Compare Backbone of Ecuador - Andean Adventure by Adventure Unbound vs Basic Ecuador by Gray Line Ecuador

Day 1: Welcome to Ecuador

Meals: Dinner

Accommodation: Hacienda Rumiloma

Custom Trip Note: Below is our most popular Andean itinerary in Ecuador, however, we can customize this trip at every turn to fit your availability, trip preference, activities, budget, lodging preferences or any other reason. Please call us at 800-451-6034 to customize a trip.

Arrival in Quito, meet & greet at the airport and transfer to your hotel for overnight.

Day 2: Quito and Mitad del Mundo

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Accommodation: Hacienda Rumiloma

A tasty breakfast will be followed by exploration of the busy squares and streets of the biggest historical urban centres in the entire Americas.  You will access its key churches including the attractive Cathedral, grandiose ¨La Compañía¨ and archetypal San Fransisco. These are custodians of an amazing heritage of many cultures and ethnicities. Their interiors (pulpits and altars) are largely covered with gold and contain immeasurable collections of sacred art.

The end of your colonial history visit culminates on Panecillo hillside which has incredible views of modern as well as ancient areas of this metropolis which is bound by the undulating Andean hills and eclipsed by the impressive Pichincha Volcano.

Lunch will be served at a superb restaurant within the city after which you will tour the imposing monument which is positioned at 0º 0´ 0´´ latitude thus providing a precious and unique chance to overlap the southern and northern hemispheres. Eventually, the cheerful “Intiñan” museum will host you and give you the opportunity to carry out some stimulating experiments which can only happen on the authentic equatorial line.

Day 3: Otavalo Market

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Accommodation: Hacienda Rumiloma

The hotel will provide breakfast after which you will visit Otavalo Indigenous market. It is renowned for many textiles of various colors. Take your time and look for crafts, arts and souvenirs of different kinds. Later you will tour a dead volcano called San Pablo Lagoon or the Cuicocha Lake which towers over Cotacachi, a town famed for beautiful leatherwork. Your journey back to Quito takes place at night.

Day 4: Quito to Cotapaxi

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Accommodation : Hacienda San Agustin de Callo

This morning will witness you travelling south to Cotopaxi National Park which is found along the Pan-American Highway via the renowned avenue of volcanoes. You will arrive at the gate of the park, drive to Limpiopungo lagoon before proceeding on foot to the shelter of the volcano, where you will get the most stunning view of the gorge. The Inca Hacienda is your next step. You will drive to this facility in the afternoon for both dinner and accommodation for the night.

Day 5: Cotapaxi to Baños

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Accommodation: Luna Runtun

Baños town awaits you after breakfast. This urban centre is renowned for the “Waterfalls Route”, that also includes “Pailón del Diablo” and the chance to trek to the great waterfall and partake of the “tarabita” or cable way. A country bus (¨chiva¨) will be your mode of transport to the city’s view point.

Day 6: Baños, Chimborazo, Riobamba

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Accommodation: Hacienda Abraspungo

On this morning you will tour Baños town to view handicrafts before driving to Riobamba city. Along the way, you have the chance to see a Salasaca community and understand the process they followed in making their famed tapestries.

During the morning, visit Baños town to see handicrafts and then drive to Riobamba city. En route you will have the opportunity to visit a Salasaca community to see how they made the famous tapestries. You will spend the night in the Riobamba area.

Day 7: Devil's Nose Luxury Train

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Accommodation: Mansion Alcazar

Today breakfast will be followed by the journey to the train station at “Alausi”. Here you will begin the journey called ‘Devils’ Nose’ via the mountains. You will find no steeper railroad on the globe than this one which was finalized in 1902. It is a genuine technical work of art! The train will meander down the track and ‘Nariz del Diablo’ stretch or the Devil’s Nose at a hundred meters elevation at a walking speed. You will then take private transport from Alausi to the gorgeous Cuenca city. You will stop over at Ingapirca, which in Quechua means “wall rocks of the Inca”. This is the most significant and best conserved Inca ruins within Ecuador. You have the opportunity to roam around the impressive site and tour the local museum.

Day 8: Cuenca City Tour

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Accommodation: Mansion Alcazar

This morning will find you exploring the imperial city which has craft and art shops, churches and a stunning flower market. You will find all these features in old impressive houses within a neighborhood which in 1999 was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Cuenca is regarded as the capital city of Ecuador’s craft and art industry. Moreover, you can purchase embroidery, baskets, ceramics and leather goods in the city or its rural outskirts.

Gualaceo and Chordeleg towns are you destination in the afternoon giving you the chance to see the biggest Ecuadorian Orchid farm. Create time to purchase traditional handiworks before going back to the hotel for the night.

Day 9: Cajas National Park

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Accommodation: Hilton Colon Guayaquil

After breakfast, take a private guided transfer to Guayaquil visiting “El Cajas” National Park, renowned for its lakes, flora and fauna.

Day 10: Departure

Meals: Breakfast

Breakfast included in the hotel, private transfer to the airport of Guayaquil for your return flight or your extension to the Galapagos Islands or somewhere else in Latin America.

