Quito full day

After enjoying breakfast your tour begins, you will first visit the famous Plaza de la Independencia, also known as Plaza Grande, which is surrounded by the Carondelet Palace, the Cathedral of Quito and the Town Hall of Quito. You will also visit “Galería Ecuador” that offers the best chocolate in the world, and, to prove it, you will taste them and test all your senses to identify the variety of aromas and flavors of the Ecuadorian culinary traditions.

You will also visit La Compañía Church, the San Francisco Church, and you will visit La Ronda, a small alley that presents a mix of colonial, modern, alternative and traditional architecture in its buildings. Here, we will find different craft workshops where the trades and traditions of the city flourish. In one of them, you will be able to observe the elaboration of the typical spinning tops that are part of the games that were practiced in the old Quito.

After visiting the historic centre of Quito you will go to the Middle of the World Monument, the place where the equatorial line crosses and divides the planet in half. Here you will be able to visit the ethnographic museum with representations of each of the cultures of our country, and you will understand the reasons why this country is considered plurinational, multicultural and multi-ethnic.

Less than 5 minutes away from the monument you will find the Intiñan Museum where you will enjoy an interactive tour and experience the physical natural phenomena that happen in this place due to its location.

• Accomodation: Hotel Plaza Grande / Cultura Mano / Casa Gangotena or similar
• Includes: Breakfast, lunch and dinner

Quito – Otavalo – Ibarra – Quito

You will start your day early in the morning for a one-and-a-half hour drive north. In Otavalo, home of a millenary market, a carefully restored steam engine awaits for you.

At a slow pace, you will discover the many wonders hidden in this part of the country: musicians, painters, weavers and the skillful woodcarvers who keep the renowned Quito School style alive.

Return to Quito after a tasting of traditional Andean cuisine and a visit to very special export-class rose plantation.

• Accomodation: Hotel Plaza Grande / Cultura Mano / Casa Gangotena or similar
• Includes: Breakfast, lunch and dinner

Quito – Urbina

Board our convoy at Quito Chimbacalle Train station and begin your journey south along the Avenue of the Volcanoes. If the weather is suitable, you can spot up to twenty volcanoes from the train – extinct or dormant for centuries.

Here, the Andean mountains split into two corridors that run parallel from north to south. The fertile valley trapped between these stone walls hosts a treasure trove of biodiversity. From the comfort of our panoramic waggons, we watch the change in vegetation and landscape as we slowly climb the Andean highlands to Urbina, the highest point in the itinerary at 11,800 feet above sea level.

At the foot of the Chimborazo you will meet the last ice-merchant and learn the story of his ancestral trade.

• Accomodation: Hacienda Andaluza (Suite room)
• Includes: Breakfast, lunch and dinner

Riobamba – Devil´s Nose – Bucay

Depart from Riobamba towards Colta, where the Spanish conquerors built their first settlement in Ecuador. The train will cross colorful quinoa fields painted in purple, yellow and red, alternating with endemic species of flora and wildlife, indigenous settlements and the remains of ancient cultures.

You will visit the market of Guamote, one of the last indigenous markets of the Andes, before continuing south towards the mythical Devil’s Nose pass.

A vertiginous descent of 450 meters in zigzag takes you from the Andean highlands down towards the coastal plains. he descent continues along the narrow Chanchán river gorge and crossing an impressive cloud forest towards the temperate city of Bucay.

• Accomodation: Hacienda La Danesa
• Includes: Breakfast, lunch and dinner

Bucay – Guayaquil

The landscape changes again as the train leaves the tropical forest behind. Rice, sugar cane, pineapple and banana plantations pass before your eyes.

You will have lunch at a traditional hacienda, where you can learn about the growing and harvesting of the best cocoa bean in the world. Later, the steam engine whites its way across the fields towards the shores of the Pacific Ocean.

Arrival to Duran´s train station, transfer to the hotel in Guayaquil for overnight.

• Accomodation: Hotel del Parque
• Includes: Breakfast and lunch

Transfer out

After breakfast, transfer out for your flight home or your next adventure.

• Includes: Breakfast