Hiking El Tigre, Costa Rica with kids

In hindsight, I can’t believe we almost didn’t add El Tigre to our Costa Rica itinerary. To save other travellers this grotesque oversight, I am now here to be your inner voice: whether you are debating what to do in Monteverde, or have never even heard of El Tigre, ADD EL TIGRE TO YOUR COSTA RICA ITINERARY. El Tigre ended up being our favourite hike in Costa Rica, and one of our most memorable experiences.

El Tigre Waterfalls is located in the Monteverde region. It is a 5-8km hike, depending on whether you want to hike the entire route. Because Big S and Lil S are still young, this was our most adventure-y and longest hike in Costa Rica. Are there other more intense and dramatic waterfall and cave trails to explore? Definitely. But El Tigre is doable for kids, and is the perfect rainforest adventure experience, with waterfalls you can swim in and hanging bridges along the way. You can choose to finish your hike on horseback or safari jeep. It takes you all the way from rainforest floor to cloud forest, with spectacular views at every turn. If you want to experience rainforest and nature, you can’t go wrong with El Tigre.

El Tigre Waterfall hike fast facts

What is El Tigre?

El Tigre is a private reserve. It is a mix of primary and secondary forests that grew out of farmland in increasing conservation efforts over the last few decades. El Tigre’s surrounding forest Bajo del Tigre got its name from the jaguars that used to live in the region.

Location

El Tigre is located on the outskirts of Monteverde 8km from the tourist hub of Santa Elena. Follow the road Monte de los Olivios. Do NOT take the fork to Selvetura Park, as we did. 😛 You should pass 100% Adventura Park on your way.

You do need a car to get to El Tigre. There is no public transportation going to El Tigre. If not driving, you will need to hire a taxi, or El Tigre can arrange a shuttle service to your hotel in Santa Elena for $12 USD per person. (This operates during the dry season only.)

If you are driving, you do not necessarily need a 4×4, but the roads and around Monteverde is very uneven and hilly, so a 4×4 is definitely recommended.

Opening hours

7:30am – 1:30pm (their last reservation slot)

Cost

There are 2 package options:

1) The Big Hike – $33 USD for adults and $22 USD for children under 18

This is their 8km self-guided hike, with the first 5km downhill and the last 3km uphill back to the tour office.

2) The full package – $66 USD for adults and $56 USD for children under 18

This package includes a 5 km self-guided hike, and a 3 km horseback ride or safari jeep ride. Lunch and drinks are included at the onsite restaurant.

Unless your kids are avid hikers, we definitely recommend this option for families. Our active kids managed the 5km in high spirits but I imagine an extra 3km of uphill hiking would have destroyed them (or at least destroyed US with their incessant complaining). Instead, we got to ride horses in Costa Rica without booking a special excursion and it was the highlight of Lil S’s trip.

Add on: Zip-biking – a optional 3 cable adventure above the canopy at the end of the 5km hike. This is $35 USD per person. We found the hike and horseback ride to be enough adventure for the day, and having already zip-lined, did not feel the need to do this. The height limit for zip-biking is 1.4m.

How to book

You can reserve tickets directly through their website: El Tigre Waterfalls

You can also reserve a spot by messaging them on WhatsApp.

We kept an eye on their website before we arrived in Monteverde, and found we did not have to reserve ahead of time.

What you can expect to see

El Tigre is a gorgeous hike through Costa Rica nature. It is exactly when I pictured whenever I thought of Costa Rica. There are waterfalls, streams you can cross, rickety hanging bridges, and thick lush jungle. The rainforest here is considered a “transitional forest”, not the classic Monteverde cloud forest, but you do get beautiful cloud forest views on your way back up the trail. We saw lots of butterflies, but no other animals. (This was the general trend in Monteverde. Not as many animals, I assume because the forest is so vast they’re all hanging out elsewhere.) On a clear day, you can even catch a glimpse of the Arenal volcano!

Should I plan to visit El Tigre while in Monteverde?

Is El Tigre worth visiting? Absolutely. But despite my effusive praise for this hike, whether you should visit El Tigre will realistically depend on how many days you are spending in Monteverde and what else you plan to do. Some options in this area include a cloud forest hike (NON optional, in our opinion, as this is what makes Monteverde so unique), a hanging bridges walk, and zip-lining.

El Tigre without kids can easily be done in half a day, especially if you head out early. That leaves you the other half to do another activity. El Tigre *with* kids is a full day affair. The hike itself takes 3-4 hours (leaving time along the way for snack breaks, dips in the waterfalls, and butterfly chasing). By the time you finish lunch, it is easily early afternoon. We always recommend planning for plenty of downtime while traveling so kids can unwind, and try not to over schedule.

We spent a generous 3 nights in Monteverde, and even then, “moved” our hanging bridges experience to our Arenal itinerary so we could have a day of exploring the cloud forest, and leave a day to hike El Tigre. (In the afternoon, we did pop by the Ficus Root tree, which the kids basically treated as a thrilling nature playground.)

Is El Tigre Waterfall kid friendly?

This was our biggest reservation and why we almost didn’t make it out here with the kids. There is no strict age limit for the El Tigre hike. However, the general sense we got from travel forums and blogs was that El Tigre was a fairly demanding trail, with possibly dangerous hanging bridges for little kids with limited self-control. We only found a few posts and reviews by families who hiked with children, most of them older.

