N.P Torotoro | Tourist Attraction

To add to what's stated below: this is an amazing natural park. It's not just dinosaur footprints, it has huge rock formations, the biggest cave in Bolivia and a 8 huge canyons.

Yes, you need to hire a guide (and transport if you want). These are all local people, so the money goes to the local communities and protection of the area. For a guide and transport we paid about 130 bol p.p. with 6, this was a full day. very reasonable if you ask me. As stated below, easy to find fellow travelers to share the costs at the guides office between 7.30 and 8.30

The road to the park is 80% finished and thus most of it is a very good and scenic tarmac road. So yes, it's a detour, but we thought its absolutely worth it!

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You pay 100bob for the park entrance, this ticket is valid as long as you're here. We heard max 4 days, but the lady told us if we stay one week it will also be fine.

There are 8 different tours, you can combine most.

Groups are indeed max 6 people, if you go early in the morning, between 7 and 8, you will probably find enough people to form a complete group with. The other option is to ask around at the little cafe on the square in the evening, or just when you cross tourists in the street.

We did Vergel one day, and the combination of Ciudad de Itas and the caves the next. Prices are really ok, we had the same guide (José) for both days and liked him a lot. He could answer all our questions and had a lot of interesting facts to share.

Beautiful and very versatile park, absolutely worth visiting.

The town itself also has a nice vibe to it. We really enjoyed our stay of almost a week.

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Very much as described, you can’t leave the village without a guide! For some tours it’s justifiable (like the caves) but for all the trails and walks paying for a guide and a driver is just a money grab! In addition there is zero organisation so unless you can rustle up a total of 6 people on your own, you will have to head to the guide office and hope you can find the right number of people to make it happen. Failing that you’ll pay for the empty spots!
We also found out that the park entrance fees go to the government and not to the maintenance of the park.
Anyway, it’s a beautiful place but we would have visited a lot more of it wasn’t for the need to book guides and find more people to join in order to make it affordable.
Toro toro should have been named vaca vaca cause they milk you for all you got!

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Price is still 100bs per person per day. Concur with the previous entries on using a guide. Either load guide on bike or pay 350 bol for a taxi or have him on the bike with you

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Tour prices have gone up by 10-15% due to community fees. Exact location of tourist office is on maps me. This location is off by a block.

We did all the tours. If you are short of time and not into dinosaurs, skip toro because it takes 4-5 hours in and there is no connection to sucre until 2022 (according to locals). So it is literally a 10 hour detour from cochabamba.

If you have time, the best tours would be
1) canyon
2) cave
3) city of animal stones

Canyon: easy walking, beautiful mirador that houses 60+ parrots. Waterfall is 800 steps down and then same up. So we didn’t bother as you can see it from the second mirador

Cave: BE PREPARED to get muddy and sandy. We spent 20% hiking 10% crawling, 30% climbing or abseiling, 10% squeezing through narrow gaps and 30% crouched low. If you are above 90kg or claustrophobic do not attempt.

City of animal stones: slightly gimmicky as its basically stones that resemble animals. 3800m high so beware

GUIDE: get gladis! There are 2 gladis, the recommended one has a surname starting with chu-. Her number is 68105822. You can also contact her directly on whatsapp to coordinate.

She was fantastic and did her explaining properly. Not much english but she made a big effort to explain everything. And she foraged some andean mint for us

All in all, they could put up signs and do away with the guides...the trip w our own van cost 524 pesos in total

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100pp for park entry for 4 days, you need a guide to visit anything in the park, and the guide is 100 per tour, which you can split in a group of up to 6 people. Best times to get a tour are around 7-8:30am, when there are more people to split it with. Transportation is a separate cost, 60 per group for the vergel one (or walk, about 2km), and 350 per group for the other one, you could probably also take the guide in your car, not sure though. For the vergel tour, you visit the dinosaur tracks, canyon, and waterfall, takes 3-4 hours walking/climbing a few rocks, you can also swim down there. Take swimsuit, snacks and water! We didn’t do the other tour, but they said it’s around 7-8hours, and you need the transportation to get there.

**Toro Toro is worth it, if you really want to see some dinosaur footprints, and do some hiking, the waterfall in the canyon was beautiful. The road from Cochabamba to toro toro is under construction, unpaved but fine for 2wd low clearance, it is very long though, I would think twice the next time lol.

