Quito Travel Forum

Trying to decide the order of my stay in Ecuador - going in about a month. My flight gets in at 130pm -10 days later my flight leaves Quito at 2pm. I wondering if staying in Quito last would be best due to proximity to airport. The airport is between Quito and Otavalo - so I could go directly from Otavalo to the airport. Read that Banos is about 3 1/2 hours from Quito. I was thinking 2 or 3 nights n Quito - 3 or 4 nights in either Otavalo and/or Banos. Read about the train ride from Riobamba which sound like fun. Mainly want to relax - soak in some thermal springs - hike - ride a horse - visit the churches n Quito - stand on the equator. Any thought about hwo to order my trip? Thanks for your suggestions.

hi- your idea about staying in quito last is a good one. otavalo is a couple of hours away and if you run into problems on the road, you could miss your flight, and you really don't need that kind of stress at the end of your vacation. also, if you want to do the thermal springs, papallacta has has great ones and they are much closer to quito-otavalo than banos.
if your main interest in quito is the colonial city and you are there from dec. 5th-16th, i have a house near santo domingo plaza that i rent out at very reasonable rates. if you decided to do, say, otavalo first, then papallacta, you could come back to the house between trips to store any extra purchases or luggage. the middle of the world is only about 40 min from quito, so i would do that as the last of your out of town trips, since it is the easiest to arrange. if you want more info about the house, my email is judyhtravel@yahoo.com. happy planning!

I'll second Papallacta for the thermal springs. Baņos is a good time if you want nightlife and lots of activities to choose from, but Papallacta is the place to relax.

Otavalo is a daytrip at best. You should spend your last night in Quito. I prefer staying in Old Town. The places to stay with the best websites are in the Mariscal neighborhood, but the area is overrun with backpackers and petty thieves.

Also, the train ride isn't what it used to be--no more riding on the roof.

It's all rather tricky. The country is small, but transportation is slow. Colorful, entertaining, but slow. Quito to Baņos in 3 1/2 hours... in your dreams!

The Riobamba train is not worth it: a crowded schoolbus on tracks. You may want to read my experience (my Alausi page).

Quito is great. So is Baņos, especially the bike ride by the waterfalls. The Paramo in between, with the volcanoes, is magnificent.

If I had to do it all again, I would spend time in Quito (historical district, of course), go to Mindo (I didn't last time), and forget everything South of Baņos. It's ironic, since my Cuenca page is my biggest VT page!

No matter what, watch your valuables, zip up your pockets... and enjoy Ecuador. Be sure to try the special ice cream, Helado de paila.

I have more photos on my external page:
http://www.nextjourney.org/ecuador/ecua1.html

Hi Mark, Have you thought about coming to Cuenca the third largest city. You can see Otavalo (make sure you go on a Saturday as this has the biggest market day) and also see Cuenca. Quito is a large city and you can spend a couple of days looking around. In Cuenca we have the National park where you can go horse riding through the mountains. A friend of mine runs horse riding days and you can stay at a beautiful Hacienda not and enjoy the life in the mountains. Also we have Banos which has the thermal hot springs just a 10 min taxi ride out of the city. Cuenca has many historical sites and is around a 30 min USD$120 return air ticket from Quito.

Let us know if you are interested and we can put you touch with the tourist guide. Oh by the way we live in Cuenca so of course we may be biased.

Regards
Dixie
PS: The Banos I mention is not the town that you mention in your post.