ECUADOR
Ecuador is a country straddling the equator on South America’s west coast. Its diverse landscape encompasses Amazon jungle, Andean highlands and the wildlife-rich Galápagos Islands. In the Andean foothills at an elevation of 2,850m, Quito, the capital, is known for its largely intact Spanish colonial center, with decorated 16th- and 17th-century palaces and religious sites, like the ornate Compañía de Jesús Church.
Top attractions in Ecuador
Ciudad Mitad del Mundo
The Ciudad Mitad del Mundo is a tract of land owned by the prefecture of the province of Pichincha, Ecuador. It is located at San Antoñio parish of the canton of Quito, 26 km north of the center of Quito.
Yasuni National Park
Yasuni National Park is in Ecuador with an area of 9,820 km² between the Napo and Curaray rivers in Napo and Pastaza provinces in Amazonian Ecuador. The national park lies within the Napo moist forests ecoregion and is primarily rain forest.
Machalilla National Park
Machalilla National Park is in the Manabí province on Ecuador's central coast. Offshore, Isla de la Plata is known for its marine birds and migratory humpback whales. Near Puerto López town, secluded Los Frailes Beach shelters nesting sea turtles. In the park's tropical dry forest, Agua Blanca village has a sulfur lake. Farther inland, the cloud forest in the Chongón-Colonche mountains is home to toucans and monkeys.
Cotopaxi National Park
Cotopaxi National Park is a large, forested area in Ecuador spanning parts of Cotopaxi, Pichincha and Napo provinces. It’s known for the active, snow-capped Cotopaxi volcano and vast Limpiopungo Lake. Wildlife includes hawks, condors and weasels. In the east, mud flows and stones from past eruptions dot Valle Encantado (Enchanted Valley). Trails weave through pine trees in nearby El Boliche National Recreation Area.
Floreana Island
Floreana Island is an island of the Galápagos Islands. It was named after Juan José Flores, the first president of Ecuador, during whose administration the government of Ecuador took possession of the archipelago.
Baltra Island
Baltra Island, or Isla Baltra, is a small island of the Galápagos Islands. Also known as South Seymour, Baltra is a small flat island located near the center of the Galápagos. It was created by geological uplift.
Cajas National Park
Cajas National Park is a high-altitude area west of Cuenca, Ecuador. It’s known for trails through evergreen cloud forests and hundreds of lakes, such as Laguna Toreadora. It’s also home to rich wildlife including Andean condors, giant hummingbirds and raccoon-like coatis. Just outside the park, the Santuario de la Vírgen del Cajas is an outdoor pilgrimage site where the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared.
Bartolomé Island
Bartolomé Island is a volcanic islet in the Galápagos Islands group. It is a volcanic islet just off the east coast of Santiago Island. It is one of the "younger" islands in the Galápagos archipelago.
Quilotoa
Quilotoa is a water-filled caldera and the most western volcano in the Ecuadorian Andes. The 3-kilometre (2 mi)-wide caldera was formed by the collapse of this dacite volcano following a catastrophic VEI-6 eruption about 800 years ago, which produced pyroclastic flows and lahars that reached the Pacific Ocean, and spread an airborne deposit of volcanic ash throughout the northern Andes.
Galápagos National Park
Galápagos National Park, established in 1959 and beginning operations in 1968, is Ecuador's first national park and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Riobamba
Riobamba is the capital of the Chimborazo Province in central Ecuador, which is located at the Chambo River Valley of the Andes. It is 200 km south of Ecuador's capital Quito and located at 2754 m on the Avenue of the Volcanoes
Basílica del Voto Nacional
The Basilica of the National Vow is a Roman Catholic church located in the historic center of Quito, Ecuador. It is the largest neo-Gothic basilica in the Americas.
Chimborazo
Chimborazo is a currently inactive stratovolcano in the Cordillera Occidental range of the Andes. Its last known eruption is believed to have occurred around 550 C.E. With a peak elevation of 6,263 m, Chimborazo is the highest mountain in Ecuador.
Compañía de Jesús, Quito
The Church of the Society of Jesus, known colloquially as la Compañía, is a Jesuit church in Quito, Ecuador
Tortuga Bay
Tortuga Bay is located on the Santa Cruz Island, about a 20-minute walk from the main water taxi dock in Puerto Ayora. The walking path is 1.55 miles and is open from six in the morning to six in the evening.
Isla de la Plata
Isla de la Plata is a small island off Ecuador's central coast, near the town of Puerto López. Part of Machalilla National Park, the uninhabited island features beaches, headlands and shrubland. It's known for its many marine birds, like blue-footed and masked boobies, plus Galapagos albatrosses. Trails run from Drake Bay to sheer clifftops overlooking waters that attract manta rays and migratory humpback whales.
North Seymour Island
North Seymour is a small island near Baltra Island in the Galápagos Islands. It was formed by uplift of a submarine lava formation. The whole island is covered with low, bushy vegetation.
Plaza de la Independencia
Independence Square is the principal and central public square of Quito, Ecuador. This is the central square of the city and one of the symbols of the executive power of the nation.
