Ecuador Holidays and Tours

In Ecuador, holidays are as varied as the country itself, which expands from the Andes to the rainforest, as well as counting with a stretch of Pacific coastline. Travellers will experience incredibly diverse cultures, landscapes and superb wildlife. Add the Galapagos to your Ecuador tour and you will have the trip of a lifetime.

Ecuador is the smallest of the Andean countries, making it an ideal location to move around between its incredible travel highlights. It is perfect for active travellers, wildlife enthusiasts and families looking to maximise their Andean experience in this welcoming holiday destination.

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Top of the list of your active Ecuador holiday are surely the majestic Andes, with their impressive snow-capped giants in the Avenue of the Volcanoes. It’s a trekkers paradise, with fantastic lodge-to-lodge multi-day treks, or scenic day hikes in the foothills of mighty volcanoes. Stay at a working hacienda, enjoying the remote beauty of the Andean highlands. Those wishing to challenge themselves may decide to scale said volcanoes, with great opportunities for novice and experienced mountaineers to climb Cotopaxi, Cayambe and Chimborazo.

Wildlife enthusiasts will want to include some days in Ecuador’s rainforest. Some eco-lodges are on the periphery of the Amazon basin and offer a quick and easy escape into its humid woodland. Others require a short plane journey but will take you further into a wildlife-rich rainforest. Here you have excellent opportunities to spot monkeys, macaws, caimans, otters and other mammals.

Ecuador tours also offer white-water rafting, whale watching and surfing on the Pacific coast, as well as some excellent horse riding and biking for anybody seeking thrills and action. Those travelling with young families will find plenty of softer adventures, too, and a network of roads that make travel easy while keeping distances small.

Quito and surroundings

The Unesco World Heritage Old Town of Quito is a place to soak up the atmosphere with its cobbled streets and busy squares, its colonial churches and remains of a rich Inca and pre-Inca past.

Near Quito, you will find colourful indigenous markets and small, traditional towns – the most famous being the Saturday market at Otavalo. Within an hour you reach the equator line, Mitad del Mundo, as well as Andean landscapes and volcanic crater lagoons. Beautiful traditional costumes and vibrant colours can be seen everywhere as you travel the countryside in our Ecuador tours.

Venture just a little further, a mere 2-hour drive, and base yourself at one of the fantastic eco-lodges in the cloud forest. Here you will find a forest at a higher altitude of around 2000m, home to a network of trails and a myriad of birds – and famous for its hummingbirds. Come here in bear season, and you are in for a special treat as you spot the Spectacled Bear foraging amongst orchids.

Add a trip to the Galapagos to your Ecuador holiday

Leave Ecuador’s mainland behind and board a plane to the Galapagos islands. Join a Galapagos Cruise or explore the Enchanted Islands as part of an island-hopping land-based trip. You will find an incredible amount of wildlife in this archipelago, famous for its giant tortoises, tame sea lions, blue-footed boobies and Galapagos iguanas to name a few. The bird life is a dream, the underwater world a paradise waiting to be explored on daily snorkelling trips. Getting close-up to incredible wildlife will be a memory cherished forever – all in a setting of stark, iconic volcanic landscapes.

Don’t forget to read our Ecuador Travel Highlights Guide, discover our Ecuador tours or contact us for more.