Top Guayaquil Tours & Vacations 2024/2025 [reviews & photos]

Guayaquil Tours & Travel Packages 2024/2025

134 Guayaquil trips. Compare tour itineraries from 38 tour companies. 147 reviews. 4.9/5 avg rating.

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Top Guayaquil Attractions & Experiences

Top Guayaquil Experiences

  • Exploring the extensive Historical Park and enjoying each hidden gem within this unique area
  • Walking along the picturesque waterfront urban renewal project Malecon 2000
  • Learning about the unique Inca history of Ecuador at the Archaeological Museum
  • Discovering the city’s extensive history of chocolate production, and tasting different varieties

Guayaquil Tours & Travel Guide

Guayaquil Attractions & Landmarks Guide

A modern, progressive, and vibrant city, Guayaquil, the “Pearl of the Pacific”, has worked hard to improve its tourist infrastructure, becoming one of Ecuador’s top tour destinations, as well as one of the top destinations in South America.

The city is full of incredible art, museums, cuisine - both modern and traditional - history, and carefully maintained green spaces which allow for the diverse native birds and other wildlife to live within the city.

This is the largest city in Ecuador, situated in the country’s south west. It is the heartbeat of Ecuador - an essential port city known as the Gateway to the Pacific. Guayaquil has been instrumental in Ecuador’s development and growth. Don’t pass up a chance to visit this exciting and historic city!  

A Chocolate Legacy

One thing, visitors will be interested to learn while exploring G, is the city’s extensive history with chocolate, also called “cacao”. Guayaquil earned the nickname “Chocolate City” over a period of 150 years after it became the world’s first port for exporting cacao.

Since the 1800s, Ecuador has been exporting this fine product, which over the years has garnered a much deserved reputation for being of the most excellent quality. This has led to a specific class designation known as “Arriba Cocoa”. This label indicates the chocolate is officially from a specific bean grown in a micro region in Ecuador, which in turn is an indicator of its quality and taste.

Much like wine, true chocolate’s character has almost every to do with where it’s grown. This fact, first and foremost dictates how it is made. As the harvesting and production process continues, other decisions are made that influence taste, but it starts with the soil.

Guayaquil’s positioning as a port city made it a powerful and important center of commerce for numerous products, but chocolate has been one of the most important since the early 19th century.

Spain’s conquistadors held coveted knowledge of the product and its qualities for nearly two centuries before the rest of the world finally tasted it as well. For over one hundred years, until the Stock Market Crash in 1929, after which the industry had great difficulty finding its feet again.

Today, the industry is once again thriving, but had been missing a key component until very recently: tourism. For some reason, chocolate tours had not been a focus for Ecuador tourism, and it’s just beginning to build this infrastructure. Many of these tours are led from Guayaquil, the original chocolate city, where you can also taste Ecuador’s many chocolate varieties.

Top things to do in Guayaquil

Guayaquil is not only historic, it’s also beautiful, walkable and fun! Allow a few days here to absorb all it has to offer, both within the city and in the surrounding area.

1. Archaeology Museum (Municipal Museum)At the center of the city, the Municipal Museum in Guayaquil is one of the most comprehensive archaeological museums in South America. With the more famous Inca legacy of Peru, it can be easy to forget that modern day Ecuador was also an important and essential Inca stronghold.  

2. Historical ParkThis unique attraction was built in 1997, in effort to convey a historically accurate portrait of old Guayaquil. One of the best parts of this park is the wildlife area, which is home to hundreds of indigenous species, many of which are endangered. Here they are protected, and visitors can observe them up close as they walk through the beautiful space.

3. WaterfrontThe Guayaquil waterfront is the perfect place to relax and meander - taking a break from active sightseeing. You may also see the Waterfront called Malecon 2000, which is the official name of the urban renewal project that led to the spectacular boardwalk along the Guayas River.

Guayaquil Reviews & Ratings

4.9/5  Excellent
147  Reviews
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Excellent
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Great
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Average
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Anonymous

Oct 2018

Provided byExodus Travels

Wonderful

Amazon to Andes involves a fair amount of bus time, but the diversity encountered is well worth it. Some exertion is required, since walks of a couple of hours at...

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Anonymous

Oct 2018

Provided byExodus Travels

Memorable trip, huge variety, breathless scenery, superb guide.

Ecuador is a very interesting country, much of it at significant altitude. In March, on day one, on the equator the temperature in Quito at over 2000 metres was on...

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Anonymous

Apr 2018

Provided byExodus Travels

Fabulous Trip

Absolutely brilliant trip. Everything I’d hoped for. Loads to see and do. Lovely country, lovely people. Interesting and varied accommodation. Great group ...

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Anonymous

Jan 2018

Provided byExodus Travels

Andes to Amazon

A great trip - to somewhere that most tourists don't visit. Fantastic scenery, lots of wildlife, loads of views of volcanoes and some quirky places to stay. Some d...

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Anonymous

Jan 2018

Provided byExodus Travels

Andes to Amazon

Gret indroduction to ecuador (Land) Amazon Jungle Great Cloud Forest only really for bird watchers. Trip to Cotopaxi would be more widely appreciated than Bell...

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