bus from quito to cuenca
im flying into quito airport near mid-night on march 9th and heading on to cuenca. was thinking i would spend the night in the airport and try to catch the first flight out.but also wondering if its possible to get a long distance overnight bus at or near the new airport? i know the airport is new and that no one is very familiar yet with its operations but if anyone knows anything about buses from there, i would appreciate any information.
from what what i have found so far it looks like it was possible to catch a bus near the old airport but that may have been only buses into the city?
thanks
1
It is a mountain road between Quito and Cuenca, and there were terrible night time bus accidents just before my own trip. I flew to Cuenca instead.2
The airport is brand new, just opened last week. I'm sure the cheapest and best possible way to get from the new airport to Cuenca is to connect by bus to the Quitumbe bus terminal in the south of the city. Buses run from Quitumbe 24 hours round the clock, and long distance buses in Ecuador are ridiculously cheap.But you might have some difficulty getting advice on transport from the just opened airport on this forum. Maybe you should contact someone in Colombia, or your planned hotel in Cuenca, and ask them to find out what kind of transport is available?
3
Colombia? Why contact someone there?I would fly to Cuenca myself as the road trip is long and when we did it many years ago we were dodging falling and fallen rooks on the road and then got stuck in Chunchi due to a pea soup fog which made driving impossible and dangerous.
4
Hi,I don't know what your timescales are but this is what I would recommend:
Taxi from airport to south bus terminal, sorry don't know cost from new airport but would think about $15.
Bus from terminal to cotapaxi (volcano) $1.50 - stay one day.
Bus from cotapaxi to banos (spa town with lots lots of activities, for the adventurous) $2.50 - stay min 2 days
Bus from banos to ambarto (could spend a day there) should be under $1.00
Train from ambato to cuenca (the devils railroad, this is meant to be one of the best train journeys in the world)
If you have the time I would recommend it. Quito has a lot to offer too.
7
thanks everyone for the input. at this point it looks like ill be spending a couple of days in quito before moving on to quenca, by plane or bus. (dont mind bus rides and would enjoy the scenery. maybe even stop halfway for a day or two)interested to see how the transportation/traffic into quito works from the new airport. assuming, since im arriving late, there shouldnt be much traffic. dont want to take a bus that late so it will be interesting to see what a taxi costs.
