Activities in Ecuador
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FEATURED
Full Day Tour to Inca Ruins of Ingapirca with Lunch
7 hours (Departs Cuenca, Ecuador)
by Viator
Venture from Cuenca to Ingapirca for a guided tour of the largest Inca ruins in Ecuador. Learn about the historical significance of this temple complex as you…Not LP reviewed
from USD$49.99 - All activities
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Gulliver Tours
Well regarded operator offering trekking, climbing, mountain-biking and horseback-riding trips in the Andes. Excellent prices, daily departures. Does Cotopaxi, Ilinizas, Quilotoa and more. Most daytrips cost around US$30 to around US$45 per person. Five- to seven-day Cotopaxi trips with acclimatization programs are based out of its Hostería PapaGayo.
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Language Courses
Studying Spanish is the perfect excuse for a prolonged stay in Quito. There are more than 80 Spanish schools in Quito, with classes for all levels. Courses can last anywhere from a couple of days to months or more. Most schools offer one-on-one instruction and can arrange accommodations with local families. Make sure you get what you want by visiting several schools before deciding. Rates for private lessons vary. Some charge an inscription fee.
Recommended schools include: Beraca, Bipo & Toni's, Ecole Idiomas, Guayasamín Spanish School, San Francisco Language Institute and Vida Verde.
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TelefériQo
For spectacular views over Quito’s mountainous landscape, hop aboard the telefériQo, a multimillion-dollar sky tram that takes passengers on a 2.5km ride up the flanks of Volcán Pichincha to the top of Cruz Loma. Once you’re at the top (a mere 4100m), you can hike to the summit of Rucu Pichincha (4680m), an approximately three-hour hike for fit walkers. Don’t attempt the hike to Rucu Pichincha until you’ve acclimatized in Quito for a couple days.
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Misahullí Tours
Carlos Lastra runs one- to four-day tours on the Upper Río Napo for $35 per day. He’s experienced and well respected. Located on the plaza.
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Instituto Superíor de Español
Instituto Superíor de Español receives high marks from travelers. It can also arrange family homestays.
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Expediciones Julio Verne
Expediciones Julio Verne is a respected Ecuadorian-Dutch-owned, full-service operator offering affordable, two-day summit trips to Chimborazo and other peaks, as well as to the Oriente and Galápagos. The company arranges guided hikes, rents out climbing and hiking gear and offers clear information without pressuring customers. It also offers downhill mountain biking on Chimborazo (their routes are good for kids about ten years and up) and tons of interesting tours in the region.
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Gulliver
Well-regarded operator offering hiking, climbing, mountain-biking and horseback-riding trips in the Andes. Excellent prices, daily departures; does Cotopaxi, Ilinizas, Quilotoa and more. Most day trips cost $30 to $45 per person. Five- to seven-day Cotopaxi trips with acclimatization programs are based out of its Hostería PapaGayo and cost $360 to $450 and $500 respectively.
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Mamá Kinua Cultural Center
A community tourism project offering tours and homestays in nearby indigenous communities ($48 per person per night; two persons minimum). You can participate in all kinds of activities, including folkloric music, cooking, farming, medicinal plant demonstrations, and cheese-making. All revenue goes to a community health network. No English is spoken.
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Diceny Viajes
Travelers give kudos to this guide service run by native otavaleña Zulay Saravino, who helped start Otavalo’s first tour agency. Knowledgeable, bilingual guides lead tours to various villages to learn about crafts, music and local traditions. Stay in guest rooms (rooms per night $14) in Zulay’s own home in the small village of Quinchuquí.
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Merazonia Foundation
For folks who have some time and a love of animals, the Merazonia Foundation, a refuge for injured rainforest animals just outside of Mera, offers volunteer opportunities with their projects rescuing and protecting birds, mammals and other creatures. They have facilities with composting toilets and hot showers.
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José & Two Dogs
Runs horse-riding tours. Horse rentals cost around US$5 per hour or around US$35 per day. Many half- or full-day trips start with a long jeep ride out of town, and the actual riding time is short. Inquire carefully to get what you want.
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Neotropic Turis Tours
Neotropic runs the wonderful Cuyabeno Lodge in the Reserva Producción Faunística Cuyabeno. A four-day trip costs around US$200 to around US$290 per person. Also are excursions to Peru via the Marañon River.
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Full Day Tour to Inca Ruins of Ingapirca with Lunch
7 hours (Departs Cuenca, Ecuador)
by Viator
Venture from Cuenca to Ingapirca for a guided tour of the largest Inca ruins in Ecuador. Learn about the historical significance of this temple complex as you…Not LP reviewed
from USD$49.99 -
Stay In Touch
For excellent one-hour, full-body massages ($25) and herbal facials ($20), make an appointment or drop in to Stay In Touch, owned by an Ecuadorian-American couple.
