Ecuador was the final stop on our three month South American adventure. We spent a total of 5 days in the capital, Quito. This was split into two days sightseeing on foot, a day on the Tren de los Volcanes, a day on an organised tour to two equator based theme parks and the final day utilising the Hop on Hop off Bus.
Note: Bear in mind when planning a trip to Quito that many museums and other tourist attractions are closed on Mondays. Day 1 of my itinerary was planned around attractions which can be visited on Mondays.
How to get to Quito
We flew into Quito’s Mariscal Sucre International Airport, which is 23 miles from central Quito. If you’re lucky, as you descend towards the city, you will catch a glimpse of Cotopaxi Volcano. There are cheaper ways to get into town (you can get a shuttle bus or a public bus to Rio Coca Bus Station) but we chose to take transport organised by our hotels because we thought it was safer and more convenient. There is a $25 fixed rate for taxis into town.
Getting Around Quito
Much of the city’s attractions can be visited on foot. To travel further afield, you can use public transport. However, having read that Ecuadorian buses were rife with pickpockets, we opted to purchase a Hop on Hop off Bus ticket. We don’t often join organised tours, but decided that this was the best way to get to one of Quito’s top attractions, Mitad del Mundo, which is located 16 miles north of the city.
Where to stay in Quito
We stayed in two places; the first, Hotel Casa Montero, is centrally located, so convenient for exploring downtown Quito. The second, Kinde House, is nicer, but on a hill. This means a somewhat strenuous walk back to the hotel at the end of a day’s sightseeing. But to compensate, it has a great rooftop garden with an amazing view of the city.
Quito in 5 Days Itinerary
| Flight to Quito Accommodation – Hotel Casa Montero La Ronda Dinner at Casa los Geranios | |
| Day 1 | Basílica del Voto Nacional Iglesia de San Francisco Iglesia de Santo Domingo |
| Day 2 | Plaza Grande Palacio de Gobierno Museo de la Ciudad Parque la Alameda National Assembly Museo Nacional del Ecuador Dinner at Bandido Brewing Accommodation – Kinde House |
| Day 3 | Tren de los Volcanes Tambillo El Boliche Machachi Dinner at Cafe San Blas |
| Day 4 | Museo Intiñan Mitad del Mundo TelefériQo Dinner at El Pollo Forastero |
| Day 5 | Hop on Hop off Bus El Panecillo La Carolina Park Botanical Garden Dinner at El Terruño |
Flight to Quito
We start our Ecuadorian adventure with a flight to Quito; the world’s second highest capital, which concludes with a spectacular descent over Cotopaxi Volcano. It’s our 9th LATAM flight and for the 9th time, it lands bang on time. Once through the airport, we are picked up by a taxi organised by our hotel for the drive into central Quito.
Accommodation – Hotel Casa Montero
For the first couple of nights, we are staying in the heart of Quito at the Hotel Casa Montero; an old colonial style building with lots of charm. The hotel itself is nice. However, the surrounding area is a bit rough. It’s on the edge of Plaza de Santo Domingo. The area in general and the hotel steps in particular appear to be a meeting place for winos. On the plus side, it is very centrally located and therefore convenient for sightseeing. In addition, the hotel restaurant has a great view across the city to El Panecillo (which I’ve managed to obliterate in this photo).
La Ronda
In the evening, we take a walk along La Ronda; a cobbled street lined with colourful 17th century houses, and find somewhere to have dinner.
Dinner at Casa los Geranios
We stumble upon Casa los Geranios, a quaint little restaurant which is, as the name suggests, adorned with geraniums outside and artfully decorated inside.
The food is excellent, if a bit pretentious. I have chicken in orange and teriyaki sauce with a chocolate glaze (with chips of course). The old man has steak followed by a flambeed ice cream dessert which looks like it will burn for ever.
Then we return to our hotel and lock ourselves in for the night.
Quito Day 1
Today, we’re going sightseeing on foot in Quito – primarily churches because most other tourist attractions are shut on Mondays.
Basílica del Voto Nacional
After breakfast, we set off for the enormous Basílica del Voto Nacional. This 19th century church is, in fact the largest in Quito. Construction took place between 1892 and 1909, although technically, the building remains unfinished. This is because legend says that when the Basílica is completed, the world will end. The exterior is carved with animals such as turtles and iguanas and the interior has some stunning stained glass windows.
The old man decides to climb the tower, which apparently involves a rather rickety staircase. It also requires crossing a wooden plank inside the main roof and climbing a combination of stairs and ladders to the top. I opt to sit in the café with a Diet Coke.
