Costa Rica 
In numbers.
1.4m³/s
Average flow
estimate
Jul–Aug
Oct–Nov
Best months
177m
Elevation
The water at Nauyaca Waterfalls, month by month
It roars from June to November.
The fullest months: from June to November. The thinnest: from February to March.
- 1.2 m³/sJan
- 0.6 m³/sFeb
- 0.4 m³/sMar
- 0.8 m³/sApr
- 2.1 m³/sMay
- 2.6 m³/sJun
- 3.0 m³/sJul
- 2.7 m³/sAug
- 2.7 m³/sSep
- 3.1 m³/sOct
- 3.1 m³/sNov
- 2.1 m³/sDec
From about 0.43 m³/s in the lowest month to 3.1 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from July to August and from October to November.
Estimate: the timing comes from rain, snowmelt and evaporation (NASA POWER, 1991–2020); the amounts from the river model of HydroATLAS (WaterGAP, 1971–2000). Dams upstream can change the real flow.
Nauyaca Waterfalls is a waterfall in Costa Rica.
Getting there.
- Uvitanearest town · 12 km in a straight line
- Parking 2,270 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Quepos Managua Airport (XQP)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 41 km in a straight lineCar hire at XQP airport (Quepos)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From July to August and from October to Novemberbest months to go (estimate)
Plan your visit
Stay, explore and get there
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
Seen from the sky.
8 × 8 km of cloud-free satellite image, with what OpenStreetMap knows around the falls.
N
2 km
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 8 × 8 km, north up. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.
The line follows the river as mapped in OpenStreetMap; heights from the 30 m Copernicus model, which smooths narrow drops — the published height of the falls is the one above.
Around the falls the river drops 153 m in 3.4 km. Here the river runs about 116 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- 1viewpoints
- —waymarked walking routes
- 1car parks
- —swimming spots
- —picnic sites
- 3toilets
- 1information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- 3other named waterfalls within 4 kmEntrance waterfall, Nauyaca 45m
- —caves
- 2campsites
- 37hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmVillas Rio Mar, Hotel Casa Ramon, Bella Vista Ranch Lodge and 34 more
- —restaurants and cafés within 3 km
Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit, up to 2 km around the falls (unless noted). A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet. © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
Towns nearby
- Uvita12 km in a straight line
- San Isidro18 km in a straight line
- Daniel Flores18 km in a straight line
Weather
The weather, month by month.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon °C | 29 | 30 | 32 | 32 | 30 | 30 | 29 | 30 | 29 | 29 | 29 | 29 |
| Night °C | 23 | 23 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 25 | 24 | 24 | 24 | 24 | 24 | 23 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 101 | 60 | 72 | 125 | 253 | 240 | 266 | 226 | 233 | 277 | 254 | 150 |
| Wet days | 11 | 10 | 11 | 15 | 24 | 24 | 24 | 25 | 25 | 25 | 23 | 17 |
| Sun h/day | 6.0 | 6.5 | 6.4 | 5.1 | 4.2 | 4.3 | 4.0 | 4.1 | 4.5 | 3.8 | 3.6 | 5.0 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (177 m) at −6.5 °C per 1,000 m. Not a forecast.
Photos
Through visitors' eyes.
Recent years
Wet years and dry years
Rain of each month as a share of the 1991–2020 average. A wet season above 100 % usually means a fuller waterfall.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 153% | 95% | 36% | 202% | 104% | 181% | 108% | 150% | 152% | 138% | 161% | 228% |
| 2021 | 88% | 66% | 222% | 264% | 121% | 122% | 154% | 190% | 149% | 121% | 75% | 83% |
| 2022 | 29% | 64% | 232% | 198% | 113% | 170% | 110% | 108% | 145% | 127% | 112% | 69% |
| 2023 | 90% | 115% | 210% | 98% | 95% | 120% | 141% | 126% | 112% | 157% | 115% | 85% |
| 2024 | 28% | 168% | 121% | 180% | 169% | 304% | 205% | 115% | 156% | 152% | 259% | 162% |
| 2025 | 111% | 101% | 146% | 216% | 207% | 189% | 108% | 78% | 148% | 136% | 97% | 98% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Nauyaca Waterfalls
Costa Rica
- —Height
- 1.4 m³/sAverage flow
- Jul–Aug, Oct–NovBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q111590330) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| River flow and catchment | HydroATLAS / RiverATLAS v1.0 (Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 |
| Climate | NASA POWER, 1991–2020 |
| Relief, river profile, 3D model | Copernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| Paths, viewpoints, parking | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
The family
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