The 10 Best Things to Do in Ecuador without The Galapagos
Ecuador is incredibly underrated and, often times, travelers only give this beautiful and exciting South American country a few days (usually to visit the Galapagos Islands) or skip it all together. Sadly, these travelers are missing out on Ecuador’s unique Andean culture and incredibly diverse ecosystems/landscapes. In this article, we share with you our favorite things to do and places to explore in Ecuador.
And yes…that paragraph started and ended with "Ecuador.”
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The epic landscape one experiences along the Quilotoa Loop Trail.
Hike to the Refugio at Cotopaxi
The prominent Cotopaxi Volcano of Andean Ecuador.
Cotopaxi is an impressively massive cone shaped volcano that can be seen from many places in Ecuador, including Quito and Quilotoa. Marveling at its majesty from afar becomes quite the tease after just a few days and, naturally, you’re going to want to visit.
The best way to visit Cotopaxi is to schedule a car or shuttle to pick you up from your hostel in the morning and drive you the 1-3 hours to the Cotopaxi Refugio trailhead parking lot. Check with your hostel host to get this coordinated. Along the way, you’ll have excellent views of the volcano and surrounding national park.
From the parking lot, start your ascent toward the Refugio, which is only 0.6 miles (~1 km) away, but 1,200 ft in elevation gain. The parking lot is around 14,750 ft and the Refugio is at 15,950 ft. Meaning, this will be one of the hardest half miles you’ve ever walked as the air becomes increasingly thinner with each step.
MAKE SURE YOU BRING PLENTY OF WATER and a snack to avoid altitude sickness. Though, to be completely honest, it may be unavoidable for some people.
For those brave (crazy) enough, you can climb the final 3,500 ft to the top of Cotopaxi from the Refugio, though you will need special equipment and a guide to get there. If you’re only feeling slightly brave (but not too loco), you can hike another 0.4 miles with 800 ft elevation gain to the nearest glacier.
Bonus Adventure: ask your tour operator if you can rent bikes to ride down the mountain from the parking lot. We did this and it was SUPER fun! Fair warning, the road is pretty bumpy on the way down so if you’re not semi-familiar with downhill mountain biking, maybe skip this.
Typical Pricing:
For transportation to Refugio parking lot: $45
For transportation to Refugio parking lot + biking down the mountain: $45 - $55
Hike the Quilotoa Loop and/or Rim Trail
Beautiful and blue Quilotoa Lake in Andean Ecuador.
Quilotoa is a ridiculously beautiful Caldera (volcano crater lake) about 3 hours from Quito. Many blogs rave about the necessity of doing the three day loop between surrounding Andean villages - which is a great idea, if you have three days available. But, you can still feel exceptionally accomplished, exhausted, sunburnt, stunned, or whatever you want by doing the rim hike which takes anywhere from 3-7 hours depending on your speed and fitness. From the rim, you can take in the incredible landscape surrounding Quilotoa Lake.
Also, we’d highly suggest staying in one of the village hostels near Quilotoa to get the full Andean cultural experience. Without a doubt, a trip to Quilotoa is as much a cultural experience as it is a journey to see a spectacular natural wonder. You will see no shortage of traditional Andean garments as most of the local communities still proudly wear their colorful hats, scarves, and shawls.
Chill Out and Snorkel at Los Frailes Playa
Los Frailes, pristine Ecuadorian white sand beach.
Los Frailes is one of the most pristine beaches in Ecuador. This white sand cove is perfect for chilling out, long warm walks, snorkeling, and body surfing. Shielding either side of the beach are large beautiful cliffs. Also, the reef on the north side of the beach is lively with colorful fish. Don’t forget your snorkel!
Explore the Amazon Jungle
Hanging out in bungalow hammocks between Amazon rainforest excursions.
If you're going to visit the Amazon Jungle in Ecuador, do it right. Take a tour out of Coca and stay in one of the eco-lodges. Using Coca as a launching point is a bit further from Quito compared to other options (such as Tena). But, if exploring primary jungle forests and seeing a crap load of wildlife are your goals, it’s well worth the extra distance.
Bird watching above the Amazon rainforest canopy.
If you've already done some research about Amazon tours out of Coca, you probably noticed that places like Sacha Lodge or the Napo Wildlife Center charge A LOT of money to do a multi-day tours. Unfortunately, multi-day Amazon rainforest tours aren't cheap. However, you can certainly do it for much less than these lodges are charging. For instance, we did a tour with Amazon Travel Tours, which was 1/4 the price of Sacha Lodge and probably a lot more fun in my opinion (more adventure oriented and less family oriented).
Nothing was sterile about our tour and we learned a ton about the Ecuadorian Amazon’s indigenous communities from an incredibly knowledgeable local guide. We saw SO many tropical birds (such as parrots, toucans, macaws, and many more) and a variety of other animals (such as 4 different species of monkey, land tortoises, piranhas, frogs, caimans, and a whole bunch of weird insects). And, kind of terrifyingly, there were bullet ants! If you don't know what those are, look it up. We also learned about the plants in the forest and how the indigenous people have leaned to use them.
Explore Quito
Capturing the mountainous Quito city-scape.