Suitably refreshed, I visit the interior of the Basílica. Some of the stained glass is being renovated, so the statues in the nave have been wrapped in a dark fabric. It looks like the church has been overrun by Dementors…
The Basílica is open daily between 9 am and 6 pm. Entry to the interior costs $2 and the tower costs a further $2.
Iglesia de San Francisco
Next, we go to the Iglesia de San Francisco. Construction of the church began in 1535, making it the oldest religious site in Ecuador.
The interior of the church is an exercise in how much gold can be squeezed into one building. It’s apparently the biggest church in South America. (The Ecuadorians have a creative way of measuring things to ensure their stuff is bigger and better. For example, Cotopaxi is higher than Everest if you measure from the centre of the earth, rather than sea level.)
The church also has a beautiful courtyard and an excellent museum with plenty of religious art.
Museo de San Francisco
We enjoy wandering around the excellent Museo de San Francisco, admiring the weird and wonderful religious art, then I try to buy some post cards. They have run out, so offer me enormous posters for the same price of $0.25 each. It sounds like a bargain, but I’m not sure what I’m going to do with these posters – answers on a postcard (obviously not a postcard of San Francisco Church).
The museum is open daily from 9 am until 5 pm (1 pm on Sunday). Entry costs $3.
Iglesia de Santo Domingo
We round the day off in the Iglesia de Santo Domingo; highlight – a colour changing virgin. It’s safe to say that we are all churched out, so we return to our hotel.
In the evening, we go from one culinary extreme to the other. After yesterday’s fancy meal, we go to a tiny three table shack, where a lovely lady whips up a Mexican feast for $20 for the two of us, including four beers.
Quito Day 2
Todays, another day of sightseeing on foot in Quito.
Plaza Grande
We head first for the Plaza Grande, the central square, with its large independence monument. The square is a popular selfie spot – some put more effort into their outfit than others!
Palacio de Gobierno
We have booked a tour of the Palacio de Gobierno; seat of government and official residence of the President. The tour is free, but needs to be reserved by email (in Spanish), so I’m quite proud of my achievement. We head for the security post. Our names are on the list – a triumph!
We get a guided tour of the museum, which focuses on the political history of Ecuador, but also houses a collection of presidential gifts.
Then past some rather cool murals by Guayasamin depicting the first European navigation of the Amazon.
The tour concludes with visits to the enormous Banquet Room with its own chapel and the Yellow Room, which houses portraits of past presidents.
We really enjoyed the guided tour of the Palacio de Gobierno. Tours haven’t run since 2020. The official website confirms that the palace is a top tourist attraction, but gives no indication if/when tours will resume. However, the Changing of the Guard Ceremony has recently recommenced, so hopefully, tours will soon follow suit. Changing of the Guard takes place on Mondays at 11 am.
Museo de la Ciudad
Next, we visit the Museo de la Ciudad. This is housed in a 17th century hospital and gives (theoretically) a chronological history of Quito. The old man gets impatient and bypasses a group of school kids, so we are going backwards through history, witnessing the fight for independence prior to colonisation, which is all rather confusing.
In the final gallery is a temporary exhibition. There’s no indication of what this exhibition might be until we arrive. When we visited, it turned out to be the history of Quito’s markets, so rather an anti climax.
The Museum is open Wednesday to Friday from 8.30 am until 4.30 pm and weekends from 9.30 am until 5.30 pm. Entry for adult foreigners costs $8.
Parque la Alameda
From here, we walk north east, through the Parque la Alameda with its rather marvellous sculpture depicting Simon Bolivar, who led the revolution against Spanish rule, riding into battle. The park also has a lake and an observatory.
National Assembly
On past the National Assembly, which has a colourful collection of hummingbird sculptures along the front.
Museo Nacional del Ecuador (MuNa)
We reach our ultimate destination; the Casa de la Cultura. This huge, round glass building houses the Museo Nacional del Ecuador (MuNa), which takes you through the history of Ecuadorean art. There’s some great stuff here, including lots of gold.
My favourite is a collection of sculptures entitled La Carga, which depict Ecuadorean women going about their daily business.
There’s also a fun play area, where you can interact with the art and even climb inside a painting.
The MuNa has a separate building which houses a temporary exhibition. When we visited, it was the work of artist Hernán Illescas, which was for sale. The old man determines to win the lottery, come back and buy La Migración Sueño en la Memoria, a snip at $20,000.
The MuNa is open from Wednesday to Sunday from 10 am until 5 pm (3 pm on Sunday). Entry is free.
