Sandwiched between Peru and Colombia, little Ecuador often goes under the radar, yet it contains much of what makes its giant neighbours such travel favourites in a more compact country.
My trip to Ecuador came about by needing to do a border run as my Peru visa was about to expire. It is fair to say that I got sucked in by Ecuador’s cultural charm and natural beauty. I ended up staying for five weeks and did a Spanish course, giving me something of an Ecuadorean twang when speaking.
I recommend the country especially for those on short trips to South America: travel distances are far smaller, so you can spend longer enjoying this great continent and less onboard buses.
Ecuador was affectionately called the “Avenue of the Volcanoes” by the great natural scientist Alexander Von Humboldt. This is also a brilliant description of the backpacker route down Ecuador’s mountainous spine.
- Start with a free walking tour around Quito’s historic core
- Cotopaxi is one of the world’s highest active volcanoes & Ecuador’s most defining natural landmarks. You can reach its lower slopes, high-altitude refuge, and see its stark landscapes on a full-day trip from the capital
- Our author’s pick for a social, authentic stay in Quito is The Secret Garden, a laid-back hostel known for its communal dinners and rooftop views over the historic center
- The Amazon rainforest covers around 50% of Ecuador’s land area, forming a huge, biodiverse region packed with wildlife. Feeling the backpacker itch to experience it? Check out our Ecuadorian rainforest guide.
1. Quito – 3 days
Quito is Ecuador’s capital and its most common point of entry. Among backpackers, it is known as “The Vortex” as flights, jungle tours and many bus connections pass through it, meaning that if you go to Ecuador you too will likely be sucked into this whirlpool.
It sits at 2,850m, enough of an altitude to feel after stepping off a plane or arriving from the coast. Quito’s many hills do not help with shortness of breath. Though the elevation does at least guarantee a pleasant climate; despite sitting on the equator, it is known by Ecuadoreans as the city of eternal spring. I would recommend spending three days here.
Quito does have a few safety concerns. In the last few years, Ecuador has been stricken with a crime wave, mostly centered on coastal cities like Guayaquil, but Quito is not immune.
During the day, the historical city is well-policed and feels very safe. Just make sure to take normal precautions against petty crime, like not having your phone dangling out of your pocket. But at night, little is lit up and it is not advisable to walk the streets. You will be struck by how eerily quiet the city is after nightfall.
Stand on the Equator – El Mitad del Mundo
The Equator gives Ecuador its name, and it is distinctive that Quito literally lies across this line. “El Mitad del Mundo” means the middle of the world in Spanish. It is a park on the line itself with a museum about Ecuador, centres for experiments and of course photo ops with the Equator.
I was expecting it to be a touch gimmicky, but I was not about to turn down the chance to stand across the two hemispheres. It turned out to be a brilliant experience. Ecuador is often said to have four worlds – the coast, the Andes, the Amazon and the Galapagos Islands – and each part of the country was represented in the open air museum. They even included shrunken heads from the Amazon.
There are actually two equator lines on the site: a massive monument to the equator (which embarrassingly turned out to be 200m off) and the correct GPS-measured line.
On the real equator line, experiments feel semi-magical – like water swirling in two different directions or how you cannot walk straight across the line as you are pulled into either hemisphere by the coriolis force. The photo ops of standing across the line with a foot on each side of the world were also worthwhile.
It is about 50 minutes from the centre of Quito. I chose to visit with a tour because the price was low at $10 and the public bus leaves from a station outside of the city centre. You can save money by splitting a cab or an Uber with two or three friends.
Take a cable car up Volcan Pichincha
Quito straddles the side of the Pichinchia Volcano, and handily has a cable-car to take you to a sumptuous viewpoint overlooking the city in the valley below. The cable-car is located about twenty minutes by taxi from the historical centre. A ride costs $5.
Taking the cable car is an incredible experience – panoramas of the city and surrounding Andes pop from the floor-to-ceiling windows of the car. It gets better when you reach the viewpoint on Pichincha at 4000m. On a clear day, you can see volcanoes like Cotopaxi and Chimborazo far off into the distance.
For those of you for whom 4000m is not enough, you can hike a further three hours to reach the summit of Pichincha. It is 600m of elevation gain, and the path is clearly signposted. Wear good walking shoes because there are sections where you will have to scramble over rocks and some fairly steep parts too.
The summit gives views high above Quito and overlooks Gagua Pichincha, the active part of the volcano, though which has not erupted since 2002. It took me about seven hours between leaving and returning to my hostel.
