Ecuador lodge to lodge trekking and volcano climbing, January 2024.

We have just spent a wonderful month travelling around Ecuador with the help of Andean Trails and two of their Ecuadorian based partners.

We first became aware of what Quito and the rest of Ecuador had to offer on a trip to the Galapagos, so decided to return 9 months later.

Since the Pandemic we set ourselves the goal of hiking a few volcanoes around the World, before we get too old; having left it a little late at 58 and 62!

“The Avenue of Volcanoes” in Quito caught our attention, though this was to be our first venture into Mountaineering as well as hiking.

Our work schedule allows us to have the occasional long holiday and as such, we felt we would like to see as much of Ecuador as possible, in terms of it’s varied countryside, ecosystems, plant and bird life as well as what it’s Towns and Cities had to offer. Basically an active holiday with some challenges and cultural elements as well.  We also wanted to build in time to acclimatise for the altitude of the higher volcanoes; something my partner Nick successfully achieved, though I did struggle a little with this. Having managed to climb Cayambe, I realised that I would be too slow to reach the Antisana summit in the time allowed. However with some last minute re-arrangements, I stayed in a lovely hotel whilst Nick and our guide Robin achieved it with time to spare. Definitely Nick’s holiday highlight. As for my highlights, there were many, walking in beautiful cloud forest, summiting Cayambe, seeing some superb museums and buildings, both secular and religious as well as meeting and interacting with many local people.

Upon finding Andean Trails and Kathy and her team, we were impressed by the variety of walks and climbs they offered. I initially tried to put together a programme for ourselves, only to realise that Kathy’s was much better and she had understood exactly what I was looking for.

We stayed in a wonderful range of different types of accommodation, all locally run, ranging from Grand Hacienda’s , hotels, lodges to mountain refuges. This variety in itself made it a great trip; all were wonderful with their own quirks and identities, be it a lit fire in the bedroom to an amazing view or garden. All supplied wonderful food.

Because of the length of the trip and the variety of activities in different places, we had three different guides. All of whom were outstanding and very willing to make slight ( and larger ) changes to the programme when asked to. We added a hike to Cotopaxi refuge to our itinerary instead of a rest day (thank you Juan) to aid our acclimatisation and swopped Chimborazo for Iliniza ( thank you Robin and Javier). All of which were done smoothly and logically, which we greatly appreciated. There isn’t anything regarding the whole trip that we would have changed.

Also we have to say that during the political difficulties with the introduction of emergency measures that occurred during our first few days in Ecuador, everything was calmly and well handled. We felt looked after and in safe hands and had no doubts about remaining in the country once we were told that the holiday could proceed.

A most wonderful trip.

Once again many thanks Kathy.

Henri x

Chile and Argentina review, with Andean Trails – Thanks Tom.

Tracy Horton says

“I just wanted to let you know how extremely pleased we were with Andean Trails’ work on helping us plan our recent bike trip to Chile/Argentina. Tom was extremely responsive and informative right from the start and he made the whole experience of planning such a big trip that much easier and smoother. He was always very pleasant and amiable in his communications and even helped keep me from panicking when the down payment I sent for the holiday went half way around the globe before it got in to the right account! Based on our experience with Tom, I would certainly recommend your company to anyone looking to plan a holiday in South America and we would certainly use him again should we venture again to that part of the world.”

Helen Skinner (UK), Galapagos Land Tour: Santa Cruz and Isabela, Jan 2023

We had such an amazing time! What a place! Everything worked like clockwork – every single flight, transfer, pick up , trip etc which is quite something considering how many trips and how travelling we did.  

Guides – we spent the most time with Julio who was fantastic. He just knows everything. I ask a lot of questions and we had some great chats. He didn’t rush us with anything at all. Was really glad he took us on the first snorkel, and it being just the three of us, as I’d never done it before and he just let us take our time and we never felt pressured. We didn’t spend as much time with the other two guides due to the itinerary but they were also great. They really couldn’t do enough for us.  

