The Sierra (Quito & the Volcanoes)6 places
- Quito & the Avenue of VolcanoesA high Andean capital with one of the best-preserved colonial old towns in the Americas, sitting almost on the equator…
- VilcabambaA small town in a southern Andean valley that got famous in the 1970s for the improbable ages its residents claimed to…
- Baños de Agua SantaA small town wedged in a gorge below an active volcano, where the thermal water is hot enough to bathe in at dawn and a…
- Cuenca & El CajasAn Andean colonial city at 2,560 m that one well-travelled visitor ranked third-best in the world behind Buenos Aires…
- MindoA cloud-forest village two hours down the mountain from Quito, in one of the densest concentrations of bird species…
- The Quilotoa LoopThree days walking between Andean villages at 3,500 m, sleeping in a different family's hostel each night, and on the…
The Amazon (the Oriente)1 place
- The Ecuadorian AmazonEcuador's compact but staggeringly biodiverse slice of the Amazon, the "Oriente," where a short flight from the Andes…
The Coast1 place
- Puerto López & Isla de la PlataA working fishing town on Ecuador's Pacific coast where you can see blue-footed boobies, snorkel a reef and watch…
The Galápagos1 place
- The GalápagosThe islands that gave Darwin the idea of evolution, a volcanic archipelago far out in the Pacific where the wildlife…