Vacation in Ecuador Suggested One Week Itinerary?

Question

Any suggestions for two 27 year old females traveling to Ecuador in late July? We will be there for about 6 full days.

Answer 1

Try the "Route of the sun", which is a highway that goes mostly along the sea, going through small but nice fishers' towns, with beautiful little hotels and wooden cabbins along the beach. Montanita is the best of all towns, it's very nice and although you won't find big buildings, you'll find people from all over the world visiting the place, mixed with the locals, the fishermen, the surfers and many backpackers. Most likely you'll find incredibly cheap and fresh seafood over there! and you'll be able to see the whales in July. Check out that site Magus mentioned (vivecuador.com) . My personal recommendation: Do not miss "Los Frailes" beach. Enjoy!!

Answer 2

if you want to go to the beach i recomend esmeraldas, because in esmeraldas un july has nice wheather, if you want to go mountais, i recomend quito, imbabura lakes, cotopaxi, guayaquil is a nice city too, or if tou prefer galapagos islands is a paradaise, also my city Loja is beautifull, vilcabamba

enter here

www.vivecuador.com

http://www.loja.gov.ec/turismo/index.php...

Answer 3

6 days is short. Ideally try go for longer, but if that is not an option, you are pretty much restricting yourself to 2 or max 3 major places.

I'd avoid going to any of the big mountains, since you will not have enough time to acclimatize, and who wants to spend 1 out of 6 days with a pounding headache from altitude sickness. Galapagos, although my top recommendation in Ecuador are quite far to squeeze in such a short trip although you could do a  4 day cruise and spend a lot of time in transit. That would take up your entire holiday, which certainly is not a bad option.

If you rule out Galapago, you are pretty much left with 2-3 days in Quito and exploring nearby towns and villages like Riobamba and Otavalo. Then perhaps Off to Cuenca and the tourist train, or a trip to the beach (Esmeraldas - the poor mans Galapoagos) or the Amazon (this may also take a while to get to). It really depends on your priorities (beach vs jungle vs city hop).

Good luck and enjoy your holiday.