Backpacking Ecuador: A 10-Day Guide

This ten-day route is for travelers who want the Andes of Ecuador up close, with markets, volcanoes and a multi-day village-to-village hike, rather than a checklist of cities. The pace is moderate: a couple of active hiking days balanced by easy market and spa time. You’ll rely on intercity buses for every leg, a local bus or taxi for lake and park access, and a hostel transfer or tour vehicle into Cotopaxi.

Days 1-2: Quito

Use your two nights in Quito to shake off the flight and adjust to the altitude in the old town. The Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesús is the one interior worth paying to see, and in the evening, La Ronda Historic Street fills with families eating empanadas and drinking canelazo, a hot cinnamon drink spiked with sugarcane liquor, under wrought-iron balconies. Keep it at that; the mountains are the point of this trip.

Days 3-4: Otavalo

A 2 to 2.5 hour bus north puts you in Otavalo, whose Plaza de los Ponchos fills with weavers selling alpaca blankets, tapestries and embroidered … read more 👉

This ten-day route is for travelers who want the Andes of Ecuador up close, with markets, volcanoes and a multi-day village-to-village hike, rather than a checklist of cities. The pace is moderate: a couple of active hiking days balanced by easy market and spa time. You’ll rely on intercity buses for every leg, a local bus or taxi for lake and park access, and a hostel transfer or tour vehicle into Cotopaxi.

Days 1-2: Quito

Use your two nights in Quito to shake off the flight and adjust to the altitude in the old town. The Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesús is the one interior worth paying to see, and in the evening, La Ronda Historic Street fills with families eating empanadas and drinking canelazo, a hot cinnamon drink spiked with sugarcane liquor, under wrought-iron balconies. Keep it at that; the mountains are the point of this trip.

Days 3-4: Otavalo

A 2 to 2.5 hour bus north puts you in Otavalo, whose Plaza de los Ponchos fills with weavers selling alpaca blankets, tapestries and embroidered blouses. The market runs every day but is biggest on Saturday, so time your arrival for it if you can. On day 4, take a taxi to Laguna de Cuicocha, a crater lake with two forested islands, and walk the rim trail, about 14 kilometers and 4 to 5 hours at just over 3,000 meters. Finish in nearby Cotacachi, a quiet town whose main street is lined with leather shops.

Days 5-8: Cotopaxi and the Quilotoa Loop

Day 5 is a longer transfer south, about 3.5 to 4 hours via Quito, to a lodge on the edge of Cotopaxi. Wake up to the 5,897-meter cone (clouds permitting) and spend day 6 walking around Laguna Limpiopungo, where wild horses graze, or hiking up toward the refuge if you are well acclimatized. That afternoon, move on to Isinliví, the gentle start of the Quilotoa Loop. Days 7 and 8 are the heart of the trip: Isinliví to Chugchilán through canyons and potato fields, then Chugchilán up to the rim of Laguna Quilotoa, where the lake below shifts between jade and teal with the light. Guesthouses along the way include dinner and breakfast, so you carry little more than water and a rain jacket.

Days 9-10: Baños

From Quilotoa, the bus via Latacunga and Ambato to Baños takes 4 to 4.5 hours and brings you down to 1,820 meters, where your hiking legs can soak in the thermal baths. On day 10, rent a bike and ride the waterfall road to the Pailón del Diablo Trail, whose staircases bring you close enough to the main falls to get drenched. A pickup brings you and the bike back uphill. From Baños, Quito airport is about 4 hours by bus.

Above Otavalo, the Lagunas de Mojanda sit in high, empty páramo about 40 minutes away by taxi, and on a clear morning you can walk the shore of the largest lake with nobody else around.