High points very hard to say – probably snorkelling but we loved the kayaking in Isabela, both the giant tortoise trips, spa on the last day, just chilling on the beach in Isabela watching the iguanas

No low points. The group trips were more rushed and the guides were more under pressure to stick to the itinerary but not a problem, just the nature of it. The kayaking in Santa Cruz was a little rushed because our flight was a bit late. If I would do anything differently I would possibly not have done the kayaking in Santa Cruz and just seen more of the town and enjoyed the lovely hotel as we just had the afternoon and evening  

Accommodation in Quito, Santa Cruz and Isabela –  all fantastic. Would go back to them all. The breakfasts in Quito and Santa Cruz hotels were very special – they just brought you samples of traditional, local fruit, juices and hot dishes. Meals at a farm as part of the volcano walk and at a pizza place in Isabel were excellent.  

Picked the trip as always my ultimate bucket list trip, and Andean Trails after doing some research on Google and due to the initial enquiries being dealt with very well.  

Thanks again for an amazing itinerary and excellent organisation.  

We all had a great holiday and want to thank you and your company very much for making it all possible.  All of the guides were great, very knowledgeable and we never had to wait around for anyone to pick us up – everything ran like clockwork, which considering the number of events/hotels and movements we had in our itinerary, was amazing. 

Our favourite place in Ecuador was Mindo and our lodge accommodation there- what a great place and so nice to have it all to ourselves!  The staff were very welcoming and the food was great and very plentiful!!  I’m surprised I only put on 1/2 a pound throughout the holiday, considering all of the food we ate! 

Our favourite place overall has to be Galapagos but as that was the reason for the whole holiday, it wasn’t surprising – just to be so close to the various different animals was amazing and our favourite activity has to be snorkelling with the sea lions and turtles, I can’t believe how close they came to us, it was truly a wonderful experience. We really enjoyed the time on Angelito and it was definitely right to finish the holiday off that way. 

Thank you so much for all the time you’ve spent making sure that we had the holiday of a lifetime, we really do appreciate it and I’m glad we finally got there after all the Covid issues.

I’ve already recommended you to 2 different people who may be interested in going to Galapagos and certainly if we decide to do another South American holiday as a group, we’ll definitely be back in touch having now had 2 successful and memorable holidays with you! 

There were so many highlights! Climbing Pasachoa was certainly one. Seeing the wild horses on a hike from Tambopaxi was another. Descending on the bikes from above Quito to the cloud forest and seeing the change along the way was another. 

There were no real low points to the trip. The only challenge we faced was finding restaurants in Quito over Christmas and New Year. We ended up at a wings and beer place for Christmas Day dinner. 

Accommodation was really good. The views from the first lodge were great and the rooms excellent. The rooms at the second hacienda were really nice and the food excellent. The cabins in our Mindo hotel, as well as the common area with fire pit and restaurant, were really wonderful.  

The guides were all good. Andres, our guide in the highlands, was particularly great.  

Overall organization was excellent. Everything worked well, and the places we visited were excellent. 

Overall the food was excellent. Kathy was able to find vegetarian options and the lodges tried to accommodate our non-dairy request.

We have recommended the trip to others, and would look at returning to Ecuador in the future. 

The whole trip was just incredible; the planned itinerary went smoothly, everything was perfectly organised and I could not think of any better way to have visited this beautiful country. The cruise on Galapagos Islands obviously was the highlight. Lost in paradise!

The accommodation/food/guides on Coral 1 were amazing! The crew was super nice and we had a lot of fun! The guides had great knowledge to share and the itinerary was super exciting and interesting. During my time on the cruise I talked a lot to the crew members that were all locals working for the conservation of the Islands, I got great insights on the people and culture of the country.

The accommodation/food/guides for my day trip to the Cloud Forest were great.

I am super happy to have chosen Andean Trails for my trip and so grateful for the help of Kat, she gave me great recommendation and helped me in the best possible way with the planning of my trip.

We had a  brilliant time , we loved it and managed all the mountain climbing! Our group was fantastic and also the guides .

We celebrated our wedding anniversary and both our birthdays – they managed to arrange cakes for our birthdays and we had such great laughs with everybody.