Quito, the capital city of Ecuador, is seated at 9500 ft (2896 meters) above sea level in the Andes. Surrounding mountains make Quito picturesque from pretty much everywhere. The main neighborhood you must check out in Quito is the Historical Center. Here, you can definitely feel the colonial Spanish influence on the area. Cobblestone streets, beautiful courtyards, incredible churches and European-style architecture are some of the highlights in this district of the city.
While in Quito, make sure you ride the tram to the Telefurica, which climbs to roughly 13,000 ft (3962 m) above sea level. From here, you can either just enjoy the sweeping view (including Cotopaxi if the clouds are cooperating) or start climbing toward the peak of Pachincha Volcano, topping out at 15,696 ft (4784 meters).
Lastly, Quito makes an excellent launching point for visiting some other spectacular places like Cotopaxi, Quilotoa, and Mindo. All are within 3 hours of the city and you can easily find a tour to each of them from your hostel/hotel.
Scuba Diving at Puerto Lopez
The town of Puerto Lopez isn’t much to write home about, but the diving sure is! The reefs are heathy and strong on Ecuador’s southern coast. Our dive at Los Ahorcados gifted us with some of the most colorful and diverse coral and fish I’ve ever seen! We dove with Native Diving, which we really enjoyed. Our dive master was incredibly familiar with the reef and knew where all the sea life was hanging out. Definitely recommendable.
Hike through the Cloud Forest in Mindo
Riding the canopy rail car at the Mindo cloud forest.
Mindo is a chill town that Ecuadorian locals visit for the weekend. The town is situated in a valley surrounded by mountains covered by cloud forests. If you only have one day, make sure you check out the Tarabita y Santuario Cascadas, which can be accessed by the Tarabita Cable Car. This tram carries you from the mountain canopy on one side of a cloud forest canyon to the other, reaching hundreds of feet above the canopy floor in the center of the ride.
The hike to the Cascades can be challenging as there is a lot of up and down, but totally worth it, especially if you’re obsessed with refreshing waterfall pools (like me).
Lunch Recommendation: There’s great food in Mindo! I recommend visiting Venezuelan Soul Food! They have ridiculously good arepas for only $2.
Hostel Recommendation: We really enjoyed our time at Cinnamon Hostel, which is owned and graciously hosted by a young woman and feels like a bungalow oasis in the middle of the jungle (though it’s right in town).
Visit Cascada (Waterfall) Diablo
The verdant view from under the Cascada Diablo in Baños, Ecuador.
A journey to this powerful and enchanting waterfall gifts you with a hike through Andean Cloud forests, a suspension bridge crossing over a rushing river, a scramble through a cave (optional), beautiful canyon and mountain views, a chance eat fresh trucha (trout) and a mystifying chance to witness the backside of this roaring Diablo.
Amazingly, all of this only costs $2 (except the trucha)! That’s not a bad price to totally up your Instagram game.
From Banos, you can get here three different ways, bus ($1 per person), taxi ($10), or bikes (can be rented for the entire day for $8 at MTS Adventure).
Canyoning in Baños
Repelling down a canyon near Baños, Ecuador.
If you’ve never been canyoning before, it’s essentially finding your way from the top to the bottom of a canyon, usually following cascading waterfalls, by all means necessary. This means repelling down waterfalls, jumping off rocks and cliffs into deep pools, and trudging through raging streams.
Banos has no shortage of canyoning, considering there are a bagillion (real number) waterfalls and rivers to choose from.
We suggest booking with Geo Tours. From our experience, their gear is in excellent condition and they have expert guides that speak good English (important for safety purposes - believe it or not, canyoning requires a little safety knowledge). With Geo Tours, you have two options, Cashaurco Canyon for $60 and Chamana Canyon for $30. These are pretty standard rates for most tour agencies in Banos. Though a bit pricey, I’d highly recommend doing the Cashaurco Canyon. On this tour, you get to repeal from two large waterfalls as well as do a bunch of cliff jumping into jungle pools. If you like wet/extreme adventures, this is a must do. The other tour is cool too, but not as long and a lot less cliff jumping. If you decide to go with Geo Tours, you can get a 10% discount on canyoning, rafting, biking, and rock climbing by emailing them the promo code FTVGEO.
Swing Over the Edge at Casa de Arbol
Swinging off the edge of the earth at Casa de Arbol in Ecuador.
Casa de Arbol is the famous and original tree house swing “on the edge of the world” you’ve probably heard about a bunch of times before going to Banos. Quite frankly, it’s lovely. There is no denying that. The view of Andean Cloud Forests and Turginuahua Volcano from the swings is breathtaking and the slope beyond your “launch pad” really makes it seem like you’re about to swing over edge of a cliff (spoiler, you’re not actually - just a steep slope) so you’ll totally look badass on Instagram. Also, there are seatbelts to ensure your safety.
The price: $1
Tip: if you’re over standing in lines at Casa De Arbol or just want another perspective during your swing sesh, about 100 feet further down the road from the entrance of Casa De Arbol, there is another “extreme swing” spot with a beautiful view. It rarely has a line and, quite frankly, is a much more exhilarating swing since you actually kind of swing off a cliff (it’s not a real cliff - more like a platform that extends over the mountain slope, making the drop below your swing path quite large).
How to get there:
Bus: $1, each way, there are only a few buses each day so check the schedule.
Taxi: $10 - don’t expect to find a taxi at the top. Either bus, hitchhike, or hike back (4 hours of walking).
Hitting the less crowded side of the swing scene in Baños.
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