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Getting to Angel Falls is not easy by any stretch of the imagination though there is sufficient tourist infrastructure to make the falls accessible to nature lovers without breaking the bank or unreasonably risking your life. In short, you first have to fly to Canaima, Venezuela (unless you're living in or near the indigenous village). This by itself can involve numerous connecting flights as well as an international flight. Once in Canaima, you then have to take a river trip (4 hours upstream) to the Angel Falls trail (Sendero Salto Angel) where you hike an additional 60-90 minutes in a soggy, rooty, slippery, and steeply uphill jungle trail with a stream crossing. Needless to say, you'll have to earn your Angel Falls experience, but this also makes you intimately immersed in nature and provides you plenty of opportunities to bond with tour mates as well as the indigenous people. Moreover, you can also take an overflight of Angel Falls (sometimes this can be combined with your connecting flight from Ciudad Bolívar or Puerto Ordaz) to or from Canaima.We'll break down our experience to give you an idea of what's involved... - Red-eye Flight from Los Angeles to Miami (5 hours)
- Wait for connecting flight at airport (allowed 3 hours to buffer for unforseen delays or other logistical issues)
- Flight from Miami to Caracas (3 hours)
- Wait for connecting flight at airport (allowed 3-4 hours to buffer for unforseen delays, passport control [ugh!], finding the tour operator [we booked a reputable tour from home to minimize the likelihood of fraud even though this isn't the cheapest way], changing money, etc.)
- Flight from Caracas to Puerto Ordaz to Ciudad Bolívar (around 2 hours total)
- Spent night in Ciudad Bolívar
- Flight from Ciudad Bolívar to Canaima (around 75 minutes in a tiny little Cessna plane)
- Got settled at a campamento we pre-booked with
- Spent night at campamento
- Started river trip from Puerto Ucaima (requires car shuttle [included with tour] through Canaima Village to the put-in point upstream from Salto Ucaima)
- Not-so-comfortable river boat ride on Río Carrao then Río Churún to start of hike (4 hours)
- Hike to Angel Falls Lookout (1.5 hours)
- Sleep at remote campamento
Just to complete the picture, here's how things went on the way home... - River boat downstream back to campamento in Canaima (2 hours not including stops)
- Return to Canaima airport (15-30 minutes)
- Fly back to Ciudad Bolívar, including Angel Falls overflight (about 1.5-2 hours)
- Spend night in Ciudad Bolívar
- Flight from Ciudad Bolívar to Caracas (1-1.5 hour)
- Wait at airport (allowed 3-4 hours for check-in, passport control [ugh!], security, etc.)
- Flight from Caracas to Miami (3 hours)
- Spend night in Miami
- Fly home from Miami to Los Angeles (5 hours)
For the record, we were able to pull off our trip in a span of about 6 days. I'd say this is the minimum required for Angel Falls. We flew with American Airlines for flights connecting to and from Miami though they're not the only airlines that do this. In Venezuela, we flew with a variety of companies from Con Viasa, Rutaca, and Transmandu. We booked with a tour company so we didn't necessarily have to worry about making the air arrangements (at least in Venezuela). However, we were familiar with the US connections enough to do that on our own.
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