Visit Casa del Alabado indigenous art museum
There are some brilliant galleries and museums in Quito, like Cepilla del Hombre, but I felt like Casa del Alabado was the pick of the bunch. Set in a beautiful colonial house, it flips the script on how indigenous artefacts are displayed.
Instead of arranging them as exhibits to explain a civilisation or time period, this gallery displays them as pieces of art in relation to themes like life, death and water.
I also learnt a lot from it. Ecuador was home to many indigenous peoples who were only conquered by the more famous Incas just before the Spanish arrived. The very helpful staff gave me a massive guide in English for each room. It also has a brilliant cafe, which was the ideal place to shelter from a torrential rainstorm. Entry is $8.
Do a free walking tour
As travellers, I am sure that you have had a few disappointing free walking tours, but Quito is well worth persisting with it. Quito’s city centre is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and it is the oldest capital city in the Americas.
Cobbled streets, balconied colonial houses and evocative plazas abound. Almost every street tells a story, and the tour I did with Secret Garden included a chocolate tasting experience, a look around a traditional food market and the Compania Iglesia church whose interior is entirely made of gold.
📌 Guruwalk is a supreme service that we genuinely recommend for booking free walking tours across Ecuador. For Quito, check out this walking tour with Tefa (an independent local guide), which blends a walk through the historic centre with a Spanish language element and ends on a sweet note with a chocolate and candy tasting.
Climb Basilica del Voto Nacional for a panoramic city view
This church dominates the skyline of Quito and is quirkily decorated with Ecuadorian animals like Galapagos iguanas, penguins and jaguars instead of gargoyles. The interior isn’t life-changing but climbing the tower is well worth paying the $2 for. There is a cafe and bar on the roof which was packed as it was one of the only venues allowed to serve alcohol during the election held when I was there!
The route up to the tower is perilous – a nearly vertical staircase open to the winds save for a cage. The views from the top are absolutely spectacular.
Cotopaxi, Chimborazo and Quilotoa in brief
The Avenue of the Volcanoes tapers South from Quito to some of the most famous mountains in the Andes. While all are volcanoes, these are three very different places to visit and a little explainer is useful.
Cotopaxi and Chimborazo fit the more traditional towering, snow-covered volcano mould, while Quilotoa is a crater lake within a long-extinct volcano. It is also the finish line of one of South America’s classic multi-day hikes.
Even Cotopaxi and Chimborazo are different beasts. The former is still active and is secluded within its own national park, meaning that experiencing it involves a stay in Ecuador’s Andean wilds. Chimborazo is extinct, but even taller, and can be easily visited in a day from nearby Riobamba.
2. Cotopaxi National Park – 3 days
If you ask a child to draw a volcano, it will probably look like Cotopaxi.
Ecuador’s second-highest mountain is a beautiful, symmetrical, conical volcano with a snow-covered peak. You do not need to visit Japan to see views like Mount Fuji. Three days are sufficient to see all the main sights and soak up the region’s isolation.
Pack your hiking essentials in Quito and set out on a full-day trip to Cotopaxi National Park. You’ll go up to the refuge at 4,864m, and as high as the glacier (if it’s not pouring and conditions allow), with the snow-capped cone looming above you the entire way.
All entrance fees are included, and you’ll be back in Quito by evening.
The Cotopaxi experience does not end with the mountain that gives it, and a clothing brand, its name – its surrounding national park is brilliant. It includes hill walks and chances to climb smaller volcanoes.
The park abounds with wildlife: wild horses, llamas, foxes, deer, Andean wolves and the rare Spectacled Bear roam its slopes. Overhead, you can also see the world’s largest and smallest birds – the Andean Condor and the Ecuadorean Hillstar Hummingbird.
Getting there:
Accessing the national park on public transport is not straightforward. No buses will go directly into the national park. Instead, you must get a public bus passing by the necessary entrance to the park, the Quito-Latacunga bus will work, and ask the driver to drop you off at El Chasqui (South Entrance). At this entrance, a group of truck-taxis wait to drive tourists into the park.
Or get a bus to Machachi and get a taxi from the North Entrance. It will cost between $20-30. It takes an hour-and-a-half to reach the park from Quito.
Personally, I found juggling buses and rural taxis a bit bothersome, so I decided to stay in The Secret Garden. This is something of a backpacking institution in Ecuador, and I liked the ease at which all the food and transport was sorted for a flat fee, even if cheaper options are available for those who shop around.
To reach the park, they run shuttle buses to and from their Quito hostel. I was coming from the South however, but I arranged a pick up from a convenient Machachi petrol station.