Dinner at Bandido Brewing
The three of us walk the two miles back to our new hotel (we appear to have adopted a dog), stopping for dinner at a trendy microbrewery called Bandido Brewing. We are the oldest in there by a good 30 years. We are served by a girl with green hair and multiple piercings. The food and beer are very good, but we feel terribly out of place.
Accommodation – Kinde House
Our new hotel, Kinde House; a very pleasant B&B on a hill overlooking central Quito. The pro – it’s offers a great view of the city from the rooftop terrace. The con – you have to walk up a steep hill to reach it.
Quito Day 3
Breakfast is included at Kinde House. This morning, it is a tasty but weirdly disjointed mix of scrambled egg, a cheese toastie, an empanada, onion chutney, butter and jam. What are we supposed to do with the butter and jam? Dip the empanada in it? Spread it on the cheese toastie? Or maybe mix it with the scrambled egg?
Tren de los Volcanes
Today, we are going on the Tren de los Volcanes. This tourist train follows a 50 mile route to El Boliche and, it claims, gives you the opportunity to see 15 volcanoes along the way.
There aren’t any passenger trains in Ecuador; the taxi driver doesn’t even know where the station is, and tries to drop us at the headquarters of Tren Ecuador. Luckily, a passing motor cyclist explains his error, we get back in the taxi and follow the motorcyclist to Chimbacalle Station.
We board our train and set off, flanked by a team of motor cycle outriders to keep the tracks clear. We have only been able to book two aisle seats; an Ecuadorean family has booked all the window seats (a family of six have booked six window seats). However, once the train is underway, the family move to sit together and a pair of seats frees up.
After 45 minutes, we reach the outskirts of Quito and pass our first volcano, the active volcano of Atacazo. Next, through a eucalyptus forest before passing Pasochoa; a horseshoe shaped volcano which has erupted sideways.
Tambillo
We stop for 30 minutes in the village of Tambillo for no discernible reason other than to bring tourism to the area. I show willing by buying some snacks and a train shaped fridge magnet.
El Boliche
After three hours, we reach our destination, El Boliche, where we have two hours of ‘activities’. We are taken on a guided tour by an eco warrior who loves the sound of his own voice. It takes over an hour to follow a 320 metre trail. I zone out of what he’s saying, but basically he loves nettles and hates cow poo. He stings himself a few times to prove the point. Once we reach the end of the trail; a sacred tree, it’s a case of ‘exit through the gift shop’. For an hour.
We are disappointed to discover that on the ‘Volcano Train’, which advertises itself with pictures of Cotopaxi and takes you to the foot of Cotopaxi, you don’t actually see Cotopaxi. However, unlike PeruRail, Tren Ecuador haven’t cloned our credit card (yet)!
On the return journey, it rains and cloud descends so visibility is minimal. Now our ‘volcano experience’ is reduced to sitting on a retired Spanish commuter train crawling towards Quito with nothing to do except watch the outriders struggle on the wet cobbles.
Machachi
We stop for two hours at Machachi Station in the middle of nowhere. There’s the station, a café and a fancy ranch. It’s pouring with rain, soaking the poor dancers who are there to greet us. We have some lunch at the station, which leaves over an hour to kill aimlessly wandering round by the train, which finally departs 20 minutes behind schedule.
Someone has helpfully tied some alpaca to the train tracks for a touristy photo op. Once the alpaca have bee removed from the lines, we return to Quito station and hail a taxi. I show the driver the address of the hotel and he nods and drives into town. It becomes apparent he has no idea where he’s going when he starts randomly pointing and asking aquí? every few hundred metres. The old man loses patience and we get out of the taxi and walk the final mile.
Note: All trains routes in Ecuador are currently temporarily closed, but hopefully it will soon be possible to enjoy this journey again.
Dinner at Cafe San Blas
We stop for dinner at Cafe san Blas; a small restaurant, specialising in pizza. It takes a while to get served, but we enjoy a beer (or two) as we watch the world pass by in the interim.
Quito Day 4
Today, we are going to the equator and a couple of equator themed attractions. It’s fiddly to reach these on public transport, so we have booked a tour. On the way there, it rains so heavily it’s difficult to tell if we’re driving down a road or a river. Rubbish floats past the windows when we stop at traffic lights. Luckily, it eases off before we arrive.
Museo Intiñan
First stop is the Museo Intiñan, which claims to be on the GPS equator. Here, we are given a guided tour which includes such activities as balancing an egg on a nail and trying to walk along the equator in a straight line.
