Angel Falls

Overview:

Par­adise on Earth, the stun­ning Angels Falls is not only the world’s high­est unin­ter­rupt­ed water­fall at an incred­i­ble 979 meters high but is also one of the most majes­tic and beau­ti­ful sights on the plan­et – with the stun­ning won­der unleash­ing everyone’s inner explor­er as you trek through untamed and raw jun­gle, cross mighty rivers and fly above the stun­ning Ama­zon rain­for­est to reach this incred­i­ble and beau­ti­ful won­der of the world.  

Drop­ping 807 metres over the edge of the Auyan­tepui moun­tain, the beau­ti­ful Angel Falls sits with­in the untouched par­adise of Venezuela’s Canaima Nation­al Park – and is named not for it’s angel­ic and heav­en appear­ance but for the Amer­i­can explor­er – James Angel – who was the first indi­vid­ual to expose this won­der to the west­ern world, with explo­rations only real­ly begin­ning with­in the last half cen­tu­ry.  

Still these explo­rations are of the most fun and epic jour­neys for any trav­el­er – with Angel Falls view­able by both a flight, where you take in the stun­ning sights of Angel Falls from the air or by a true explo­ration. With the true explo­ration, avail­able in the rainy sea­son, see­ing you jour­ney from Cara­cas by air through mul­ti­ple town to reach the jun­gle town of Canaima with­in the park – and then set off for a mul­ti-day adven­ture – cross­ing rivers on canoes, hik­ing on un-char­tered rain for­est and mar­vel­ling at moun­tains, nature before you glimpse the glis­ten­ing falls under a twi­light of stars before gear­ing up to make the final jour­ney to its base – where you can swim in the pools of the worlds largest water­fall.  

The inspi­ra­tion for the Hol­ly­wood film ‘UP’ a trip to angel falls not only lets you step back in time and expe­ri­ence the soli­tude of the incred­i­ble Canaima Nation­al Park, but gives explor­ers a true chance to embark upon a mem­o­rable jour­ney. With the final des­ti­na­tion of the incred­i­ble Angel Falls being both an awe-inspir­ing and incred­i­ble cli­max to one of the most enthralling jour­neys on the plan­et and which helps make the incred­i­ble won­der of Angel Falls a unique and tru­ly spe­cial won­der of the world.  

Where:

The jew­el of Venezuela, Angel Falls are found in the most raw and untamed Nation­al Park on the plan­et in the north­ern tip of South Amer­i­ca in the biggest nation­al Park in Venezuela – the stun­ning Canaima Nation­al Park – with a jour­ney to reach them requir­ing a mul­ti-day explo­ration across riv­er, air and some of the most stun­ning jun­gle on the plan­et.  

Best time to Visit: 

While the Angel Falls Park is open year round – and you’ll get the occa­sion­al tour com­pa­ny who attempts to per­suade you to trav­el to the falls at any time – there’s no doubt that the Falls are best seen between the months of June – Octo­ber.  

This is due to the con­sis­tent rain­fall dur­ing these months, which both give the falls their incred­i­ble sparkle and beau­ty and also ensures that there’s enough water for the Falls to be reached by boat along the riv­er – with trips to the falls dur­ing the off-sea­son months usu­al­ly only involv­ing a fly by off the falls – which while stun­ning won’t give you the full Angel Falls explo­ration expe­ri­ence.  

For those trav­el­ing dur­ing our rec­om­mend­ed peri­od, do note that peak time dur­ing this sea­son in July-August where you can expect crowds and prices to rise, so if vis­it­ing we’d fur­ther advise aim­ing for Sep­tem­ber and Octo­ber – where you’ll get the beau­ty of the falls at a rea­son­able price and a more immer­sive soli­tude expe­ri­ence in the incred­i­ble Canaima Nation­al Park. 

Exploring & Getting there: 

Overview: 

The jew­el of Venezuela and a majes­tic beau­ty that has inspired leg­ends and tales, as the high­est water­fall in the world, the stun­ning Angel Falls sits with­in the untouched and untamed beau­ti­ful jun­gle of the Canaima Nation­al Park – and get­ting there is a chal­leng­ing and wild adven­ture.  