The Secret Garden is a lodge facing the volcano, with many activities in the national park on offer. It sells itself as a communal experience beyond normal hostels, and for me this is its best feature. They run good quality “family dinners” where everyone sits down together, brilliant for making friends, especially as there is no internet.
The lodge also has cosy sitting rooms with fireplaces, a yoga studio, a jacuzzi and of course a beautiful garden. Throw in unlimited coffee and banana bread, and you have a memorable few days. I next went to Banos with a group I met here.
I was, however, slightly annoyed that they were not too upfront about the fact that not everything is included in the $110 price you pay for 2 nights and 3 days. Tours like a visit to the Cotopaxi ice sheet and mountain biking down, or horse riding are an extra $50 each.
Only hikes to a waterfall and the Pasachoa volcano are included. Both of which were brilliant, except the rain, but you certainly visit Cotopaxi for cheaper if you are content with throwing some time at the logistics.
Venture up the Cotopaxi volcano
Tours are available to Refugio Jose Rivas, a shelter 4,800m on the side of Cotopaxi. It is a 500m ascent from the nearest road. It is made harder by constantly having to crane your neck to admire the sublime beauty of the Cotopaxi volcano and its glowing ice sheets.
The cup of tea and snack at the refuge is very well-earned, as you will be very cold and feeling the altitude! Luckily, the way down is a lot easier. You can opt to cycle down – it is not everyday that you can bomb down an active volcano for hours!
Horse riding
Experiencing the rugged Andean world from horseback is a brilliant experience. With frosty peaks overhead, and the soothing clip-clop of hoofbeats as a soundtrack, you can soak in the immensity of this landscape. An added bonus is that the horse does the work. Expect to pay $40-50.
Summit a volcano
For those of you not content to just admire the volcanoes from afar, it is possible to climb them. Cotopaxi itself can be climbed in a day and a night for the price of $350-500, depending on how many people are in a group.
Maybe the easiest peak to summit in the park is Volcan Pasachoa, a 4,200m high extinct volcano. A highlight was walking through the twisted, otherworldly, high altitude woodland which was like a scene from Lord of the Rings. The summit also had brilliant views of Cotopaxi and Rumiñahui, though this only lasted ten minutes before the rain fell with a vengeance.
Also within the park is Volcán Rumiñahui, a 4,600m high extinct volcano, which can be climbed in a day for about $50. There are challenging sections where you will have to scramble. Tours also include visits to Laguna Limpiopungo, a big lake and wetland area with excellent birdwatching.
3. The Quilotoa Loop – 3 days
Next stop along the Avenue of the Volcanoes is Quilotoa.
This is an iridescent green lake within a massive crater, and the finishing point of a three-day-long hike through remote Quechua communities and the tranquil countryside. Locals say that the lake has no bottom, while the geologists quibble that it is 250m deep. Visit and make up your own mind!
To begin this hike, get to Latacunga, a city about 2,5 hours from Quito, or 1,5 hours from Cotopaxi. This city is nothing special. Hostels exist here more or less to serve the travellers embarking on The Loop. I would not linger here, but instead get a good night’s sleep and take advantage of the chance to securely store your big bag before heading for the hills.
Editor picks to steer you straight to the most characterful stays in Latacunga:
- Hostal Cafe Tiana (starts at $8/dorm room) – a great base before the Quilotoa Loop. They also offer bag storage for $1/day while you’re out hiking.
- Golden Rest Latacunga (starts at $11/dorm room) – marketed as “the only hotel in the world built on the pumice Cotopaxi volcano”
- Cuscungo Cotopaxi (starts at $16/dorm room) – your experience here is all about communal fires, shared meals, and volcano views (it’s right by Cotopaxi National Park)
- Tambopaxi Lodge (starts at $153/dorm room) – this one’s completely off-grid (like, nothing around), and that’s the whole point. Each evening, the staff lights the wood stove and the silence of the Andes does the rest.
The hike is not difficult, the first two days have little uphill, with only the third day involving much strain. It weaves through settlements, meaning that a guide is unnecessary.
I did it solo, and the trail was quite social. Though the people I ended up walking with for long swathes were accountants whose conversation rarely stretched beyond balance sheets and Excel shortcuts. Sorry accountants, but they were maybe the boringest people I met on this trip!
To begin the hike, take a public bus to Sigchos, a village two hours away. Buses leave at 6am, 8am, 9.30am and then every 30 minutes. I would recommend leaving as early as possible, as the weather is more stable earlier in the day.
From there, walk five minutes to the trailhead and follow the well-marked trail to the village of Isinlivi. The first day is a daily gentle walk, with about an hour uphill just before you reach Isinlivi. It was so peaceful meandering through quaint villages, watching the people in their colourful ponchos tending their corn and potatoes as they have for hundreds of years.