This is followed by a very lengthy chocolate making demonstration, for no particular reason other than to try and flog chocolate. I get frustrated, time is passing, and we still haven’t reached the Mitad del Mundo, which is what we really came to see.
The museum is open daily from 9.30 am until 5 pm. Adult entry costs $5.
Mitad del Mundo
Finally, we continue to the Mitad del Mundo, which claims to be on the geographical equator. We only have 28 minutes here and in addition to a plethora of equator based photo ops, there are also more painted hummingbird sculptures. So we devise a strategic photography plan, split up, and run round our allocated segments as fast as possible. This is why I rarely opt for organised tours.
We get back to the bus a mere two minutes behind schedule. There was supposed to be a third stop at the cable car, but we have run out of time. The driver offers to drop us there, but we will have to make our own way back to town (which was kind of the point of booking a tour). As we can’t see the mountain for cloud, we decline and return to Quito.
It is possible to reach here by public transport, but it requires taking two buses (change at Ofelia station). Alternatively, there are a whole host of travel agents offering day trips. We went with Go4Shuttle who charge $14.
The Mitad del Mundo is open daily from 9 am until 5 pm (6 pm at weekends). Adult entry costs $5.
TelefériQo
As mentioned above, we didn’t visit the TelefériQo due to poor timekeeping and poor visibility. Cloud cover permitting, this gondola ride is one of the world’s highest aerial lifts. It takes passengers on a 10 minute, 2.5 km ride up the side of Pichincha Volcano for spectacular views over Quito. Once at the top (4100 m above sea level), it might be possible to hike to the volcano summit (a 4 km, 5 hour round-trip). Check the safety situation before attempting the climb.
The cable car runs daily from 10 am until 6 pm (8 am until 7 pm at weekends). Entry for a foreign adult costs $9.
Dinner at El Pollo Forastero
For dinner, we go to El Pollo Forastero. It’s a rather basic looking chicken shop, but busy with locals, which we figure is a good thing. We order pollo y papas (chicken and potatoes) and get served chicken and boiled potato. The chicken is good, but the boiled potato is a disappointment – who even heard of serving chicken without chips?
Quito Day 5
Hop on Hop off Bus
Today, we are doing something we rarely do; taking the Hop on Hop off Quito Tour Bus. This open top double decker bus follows a route round the city’s major attractions, stopping at 6 locations. It runs at hourly intervals, with the first bus departing UN Boulevard at 9 am and the last at 4 pm. A one day adult bus ticket costs $15.
We board the bus at San Francisco, which we visited earlier in the week.
El Panecillo
The bus then heads up El Panecillo; a small hill with an aluminium statue of the Virgin Mary on top. It’s an interesting journey in a double decker bus, navigating the narrow, winding streets with their low hanging electric cables.
The Virgen de el Panecillo, which is taller than Rio’s Christ the Redeemer, sits atop a dragon on a globe. You can climb to a viewing platform, which runs around the globe, for a 360 degree view across the city and beyond.
The monument is open from 9 am until 5 pm (9 pm at weekends). Entry costs $1. Note: At most stops, the bus just drops off/picks up passengers. However, at El Panecillo, the stop is 30 minutes in duration, which gives you sufficient time to scale the monument and continue on the same bus.
La Carolina Park
We reboard our bus and travel through the old city to the United Nations Boulevard stop. From here, we walk to La Carolina Park; a large park with sports pitches, a running track, a lake and the Botanical Garden.
Botanical Garden
Inside the park is the Botanical Garden. The garden has several zones, with native habitats including cloud forest, wetlands, an orchid greenhouse, an Amazonian greenhouse and a Japanese garden. There’s even a greenhouse full of carnivorous plants.
We spend a long time in the Botanical Garden; my favourite parts are the Carnivore Collection and the Japanese Garden, which contains a collection of over 100 Bonsai trees.
The Botanical Garden is open daily between 10 am and 3.30 pm (4 pm at weekends). Adult entry costs $4.
As we have walked the length of the park, we opt to reboard the bus at La Mariscal. We had intended to get off at again at the Artisan Market for some souvenir shopping, but it starts raining and we’re weary. The last stop in the circuit is Basilica, which we also visited earlier in the week.
Dinner at El Terruño
We return to our starting point and have dinner at El Terruño; a restaurant in a colonial courtyard in the old city. I order a salchipan (sausage sandwich) and the old man goes, as always, for the biggest thing on the menu.
- Trip taken: March 2019
- Updated: April 2025
I hope you found the above information useful. For guides to more destinations in the 50+ countries we have visited, check out my full list of Independent Travel Itineraries here.
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