Day 1 · Quito
Arrive in Quito
Your guide meets you at Quito airport and travels with you to your hotel, ready to answer questions about the days ahead. The rest of the day is yours.
8 days · 7 nights
Volcanoes, crater lakes and Andean villages, then down to the warm Pacific coast.
Choose your dates when you enquire
Ask about datesBegin in Quito and travel south along the Avenue of the Volcanoes with your own driver and guide, from Cotopaxi and the Quilotoa crater to the waterfalls of Baños and the high slopes of Chimborazo. The second half takes in the Inca site of Ingapirca, colonial Cuenca and the lakes of Cajas before a long descent to Guayaquil.
The same person from your first question to the flight home, with a wedding or vow renewal planned alongside if you like.
How the days unfold. Your advisor tailors the pace, the hotels and the extras to you.
Quito
Day 1 · Quito
Your guide meets you at Quito airport and travels with you to your hotel, ready to answer questions about the days ahead. The rest of the day is yours.
Cotopaxi
Day 2 · Cotopaxi
Head south to a rose plantation to see how Ecuador’s well-known flowers are grown, then climb into Cotopaxi National Park. Walk around Limpiopungo Lagoon looking for Andean birds and, weather permitting, drive up towards the José Rivas Refuge at 4,800 metres. Herbal tea on the high grassland and lunch at a mountain lodge round out the day.
Quilotoa and Baños
Day 3 · Quilotoa and Baños
Follow the Avenue of the Volcanoes, stopping at an indigenous market such as Zumbahua or Saquisilí depending on the day. In the Tigua community a local artist shows you their colourful style of painting and helps you make a picture of your own. At Quilotoa you can hike down to the water or stay at the rim, then lunch nearby before driving on to Baños.
Baños and Riobamba
Day 4 · Baños and Riobamba
An early start takes you up to Runtún and the tree house swing at 2,660 metres, facing the active Tungurahua volcano. Drive the Waterfall Route along the Pastaza River towards the Amazon basin and walk for about an hour to the Devil’s Cauldron, where the river drops into a narrow gorge. In the afternoon you continue to Riobamba.
Chimborazo and Riobamba
Day 5 · Chimborazo and Riobamba
Drive past indigenous villages and La Chorrera Canyon to the Carrel Refuge at 4,850 metres, then walk a kilometre up to the Whymper Refuge at 5,050 metres on Ecuador’s highest mountain. Lunch is in the La Moya community, followed by the Mountain Museum and the story of Chimborazo’s ice harvesters. You return to Riobamba for a second night.
Ingapirca and Cuenca
Day 6 · Ingapirca and Cuenca
Pass Lake Colta and the Balbanera Church, built in 1534 and the oldest in Ecuador, on the way to the sacred Ozogoche Lagoons in Sangay National Park. Continue to Ingapirca, the country’s largest archaeological site, where Cañari and Inca history meet, before arriving in Cuenca.
Cajas and Guayaquil
Day 7 · Cajas and Guayaquil
Walk an hour through cloud forest at Llaviuco Lagoon, take in the view of glacial lakes from Tres Cruces at 4,160 metres, then hike for about 2.5 hours from Toreadora Lake past a chain of highland lakes and the San Luis forest. After lunch you drive down from the cool peaks to the warm coastal plain and Guayaquil.
Guayaquil
Day 8 · Guayaquil
Breakfast, then a private transfer to Guayaquil airport for your flight home.
The hotels for each stop. Your advisor confirms them, or something just as good, for your dates.
Quito · 1 night
Or similar
Cotopaxi · 1 night
Or similar
Baños · 1 night
Or similar
Riobamba · 2 nights
Two nights, with Chimborazo in between. Or similar
Cuenca · 1 night
Or similar
Guayaquil · 1 night
Or similar
Tell us when you would like to travel. Your advisor confirms dates and hotels, tailors the trip to the two of you, and stays with you until you are home.
Ecuador
6 days · 5 nights
Puerto Ayora → Isabela → Puerto Ayora
Land on Baltra and spend your first night on Santa Cruz after meeting giant tortoises in the highlands. Cross by speedboat to Isabela for two nights of snorkelling, wetlands and a long walk to the Sierra Negra crater, then return to Santa Cruz for a free day and a boat trip to one of the uninhabited islands.
Ecuador
9 days · 8 nights
Guayaquil → San Cristóbal → Española → Floreana → Santa Cruz → Bartolomé Island → North Seymour → San Cristóbal
You fly from Guayaquil to San Cristóbal and board your small yacht for Kicker Rock, Cerro Brujo and the booby colonies at Punta Pitt. The route then runs south to Española and Floreana, back to Santa Cruz for giant tortoises, and on to Bartolomé's Pinnacle Rock. South Plaza and North Seymour bring land iguanas and frigatebirds before you head home.
Ecuador
6 days · 5 nights
Quito
Stay five nights in Quito and set out each day in a different direction. See the colonial old town and the equator, go north to Otavalo market and the crater lake of Cuicocha, south along the Avenue of the Volcanoes to Cotopaxi, and west into the cloud forest at Mindo.
Begin in Quito and travel south along the Avenue of the Volcanoes with your own driver and guide, from Cotopaxi and the Quilotoa crater to the waterfalls of Baños and the high slopes of Chimborazo. The second half takes in the Inca site of Ingapirca, colonial Cuenca and the lakes of Cajas before a long descent to Guayaquil.
Every trip can be shaped around you before you book.
Arrive early or stay on at the end, in the same hotel or somewhere new.
Your travel expert books flights that fit the first and last day.
Choose a better room or a hotel with a view for the nights that count.
A honeymoon, an anniversary or a birthday, planned into the trip.
Other ways to see Ecuador, closest in length first.
Expedition cruise | 9 days | Guayaquil · San Cristóbal · Puerto Ayora
River and ocean cruise | 9 days | Quito · San Cristóbal · North Seymour Island
Expedition cruise | 9 days | Guayaquil · San Cristóbal · North Seymour
Small group tour | 6 days | Quito