Highlights – everything really but probably Isabela.

The island was so beautiful, lots of areas to explore on your own – the walk to Muro de las Lagrimas, lagoons, beach, watching the pelicans diving for fish around sunset. Los Tuneles was probably our favourite snorkelling trip.  Kicker Rock would be a close second, we have some fantastic footage of hammerheads.

All the breakfasts were fresh and enjoyable as were the lunches provided on the trips – especially the ceviche on Los Tuneles tour. Andrea, our main contact was great always on time, very friendly, lots of useful information.  Overall organisation was excellent – no problems.

Thanks again Tom – it was worth the wait!!

To be honest I don’t have the words to describe the Galapagos. Breathtaking!!

Thank you so much for the excellent organisation, planning and support. The flights, boat, crew, guides, food and itinerary were excellent and worked really well. The wildlife was simply amazing and the weather perfect.

No low point. Highlight – everything, but in particular seeing a part of our planet that has not been ravaged by humans.

We wished to see as much of the Galapagos as possible and the boat made this possible. We chose Andean Trails because they responded very quickly and efficiently to our original request. Tom has been excellent and we would highly recommend Andean Trails again.

We loved it! Especially the high-altitude trekking and also being able to exert ourselves going up to the Lost City. It was brilliant being able to get there first and hence see the magic of the City with no one else there. We had great guides. We loved Cartagena and the Ananda hotel was lovely. The scenery and fauna in every location was marvellous and all the people were very kind to us. I love aguapanilla!

Our guides were all brilliant- especially in Cocoya- and we would happily travel with them again. The Cocoya guides were very knowledgeable about the flora and fauna. They thought, and we agreed, that we could have handled a bit more walking as we are quite fit and tended to get to the next stop more quickly than expected. They were good at adapting the route to accommodate this, and we did an extra trip to Laguna de Otun as a result- this was a real highlight.

You were very responsive, knowledgeable and straightforward which we found refreshing. We would like you to organise another trip for us!

We had a very nice holiday and the Inca trail was the absolute highlight. The guide and porters were great and we have enjoyed everything. We have been so lucky with the weather also.

Thanks a lot for organizing the trip!

Mrs B, Nov 2019

The trip was great. We had perfect weather – 8 days with no precipitation and sunshine for at least a few hours on most days. It was a tough hike, but completely spectacular.

Highlight was getting to the Cerro El Torre valley and camping there for two nights under the completely spectacular massifs there. The skies were clear and we could just spend hours sitting out there admiring Cerro El Torre and the other peaks.

Juan was a great guide. He was on top of all the arrangements and very flexible in accommodating the guests. The food was fine – no complaints. The accommodations were also great (both on the trek and in El Chalten).

I have wanted to do a visit/expedition to the ice field since I visited Torres del Paine back in 2013 and saw the Grey glacier. Andean Trails web site offered this up at the right time of year and was flexible in how it was organized/booked (lead time, confirmation logistics, etc.).

The highlight of our holiday was the amazing trek and being in such a remote location surrounded by the most majestic, beautiful mountains. It was absolutely awesome.

Accommodation:  It was great in Lima and comfortable in Huaraz with a fantastic rooftop breakfast!

Food: The food on the trek was excellent – we are vegetarian and the cook (Estaban) provided us with delicious, creative and beautiful food throughout and plenty of it. He was like a magician, conjuring up the loveliest food whilst camping in a remote setting.

Guide: Our trek guide (Yunmer) was great. He was extremely informative, had a great sense of humour and was really enthusiastic. He helped carry Jane’s water and bag at times – not that we asked him to. He insisted! I have recently had my collarbone plated and he was keen to relieve me of the burden of carrying anything to heavy.

Trek staff: Our donkey / horse driver (Gusman) was brilliant, hard working and quietly helped around camp, setting up, taking down and moving us from one home to the next. The trekking team as a whole were exceptional, really supportive and kind and worked really well together.

Overall organisation was excellent. We felt we were in good hands and looked after well both before and after the trek.

