Guide to Pailón del Diablo (Old vs New Entrance)
Planning to visit El Pailón del Diablo in Baños, Ecuador? At over 260 feet, El Pailón del Diablo is considered to be the most amazing waterfall in Ecuador. It’s a powerful cascade that plunges into a gorge (“the cauldron”) and is located about 20 minutes outside the town of Baños.
The most important thing to know about visiting El Pailón del Diablo is that there are two different entrances: the original entrance and the “new” entrance. Really, the new entrance isn’t that new – it’s been open and running since 2008. But it was made at least 10 years after the original entrance.
The original entrance (ingresa principal) was a path that Ecuadorians have been walking at least since the 1940s, and was fully open as a tourist attraction in the late 90s. It involves a longer out-and-back hike through a dirt path in a lush rainforest, and it has the iconic stone staircase that you walk down to get close to where the water hits the surface. Overall, its quite a bit of walking (over an hour), when you include there and back, the staircase, lots of uphill walking, and the suspension bridge.
The new entrance (nueva entrada) is shorter and much easier. It leads to a viewing platform that is higher up, and right next to where the cascades plunge into the gorge. Both platforms are completely separate, do not connect with eachother, and you’d need to pay two different entrance fees if you were to want to do both.
I was confused about which entrance to go with, but after doing some reading online, I decided to try the original entrance. While the main entrance is a lot of walking, we did it with a 5-year-old without any issues. So while it definitely takes some exercise, it’s not overly challenging and its perfectly fine for just a medium fitness level. Continue below for a description of the main entrance experience, and how it differs in views from the new entrance in terms of views, and the overall experience. Plus, other useful tidbits to know for visiting El Pailón del Diablo!
Differences Between the Main vs New Entrance of Pailón del Diablo in a Nutshell
The views: The big difference between the two entrances is that from the new entrance, you can see the staircase above, whereas from the old entrance you’re on the staircase. PS. You can still see the staircase from the view above, I took the photo above from the main entrance, from the platform where we climbed up close to the cascades
The time needed to visit: The new entrance only involves 30 minutes of walking in total, whereas the old entrance requires over an hour of walking when you include the jungle hike from the town to the entrance, the suspension bridge, and then the staircase. Plus then going all the way back the way you came
Popularity: According to what we read online, the main entrance is the more popular one. We thought though that the new entrance actually looked more popular, because there were a lot more people on the new entrance viewing platform than there were on our side from the main entrance. Maybe its because the main entrance allows people to be a lot more spread out so it looks like there are fewer people even though it may have more visitors in total. Regardless, there are both fairly popular.
The Main Entrance Experience
The main entrance starts with a hike through the jungle. You hike quite a bit before you get to the payment counter for the waterfall. In total, it took us 20 minutes to hike from where our Uber dropped us off to the ticket counter where we paid our entrance fee.
To get to the area where we even started hiking, we took an Uber to “Ingresa Principal.” We confirmed with our Uber driver that it was the main entrance we wanted, not the new one, and he knew exactly what we were talking about and brought us where we needed to be. The spot where he left us off has some restaurants and a bunch of Ecuador souvenir vendors; you walk past that to descend into the dirt path through the jungle.
The hike to the El Pailon del Diablo main entrance was mostly downhill (which is harder on the way back when you have to hike mostly uphill) but its a really nice hike. The dirt path is wide, and there are a bunch of little mini waterfalls and bridges.
Important: Be sure to bring small dollar bills or change with you to pay the entrance fee! We only had a $20 bill on us (my husband had actually lost his wallet the day before which took most of our small cash) and they did not have change. They told us to come back when we passed through there again, and luckily, they had the change ready for us. We find Ecuadorians really honest and helpful that way, but of course, it would be better to make sure you have the exact change.
One you pay, you’re at the visitor area, which has some cafés, restaurants, and a suspension bridge that you can walk across for views of the waterfall and the gorge.
But, you’re not done at the suspension bridge – there’s so much more to go! If you keep going, then come to the staircase area, where there are several viewing platforms at different heights along the waterfall. One of them is right at the bottom of the gorge where the water is plunging in (where you most certainly will get wet while standing there – many people were wearing ponchos)
There are a few other viewing platforms as you climb up the second staircase closer to where the water plunges over the cliff. Almost all of those would involve getting pretty wet too, it’s very misty. We didn’t have ponchos with us, we actually embraced the idea of getting wet because we were planning to go to a hot spring afterwards (hot springs are another really cool thing to do in Baños.)
There are some caves that you crawl through to get to the highest point of the main entrance viewing platform. We had to actually lean down in order to hike through them, they’re very slippery and wet and would be bad for claustrophobia. They’re doable, as long as you’re wearing decent shows and are ok with bending down to walk.
It was hard to take photos inside the caves that we hiked through, but the entrances to them are really cool and made to look like you’re climbing into a devil’s mouth.
Overall, our entire visit to El Pailon del Diablo from where we were dropped off by the Uber to when. we were taking the bus back was 1.5 hours. We could have spent longer if we sat down, ate lunch and went through the visitor centre in more detail. Since we had more planned for today, we went at a quicker pace. So, I’d budget anywhere from 90 minutes to 2 hours depending on how fast you go through everything, and whether you want to make stops.
It is a really cool experience though and I don’t recommend rushing, its a place where you shoud slow down and take in all the beauty and views.
What to Bring to El Pailon del Diablo
- Small change or bills to cover your entrance fee, and any snacks, drinks or souvenirs you want to buy. We only paid for the entrance fee, and we brought water with us.
- Enough water for the entrance you’re choosing. If you go with the main entrance, have at least 1 litre per person since you’d be walking for over an hour
- Ponchos (optional) we didn’t wear them but they would keep you dry. Many others were wearing them
- Good waterproof shoes with a decent grip!
- GoPro (optional) I brought my GoPro so that we could get lots of footage of the cascades for our YouTube channel. If you bring just your phone, then just be very careful so it doesn’t get too wet. One of those waterproof cases would be a good idea
- Sunscreen – always a good idea in Ecuador. Even though Baños’ elevation is lower than, say, Quito, its still higher on average
One thing I planned to do was return to El Pailón del Diablo at night, as I’ve heard it’s illuminated at nighttime and I thought it would have been cool to try to the new entrance and see it lit up. In the end, I ran out of time. If we go back to Banos, I’d love to see it lit up!
I hope that this article helps you plan your visit to El Pailón del Diablo. The coolest thing about El Pailón de Diablo was how close we could get to the cascades and the sheer volume of water. Getting that close to something so strong is truly exhilarating. We also loved the detail and art that they’ve put into the staircase, and the entrances to the caves.
Whether you’re travelling through Ecuador solo, in a group or with kids, its an attraction for everyone. I’m sure whichever entrance you choose, you’ll love this waterfall as much as we did!