Las Pailas (Las Paylas) Puerto Rico: What you Need to Know to Explore these Natural Waterslides

Are you looking for the perfect Puerto Rico natural water slide? Las Pailas (also called Las Paylas) in Luquillo is the perfect destination for a fun swim and a chance to slide down the rock into a perfectly cool pool of water. The natural waterfalls are located just a short drive from Luquillo Beach, so if you’re looking for a fun day trip from Luquillo or San Juan, this is a great place to spend some time.

We stopped at Las Pailas after spending the day in El Yunque National Forest for an hour long swim and slide. You can easily drive out of the rainforest and stop at Las Pailas on your way home. After our visit, we headed to Luquilla beach for dinner. Read below for everything you need to know to visit Las Pailas, Puerto Rico.

What is Las Pailas (Las Paylas) in Puerto Rico?

Las Pailas was one of our favorite freshwater swimming spots and natural water slides in Puerto Rico. We visited several on our visit, and also loved Canon Blanco. The water feature is made up of two areas with 2 different water slide features. The water flows down the larger water slide first but if you continue down the river, you will find a smaller natural water slide and a deeper pool for swimming. There is also a rock for jumping although it is not particularly deep so use caution.

The area is behind some houses, but is still part of the forest and you are truly sliding and swimming in the rainforest.

Where is Las Pailas (natural waterslide Puerto Rico)

Las Pailas is located in Liquillo, Puerto Rico and is very easy to get to from the major roads. You actually drive almost directly by the river on the main road (983) and then park in one of the yards of the people in town. Coming from San Juan, the drive is about 45 min, from Luquillo Beach, the drive is 10 minutes, and from El Yunque National Forest, the drive is about 15 minutes.

If you put Las Pailas in google it pops right up and is easily to navigate to (make sure you get the location in Luquilla).

How to get to Las Pailas Puerto Rico

To get to Las Pailas, drive on 983. You will drive into a small group of houses (that doesn’t really look different than other parts of the road. Look for a pink house (shown in the photo below). There are several houses selling $5 parking in the lots near their house. Use caution when you are parking as some of the sides of the road were washed out and we watched a car bottom out.

From here, you will walk along the left hand side of the pink house into another parking lot and you will see signs for the trail. The man at this house asked us for $1/person although this may or may not be normal. Either way, we were happy to pay a few dollars and felt better about walking through the property.

You will see the Las Pailas trail going straight down to the river from here. The trail is just about 100 feet and you can see the river the entire time. When you get down to the river, the larger water slide will be on your left and if you walk down to the right you will get to the lower water slide and deeper pool. There were plenty of people hanging out, picnicking and swimming here.

What to Know When You Get to Las Pailas

This area is a favorite with locals and also gets tour buses coming through to slide. If you can try to avoid weekends, or middays when the tours come through.

When we got to Las Pailas we started by going right and trying out the smaller slide and jumping off the rocks down there. You can start as low as you want on the slide to gain some confidence before trying the whole slide.

After warming up, we went to the upper slide and all tried it out. My 10 year old daughter even tried the upper slide despite being nervous. It’s also worth climbing to the top of the upper slide just for the view of the waterfalls and rainforest!

A few things to note:

• The rocks here are slippery, so make sure you are careful
• Sliding down rocks in a river can be dangerous – use caution and common sense – you may want to consider life jackets and helmets.
• We finished up right at 5:00 and when we went back up the path, they had shut the gate to the parking lot. This meant someone needed to let us out of the gate. Just be aware if you are planning to stay later in the day that you may have difficulty getting out.
• This is a wonderful place to be able to spend time – please respect the abutting landowners, other visitors and pick up your trash!

Book a Natural Waterslide Tour, Puerto Rico

If you don’t want to do this trip on your own, or are staying in San Juan and don’t have a car, another option is to book a tour. There are several tours that travel through El Yunque and stop at a natural waterslide (like Las Pailas or a similar slide). You can see a few options below. In many ways, this is a great way to explore these places and they will take care of the logistics of parking, finding each location, etc.

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