In Isinlivi, there are a handful of hostels, all oriented for people walking The Loop. They will include dinner in the price of about $10, leaving you free to relax in a hammock with a beer after a day on the road.
📌 We recommend Llulu Llama Lodge, an eco-friendly mountain lodge right on the Quilotoa Loop. Here you’ll sleep under alpaca blankets and dine in a fireplace-lit room with fellow hikers tackling the same trail.
The second day is the easiest; there is barely a slope, and plenty of woodlands crisscrossed by singing mountain streams. An observation tower stands around the midpoint, where you can look out over a canyon and buy snacks at the base. Overnight at Chugchilán.
The final stretch between Chugchilán and Quilotoa is the most difficult, with 975m of ascent and some steep sandy paths that sap energy as you slide everywhere. However, the lake makes it all worth it. Hundreds of metres below the rim of the gargantuan crater, the lake shimmers a bewitching green under the Andean sky.
You can hike down to the water’s edge and along the side of the crater and back out to the town of Quilotoa, a two-hour walk. At Quiloatoa, grab a coffee and a bite to eat before getting the bus back to Latacunga.
Due to its proximity to Quito, Quilotoa is also available as a day trip. Excursions include the 3-hour drive from the capital to Quilotoa, and allow you to walk the crater rim before returning. This is a good option for those in a pinch with time. Expect to pay $30. You can also visit directly from Latacunga, giving you a spare two days on this itinerary, which I think are best spent in Cuenca or Quito.
Departing from Quito, this full-day group trip takes you straight to the edge of Quilotoa’s volcanic crater for views over the blue-green lagoon. If you’re lucky, you can see Cotopaxi visible in the distance.
You’ll hike down to the water, stop at a local indigenous family’s home along the way, and finish with a visit to Tigua’s craft workshops. All entrances and a bilingual guide are included.
4. Banos – 2 days
After your exertions on the Quilotoa Loop, Banos in the cloud forest offers a nice contrast. Funnily named the same as a bathroom in Spanish, it is Ecuador’s adventure tourism capital.
Despite its cloud forest setting, the emphasis is barely on any wildlife, but more on activities like ziplining, white water rafting and mountain biking. Its town centre is also pretty tourism-oriented with nightclubs, restaurants and Irish bars. Banos is a three-hour bus journey from Quilotoa.
It attracts a lot of domestic tourists too. Occasionally the mass of visitors can feel slightly garish with cifa buses (party buses with lights and music) cruising around or cutouts of leprechauns, or similar, for photo ops in beauty spots. It is however a great spot for bargain prices for activities. I spent two days here and felt that was sufficient.
5. Ruta de las Cascadas
This is a 17km long bike ride between waterfalls, ending at the massive Pailon del Diablo. The route is entirely downhill, so all you have to do is steer and soak up the scenery. Trucks wait at the bottom to take you and your bike back into Banos so there are no worries about peddling back up.
To begin, go to one of the many bike rentals in Banos town. A day’s rental will cost between $5-10 depending on the spec of the bike you choose. They will give you a helmet, a pump and bike lock as well as a map of the route. The road begins in town: simply set Google Maps for Pailon del Diablo and coast down.
At about the halfway point, we stopped for a snack and some water, and found bungee jumps on offer for $20 each. It was an interesting interruption to the cycle. The road itself was brilliant, occasionally taking you under waterfalls and with staggering views of forested valleys interspersed with the silver of trickling waterfalls.
Pailon del Diablo was undoubtedly the highlight of the experience. This means Devil’s Cauldron in Spanish, and the name is wholly apt. You hear it before you see it. A crescendo of roaring water issues from the trees until you look up at the mist-veiled torrents.
Bring waterproofs, as the fall sprays an incredible amount of water in all directions. You can lock your bikes at the waterfall’s carpark, which is also where the trucks back to Banos leave from. Expect to pay $5 for a lift back.
There are a series of viewpoints, some at the base and other at its middle and some above, though you have to crawl through a cave to access these. Hit the town hot springs after for a deserved rest.
White water rafting
This is a standout attraction in Banos. The nearby River Pastaza has class 3 and 4 rapids, basically between pretty fast and very fast flowing water. Experiences typically begin at 9am and get you back to town by 3-4pm. They will include practice sessions in calmer waters and several turns on the rapids.
The price-tag for such a thrilling experience is between $20-25, anyone who had done white water rafting in North America or Europe practically had their eyes pop out of their heads.
