The famous El Salto del Limon cascade and its surrounding rainforest are nestled among the Sierra de Samana mountains, in the northern part of the Samana Peninsula, approximately 300 m above sea level. The great popularity of El Limon is explained by its relative accessibility and incredible entertainment.
The view of streams of pure water falling from a great height is truly mesmerizing.
And you definitely need to take a swim in the natural pool under the waterfall. Firstly, to enjoy the coolness of a mountain river, and secondly, to become richer and fulfill a wish.
At least that's what local belief says. No wonder the name El Limon is often translated as “Millionaires’ Fall.”
It’s a special pleasure to stand under the stream of water and experience a powerful natural hydromassage. You should refrain from swimming unless after heavy rain - opaque water and dirt on the stones around the pond are not very conducive to water procedures.
If you are not in the mood for swimming, you can simply watch the fantastic jumps from a cliff into a pond by local daredevils.
Young people perform dangerous somersaults with visible pleasure and excitement, but applause and tips, as usual, are welcome.
For a long time, the cascade was considered the largest in the Caribbean - its height is about 55 meters. Guides and some travel websites mislead tourists that this waterfall is the highest in the country.
In fact, for a long time the highest waterfall was considered Aguas Blancas, 83 meters high, located in Constanta. However, recently, in province of Hato Mayor La Jalda waterfall, 121 meters high, was discovered. Thus, El Limon waterfall is only third in height.
How to get to El Limon waterfall
Horseback riding is the most popular way to get to the waterfall. 90% of travelers choose this option for their first acquaintance with this natural attraction. It is also preferred by tour operators who organize group excursions to Samana.
Four possible routes start from different communities - Rancho Español, Arroyo Surdido, El Café and El Limón.
There is serious competition between ranches organizing tours. Even at the entrance, motorcyclists, riders and pedestrians begin to attack you, each inviting you to their “establishment”.
In fact, they are all the same and consist of a small garden, a stable and a restaurant, where, after returning from a walk or before going on one, you can taste simple Dominican village dishes and buy products from local farms - cocoa, chocolate, jams and handicrafts.
There is also a choice of “vehicles” - mostly not horses, but mules. They have a rather pitiful appearance, but are very hardy and calm.
In the kit, each participant in the expedition is assigned a guide - a young man who will lead the “horse” by the bridle, monitoring the safety of the rider and carrying his luggage.
Of course, they will not leave a small child alone, but will put him in the saddle with him.
The choice of starting point determines whether the walk will begin immediately through the countryside, or whether it will be necessary to cover a short distance along the highway.
After driving through the village, you will be able to see the delights of a simple Dominican village life, and then, crossing a shallow river, you will begin to climb the mountains.
The path to the top along rocky mountain paths surrounded by tropical vegetation takes approximately 30-40 minutes. Be prepared for the fact that the road can be slippery, dirty, and a small section of it runs along a cliff.
Having overcome all the difficulties of the path and reached the final destination, the excursion participants find themselves at an equipped observation point with a panoramic view of the waterfall and its surroundings. Here you can relax a bit, buy refreshments or souvenirs.
You will have to cross the river yourself, climbing over rocks, or with the help of a guide on his back.
After this there is a slight climb - and you are at your goal...
Then you can enjoy the view of the waterfall, swim and watch the “guides” jump. If you did not go here as part of a group excursion, the guides will give you the opportunity to spend as much time here as you see fit.
Then you will need to take the same path - a ford, stairs (now up!), a gazebo, a horseback ride through the mountains - to return to the ranch.
Recently, some agencies have begun to offer another way to get to the waterfall - canyoning along the Limon River. This is an increasingly popular type of extreme tourism, which consists in overcoming water-rock terrain without the help of swimming equipment, through rock climbing, diving and swimming.
El Limon waterfall is located on the Samana Peninsula in the Dominican Republic. Anyone who is planning a trip to the Dominican Republic has definitely already heard about this beautiful place. In this article I will tell you how we went to the waterfall on our own.
El Limon waterfall is located in the town of the same name not far from the resort of Las Terrenas. Every local resident will want to take you to the entrance to the park where the waterfall is located and get money for it. In order to avoid the hassle of regular guides, in such cases there are official workers with official guide tags who will supposedly take you to the park for free. In fact, they will try to convince you to take a horse and guide, and they will take a percentage of your fee. This is life and everyone wants to eat.
There are many approaches to the waterfall, about six. We pulled into the very first entrance, which had a large sign to the park.
They tried to tell us that you couldn’t go to the park without a horse and a guide, but we persistently refused, since the other day our friends went on their own and it’s quite easy to do. The Dominicans were offended and a little angry with us. I didn’t ask how much a guide costs because in the Dominican Republic you shouldn’t just ask about services, prices, etc. If a Dominican sees that you are interested, he will never leave you alone. According to the Internet, I found out that a guide + horse costs $30, but remember that you can always bargain. It's worth noting that the horses are in a sad state, some of them have ribs sticking out and I'm not sure it's a good idea to take them uphill.