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Ecomontes Tour
Offers day trips on Saturdays and Wednesdays. Trips include visits to a bizcocho (biscuit) factory in Cayambe and the Peguche Falls.
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Dracaena
Offers four- to eight-day tours of Cuyabeno that have received excellent reviews from travelers. Five-day tours are $200 per person.
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Happy Gringo
A fairly new operator that has received numerous recommendations from travelers for its full range of trips and tours.
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Bipo & Toni's Language Course
Runs language courses.
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Diving
Not surprisingly for a place whose underwater habitat resembles a well-stocked aquarium, scuba diving in the Galápagos is world class. The conditions aren't suitable for beginners because of strong currents, sometimes murky visibility and cold temperatures. When the water is warm there's not much of a current so it's also a little murky (January to March); there is better visibility but colder water temperatures from July to October.
Besides an array of tropical fish there are plenty of whale sharks, hammerheads, manta rays and even sea horses to be seen. Most live-aboard boats go to Wolf and Darwin, northwest of the major islands where there's a large number of…
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Walking
Baños has some great hiking. The tourist office provides a crude but useful map showing some of the trails around town.
The walk down to Río Pastaza is easy and popular. Just behind the sugarcane stalls by the bus station, a short trail leads to the Puente San Francisco, the bridge that crosses the river. You can continue on trails up the other side as far as you want. Going south on Maldonado takes you to a path that climbs to Bellavista, where a white cross stands high over Baños. The path then continues to the settlement of Runtún, some two hours away. The views are outstanding. You can then loop around and back down to Baños, ending up at the southern end of JL Mera.…
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Jungle Trips
Loads of jungle trips from Baños are advertised, but not all guides are experienced.
Three- to seven-day jungle tours cost about around US$30 to around US$50 per person per day, depending on the destination (there is usually a three- or four-person minimum). Baños is always full of travellers and is a good town in which to organize a group if you are not already with one. Most trips now go through Quito. Check out Rainbow Expeditions (274 2957, 09-895 7786; rainbowexpeditions2005@hotmail.com; Alfaro at Martínez). Owned by Germán Shacay, a member of the Shuar indigenous community from the southern Oriente. It's an extremely well-run operation with interesting trips into…
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Cycling
On the second and last Sunday of every month, the entire length of Avenida Amazonas and most of the old town are closed to cars, and loads of peddlers take to the street for the bimonthly ciclopaseo. The entire ride, which you can peddle part or all of, stretches from the airport, through the old town and into the southern reaches of Quito.
Local mountain-biking companies rent bikes and offer excellent tours including one-day rides through the páramo (Andean grasslands) of Parque Nacional Cotopaxi; down-hill descents; trips that incorporate a stop at Papallacta hot springs; two-day trips to Cotopaxi and Chimborazo; and two-day trips to Cotopaxi and Laguna Quilotoa.…
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Guacamayo Tours
Guacamayo Tours is owned by an Ecuadorian/New Zealand couple. The company arranges tours to Río Muchacho Organic Farm and offers fascinating ecocity tours, where travelers can learn about the grassroots community projects (organic shrimp farming, environmental education in schools, mangrove replanting and more) that have made Bahía a model for sustainable development. Three-hour tours take in a reforestation project, followed by a visit to the waterfront via ecotaxi (bicycle taxi) and a stop at Ecopapel, a paper-recycling center where discarded paper is combined with fruit and vegetable fibers to make lovely handcrafted paper products. Guacamayo also organizes a number…
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Hiking
Quito's new telefériQo takes passengers up to Cruz Loma (4100m) from where you can hike to the top of jagged Rucu Pichincha (about 4680m). Beyond the rise of Cruz Loma and past a barbed-wire fence (which no one seems to pay any attention to), well-marked trails lead to Rucu Pichincha. It's approximately three hours to the top, and some scrambling is required. Don't attempt this hike if you've just arrived in Quito; allow yourself a couple days' acclimatization.
Before the telefériQo went in, climbing Rucu Pichincha was dangerous due to armed robberies, but that danger seems to have disappeared entirely. It's easy to assess from the top of the telefériQo, and you can…
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Surfing
Surfers tend to be an adventurous bunch and obstacles like inaccessibility and sea lions usually aren't enough to deter them. There are several good surf breaks near Puerto Ayora itself including La Ratonera and Bazán near the Charles Darwin Research Station beach. If hauling your board a few kilometers is no problem Tortuga Bay has several breaks.
An hour or so by boat takes you to Punta Blanca and further north to Cerro Gallina, Las Palmas Chica and Las Palmas Grande, considered to be three of the best breaks in the Galápagos. There are also several breaks off the west side of Isla Baltra. Stop by Gravity Surf (Av Charles Darwin) in Puerto Ayora for more information.
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