Cascada El Chiflon was again one of those special spots in Mexico, buried deep in the jungle with a series of 5 incredible, unique waterfalls separated by thick jungle and different elevations spanning almost 2kms from the parking lot. You begin at the edge of a small river with incredibly blue water and as you make your way up the trail each waterfall becomes more mind-blowing until you eventually arrive at the giant Velo De Novia(bride’s vale) which stands at 120 meters tall. The viewing platform is close enough that if you spend more than a few minutes there you will be completely wet so either have a towel with you or a small rain jacket.
As you make your way up towards Velo De Novia you will pass the other 4 falls they are called El Suspiro, Ala de Angel, Quinceañera and Acro Iris
While you are in Chiapas you need to visit way more than just one waterfall. One that stands out to us is Cascada El Aguacero. You can check out our post about that in the link.
How to get to Cascada El Chiflon Waterfall
Getting to Cascada El Chiflon is fairly easy, assuming you’re already in San Cristobal. I would suggest having your own transport but this is not necessary here as there is a bus service that will take you all the way to the falls.
San Cristobal de Las Casas to Cascada El Chiflon
Colectivos depart from the Comitan main street between 1st and second ave and costs 30 pesos per person or $1.50 USD. The trip to El Chiflon takes about 45 minutes from San Cristobal. Just ask the driver for El Chiflon or las cascadas and you shouldn’t have any problems. The bus stop is on the main road and from there it’s about another 15 minutes walking to get to the entrance point. Your other option is a tuk-tuk ride which at 10 pesos or 50 cents is pretty hard to turn down.
There are package tours but as always they are fairly rushed and always pretty crowded so I’d avoid this option personally.
How much does it cost to get into to Cascada El Chiflon.
The admission was 30 pesos per person. They typically open at 8 but we managed to get started at around 7 am and had the place to ourselves for a few hours before anyone started to arrive.
One other thing to note is that there are two entrances. The one closest to San Cristobal and the one literally on the other side of the river. It is two tracks and we chose the one furthest away from San Cristobal or on the west side of the falls. They both cost the same amount and the difference is negligible really but both have their positive and negative aspects. The east side is definitely more crowded than the west side. We saw several groups heading up the other side before we passed a single person on our side of the park, but I do believe there is one spot on the east side with a slightly better vantage point of one of the falls, but we did not go there so it was a little hard to say for sure.
Another thing is they have zip lining for 75 pesos which could be super fun. We didn’t do it but we regret that decision.
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Currently reading Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
Where to stay at Cascada El Chiflon
There are a few places to stay right at Cascada El Chiflon on both sides of the river. When we looked online though it didn’t seem to matter what day we put in we had a hard time finding an opening. We ended up paying to camp in the parking lot in our van.
I am not sure you can book ahead of time for the cabins but as long as you’re not there on a really busy weekend or a holiday you should be fine. Rooms go for about 600 pesos per night.
Most people choose to stay in San Cristobal though which is a beautiful little town with a lot going on and this is probably your best option.
Where to stay in San Cristobal
Budget: La Abuelita Hostal is incredibly cheap and super nice if you’re on a really tight budget.
Hotel Casa Margarita this place is a little more expensive but comes with a strong recommendation.
Midrange: Nuik B&B
Luxury: Casa Santa Lucia
Gear we use
- Rain Jacket: Arcteryx Alpha
- Hiking Boots: Salomon Men’s Quest 4D 3 GTX
- Reusable bottle: Sawyer filtered water bottle
- Dry Bag: Earth Pack 20L
- Headlamp: Black Diamond Revolt Rechargeable
- Headphones: Jaybird Vista waterproof and sweatproof Bluetooth.
What Camera Gear We Use.
- Digital Camera: Sony A7riii
- Drone: Mavic Pro 2
- Landscape Lens: Sony 16-35mm F2.8
- GoPro: GoPro Hero 7 Black Would upgrade to Hero 8 Black though
- Favorite Lens: Sony 24-70mm F4
- Circular Polarizer: Hoya Digital PRO1
- Power Bank: Anker PowerCore 20100 (A little heavy but amazing especially for multiday adventures)
- Tripod: Vanguard VEO 2 265AB
Being sustainable while traveling.
Mexico is an extremely beautiful place and between the beaches, the coral reefs, and all of the waterfalls there are a few small things we can do to help keep them pristine.
My first tip for this especially for the cenotes, and coral reefs or any delicate ecosystem really is to use a sunscreen specifically designed not to damage the reefs or impact waterways or marine life in any way.
Not only that most of them are better for your skin as well as the environment.
There are more and more options becoming available when it comes to this but here are a few of our favorites.
SunScreen
ThinkSport This is my choice personally but there are a range of other options.
Kiss My Face is one brand that is making a really nice mineral face and body cream. They are also cruelty-free so you can feel good about that, and it contains beeswax, green tea, sunflower oil, and sage.
Sun Bum is a super fun company that has a large range of reef-friendly mineral products. Ingredients include mineral zinc oxide, coconut oil, and cocoa seed butter.
All Good Sunscreen Butter is one we have not actually tried but have been hearing a lot of good things about online. All good use zinc oxide mineral ingredients to protect your skin, as well as coconut oil, beeswax, and vitamin E oil.
Insect Repellent
Bug spray is something else you should be conscious of using before going in the water. If you’re just on your way to the beach or a waterfall you don’t need to drown yourself in bug spray before jumping in. A lot of the chemicals can be toxic and help do damage to the ecosystems.
I personally try and avoid any kind of repellent unless I am getting absolutely destroyed. I just have a thin pair of cotton pants and a long sleeve button up that is made of thin material to try and stay cool at the same time. However, we do carry bug spray and there are some pretty clever options out there so you might want to check these out. Not only will the first two options be better for you all-round they will also reduce your single-use plastics ever so slightly.
Exofficio Bugs Away Leggings these are for you if you’re like us and don’t like bug spray, they also have pants for men. We just put long pants on in the morning and evening when it starts to cool down and the bugs really start to come out.
Royal Robbins Mens Bug Barrier shirt I love long sleeve button-ups for travel, its too hot, no worries, undo the buttons, roll up the sleeves and you’re good. Cools down, roll the sleeves back down and do the buttons up. This shirt also comes with treated fabric to help repel bugs. I went for the plain light blue option but that’s all up to you.
Lemon Eucalyptus Insect Repellent If you are really hell-bent on some kind of spray because, well let’s face it sometimes it is just too hot to wear long-sleeved anything then this is probably your best option. DEET free and non-aerosol it has a couple of thousand 5 star reviews on Amazon which is pretty incredible really.
