Manta Getting there & around

Getting there & away

Land

Bus

Most buses depart from the central bus terminal in front of the fishing-boat harbor in Manta. Buses to nearby Manabí towns and villages such as Montecristi ($0.30, 15 minutes) also leave from the terminal.

Trans Crucita goes hourly to Crucita ($1.50, 1½ hours). Reales Tamarindo has frequent departures to Portoviejo ($0.75, 40 minutes), Jipijapa ($1, one hour), Montañita ($5, 3½ hours), La Libertad ($6, five hours) and Quevedo ($5, four hours). Coactur goes to Pedernales ($4.60, seven hours) and Canoa ($4, 3½ to four hours). Transportes Manglaralto goes hourly to Puerto López ($2.50, 2½ hours) and Manglaralto ($6, 4½ hours).

Reina del Camino and Flota Imbabura have hourly departures to Guayaquil ($5, four hours) and Quito ($8.50, eight hours) as well as several departures for Esmeraldas ($10, 10 hours) and Ambato ($7, 10 hours).

If you want to avoid the terminal altogether, Panamericana (262 5898; Av Cuatro & Calle 12) has ejecutivo buses to Quito at 9pm and 9:45pm.

Car

You can rent cars through Localiza (262 2434; cnr Flavio Reyes & Av 21) and Budget (262 9919; Malecón de Manta & Calle 16).

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Air

Located on the Manta waterfront, past the open-air theater, is the TAME office (262 2006; Malecón de Manta). TAME has daily 30-minute flights to/from Quito ($45 one way). Monday through Saturday flights leave Quito at 7am and return at 8am from Manta, Friday and Sunday flights leave Quito at 7:15pm and return at 8:15pm from Manta. Icaro (262 7327; www.icaro.com.ec; Hotel Oro Verde tower) has a couple flights per day to Quito. You can buy tickets at the airport on the morning of the flight, but the planes are full on weekends and vacations.

The airport (262 1580) is some 3km east of Tarqui, and a taxi costs about $1.

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