Read before you go
Waterfall guides
Full destination guides with prices, seasons and logistics — and the background that makes any waterfall trip better.
41 destinations
Full destination guides
Every activity with current prices, season-by-season openings and closures, entry rules, where to stay and itineraries. Checked September 2026.
Venezuela
Angel Falls
The world's tallest waterfall: water falls 979 metres off the rim of Auyán-tepui, 807 of it in one uninterrupted drop, into a…
Lebanon
Baatara Gorge Waterfall
Spring snowmelt pours behind three stacked limestone bridges and vanishes into a chasm roughly 250 metres deep, high in the…
Vietnam · China
Ban Gioc-Detian Falls
A 300-metre-wide staircase of limestone ledges on the Quây Sơn River, split down the middle by the Vietnam–China border and seen…
Ethiopia
Blue Nile Falls
The Blue Nile drops about 42 metres into a basalt gorge 30-odd kilometres below Lake Tana, but hydro plants now take most of its…
Iceland
Dettifoss
A 44-metre wall of grey glacial water, 100 metres wide, pouring into the Jökulsárgljúfur canyon in North Iceland — the…
Namibia · Angola
Epupa Falls
The Kunene River breaks into dozens of channels on the Angolan border and pours through baobab-covered rock in a spread of falls…
Thailand
Erawan Falls
Seven tiers of turquoise limestone pools climbing about 1.5 km through forest west of Bangkok, with fish that nibble your feet…
Peru
Gocta Falls
Gocta drops 771 metres in two tiers out of the cloud forest above the Utcubamba valley, with Yumbilla, taller still, a short…
Iceland
Gullfoss
The Golden Falls of the Hvítá — a glacial river that drops 32 metres in two stepped, right-angled cascades into a narrow canyon.…
United States
Havasu Falls
A turquoise creek falling through red rock deep in a side canyon of the Grand Canyon, reachable only on foot, by mule or by…
New Zealand
Huka Falls
The Waikato River leaves Lake Taupō, is squeezed into a 15-metre rock slot and bursts out as an ice-blue wall of foam. Add timed…
Argentina · Brazil
Iguazú Falls
Not one waterfall but roughly 275, spread across two and a half kilometres of basalt cliff on a U-shaped bend in the Iguazú…
Canada
Johnston Canyon Falls
Steel catwalks bolted to a limestone canyon wall, a wet tunnel to the Lower Falls, a 30-metre Upper Falls and a meadow of cold…
Australia
Josephine Falls
A granite creek with a natural rock slide at the foot of Bartle Frere, Queensland's highest mountain, 75 km south of Cairns. It…
Guyana
Kaieteur Falls
The Potaro River drops 226 metres in one clean plunge off a sandstone plateau in Guyana's rainforest, with no road, no railings…
Zambia · Tanzania
Kalambo Falls
The Kalambo River drops about 235 metres in one unbroken fall into a gorge on the Zambia–Tanzania border, a few kilometres above…
Laos
Khone Phapheng Falls
The Mekong's last great obstacle before Cambodia: a braided system of cascades and rapids nearly 11 km across, anchored by the…
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Kravica Falls
The Trebižat River spills over a 120-metre horseshoe of mossy travertine into a green pool you are allowed to swim in. It sits 40…
Croatia
Krka Falls
Seven travertine waterfalls on one Dalmatian river, from Skradinski buk's seventeen-step, 800-metre staircase to the braided…
Laos
Kuang Si Falls
Milky turquoise water spilling down a staircase of travertine pools in the forest 30 km from Luang Prabang, with a bear rescue…
Costa Rica
La Fortuna Waterfall
A 70-metre ribbon of white water dropping out of the rainforest into a green pool, 5.5 km from La Fortuna town and about 500…
Canada
Montmorency Falls
An 83-metre drop, about 30 metres taller than Niagara's Horseshoe Falls, fifteen minutes from Old Québec. A suspension bridge…
United States
Multnomah Falls
A 189-metre, two-tier drop off the basalt wall of the Columbia River Gorge, half an hour from Portland's airport. Oregon's…
Canada · United States
Niagara Falls
Three falls, two countries, one river doing 168,000 cubic metres a minute over the edge. The most visited waterfall system on…
Morocco
Ouzoud Falls
A tiered, roughly 110-metre drop over red rock in the Middle Atlas foothills, about 150 km from Marrakech. Walk down past olive…
Philippines
Pagsanjan Falls
A tall, three-tiered fall at the head of a sheer jungle gorge in Laguna, about 100 km from Manila, reached by two boatmen poling…
Croatia
Plitvice Lakes Waterfalls
Sixteen stepped travertine lakes and more than ninety waterfalls, ending in Veliki slap's 78-metre drop — the tallest waterfall…
Switzerland
Rhine Falls
