separates the days at a glance. The plain hike days bunch at 8 hours and in the 60 to 120 EUR band. The shared sloth combos spread from roughly 60 to 250 EUR, and the private listings sit highest, in the 120 to 250 EUR band.
The sloth stop, and what it adds
The sloth sanctuary is the upsell of this category: the stop adds a good deal to the median price and up to four hours to the day. The biggest listing, from Native's Way, is a 12-hour day in the 120 to 250 EUR band that also visits Llanos de Cortés, with 1,183 reviews and a 4.6 rating, the lowest of the large operators. That one operator holds 30% of all the reviews on this page.
The listings describe the sanctuary in a line or two and rarely say who runs it. If sloths are why you are booking, ask what the stop is before you pay the difference. If the river is the reason, the plain hike day is the better value.
| Format | Tours | Price band | Typical price band | Median length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hike and lunch, shared | 6 | 60 to 250 EUR | 60 to 120 EUR | 8 hours |
| Shared combos with a sloth sanctuary | 7 | 60 to 250 EUR | 120 to 250 EUR | 8 hours |
| Private listings | 7 | 120 to 250 EUR | 120 to 250 EUR per person | 9 hours |
The river and its park, 2013 to 2026
From the 2013 study, the Costa Rican press and our reading of the listings.
The origins
-
2013
Scientists explain the color
A PLOS ONE paper published on 18 September 2013 traces the blue to particles formed where two colorless streams meet.
The growth
-
12 Jan 2018
The river loses its color
The park closes after seismic swarms and the river turns from blue.
-
1 Aug 2023
Tickets move online
Electronic tickets become compulsory at Tenorio and at Rincón de la Vieja.
Today
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2025
Closures and a new visitor center
The park closes on 30 May and reopens in part in June. In September a 626 m² visitor center opens. More than 100,000 people visit in the first half of the year.
-
Early 2026
Staircase partly closed
A travel blog reports the final staircase to the fall partly closed after landslides.
Río Celeste or La Fortuna?
The two are about 1.5 hours apart and they are different outings. La Fortuna is a short outing with a staircase, and it is covered on the La Fortuna and Arenal page. Río Celeste is a day, with a park gate and a time window, and a river whose color depends on what the weather did overnight.
When to go
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
Where bookings go wrong
Expecting a swim in the blue water is the most common one: swimming is not allowed in the park, and the swim in a listing happens on a farm downstream. Buying a day that starts after 13:00 is the next, because the entry window closes at 13:45. Not every Río Celeste tour goes to Tenorio, either: our screening found a San José tour and a Civitatis trip that use the name for a different river at Bajos del Toro, and neither is on this page. And a private price is not a per-person price until the listing says so.
Questions about Río Celeste tours
Is the Río Celeste always blue?
No. The color comes from particles that form where two streams meet, and rain brings sediment that turns the water gray-brown. A travel guide says it usually clears within hours. The park closed in January 2018 after seismic swarms and the river lost its color.
Can you swim in the Río Celeste?
Not inside Tenorio Volcano National Park, where swimming is not allowed. Some tours include a swim in the river on a farm outside the park, and a tubing day runs on the river in Katira. The listing tells you which one you are booking.
Can you buy a ticket at the gate?
No. Electronic tickets have been compulsory since 1 August 2023, and a tour that includes the entrance buys it for you. If you go alone, book online first. A 4-hour listing in the 60 to 120 EUR band includes the ticket, parking and water.
How hard is the hike?
One operator calls it medium-tough, about four hours, and the Vamos guide counts 253 steps and about 7 km on foot. Most listings ask for moderate fitness. The staircase to the waterfall was partly closed in early 2026, so ask what is open.
Is the waterfall 90 meters high?
No. Some guides write 300 ft, but the park's management puts the fall at about 30 m, reported in September 2025. We found no independent measurement, so we use the park's figure with its source.
Choosing between the river and the other falls?
The Costa Rica page puts Río Celeste next to La Fortuna, Guanacaste, Nauyaca and Jaco.
Data verified on . Twenty tours read on 22 October 2026. Park facts from PLOS ONE (2013), delfino.cr, CRHoy and Vamos Rent a Car (June 2026); no SINAC tariff confirmed.