Things to do at Iguazu Falls beyond the walkways

Key Takeaways

• The falls themselves are two days: the Argentine circuits and the Brazilian panorama. Everything here is what to do with the rest.
• The speedboat under the falls is US$115 and is restricted to ages 12 and up, with several medical exclusions. Read them before you book for a group.
• Parque das Aves is US$45 and is in Brazil, so it needs a passport even though it is minutes from the Argentine side.
• The full day inland to San Ignacio Mini and the Wanda mines is US$45 and 12 hours, and it is the one that gets you out of the spray entirely.
• Park entry runs on timed tickets. The national park asks you to arrive in the slot printed on yours, so plan the extras around it.

Iguazu National Park was created in 1934 and declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984, and it protects more than 67,000 hectares of Selva Paranense, the Atlantic Forest. That number is the point of this guide. The waterfalls are a small part of a very large protected area, and almost everybody books three days for Iguazu and then discovers that the walkways take one and a half of them.

For which side to do and in what order, we have a separate guide on the Argentina side versus the Brazil side, and one on how to spread it across three days. This one is about the rest of the time.

Things to do at Iguazu Falls, at a glance

	Price	Length	Where	Ages
Great Adventure boat	US$115 per person	4 hours	Argentine side	12 and up
Parque das Aves bird park	US$45 per person	4 hours	Brazil, passport needed	3 and up
San Ignacio ruins and Wanda mines	US$45 per person	12 hours	Inland, Misiones	All ages
Puerto Iguazu town tour	US$28 per person	5 hours	Puerto Iguazu	All ages

Four things, and they do not compete with each other for the same slot. The boat happens inside the park on a falls day. The bird park is a half day across the border. The inland trip eats a whole day and the town tour fills an afternoon that would otherwise be a nap.

The boat that goes under the falls, and who cannot take it

The Great Adventure is US$115 per person for about 4 hours, and it is three things stitched together: a 4x4 ride through the rainforest, the speedboat that runs into the base of the falls, and access to the Devil’s Throat walkway. Locals call the boat part the baptism, which tells you how wet you get. Not damp. Soaked through, phone included if you have not planned for it.

The restrictions are the part worth reading before you book for a family or a group, because they are firmer than most tour restrictions and they are not negotiable at the dock:

• Travellers aged 12 and up only.
• Not available to pregnant travellers.
• Not available to people with osteoporosis, or with spinal, heart, neurological or chronic lung conditions.
• A valid passport or national ID is mandatory.

If one person in your group falls into any of those, plan around it rather than turning up and finding out. The walkways above the falls are open to everyone and cost nothing extra beyond park entry, so the person who cannot take the boat has somewhere to be for those two hours rather than a wasted morning.

Bring a dry bag and a change of clothes, and do the boat before the walkways rather than after. Walking six hours of circuits in wet trousers is a different day.

The bird park, and why it sits where it does

Parque das Aves is US$45 per person for about 4 hours including transfers, and it holds more than 1,500 birds from 150 Atlantic Forest species. It describes itself as the only institution in the world dedicated specifically to conserving the birds of this forest.

It is not a coincidence that it is here. The same national park page that records the 1984 World Heritage listing also notes that Iguazu carries the AICA designation, an Important Bird Area. The forest around the falls is one of the reasons the birds are there, and the park across the river is what happens when somebody builds an institution around that fact.

Two practical points. It is in Brazil, in Foz do Iguacu, so the visit crosses a border and needs a passport or national ID, and customs can add delay. And if you are flying out the same day, the booking is only confirmed when your flight leaves Puerto Iguazu after 19:00, which is the operator being honest about how long the border takes rather than optimistic about it.

Minimum age is 3, which makes this the one entry on the list that works for a family with small children.

The day that is not the falls at all

The San Ignacio ruins and Wanda mines tour is US$45 per person and runs 12 hours, which is the whole day and then some. It goes inland across Misiones to two things that have nothing to do with water.

San Ignacio Mini is a Jesuit mission, red sandstone walls and carved doorways standing in cut grass, and it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in its own right. Wanda is a working gemstone mine where quartz, amethyst, agate and topaz come out of the ground, and you see the seams rather than a shop.

This is the entry that people skip and then wish they had not, because three days of waterfalls is more waterfalls than most people can absorb. It is also the cheapest way to understand that Misiones is a province with a history, not a car park attached to a natural wonder. Lunch stops are built in but the meal is not included.

Closer to town, the Puerto Iguazu tour at US$28 for 5 hours covers the Guira Oga wildlife refuge, which rehabilitates rescued jungle animals, La Aripuca, and the Triple Frontier landmark where Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay meet across two rivers. It is an afternoon rather than a day, and it fits on an arrival day when your park ticket is for tomorrow.

Things to do at Iguazu Falls with children

The age limits do most of the planning for you.

Age	What works
Under 3	The walkways on both sides, and the park train to Devil’s Throat
3 and up	All of the above plus Parque das Aves and the town tour
12 and up	Everything, including the boat

The walkways themselves are the best part for children of any age and they are also the flattest: raised metal catwalks over the water, with coatis and butterflies along most of them. The park train to Devil’s Throat removes the longest walk. What a family loses is the boat, and only until somebody turns twelve.

Fitting all of it around a timed park ticket

Park entry is sold with a time slot on it, and the national park asks visitors to respect the time selected on the ticket so that the number of people inside stays manageable. That single rule decides the order of everything else.

So build the day from the ticket outwards. A morning slot means the boat goes on the same day and the afternoon is free. An afternoon slot means the morning belongs to the bird park or the town, and the boat moves to another day. What does not work is booking a 12-hour inland trip and a park slot on the same date, which is the mistake the calendar makes easy.

Our full Iguazu place page has the entry practicalities and the best months, and the 4-day Argentina and Brazil package puts both sides and the transfers together if you would rather not assemble it yourself.

Where to start

If you have three days and can take the boat, the order that works is: Argentine circuits with the Great Adventure at US$115 on day one, the Brazilian panorama and Parque das Aves at US$45 on day two, and the inland day on day three.

If somebody in the group cannot take the boat, swap it for the town tour at US$28 and give the third day to San Ignacio. You lose the soaking and you keep the province.