Seminario Park
Visitors can see iguanas roaming in this historic park with sculptures & an octagonal pavilion.
Fernandina Island
Fernandina Island is the third largest, and youngest, island of the Galápagos Islands. Like the others, the island was formed by the Galápagos hotspot. The island is an active shield volcano that has been erupting since April 11, 2009.
El Panecillo
El Panecillo is a 200-metre-high hill of volcanic-origin, with loess soil, located between southern and central Quito. Its peak is at an elevation of 3,016 metres above sea level.
Llanganates National Park
Llanganates National Park is a protected area in Ecuador situated in the Cotopaxi Province, Napo Province, Pastaza Province and Tungurahua Province. Located within the park is Cerro Hermoso which means "beautiful mountain" in Spanish.
Genovesa Island
Genovesa Island, named after the Italian city of Genoa, in honor of Christopher Columbus, is a shield volcano in the Galápagos Islands in the eastern Pacific Ocean. The island occupies about 14 square kilometres, and its maximum elevation is 64 m
Rábida Island
Rábida Island, is one of the Galápagos Islands. The 5 km² island has also been known as Jervis Island named in honour of the 18th-century British admiral John Jervis. In Ecuador it is officially known as Isla Rábida.
Malecón 2000
Malecón 2000 is the name given to boardwalk overlooking the Guayas River in the Ecuadorian port city of Guayaquil.
Cayambe
Cayambe is the name of a volcano located in the Cordillera Central, a range of the Ecuadorian Andes. It is located in Pichincha province some 70 km northeast of Quito. It is the third highest mountain in Ecuador.
Darwin Island
Darwin Island is named in honor of Charles Darwin, and is among the smallest in the Galápagos Archipelago with an area of just one square kilometre.
TelefériQo
The TelefériQo, or TelefériQo Cruz Loma, is a gondola lift in Quito, Ecuador, running from the edge of the city centre up the east side of Pichincha Volcano to lookout Cruz Loma.
Church and Convent of St. Francis, Quito
The Church and Monastery of St. Francis, commonly known as el San Francisco, is a 16th-century Roman Catholic complex in Quito, Ecuador. It fronts onto its namesake Plaza de San Francisco.
Parque Histórico Guayaquil
The Central Bank of Ecuador built it in 1997 on the banks of the Guayas River as a theme park of 8 hectares with educational, cultural, environmental, recreational and tourist purposes. It is aimed to exhibit the history and culture of the old province of Guayaquil that emerged at the end of the colonial times and the beginning of the republican life of the country between the XIX and XX centuries, which occupied almost all of the Ecuadorian coast including the existing provinces of Los Rios, El Oro and part of Manabi.
Illiniza
The Illinizas are a pair of volcanic mountains that are located to the south of Quito, Ecuador. They are located in the Illinizas Ecological Reserve. These twin mountains are separated by a saddle that is about a kilometer long.
Parque La Carolina
Parque La Carolina is a 165.5-acre park in the centre of the Quito central business district, bordered by the avenues Río Amazonas, de los Shyris, Naciones Unidas, Eloy Alfaro, and de la República.
Sierra Negra
Sierra Negra is a large shield volcano at the South eastern end of Isabela Island in the Galapagos that rises to an altitude of 1124m. It coalesces with the volcanoes Cerro Azul to the west and Alcedo to the north.
Carondelet Palace
Carondelet Palace is the seat of government of the Republic of Ecuador, located in Quito. Access is by the public space known as Independence Square or Plaza Grande, around which are also the Archbishop's Palace, Municipal Palace, Hotel Plaza Grande, and Metropolitan Cathedral.
Pichincha Volcano
Pichincha is an active stratovolcano in the country of Ecuador, whose capital Quito wraps around its eastern slopes. The two highest peaks of the mountain are Wawa Pichincha and Ruku Pichincha.
Pasochoa
Pasochoa is an extinct volcano located in the Guayllabamba river basin in the Ecuadorian Andes. The current mountain form is a collapsed crater with a semicircular shape.
Santay Island
Santay Island is a 2200 ha. island located in Guayas, Ecuador. It is part of the Durán Canton. It is surrounded by the Guayas River and populated by 47 families living there since the 1950s and before.
Parque El Ejido
Parque El Ejido is a park located along Avenue Patria in the Old Centre part of Quito, Ecuador. It is the third-largest park in the city. Estadio El Ejido is located nearby. The park hosts exhibitions on the weekend.
New Cathedral of Cuenca
The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, commonly referred to as the New Cathedral of Cuenca, is the cathedral church in Cuenca, Ecuador. It is situated in front of Parque Calderon.
Yaku Museo del Agua
Contemporary museum with exhibits highlighting the scientific & social significance of water.
Cathedral of Quito
The Metropolitan Cathedral of Quito, known simply as la Catedral, is the Catholic cathedral in Quito, Ecuador.
Imbabura Volcano
Imbabura is an inactive stratovolcano in northern Ecuador. Although it has not erupted for at least 14,000 years, it is not thought to be extinct. Imbabura is intermittently capped with snow and has no permanent glaciers.