Day 1:

Transfer Airport / Hotel

Day 2:

Meals: Breakfast

Departure from our designated hotels in Quito through the Pan-American North Highway until arriving to Cayambe, where the passengers will have the opportunity to taste the delicious “Bizcochos de Cayambe”, a type of cracker or bread baked in a clay oven (greatly paired with local cheese or caramel sauce).  After admiring Lake San Pablo, we will arrive at the Otavalo Market, the largest in America, where the indigenous people of the area, known as ""Otavalos"", one of Ecuador's most recognized ethnic groups, make and sell their textiles and handicrafts.

Passengers may choose between to stay in this area and enjoy more time from the market and our bus will pick them up at the end of the tour (they will not have the visit to Cotacachi and Cuicocha), or continue with the journey to the town of Cotacachi, recognized for leather clothing and crafts. On the way to Cotacachi, we will visit an andean instrument workshop ""Ñanda Mañachi"" located in the area of Peguche, to spend some special moments with the local people and understand the Andean culture.

In Cotacachi you have enough time to visit the village, the shops of leather goods and free time for lunch, (not included).

Later we will visit the Ecological Reserve where the Cuicocha lagoon is located, inside the crater of the Cotacachi Volcano, which originated after a volcanic explosion thousands of years ago. And if the weather permits it will be possible to make a walk by the lagoon, that is to say sailing in the crater of the volcano in small boats (with additional cost).

Bus will wait for 10 minutes in Otavalo to pick up passengers that stayed there, and after that will return to Quito and their respective hotels or starting point.

Day 3:

Meals: Breakfast

1914 Original trolley city tour of Quito + Northern and south Hemisphere Experience in the Middle of the World

We will visit the historic center, the largest and best preserved in South America, in one of our original trolleys, which are a replica of the trams that circulated in Quito in the last century.

Visit to the Basilica del Voto Nacional Church, where we will make a brief stop for an explanation of its facade, to later move towards the Panecillo viewpoint, an iconic place in the city, renowned for its beauty, and where is a giant statue of the ""Winged Virgin"", where you can admire a beautiful landscape of colonial and modern Quito. Later we will continue to the Plaza de San Francisco, one of the representative places of the city and full of history, from where we will walk to the Plaza Grande, historical and political center of the city, surrounded by innumerable attractions including: the Cathedral, the Palace of Government, the Archbishop's Palace and the La Compañía church.

We continue our tour meeting the traditional La Ronda neighborhood, in whose romantic setting we can find workshops where our visitors will learn with a group of authentic artisans, how their works are elaborated, and trades of yesteryear that keep alive the cultural traditions of this charming city. (Entrance to churches are not included).

We will stop at the “Zona Rosa” of the city, approximately an hour and a half to have free time for lunch (not included), and later we continue with our excursion “Northern and south Hemisphere Experience in the Middle of the World”.

We go to the ""Middle of the World City"", where you can see the monument that divides the northern hemisphere from the southern hemisphere of the planet. It was built during the XVII century when a French Expedition defined the precise location of the equatorial line that divides the world and it is a must-see place for those who visit Quito. Includes entrance to the Middle of the World complex ,where you can live experiences that defy the laws of physics and occur only in this part of the world. After visiting this privileged place and registering it in your passport, you will always see Ecuador and the Middle of the World in a different way.

Day 4: Excursion through the Avenue of the Volcanoes

Meals: Breakfast

Departure from Quito through the “Avenue of the Volcanoes”admiring the beautiful Andean landscape this is a great opportunity to take pictures, brief stop at the Cotopaxi National Park (entrance is not included), arrival to Riobamba and accommodation in a typical hacienda of the region.

*If it is not operating the Cotopaxi National Park due to volcanic activity, you will visit the Quilotoa volcano and the unique turquoise lagoon situated in his crater.

* Does not include access to the Cotopaxi National Park.

Day 5:

Meals: Breakfast

After breakfast departure to the train station located in Alausí. From her we´ll enjoy a train ride towards the famous “Devil’s Nose”, a magnificent work incrusted in the Andes, (train ride takes approx. 2 hours). After the train ride visit to the Ingapirca Inca Ruins, the biggest Inca archaeological complex in Ecuador from the XV and XVI centuries, (ticket to the complex not included). Arrive to the City of Cuenca to spend the night. 

** Train Operation is subject to change

Day 6: City Tour Cuenca

Meals: Breakfast

We will travel through the city visiting the Calderon Park, the New and the Old Cathedral, the Flower Market, Modern Arts Museum. We continue the tour to the Homero Ortega Panama Hat factory to observe the complete process of manufacturing. We will also observe the “broken bridge” and finally visit the tourist balcony of “Turi” where we can see a panoramic view of the whole city of Cuenca. Free afternoon

Day 7: Transfer Cuenca / Guayaquil

Meals: Breakfast

We leave from Cuenca to “Cajas National Park” known for its glacial lakes and high mountain vegetation. Here we will walk through this beautiful place to see some of the lakes and primary forest. We will also visit “3 Cruses” which forms the continental water division. We will walk to observe this curious place. From this point we will begin a dramatic decline to reach the coast of Ecuador. Starting we will begin observing the Andean mountain scenery and then ending up seeing totally different vegetation of the Ecuadorian Coast with large plantations of bananas and cocoa beans. Arrival to Guayaquil.

Day 8

Meals: Breakfast

Transfer Hotel / Airport