Set in the unspoiled and dra­mat­ic tip of South Amer­i­ca, a trip to Angel Falls com­bines not only the chance to soak in the wonder’s calm nat­ur­al ther­mal pools, hike to its base,  

gaze upon its beau­ty under the stars and even fly across it – but also the oppor­tu­ni­ty to immerse your­self in true wilder­ness and nature – as you embark on a true adven­ture to gaze upon the beau­ty of this stun­ning won­der.  

Getting to the town of Canaima

Before get­ting the chance to swim, hike or glide over the beau­ti­ful Angel Falls, you’ll have one hell of an explo­ration before you – which begins with find­ing your way to the indige­nous vil­lage of Canaima. 

With Angel Falls sat with­in the Canaima Nation­al Park – there is not direct road or land­ing strip to get there – instead the only way to this untouched par­adise is by either a flight or through a trip through the Jun­gle which can both be com­bined into one for our pick to explore the won­der.  

For either option, you’ll have to book a tour guide to get to Angel Falls, as it is not pos­si­ble to vis­it Angel Falls on your own. This is on account of the Canaima Nation­al Park being a pro­tect­ed reserve and of course a raw untamed and some­what dan­ger­ous Jun­gle   – and with a trip to angel falls across the jun­gle requir­ing a dan­ger­ous jour­ney across the Rio Car­rao riv­er — only autho­rised guides are allowed with­in it with accom­pa­ny­ing groups.  

For tours them­selves we’d advise book­ing well in advance and online – and you have the option of mul­ti­ple day tours which include explor­ing the oth­er high­lights of Canaima Nation­al Park and a fly over of the won­der.  

Regard­less of the tour length you choose, Cam­i­na will be your first port of call, and as an indige­nous vil­lage there’s also no direct flights from major cities, so first up you’ll need to get your­self to the town of Ciu­dad Bolí­var or Puer­to Ordaz with­in Venezuela – which should be includ­ed in your tour pack­age from Cara­cas.  

Once at either town, and like­ly after an overnight stop, your jour­ney will go up a gear as you’ll then, with the help of your guides, board a small twin engine plane that will give you ariel views of the beau­ti­ful nation­al park below you – and if you’re lucky cir­cum­nav­i­gate the falls for ariel views of both the won­der and the top of the won­der of the Ama­zon­ian Jun­gle – (don’t be afraid to ask your pilot for this expe­ri­ence) fol­lowed by a bumpy land­ing  on a remote air strip as you touch down in Cam­i­na.  

In Cam­i­na you’ll arrive in what will like­ly be the small­est air­port of your life and be greet­ed by some enthu­si­as­tic locals giv­ing you a chance to pick up a mem­o­rable sou­venir – before you ven­ture in canoe along the riv­er to your camp in the mid­dle of the incred­i­bly beau­ti­ful Canaima Nation­al Park ahead of jour­ney to the one of the most mag­nif­i­cent and remote won­ders of the world.  

From Camina to the wonder:

Based on the sea­son you arrive, and your tour pack­age you can expect the jour­ney to Angel falls to be a sin­gle day sprint of split over the course of mul­ti­ple days – either way the time after you leave your Cam­i­na camp will be some of the most raw and enthralling explo­ration of your life.  

Begin­ning with a tra­di­tion­al break­fast, leav­ing your camp for Angel Falls will see you make your way to the edge of the Rio Car­rao and then board a motorised canoe – which will take you up the Rio Car­rao over rapids and through the stun­ning Cam­i­na Nation­al Park – in what will be a wet and bumpy jour­ney. 

You’ll then make a short stop for lunch on the banks of the riv­er – and depend­ing on the strength of the rapids make a short hike through the jun­gle to re-join the riv­er or be back into the Canoe to trav­el fur­ther upstream through the jun­gle in what will no doubt be an enchant­i­ng and mag­i­cal expe­ri­ence.  

After a long day nav­i­gat­ing the riv­er, you’ll come to your camp from where you will able to catch your first and incred­i­ble views of Angel Falls in the dis­tance backed by the twi­light of shin­ing and clear stars and the sound of the Jun­gle for a mag­i­cal moment.  

To Angel Falls: 

After a night camp­ing in the jun­gle, you’ll have one of the great­est and explo­ration days of your life ahead of you – the jour­ney to the won­der of the world that is the Angels Falls.  