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As previously said in other comments, the National Park is amazing.
But I confirm that additionally to the 100Bob/person for the park entrance (valid 4 days) you'll have to pay 100bob to pay a guide for each and every activity you'll do. There's no way around it, you have to get a guide. I heard you may ask for permission to walk freely in the park but I don't know exactly how that works. Ask for it where you buy your entrance tickets.
The problem with the guides is that you often pay for an absence of service, since most of the guides are not really helpful. We had two different guides: the first one brought us to El Vergel (canyon) and to ciudad de Itas and to the Caverna (speleology) the next day. He taught us that the dinosaurs' footprints are from "antes de Cristo, no?". Also we were glad to learn that it was the archeologists who had painted the walls with lama blood. The third day we changed the guide who just didn't talk much (no explanation whatsoever, just "there are fossils here", "from here there are no more").
However we met a group with an excellent guide, if you want to ask for her, her name is Gladis (only works form Friday to Sunday).

Overall great experience in the park but being forced to pay for a very poor service, for every activity, was a big down for us. We felt like they're just trying to get as much money as they can out of you, and they can do it because they make the rules. So they can just say "these are the rules of the park".
Other example: to visit the cave you need a helmet and light, security reasons. We brought our own equipment, good quality, very safe. But we were not able to use them, we HAD to rent theirs. Tried to talk to the man in charge but he only said "these are the rules", didn't want to admit the lack of logic. It was cheap so it didn't matter but honestly I felt robbed

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We stayed in the park for 2 days and enjoyed it a lot!!! First day we did a tour to the caves (unforgettable experience!) and cuidad de itas and second day we went to the dinosaurs track, toro toro canyon and climbed down to vergel waterfall where you can swim when it’s hot :) our guide (Gabriel, only speaking Spanish) was super nice and helpful :)

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the entrance fee is now 100bob pp.
the others prices didn't change

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Now you have to pay for all tours. Around the Dinotracks is a fence with a locked gate, so you can only get in with a guide.
Entrance: 50 boliv pperson
Each tour circuit: 100 boliv per group from 1 to 6 persons. You have to arrange youself with other persons to share a tou guide so you pay less money per person. Transportation extra. Tourism here is now an industry.

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There are no banks, ATMs or gas stations once you leave Tarata in the valley, so bring plenty of money and enough gas for 300km.

The road between Tarata and Torotoro is 80% bumpy cobbles, the rest is mud/sand with some creek crossings. We needed 4-5h hours for these 100km, but it was no problem for our 2wd with medium clearance. This was during the last weeks of rainy season, after a night of continuous raining. The deepest creek was 30cm depth.

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so the prices have change and the entrance fee to the NP is 50blv/ pers and each tour is 100blv you can split the charhe if you are a group the max is 6 pers. all this with out transportation and no material. For us today we pay 325blv for the cave tour plus Itlas city if we would need the transportation was 200blv extra. the site is beautifull and our gide Victor was very knowlogeble and add an answer to all our questions. we spend some quality time but we found it pricy anyway

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Really enjoyed this national park. Did two tours - the cave and Ciudad de It as & canyon/el vergel. The cave tour is physical - expect to get dirty and maybe even wet but it was exciting and interesting. Ciudad de Itas was beautiful. We formed a group of 6 (the maximum) at the tour office and paid 100pp with transportation. The El Vergel tour was a nice hike and costs 100 bol. per group, with a max of 6 people. We joined up at the tour office in the morning with 3 other people so only paid 20bol each. We thought both tours were well worth the money.

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We only found out here that to see the park you HAVE TO hire a guide, which per tour costs (if you take him with you in your car!) 100 bol/tour. There are generally about 3 tours which you could make: Canyon +el vergel (+- 5h), the caves and the ciudades de itas, which is 21km hard ripio drive (Aprox 1h drive one way). Each of the tour is 100bol. They don't do more than 1 tour/day except the caves, which are on the way of the ciudad de itas. Additionally you pay Park entry 30bol pP which is valid 4 days. You could also go with a group and pay for transportation, but it seems with this a tour then rises up for even 100 bol pP. The Dino tracks on the river are free and the tortuga cemetery is 5bol pP and you can walk around and find yourself the Tortugas (we didn't see any ;-) but in the additional museum you will see them.

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