Ziplining and bungee jumping
Nature purists may not be best pleased to see how Banos’ jungle is criss-crossed by kilometres of ziplines, and its canyons are overhung with bungee jumping platforms. However, for adrenaline junkies, Banos will give you your fix.
The most popular ziplining venue is Puntzan, which has 2km of ziplines through the cloud forest for you to explore. My hostel offered a tour for $20.
Bungee jumping and swings are available from the San Francisco Bridge a fifteen minute walk from town. They will again cost $20.
6. Riobamba – 1 day
Riobamba as a city does not have a huge amount to see, though the Saturday indigenous market is renowned in Ecuador as particularly colourful. Its main attraction lies in its proximity to Chimborazo, Ecuador’s highest mountain at 6,300m. Riobamba is an hour-and-a-half away by bus from Banos.
Chimborazo is one of the most famous mountains in the Andes. Before Everest was known to Europeans, it was believed to be the tallest peak in the world. They were not entirely wrong, as it is the nearest point of Earth to the sun. This is because the planet is not a perfect sphere and bulges at the Equator.
Visiting Chimborazo
As well as being very tall, Chimborazo is a beautiful sight. Its summit is crowned by a blindingly bright icecap, extending down for hundreds of metres. On a clear day, its light can be seen from the Pacific. On its flanks, vicunas, an undomesticated high altitude relative of alpacas, roam among mountain lupins and ichu grass. My view of Chimborazo’s icy dome appearing out of the mists was maybe my best in Ecuador.
Tours are available, and often bundle the hike with a mountain bike experience down the mountainside. Expect to pay $25. For a smoother experience, you can also opt for this private tour from Riobamba to Chimborazo Volcano.
I visited independently and climbed to Refugio Whymper at 5000m. This is named after Edward Whymper, the first person to climb Chimborazo and also The Matterhorn. I took a bus from Riobamba to Guaranda, and asked the driver to drop me off at the entrance to Chimborazo, about forty minutes away.
From there, it took me about two hours to reach the Refugio. My companions had been acclimatising to reach the summit for a week while I had just arrived from the coast, they left me behind! The highest point you can reach is Condor Cocha at 5100m, which I reached and was surprised to find a gaggle of Ecuadorian school children all insisting on taking photos with me. I felt like a celebrity!
The way down is spectacular. The path winds down the mountainside, through high altitude flowers and within sight of herds of wild vicunas as the ice sparkles in the sun. It brings you out to the Riobamba-Guaranda road and you can hail a bus back to Riobamba. It was a brilliant day out for just $5.
Chimborazo can be climbed for those with technical mountaineering skills and extreme fitness. The climb takes two days and involves up to a week of acclimatisation.
7. Cuenca – at least 2 days
At the end of the romp through the Avenue of the Volcanoes, you are treated to Cuenca. This is a contrast to the other mountain towns, and also to most of Ecuador. I have described Cuenca to friends back home as a Latin Vienna: a beautiful, clean, functional city with European-style trams. You can even drink tap water here.
I stayed for three weeks doing a Spanish school, and it is certainly a place where you can become trapped by how easy life is there. For those in a hurry, it has a handy overnight bus to Mancora in Peru. Cuenca is a five-hour bus journey away from Riobamba.
The entire old city is a UNESCO world heritage site, and this is warranted with wonderful balconied houses, luxury shops and wonderful churches. Its tallest building is the Catedral del Cuenca, topped with distinctive blue domes. The panoramic views of the city and its surrounding mountains from there are spectacular.
My favourite place to walk was along the River Tomebamba, a warbling stream shaded with willow trees just below the buzzy Calle Larga, where the best restaurants and bars are to be found.
The city and area are also rich in history. Cuenca is built on top of the Inca city Tomebamba, believed to be modelled on Cusco. The site of the ruins is now home to Museo Pumapungo.
Sadly not much is left of the city, but the museum includes a brilliant botanic garden of Andean plants, ponds and an aviary of tropical birds. It also houses artefacts found on the site and from Amazonian cultures, including shrunken heads. I went twice.
The Museum of Aboriginal cultures is worth a visit too, if you are interested in Ecuador’s ancient past. The modern art museum is also great for its gorgeous building and revolving art exhibitions.
Cuenca is also a few hours from Ingapirca, Ecuador’s largest Inca ruins. These are special for incorporating lots of details from the native Canari culture that they conquered.
I spent months in Peru but I never saw a building like this, with two tiers and an oblong shape, set in a landscape adorned with hallucinogenic plants. If this is not enough, it borders the spectacular Las Cajas natural park, boasting high altitude lakes and weaving hiking trails.