Now that we have done it, we can confidently say El Tigre is totally manageable even for younger children. Lil S was 6 at the time, and she managed the hike without difficulty. If I had to assign an age limit, I would say around 5, maybe a mature 4 (we definitely saw 1 or 2 kids who were smaller than Lil S). This hike is perfect for active children who are adventurous and like getting wet and a little dirty. The landscape continuously changes along the way, and they were constantly looking for the next stream, waterfall, or hanging bridge. There is also the option to take a shortcut and skip a waterfall (the only one with any uphill hiking), which shortens the trail by around 1km.

The trail is well marked, with walkie-talkies along the way in case you need to radio for help. The hanging bridges are wooden and much smaller than what you’d find at a hanging bridges park, but the planks are well maintained with ropes on either side. It’s not “secure” in the sense a squirmy child intent on self-destruction *can* slip through, but way more solid than I was led to expect. The waterfalls are also smaller and less powerful (especially compared to say, the La Fortuna waterfall), and the bases not very deep, so I felt more comfortable letting the kids splash/swim.

Although there are no age restrictions, I was not sure Lil S would meet the requirement for horseback riding. (And she had only done it once before… in Iceland!) However, it didn’t end up being an issue. They had helmets her size, and the horses were all very tame and moved as a group, although kids do need to be able to follow basic instructions.

Planning a hike at El Tigre with kids

When to visit

In terms of season, like much of Costa Rica, dry season is preferable. Wet season is rainier, muddier, slipperier, but you may be able to see many more surprise waterfalls. Even when we hiked during dry season, our hike started out in drizzle, then became humid, and then we found ourselves in the clouds during the horseback riding segment.

As for the time of day to visit, our recommendation is whenever you show up! We typically prefer earlier to beat the crowds and for a better chance of seeing animals. However, it never felt crowded at El Tigre. Because it is a self-guided hike, we only ran into a handful of other hikers. This was mostly at the waterfalls – at other times, we had the trail to ourselves. A solid plan for the day would be generous time for breakfast, and arriving at El Tigre between 8-9am. By the time you end the hike, you will have all worked up healthy appetites to enjoy lunch at the restaurant.

What to wear

Hiking shoes or sneakers with good grip is a must. While the trail is well-maintained, the terrain is uneven and slippery when wet. There are places where you need to cross small streams and rocky areas. We wore our Keens (the kids have sandals with mesh sides to keep out rocks and bugs), but brought sneakers in the car case they required closed shoes. Keens ended up working well as we could get them wet without issue.

Either shorts or pants are fine, and we recommend bringing a raincoat. Even during dry season the weather was unpredictable.

What to bring

• Swimwear – if you want to take a dip in the waterfalls.

• Microfibre towel – if you plan on getting wet.

• Sunscreen and hat

• Insect repellant

• Water bottle or water bladder

• Snacks – as any parent with kids knows, ample snack breaks make the world go ’round. We stocked up on a variety of nuts and cookies from the small grocery stores in Santa Elena.

The El Tigre 5km trail

This hike takes you past 4 waterfalls, and 10 hanging bridges. It is a mostly downhill/flat hike, with a small uphill segment to get to waterfall 4. If the kids are fizzing out by this point, you can choose to skip it entirely.

The first waterfall is at the 1.7 km mark, so you will be trekking quite a bit through the jungle before you get there. Luckily, the kids were full of energy and impressed with the novelty of being in such a dense forest, hiking through the mist.

Waterfall 1 is a great place (the best of all the waterfalls) for swimming. We brought our swimwear, but all of us decided we didn’t actually want to swim. The kids had a great time scrambling along the rocky shore and playing in the river.

The hike between waterfalls 1 and 3 was our favourite part of the trail, full of hanging bridges, beautiful views, and lush rainforest. Be sure to take a break after the first hanging bridge (past waterfall 1), as it was the only bench we came across! You cannot get close to waterfall 2, but waterfall 3 is right off the trail and does have a small swimming hole.

If you make it to Waterfall 4, it has a beautiful waterfall curtain vibe. We also saw so many glass and morphos butterflies along this stretch of the trail, which kept the kids occupied.

The last 1 km of the hike has a few hanging bridges, and winds along the river. The kids were just starting to lag a little when we reached the horses. The staff provide fruit, and there is a bathroom and water refill station.

The El Tigre 3km horseback or safari jeep ride

Most of the hikers choose the horseback riding option. The path is the same, though the jeep ride is definitely faster. I thought initially if Lil S wasn’t able to ride the horses, we would take the jeep.

You do need to wait a little at the start until enough hikers come through to make a small riding group. There are staff that lead and assist the group, so I never felt concerned about the kids. The horseback riding takes about 30 minutes. We didn’t go into it expecting a view, but it turned out to be a beautiful ride through cloudy rainforest and hilly farmland.

The trail ends at the base of the office. There is a hose and brush before you enter the building to scrub the dirt and mud off your shoes.

The Restaurant at El Tigre

The office has restrooms and a small gift shop. The second floor is a restaurant, which offers complimentary water, coffee, tea, and (the kids’ absolute new favourite) hot sugar cane drink.

Big and Lil S are not normally restaurant people (very little patience for prolonged sitting), but we all enjoyed the restaurant way more than expected. The view is spectacular, the breeze refreshing with the large windows open, and there were tons of birds that kept flying overhead. I could have sat there all day. The restaurant serves tacos and local “snack” foods. Our kids had the fish and thought it was the best fish of the trip.

Planning your Costa Rica itinerary? Be sure to check out our other posts for more!