Begin­ning again with a guide pre­pared break­fast, you will then cross the riv­er and start the hike direct­ly to Angel Falls – trav­el­ling over wild and over­grown jun­gle ter­rain you’ll hear the falls before you see them backed by the occa­sion­al howl of a mon­key – and after you jour­ney on for half an hour you’ll begin to enter the area known as the Auyan­tepuy – the home of the falls. 

With­in the Auyan­tepuy – the first stop will undoubt­ed­ly be the small view­ing plat­form that offers the upwards icon­ic view of the tallest water­fall on the plan­et, and you’ll have as much time here as you need as you soak in (lit­er­al­ly) the stun­ning views of this nat­ur­al won­der.  

Trav­el­ing onward the next stop will be the sec­ondary base of the Angel Falls – where you’ll get an incred­i­ble chance to swim in the pools of Angel Falls as you wit­ness the 807 meters of water cas­cade into an out of vision basin below you – it’s a fun and excit­ing swim espe­cial­ly in sum­mer so be sure to bring your trunks and cam­era and make the most of this almost oth­er world­ly expe­ri­ence as you swim in silence in the jun­gle.  

Hav­ing tak­en in the incred­i­ble view of this mon­strous and beau­ti­ful won­der of the world and had the unique chance to bathe in its clear, albeit cold waters, it will be sad­ly time to turn around in order to make sure you return to camp before dark. So with one last look at the beau­ti­ful Angel Falls you’ll have to make your way back through the Cam­i­na Jun­gle and to camp – where you can relax in the ham­mock and watch the beau­ti­ful Angel Falls glis­ten­ing in the night sky as you reflect on vis­it­ing one of the most unique, beau­ti­ful and untamed won­ders of the world.  

How long to stay:

The aver­age time for a trip to Angel Falls is a week – which accounts for get­ting to Cara­cas and then onto Puer­to Ordaz or Cuidad Boli­var, into the Canaima jun­gle and to the Falls and back again.  

You can expect most pack­ages to be adver­tised as 2/3 days into to Angel Falls which won’t account for the long trav­el times to and from Canaima – so our advice is to bud­get for at least a week to see the stun­ning won­der of Angel Falls.  

Top Tip:

The beau­ty of your trip to Angel Falls will be decid­ed by the tour com­pa­ny and sched­ule you opt for.  

For this rea­son our top tip when head­ing to Angel Falls is to head for at least a 3 day / 2 night tour that leaves from Cara­cas and includes all the flights and trav­el to and from Angel Falls. This will give you both enough time to take in the beau­ty of the jour­ney through the untouched Canaima Nation­al Park at a relat­ed but adven­tur­ous pace and take all the stress out of plan­ning to get to the won­der so you can focus on the jour­ney.  

It’s also incred­i­bly impor­tant to both plan and book your trip well in advance with a trust­ed and well-reviewed trav­el agency. While you can find trav­el agen­cies across Venezuela and par­tic­u­lar­ly in Cara­cas, Puer­to Ordaz and Cuidad Boli­var we’d advise book­ing online – while it may put your cost up a lit­tle it’s worth it for the safe­ty of know­ing you will be on a trust­ed and safe tour. 

In addi­tion to this one of the key things to make sure your tour includes is the over­flight on your approach to the town of Canaima. The over­flight which can also be includ­ed as an add on by ask­ing your pilot to take it on or pur­chased as a seper­ate tour for rough­ly $30 Usd at the time, is a small de-tour on your approach from Puer­to Ordaz and Cuidad Boli­var to Canaima and see’s you soar over the won­der of Angel Falls for a tru­ly breath tak­ing and ariel view of the mag­nif­i­cent Angel Falls – and one of the great­est pho­to spots on the plan­et.  

Along­side this it’s impor­tant to remem­ber that you will be enter­ing untamed and untouched jun­gle – so be sure to come pre­pared with all the appro­pri­ate gear, includ­ing a sol­id hat, plen­ty of sun­screen, sol­id jun­gle cloth­ing – includ­ing long sleeve tops and hik­ing shoes, a good bot­tle of bug spray and some swim­ming trunks for that amaz­ing dip in the falls once you reach it.  

Along­side get­ting your tour well sort­ed and ensur­ing that your vac­cine require­ments and vac­ci­na­tion require­ments – includ­ing yel­low fever — are all in line, it’s impor­tant to know that once you head to Canaima there will be no ATM’s or banks – so stock up in advance on Usd – we’d advise at least $400 Usd- to make sure you have enough for, tips, food and sou­venirs. 