After paying 50 pesos ($1.11) to enter the park, we walked to the waterfall. We climbed for about 40 minutes. The road is paved with stones, so it is impossible to get lost. In order to get to the waterfall at the beginning of our journey, we crossed the river twice (see where and how in the video).
The road to the waterfall is easy and picturesque. Green hills are visible on all sides and birds are flying.
El Limon waterfall has 3 cascades. All tourists climb to the first cascade; at the top is the most picturesque place.
The first thing you notice is the unreal color of the water, which noisily rushes down the mountainside. The water falls into the center of a small lake where you can swim.
It is very pleasant to spend a couple of hours at this waterfall. There is a cave nearby that is open to the public, and on the adjacent hillside there is a cafe where you can taste natural coffee and cocoa.
Although El Limon waterfall is not as high as , I really liked it. This is the perfect place to spend a hot day.
- (La Cascada Limon) is located in the northeastern part of the Dominican Republic in the rainforest of the Samana Peninsula and is a dramatic 50 meter high jump of water with a beautiful natural pool below. Limón Falls and its surroundings are located in one of the three main hills that make up the Sierra de Samana in the north of the peninsula, located approximately 300 m above sea level.
The excursion to the tourist-attractive waterfall, accompanied by a professional guide, lasts 4 hours and involves a pleasant one to two hour trek on donkeys, mules or horses through dense tropical forest. Throughout the tour, tourists can enjoy lush countryside and tropical vegetation.
Among the endemic local trees, we can, for example, highlight: Juan Primero (Simarouba glauca), Cigua Blanca (Ocotea coriacea), Uva de Sierra (Coccoloba diversifolia), Cabirma (Guarea Guidonia) or Higuero (Crescentia cujete), whose wood was used by the Indians, and today crafts are made from it.
Tourists will also have the opportunity to see cocoa and coffee gardens that are found along the entire road, long palm trees, tropical fruit trees: mango, achiote, sour and sweet oranges, grapefruits.
Upon arrival, tourists can relax and have a refreshing drink in a wooden hut to prepare for walking along the narrow path leading down to the base of the waterfall, which is visited by about a thousand ecotourists a year.
The cascade consists of three streams sliding along a continuous greenish wall - the product of hundreds of ferns and the presence of high levels of humidity in the area, the natural state of which deserves protection. The waterfall ends in a natural pool of cool, clear water where you can enjoy a completely relaxing bath.
Upon returning, tourists will be treated to a delicious typical buffet at Rancho Raulin. Here you can buy natural cocoa and coffee beans at a good price, as well as completely fresh ground coffee.
In order to provide good service to visitors and sustainably manage its natural resources, the Salto-del-Limon Ecoturismodel Association was created. It is possible to drive to the foot of this impressive crystal clear waterfall, but the concept of ecotourism to El Limon involves not using any type of vehicle: car, motorcycle, etc., including bicycle - animal only or on foot. This restriction was adopted in order to avoid negative impacts on the environment, preserving this place with all its naturally formed natural features.
The road or path leading to the waterfall must be in good condition to avoid falls. The inclined section of the path leading down to the foot of the waterfall is equipped with wooden railings on one side to ensure the safety of tourists.
The next point of our excursion was a visit to the El Limon waterfall. In the Dominican Republic, this is not just a visit to a waterfall, it is a whole ritual in which all local residents and horses from nearby villages are involved. Tourists are brought to a designated place, where they are fed and watered of course) There are also a couple of souvenir shops and a necessary thing for a tourist - toilets.
We were lucky with the weather. It was sunny and quite cheerful. But they say it often rains there.
All arriving excursions are brought to a special pedestal, from where tourists are loaded onto horses.
I'm afraid of horses and they think of me too) In this case, each horse comes with a guide. More precisely, each guide has a horse, decorated with a seat made of ribbons, so that tourists on steep paths do not beat their asses, and lives on the tips that he earns as a driver.
Therefore, there is no need to run after horses and guides. They will find you themselves. And don’t be afraid that you will get off your horse at the waterfall and then won’t be able to find your horse (and your guide at the same time). The guides closely monitor their clients and will immediately show up when you climb out of the trail from the waterfall to the landing site.
Before boarding a horse, all tourists change into rubber boots. It’s better not to show off, but to change your shoes. Because there is red clay soil, which gets really dirty when it rains, or just near the waterfall. And in the rain I wouldn’t want to be there at all)
For the same reason, you should not refuse to climb onto a horse from a pedestal. They say there was a case when a tourist slipped on clay while jumping on a horse and broke his arm.
After the tourist has climbed onto the horse, the guide takes it away and leads it in the direction of the waterfall.
Through a very picturesque forest, which also seems to be a national park.
You can load some things onto the guide. He will drag them. If you suddenly want to prance, the guide will be nearby.
The guide quickly realized that I was interested in bromeliads, and tried to show them on the tree branches. And then we smelled a strong aroma of jasmine. He hung in the air like a cloud. It turns out that this is what flowering coffee trees smell like. The guide handed me a plucked branch covered with delicate white flowers.
There are people around it like on Red Square!
El Limon waterfall is simply streams of water falling from a great height. If there were no people there, it would be interesting.