Acclimatising: Acclimatisation walk around Huaraz with Rodolfo was a perfect start to the holiday. Rodolfo is extremely reliable, efficient, well informed and a lovely person. It was great to gain a little insight into the people and culture of the region.

The acclimatisation walk to Laguna Churup with David was another fantastic day. David has been living in the mountains for many years and shared some of his experience and knowledge with us as we surveyed the landscape of peaks, glaciers and lakes.

Benefitting local communities: The local people benefit from the presence of tourists as we provide them an income. Visiting tourists encourages everyone to look after and help maintain this pristine environment- those in the remote communities and also our own trekking team. Visiting tourists also need to respect this. The local people were very grateful that we visited them and also very grateful to Andean trails for their support. They encouraged us to return or send other friends and family. We had some great interactions with our little team and a lot of fun. Sharing our time with these lovely, charming people was very special and we felt that they benefitted as well as us.

Overall: We would strongly recommend anyone who loves nature, being outside and has a sense of adventure to do it.

It is a very special, magical place. Having seen people undertaking the trek unsupported, we felt that having a supported trek was perfect for us as we could really enjoy just being there.

We had an absolutely amazing trip and everything was perfect.

Highlights – there were loads of highlights. We loved Quito – especially the morning we went up the Teleferico. We could see for miles over the city to snow capped Volcanoes beyond. Our Ecuador guide and driver were brilliant – Miguel and Memo. They went out or their way to make sure we saw as much as possible – we wouldn’t have seen or learned as much without them. We saw humming bird, toucans, tangers and a fantastic bird of prey sanctuary that wasn’t on the original schedule.

The Galapagos Islands were amazing. Again we saw so much and the guides were brilliant. They were so enthusiastic about their islands, the animals and conservation.

Accommodation etc – the hotels were all excellent. We loved the quirkyness of the hotel in Quito. The staff were very helpful and friendly. The Septimo Paraiso eco lodge in the cloud forest and the Hacienda Las Palmeras near Otavalo were great – the food at Las Palmeras was really excellent. The airport hotel was spotless and friendly but the set meal of Spaghetti bolognese wasn’t great to be honest. We ate in some lovely restaurants and the guides picked some lovely places to stop for food.

Sol y Mar on Santa Cruz was lovely too.

We loved Hotel Albemarle on Isabela. It was a perfect place to spend 5 nights. The rooms were comfy, clean with lovely balconies and views. There were some really good local restaurants, especially Coco surf, recommended by Tania, our Isabela guide.

The company that did our trip to Los Tuneles were fantastic. The guide was so enthusiastic and determined that we would see loads of wildlife. He took loads of photos with his gopro then downloaded them all for us for free when we got back. The lunch on the boat that day was chicken and rice which all three of my kids said was the best lunch they’d had all holiday. It might have been because they were all cold and knackered – they even took the hot sweet tea on offer.

I hope we benefited the local communities. We enjoyed our trips to the coffee plantation and the chocolate factory and certainly brought plenty of chocolate and coffee back with us. I would like to think that the money we spent goes in someway to help conservation efforts and to keep the cloud forests and the Galapagos Islands as special and unique as they clearly are.

We picked Andean trails because you are based in Scotland and seemed to understand out requirements and came up with a perfect sounding itinerary. Flying from Glasgow via Amsterdam worked well and for us was definitely the quickest and easiest way to get there.

Everything worked out perfectly. We had a totally brilliant time. I think it is all still sinking in…

The highlight of the climb was the whole experience from meeting the crew to training on the glacier to getting as far as I did.

Hats off to the crew. They all did a great job – everyone of them. Osvaldo was great throughout the entire few days; Alex the cook made some great food with some of the other climbers in the high hut commenting about how good the food looked. Thanks also to the porter Adrian.

I thought the climb was pretty tough overall considering the altitude. Had to catch my breath a few times. Osvaldo was great though and went at a pretty steady pace with lots of guidance.

I chose Huyana Potosi because it was an achieveable 6,000m peak. I didn’t summit but enjoyed the whole trip.