Final­ly while Venezuela and Canaima Nation­al Park are spec­tac­u­lar­ly beau­ti­ful, unfor­tu­nate­ly the coun­try has seen a rise in the surge of vio­lence and protests as the social sit­u­a­tion in the coun­try dete­ri­o­rates – so for this rea­son as well as ensur­ing you book a respectable and insured tour, we’d advise being on your guard at all times, pro­tect­ing your valu­ables and not trav­el­ling alone – to ensure that your trip to Angel Falls is as spe­cial and safe as pos­si­ble.  

Cost:

While there are trip to Angel Falls to suit a range of bud­gets from back­pack­ers to more upmar­ket pack­ages – our rec­om­men­da­tion of get­ting a flight inclu­sive pack­age from Cara­cas should come between $450 — $800 Usd – and be sure to book a tour that includes a flight over the won­der.  

We’d also strong­ly advise to book in advance online with a trust­ed and rep­utable tour com­pa­ny – and espe­cial­ly avoid book­ing with a trav­el agency in Cara­cas where prices are guar­an­teed to be high – and the safe­ty stan­dards of the tour ques­tion­able.  

Along­side the tour cost we’d advise bring­ing at least $400 Usd with you on your trip to Angel Falls – which will be enough to cov­er tips, sou­venirs – and the entry fee to Canaima nation­al park which is not includ­ed in tour prices and will set you back $4usd.    

For those that do end up on a tour with­out a fly over – and who aren’t able to pay the pilot $25usd to extend the flight – you can book Angel Falls heli­copter tours from Puer­to Ordaz or Cuidad Boli­var – but expect them to set you back an extra $300 Usd for a 30 minute flight – which is worth it for the views but not as eco­nom­i­cal as includ­ing it in your tour.  

With the exclu­sion of your flight or trans­port to Cara­cas – we’d advise bud­get­ing a min­i­mum of $900 usd for a trip to Angel Falls and extend­ing the bud­get if pos­si­ble to $1300 usd to account for extra time and expe­ri­ences at the won­der.  

Fun Fact:  

Despite the Falls appear­ing to be a gift from God – the Falls are actu­al­ly named Angel Falls after the first per­son to fly over them – the US explor­er James Angel, who flew over them in the ear­ly 20th cen­tu­ry with his ash­es scat­tered over the falls in 1960.  

Angel Falls has also been the inspi­ra­tion of leg­end and sto­ries since its ‘dis­cov­ery’ into the west­ern world – with Hol­ly­wood even get­ting in on the act as Angel Falls served as the inspi­ra­tion for ‘Par­adise Falls’ – an equal­ly suit­able name for the won­der in the ani­mat­ed Dis­ney film UP – where the main char­ac­ters find them­selves search­ing for the beau­ty of this stun­ning won­der.   

Best photo spot: 

While the Canaima nation­al park is a tru­ly beau­ti­ful and untamed nation­al park and your trip through it to the won­der will take you past wildlife, jun­gle and stun­ning scenery, there are three icon­ic pho­to spots not to be missed of the stun­ning Angel Falls: 

Angel Falls from the air: Giv­ing you a taste of the size and scale of the won­der, a trip in a plan (make sure it’s includ­ed in your tour) or by heli­copter over the lush green for­est of the Canaima and past the beau­ty of Angel Falls will give you breath tak­ing and mem­o­rable views of the falls – as you watch from above the cas­cad­ing beau­ti­ful water bar­relling down some 807 metres from this stun­ning nat­ur­al won­der.   

Angel Falls from Camp: No one ever for­gets their first view of the won­der of Angel Falls – and for good rea­son as you first glimpse the incred­i­ble won­der from your base camp the night before you reach it and get to wit­ness the tow­er­ing won­der backed by a clear night sky and twin­kling stars – that makes for an almost oth­er­world­ly and majes­tic pho­to spot of this incred­i­ble won­der in all its glo­ry.  

Angel Falls from its base: A stun­ning reward at the end of your mul­ti-day jour­ney through the Canaima Jun­gle – stand­ing at the base of the 979 metre Angel Falls and star­ing up at this majes­tic nat­ur­al won­der is a tru­ly awe-inspir­ing expe­ri­ence – and gives you one of the most stun­ning pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties in the world as you gaze up at the beau­ty of the incred­i­ble won­der of the world that is the Angel Falls.