Kpatawee Waterfall is the best-loved natural gem of Liberia's interior: a waterfall dropping into a clear natural pool, deep in the forest of Bong County, among black boulders, lush vegetation, butterflies and birdsong. It is the country's most popular nature getaway, a green oasis three hours from Monrovia where you can swim, have a picnic and get away from the noise.
Far from the big, dramatic waterfalls, Kpatawee is a place of calm, human-scale beauty: perfect for getting into the water under the falls, scrambling over the rocks, taking an hour's walk to a second hidden waterfall and having lunch in the shade of the trees. Its charm lies in the mix of water, forest and quiet, and in being an accessible destination that shows the green, peaceful side of Liberia.
This guide tells you what to do at Kpatawee, how to get there from Monrovia or Gbarnga, how much admission costs, where to sleep (there is an ecolodge next to the waterfall) and what to expect from a simple, authentic nature destination. It is the ideal trip for getting to know the country's interior and enjoying a refreshing swim in one of its loveliest spots.
Kpatawee Waterfall lies in the heart of Bong County, in the land of the Kpelle, Liberia's largest ethnic group. For generations it was a place known to local communities, and in recent decades it has become the country's most popular nature destination, with a community ecolodge beside the falls. Its growth as a tourist spot, after the hard years of the civil wars that hit Bong and its capital Gbarnga, is a symbol of how Liberia's interior is coming back to life through ecotourism. The full story is on our dedicated page.
Read the full history ↓The forested, mountainous interior: hidden waterfalls in Bong, trading towns in the centre and the Mount Nimba massif, a World Heritage Site on the border with Guinea and Côte d'Ivoire.
Read the history of The green heart: Bong and Nimba →No exact prices: a scale from $ (budget) to $$$$$ (luxury), with 2-3 options per category.
Origins, formation and what the sources say.
Kpatawee Waterfall is in Bong County, in the geographic centre of Liberia. It is a region of gentle hills, rivers and dense rainforest that belongs to the country's interior. The falls form where a stream reaches a rocky drop and tumbles into a natural pool ringed by large dark rocks and lush vegetation.
Kpatawee is actually more than one waterfall. Besides the main falls, which are easier to reach and have a natural pool, there is a second, more hidden waterfall about an hour's walk away through the forest. The area has a humid microclimate and is home to rich wildlife (birds, butterflies, forest frogs), which is part of what makes the place so appealing.
This part of central Liberia gets heavy rain, especially between May and October, which is why the water runs so strongly in the wet season. Bong's green, rolling landscape is very different from the country's Atlantic coast. It shows another side of Liberia: the forested, farming, river-crossed interior, and Kpatawee is one of its most beautiful spots.
Bong County, where Kpatawee lies, is the heartland of the Kpelle people (also written Kpese or Guerze), Liberia's largest ethnic group. The Kpelle are farmers of the interior. They have traditionally grown rice, the country's staple food, along with cassava, coffee, cocoa and palm. They also have a rich culture of traditional societies, music, dance and crafts.
For local communities, the waterfalls, rivers and forests of the interior have always mattered for practical reasons like water, fishing and farming. They have also had cultural and sometimes spiritual value. Places like Kpatawee were part of a landscape that local people knew and used long before they became tourist attractions, and the name itself comes from local place names.
Bong was once nicknamed 'the breadbasket of Liberia' for its rice and other crops. It is closely tied to rural, Indigenous Liberia, which for more than a century was kept away from the power held by the Americo-Liberian elite on the coast. Visiting Kpatawee is also a chance to glimpse this inland Liberia, home to most of the country's people.
Bong County and its capital, Gbarnga, about 30 km from Kpatawee, played a central and tragic role in the Liberian civil wars (1989-2003). During the first civil war, Gbarnga became the headquarters of Charles Taylor and his National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), the main rebel faction. From there, Taylor ran much of the country for years through a kind of parallel government known as 'Greater Liberia'.
This made Bong a key stage of the conflict, with fighting, mass displacement and all the suffering of that long war. Like the rest of Liberia, the region was left poor and scarred by violence. Its development, including any chance of tourism, came to a complete halt for more than a decade.
When the war ended in 2003, Charles Taylor went into exile and peace returned, and Bong began slowly rebuilding. Gbarnga became a busy inland town again, with its university, hospital and markets. The region started turning to farming, education and, little by little, ecotourism, with Kpatawee as its main natural attraction.
In post-war Liberia, Kpatawee Waterfall became the country's most popular nature destination. It is peaceful and beautiful, has a natural pool for swimming, sits in the forest and is fairly easy to reach from Monrovia and Gbarnga. That made it a favourite getaway for Liberians and for the few foreign visitors who come to the country, especially for weekend day trips, picnics and swimming.
One milestone was the opening of the Kpatawee Resort / Ecolodge next to the falls. It has thatched-roof cabins, some with solar power and running water, plus a camping area, so you can spend the night in the middle of nature. Projects like this, run with the local community, aim to bring income and jobs to local people and help protect the area. That kind of development matters even more in a region hit hard by the war.
Today Kpatawee stands for the friendly, hopeful side of inland Liberia, where nature, peace and responsible tourism come together. For travellers, it is a chance to see green, rural Liberia, cool off under a waterfall in the rainforest, and support the communities of Bong County just by visiting. This small paradise shows that, beyond its difficult history, Liberia still has natural treasures waiting to be discovered.
