1 week itinerary suggestions

Greetings! We (Couple +- 40 y.o.) are planning for a little getaway week in Ecuador for the week after Semana Santa- 28.March-5.april. We are both seasoned travelers and tend to enjoy the simpler things (trip to the market, cook at the airbnb or hostel, interactions with people, etc.). We may do a short Amazon/oriente or other excursion and a few museum/shows. I lived in Ecuador 20 years ago but feel out of the loop and my partner has never been. We both speak Spanish. We would love any suggested itineraries, tips or suggested 'do not miss' highlights.
Thanks in advance!

It's not a lot of time, and you've not said where you lived in Ecuador. If you lived in Quito, then maybe you wouldn't want to spend a week doing daytrips from Quito, even if that would be a really good introduction to the country for most people.

It would be easy to spend a week combining a visit to Banos, and then a trip down to the Oriente. You'd go to Coca, and then spend hopefully 3 nights at one of the jungle lodges accessible from Coca, in the Yasuni national park, or the Huaorani reserve.

Or, if you would rather the mountains:

How about Quito for several days and then to the Quilotoa area, staying in Chugchilan and doing day hikes from there.

Jean's suggestion seems the best for me due to your lack of time.... You mentioned your other half has never been there before and things have changed a lot since you were there 20 years ago. I have noticed the changes over the past 20 years. It depends what you did 20 years ago when you lived there really....

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