Rod-like cerium dioxide (CeO₂) powder was prepared using hydrothermal processing. Then ceria thin films were prepared by coating of ethanol suspensions with a sublimation agent and a mixture of the rod-like ceria with commercial irregular nanoparticles onto glass substrates, followed by firing. Transparent superhydrophobic ceria films were obtained from samples with more than 50% rod-like ceria after coating hydrophobic fluoroalkyl silane on the surface. Both sliding angles and contact angles increased concomitantly with increase of the ratio of rod-like ceria. The trend of the contact angle increase was rationalized by the increase of the pore structure in the film. The sliding angle increase was accountable by consideration of the depth of droplet penetrating into the surface obtained by assuming normal pillar-array structure models calculated from the packing of particles with a high aspect ratio.