But there are a lot of excursions to such a famous tourist spot in the Dominican Republic. There is a traditional excursion story that the one who swims in Limon will become rich. Another lightweight option is to rub your pockets with water.
I love swimming in waterfalls. This is an absolutely fantastic feeling! But there were so many people here that I even wanted to change the traditions...
In the end, I finally decided. Otherwise I would have regretted it later... My foot touched the icy water. Horror! Gathering my courage, I dived into the water. After all, they don’t even have a steam room in the Caribbean.
The cool water immediately washed away all the hardships of the day. It became so easy and good! I swam under the elastic jets... In general, they say that you shouldn’t do this. Since a stream of water falling from a height can bring stones with it... But the sensations are certainly fabulous! It’s as if I washed away 10 years of myself. (in the photo below - not me!))
Swimming in this waterfall is not worth speeding up. They say that there are stones sticking out under the water that do not reach the surface. And you can run into them. But if you swim slowly, then everything is just fine!
After some time, the bulk of the people headed back. 
To be honest, I was openly against a horseback excursion, because I don’t know how to ride, you can’t take pictures from a horse and you won’t see much. But when we got out of the waterfall, I appreciated the idea of this event, because I realized that I would not have gotten back on foot.
Some horses of overly greedy owners are frankly pitiful. When an unfortunate animal on weak legs carries a carcass of about 150 kilograms.
I got a huge horse. And he wanted to jump! But I do not. The trail to the El Limon waterfall is clearly not the Champs Elysees. This is a clayey path, broken in the rain and in places frozen, dotted with rocks. The path goes up and down... Darling pranced ahead. His guide pranced behind him. My guide followed them! And damn, my horse! Because my guide understood that my husband was his tip. And if the Husband gallops forward, says goodbye to his guide on the spot and gives a tip, then my guide can only be left with my grateful smile, and this is not quite what he was counting on.
We galloped back to the station (don't worry, not a single guide was hurt. Everyone got their tips), changed our shoes, and until everyone got ready, we had some free time. And what about tourists? They sat and waited for our bus to leave. Then they saw that I was walking around taking pictures and they also crawled out with cameras. And there was something to photograph there. The nature of the Dominican Republic is very interesting! For example, bromeliads grow there.Bromeliads (Bromeliaceae) form the monocot family, consisting of shrubs or herbaceous perennials, terrestrial or epiphytic, native to tropical and temperate regions of the Americas (with the exception of one species west of Africa).
The most famous bromeliad plant in the world is the pineapple ( Ananas comosus). The culture comes from South America.
Colorful horses wearing these ribbons were grazing in the meadow.
The tulip trees burned with a bonfire of scarlet flowers. Somehow I had no luck with them. Wherever I don’t go, it’s not the season. And there were a lot of them here.
Orchids, full participants in the Dominican Republic Flower Festival...
Then we loaded onto the bus and went to the eco-hotel "Paraiso Cano Hondo"
El Limon Waterfall is located in the Dominican Republic on the Samana Peninsula, 20 km from the port city of Samana. The falling water itself is located in the tropical forest. This place is secluded and remote. The height of the waterfall is approximately 45 meters. Below it there is a small lake suitable for swimming.
There is a local belief that if a visiting person swims in this lake, then he will have good luck in his personal life and finances for the rest of his life. How true the belief is is unknown, since no one collected statistical data on this issue. But for some reason tourists believe the locals without any statistics and willingly swim in the lake waters.
Tourist Information
The area in which the waterfall and lake is located is predominantly agricultural. There are many garden plots and vegetable gardens around, bordered by coconut, banana, coffee and cocoa plantations. All the houses are brightly painted in different colors of the rainbow and are made of palm wood and thatch. The rainy season lasts from May to November. During this period, everything is dirty and wet, so clothing and shoes must be appropriate.
The trail to the falling water begins near the village of El Limon. Tourists usually reach their destination on horseback. These are not hot horses of Arabian blood, but calm horses of a local breed. They do not gallop at a spreading or sweeping trot, but simply walk at their usual average speed. Therefore, both elderly women and small children sit on them without fear.
The horseback ride takes approximately 20 minutes. During this time, the tourist group reaches the top of the hill. Then you will need to walk for another 20 minutes along a well-trodden path. In total, the journey to the waterfall takes no more than 45 minutes. If you walk instead of riding a horse, the one-way journey will take about an hour or a little more. It all depends on physical fitness.
At the end of the path, an amazing sight opens up before tourists: water flowing along a rocky wall and a lake with cool water. Those wishing to swim should remember to bring their swimsuits.
You should respect the natural environment. Downstream communities receive water, so there is no need to pollute it with garbage.
All around there is a subtropical forest with original tree species. All this vegetation is protected by the law of the Republic. The same applies to the animal world. By the way, herons nest very close to the El Limon waterfall.
El Limon waterfall on the map of the Dominican Republic
(blue circle)
The entire excursion including the road takes 3 hours. In addition to the guide, tourists are also accompanied by a photographer. He takes nice professional photographs which are then distributed to all members of the group. It is not recommended to go on a tourist walk for children under 5 years old, as well as for older people who are unsure of their abilities.
