If you enjoy culture, scenery and history, mixed with wildlife and opportunities to stretch your legs, then Ecuador’s compact size makes an ideal holiday. You can see a huge amount in a week or so, but Ecuador has more than enough to keep you enthralled for three weeks and more if you have the time.
Visitors on their way to the Galapagos Islands, which are owned by Ecuador, stop over on the mainland and wonder whether they should have stayed longer. The answer is resoundingly ‘yes’ – Ecuador has a huge amount to discover and explore.
One of the big surprises is the standard of accommodation, from smart hotels in Quito (Ecuador’s capital) to historic haciendas in the Andes offering high-end country lodgings, and well-managed wildlife lodges deep in the Amazon jungle. There’s good food too, from smart city restaurants offering everything from pizzas to haute cuisine in Ecuadorian flavours, to hearty meals of traditional farmhouse cooking. It’s true that spit-roasted guinea pig is a local delicacy on the streets, but if you’d rather leave them running around you’ve got plenty of other choices!
Number 1: Quito
Quito is the most fascinating city in the whole of the Andes. Its location is fabulous, it is steeped in history and culture, and it is a lively and attractive modern city too.
More or less slap bang on the equator, Quito sits in a cleft between two lines of volcanic peaks that form a dramatic backdrop and sculpt the city’s layout. At its heart is the historic city of Old Quito, founded a thousand years ago, annexed by the Incas, and overbuilt by Spanish colonialists. Its evocative narrow streets and wide squares are lined with palaces, mansions, convents and churches laden with gold. Fittingly, Quito’s Old City was the very first to be declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
Spend at least two days in Quito, longer if you can, to explore the city, visit some of its art galleries, museums and archaeological collections, and soak up the atmosphere. There are also side trips to the equator monument which straddles the line, to the bird-rich cloud forests of Mindo, to the volcanoes (including a cable car to the top of Pichincha – the one closest to the city), and to newly-discovered temples of Quito’s ancient peoples. You’ll eat well, and there is a good selection of places to stay, including some very characterful boutique-style hotels in converted mansions in the Old City.
Number 2: The Amazon
East of Quito, the Andes plunge from snow-covered peaks to the dense jungle of the Amazon basin in just 30 miles. Having lost 10,000 feet in the blink of an eye, it will be another 2,000 miles before the land descends the final 1,000 feet to the sea.
Nutrients freshly washed from the mountains mean the rainforest here is among the lushest in the whole of the Amazon and hence very rich in wildlife. You’ll see far more here than further down the river where it becomes mightier and mightier.
To include a trip to the Amazon in your Ecuador holiday just catch a short flight from Quito, take a fast boat along the Napo river and you have a choice of three excellent wildlife lodges: Napo Wildlife Centre, Sacha Lodge and La Selva – each offering a slightly different take on the wildlife experience of this remarkable area. There’s an interesting river-boat cruise too.
Number 3: The Avenue of the Volcanoes
This part of the Andes is still growing, pushing upwards along its length and bursting into chains of volcanoes either side of a long valley. Alexander von Humboldt travelled here in 1802 and coined the phrase ‘the Avenue of the Volcanoes’ to describe the succession of peaks that line the route southwards from Quito, including 15 volcanoes over 15,000ft.
Close to the city is Cotopaxi, a smooth cone rising well above the snowline above high open moorlands. You can stay near here in venerable haciendas that eked out a living from cattle and llamas, now supplemented with lodging for travellers drawn by wonderful walking and horseback riding warmed by hearty meals and log fires in the Andean air.
Chimborazo, further south, was thought to be the highest mountain in the world until the discovery of Everest. By one measure it still is. Measured from sea level Everest is higher, but Chimborazo’s peak is further from the centre of the Earth, thanks to the bulge around the equator. It towers behind the small town of Riobamba, where once a week ice chipped by axe from its high glaciers is brought down on the back of a donkey to keep the food fresh on market day.
Number 4: Cuenca
At the far end of the Avenue of the Volcanoes is the delightful city of Cuenca. Fabulously wealthy for a very brief period from the trade in quinine, it is now a centre for crafts brought in from the villages around it, each of which has a different speciality: gold and silver work, weaving, furniture-making and, above all, hats. Panama hats are made here, and only got their name because they were shipped through Panama. They should be called Cuenca hats.
Travelling the Avenue of the Volcanoes is the best way to reach Cuenca, and gives you the opportunity to stop at the Incan ruins of Ingapirca, an evocative site marking a waypoint in Incan expansion before the arrival of the Europeans.
Spend at least a day in the city itself, where there’s a small selection of good hotels, but make sure you travel out to the craft villages as well. North of town there is beautiful Andean scenery in Cajas national park, with moorlands and lakes below craggy hills, and elfin forest of red-barked trees weighed down by mosses – a mythical scene in which Bilbo Baggins might appear at any moment.
Number 5: Guayaquil and the coast
Ecuador’s second city, Guayaquil is a prosperous port. ‘Guayaquil earns the money, Quito spends it’ locals are fond of saying. Stroll along its historic waterfront, which has been creatively restored and upgraded, then climb the narrow streets among the colourful little houses on Santa Ana Hill. There’s a great view from the top.
You’ll also find river trips, wildlife excursions into mangroves, and city tours to explore Guayaquil’s colourful past.
If you’re ready for a little beach, then head out of town on the ‘Ruta del Sol’, the small road that skirts the Pacific coast. There are plenty of sleepy little beach spots (and one or two busy resorts for locals) before you arrive at the Isla de la Plata, a small island just 9km offshore. They call this the ‘poor man’s Galapagos’ and it’s easy to see why. The island is packed with seabirds, there’s excellent snorkelling in the lee of the islands, and dolphins often follow the boats that take you out to visit. It’s a very good trip indeed, but, of course, the real Galapagos Islands are so very special that they are impossible to match.
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