A trip through South America should take you to know the charm of Ecuador, that country surrounded by a splendid nature, where volcanoes offer tourists spectacular panoramic views, landscapes full of magic and beauty where the historical and cultural heritage of this country is also valued and preserved.
In this way, you can discover the charm of Ecuador, one of the best tourist destinations in South America, through tours around the best tourist places and spectacular natural scenery that will take you to colonial towns and cities, the Amazon jungle, tropical forests, and the magic of the Galapagos Islands, among many other natural settings. Next, we will recommend some places that you will surely love:
Quito: It is the capital of Ecuador, with a hectic urban life which mixes between the modern of its buildings and the fascinating old city, which was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, and which offers tourists a variety of very well preserved ancient constructions, in addition to the baroque religious temples, monasteries, monuments and buildings with colonial architectures that have earned Quito the largest, least altered and best preserved historic centre in America.
In addition, Quito has natural environments with spectacular and very attractive beauty for tourists, so it is considered one of the most frequented tourist destinations although it is located in a region where snow-capped volcanoes abound, providing a unique landscape which can be accessed through volcanoes such as Cuicocha that has a lagoon with three kilometres in diameter, or Cotopaxi, one of the highest in the world.
The City in Half the World: It is one of the tourist destinations in Ecuador that are most visited by tourists from around the world, and that arises more curiosity about its supposed position in the middle of the world, where tourists usually take photographs in the pyramidal monument of 30 meters high, which indicates the exact division between the northern and southern hemispheres, and in its interior it is the Anthropological and Ethnographic Museum. In addition, it is the Pululahua volcano, which has a wonderful view with dreamlike landscapes, and in whose crater indigenous people of the area live.
The Galapagos Islands: These islands are one of the most important tourist destinations in Ecuador, and they are made up of a set of thirteen islands of volcanic origin and more than a hundred islets, where there is an extraordinary reserve of biological diversity in which almost two thousand endemic species live, among which the famous terrestrial tortoises of Charles Darwin are.
Cuenca: It is one of Ecuador’s most beautiful cities, whose landscapes impact everyone who visits it, as well as having a historic centre, which was declared as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO where houses with well-preserved colonial and republican architecture stand out, which transport tourists to ancient times.
There is an area known as “Barranco”, which is considered one of the historical and cultural heritage of Cuenca due to its spectacular roads of willows and groves near the Tomebamba River, where there are ancient bridges crossing its waters, and with fabulous architectures of the eighteenth and nineteenth century.
Montañita: A spa with huge waves and exuberant vegetation, which has been listed as one of the most popular tourist destinations in Ecuador by young people and surfers. There it is the Yasuní National Park, with an area of about one thousand square kilometers, considered the most biodiverse area in the world. The indigenous communities “Tagaeri and Taromenane” live here, which are two ethnic groups that live in the depths of the forest, in a kind of voluntary isolation of civilization, as well as the “Haorani and Kichwa”, who are dedicated to tourist activities.
Mindo Nambillo Protected Forest: It is one of the tourist destinations of Ecuador with greater natural attractions, since it makes up an ecological reservation with 22,000 hectares of humid forests with spectacular landscapes adorned with rivers and waterfalls and an extraordinary biodiversity of orchids, butterflies and birds, which is why it is known as the Bird Capital of the World.
Other tourist destination in Ecuador is the “Train of the Devil’s Nose”, what goes through the landscapes of the Andes through complex roads that have made it one of the most complex routes in the world.
We also recommend the Baths of Holy Water, a city famous for its springs and resorts of thermal waters that sprout at high temperatures from the soils of the Tungurahua volcano, which has been associated with miraculous cures since primitive times. You can also do adventure tourism, because it has hiking trails which have about 60 waterfalls.
It is worth mentioning that, thanks to the beauty of its landscapes, the historical and natural diversity that Ecuador has, as well as its tourism boom, different newspapers, magazines and important websites dedicated to tourism have awarded different mentions and awards to this beautiful country. Thus, the renowned National Geographic Magazine distinguished in 2013 the city of Quito as one of the 20 best destinations of the year; and in 2014 it located the Cacao Route, a region in Ecuador located between Durán and Yaguachi, within the 10 best tourist destinations.
On the other hand, in 2013 the city of Quito won the “World Travel Awards” in the category of best tourist destination in South America, while that same year New York magazine Travel + Leisure catalogued the Galápagos Islands like one of the ten best islands in the planet. In 2016, the tourism magazine “Condé Nast Traveller” included the following sites in Ecuador: The Tree House in Baños, Quilotoa Lagoon, Cotopaxi Volcano, the Galápagos Islands and Mindo, within its list of 50 most beautiful places in South America.
ALFA