Europe's largest plain waterfall by volume: the whole Rhine throws itself 23 metres over a 150-metre limestone ledge beside a…
Iceland
Skógafoss
A 60-metre curtain of the Skógá dropping off a former sea cliff beside the Ring Road — the anchor of Iceland's South Coast…
New Zealand
Sutherland Falls
New Zealand's tallest waterfall drops 580 metres in three leaps from Lake Quill, reachable only on foot via the Milford Track or…
Iceland
Svartifoss
A 20-metre thread of water dropping through an amphitheatre of black basalt columns above Skaftafell — the centrepiece of a short…
Fiji
Tavoro Falls
Three swimmable falls stacked up a rainforest valley in Bouma National Heritage Park, on the wet eastern side of Fiji's Garden…
Ireland
Torc Waterfall
A 20-metre cascade on the Owengarriff River, stepping down through a mossy oak gorge five minutes' walk from the…
Switzerland
Trümmelbach Falls
Ten glacier waterfalls that thunder down inside a mountain, reached by a lift bored through the rock. The meltwater comes off the…
South Africa
Tugela Falls
The Thukela River leaps off the Amphitheatre, a five-kilometre basalt wall in the northern Drakensberg, in a chain of…
Indonesia
Tumpak Sewu
A 120-metre curtain of dozens of streams pouring into a round, jungle-walled gorge on the Lumajang–Malang border, fed by rivers…
Zimbabwe · Zambia
Victoria Falls
Mosi-oa-Tunya — the smoke that thunders. 1,708 metres wide, 108 metres down, and the highest concentration of bookable adrenaline…
Norway
Vøringsfossen
The Bjoreio drops 182 metres off the rim of Hardangervidda into the Måbødalen gorge, and a 99-step bridge now carries you across…
Australia
Wentworth Falls
Jamison Creek leaves the Blue Mountains plateau in three tiers into the Jamison Valley, about two hours west of Sydney by train.…
Ghana
Wli Falls
The Agumatsa River drops about 80 metres off the Akwapim-Togo range a few kilometres from the Togo border, into a forest…
United States
Yosemite Falls
Three linked drops totalling 739 metres off the north wall of Yosemite Valley, fed almost entirely by snowmelt. Thunderous in…
Read before you go
Planning, safety and science
Waterfalls explained
How waterfalls form
Every waterfall is a river meeting something it can't wear down fast enough. What that something is — hard rock, a glacier's leftovers, a…
Field guide
How to photograph a waterfall
The difference between a snapshot and a waterfall photograph is mostly three decisions: how long the shutter stays open, where the light is…
Before you go
Waterfall safety
Waterfalls are beautiful because they are powerful, and the same power is what makes them dangerous. Most accidents happen in a small…
Phenomena
Moonbows: rainbows by moonlight
A few nights a month, at a handful of waterfalls, the spray catches moonlight and throws a rainbow across the dark. It is one of the rarest…
Head to head
Victoria Falls vs Iguazú vs Niagara
They get compared constantly, and they are completely different trips. One is an adrenaline capital on the edge of safari country, one is a…
Waterfalls explained
How many waterfalls are there in the world?
It sounds like a simple question. It isn't: there's no official count of the world's waterfalls, and the answer changes completely…
Waterfalls explained
Waterfall names from around the world
A waterfall's name usually tells you where it is before it tells you anything else. Learn a dozen words and you can read a map of…
Plan a route
Waterfall road trips
One base, one hire car, several waterfalls. We measured the distance between every pair of falls in the index and found 101 places where…
Rankings explained
The tallest waterfall in every country
Every country keeps a tallest waterfall, even if it is a thread down a cliff that only runs in April. Here are the 104 we hold, country by…
City breaks
Waterfalls within an hour of a capital
A capital-city weekend usually means museums and restaurants. In a surprising number of capitals it can also mean a waterfall before lunch.…
Waterfalls explained
The index by the numbers
We now hold 1,142 waterfalls across 123 countries. Add them up and a few patterns fall out, some expected, some not.
Waterfalls explained
Why so many Bridal Veil Falls?
Stand in front of falling water for long enough and the same few images occur to everyone. That is why the same names recur on every…
Waterfalls explained
The eight types of waterfall
Plunge, tiered, horsetail, fan — how to read a waterfall's shape.
Reference
Waterfall glossary
26 terms, from caprock to whitewater grades.
Plan a trip
Four things decide a waterfall trip
Season, activity windows, access and the border.