Local Tour Operator in Ecuador & Galapagos

  I hired Daniel Maldonand for this tour and he provided an excellent experience. He was friendly, nice and tailored the day to my interests. (Bonus for me... read more is he speaks excellent English). His knowledge of his country is outstanding and he patiently explained everything to me. It was a great day and I left feeling like I had a new friend. Furthermore, after I moved on to Banos, he consistently helped me with recommendations for restaurants, clubs and even another tours while i was there. His amazing service greatly increased the quality of my overall trip to Ecuador. Please don't hesitate to book anything with him. I've traveled quite a bit and have never received this level of outstanding service. Thank you so much! AMAZING! …

  I highly recommend the Mindo Forrest tour with Isra. The scenery is spectacular and Isra is an excellent guide, very knowledgeable and friendly. Booking was seamless and it was... read more easy to communicate with Isra ahead of the tour.

  A beautiful view of Ecuador and the Glaciers and red earth on the top is surreal. The guide is very knowledgeable, chill and friendly as well.
You really appreciate... read more the impact of the volcano

  We took an overnight trip to Banos with visits to Quilotoa, many waterfalls, and other interesting stops. Everything was perfect! The guides were amazing, and the sites were fabulous. We... read more highly recommend using Latin Adventures!

  Would like to express my gratitude for your help in accommodating us in last minute request for a full day tour of Quito. Despite all the inconvenience that the protests... read more caused the city, Ximena did a phenomenal job, very knowledgeable, kind, patient and was quick to make necessary adjustments to avoid road blockages. Sure was a full, exciting and enjoyable day.

  Our family of six included kids aged 9-19. Alex and Dante managed to find a full day of activities to appealed to everyone. Much of Quito remains closed, but we... read more did not notice as we had plenty to do. The guides were very knowledgeable, friendly and spoke English well. Highly recommend this trip for seeing the Quito highlights. …

  Our tour was amazing!! This is probably the most comprehensive tour of Quito that you will find. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable. Would highly recommend!!

  Interesting! - Our guide Christian, was early and met us inside the hotel lobby. As we drove around the city, he shared his knowledge of Quito and answered all our questions. ... read more /> At the cable car ride up the Pichincha Volcano mountain side, he explained the geography and plant life change as we ascended. While hiking up the remaining 100 or so yards he kept checking on us to make sure we were all OK due to the high altitude.
Our next stop was the middle of the Earth venue, the Equator. It was a fun and informative visit.
Christian was very informative and personable guide.

  Our tour guide, Oscar, was pleasant and knowledgeable. An excellent way to spend a day in Quito. Even with the inconveniences lingering from the pandemic, this tour was well worth... read more the cost.

  An excellent tour, highly recommended! We had a great time, and were blessed with a sunny and clear day on top of the Guagua Pichincha with a great view of... read more Quito and most volcanoes from afar. Our guide Oscar Salazar knows so much of the history and culture of Ecuador, and gave us lengthy explanations of all the sites we visited. We will come back, so thirsty to visit more of what Ecuador has to offer!

  This tour is a great way to start any visit to Quito. Our tour guide, Miriam, was wonderful! She shared a lot of interesting information and was very warm and... read more welcoming. We saw quite a bit, got to enjoy a specialty drink with a city view, and learned about how their chocolate is made -- which was a highlight. I highly recommend this tour! Miriam's terrific and Latin Adventures is a great company. On our second day, they took us on the Mitad Del Mundo Tour, which was outstanding.

  We loved the trip. Diego was our guide and he provided a lot of insight on local culture and customs. There were four of us on the trip.... read more My wife and I are both 70 and our son and his wife are in their mid-30s. The four of us were the only group on the trip, which made us much more comfortable about COVID issues. We were in a 14 person van so there was plenty of room. Latin Adventures did a great job of picking hotels. In Quito we stayed at the Hotel Vista del Angel. Great hotel with views of the City. Great rooms, great food and a very accommodating staff.

Day 1 we traveled to Cotopaxi. The trip took us from 9,000 feet in Quito to 15,000 feet at Cotopaxi. I took altitude sickness medication, my wife did not. Neither of us had altitude sickness. Along the way we stopped inside the park and did short walks to see some lagoons and see how we did at altitude. Diego explained the terraced farming and how it was used by the Incas. The parking lot at Cotopaxi is at 15,500 feet. The trail up to the refuge has a vertical gain of 1,000 feet. It's a hard hike. I only made it about 1/3 of the way. Our son and his wife made it easily to the refuge. It's worth going to Cotopaxi even if all you do is hike the area around the parking area. The views are spectacular.

Day 2 we went to Quilotoa. There is a lot of time on the bus between locations. But Diego did a good job educating us about the areas we were traveling through. Quilotoa is a stunning place. The hike down to the Laguna is not difficult. If you're in your 70s take the mule back to the top. We stayed at a locally owned hotel which is also a farm. Great rooms, very nice people and good food. It was nice to experience locally owned hotels.

Day 3 we substituted a trip to the rainforest because Devil's Nose is closed. Latin Adventures arranged the day trip which was a long 11 day. But we saw a beautiful waterfall, learned a lot about the native plans and their medicinal value. The transition from the Andes to the rainforest was well worth the trip. We stayed in a nice hotel in Banos. The lodging and food were OK.

At all the locations we stayed the food was carefully prepared with purified water.
The lunches we ate at local restaurants also were very careful with the water. No one wanted diarrhea and Latin Adventures did a good job of ensuring there weren't any problems.

Day 4 we hiked to some amazing water falls, took cable cars across river canyons and did some hiking. Some of the hiking at the waterfalls was somewhat hard. But even at age 70 it was not too difficult.

If you have 4 or 5 days in Quito I'd highly recommend the trip. I've attached some of our pictures. After the trip we went back to Quito and then onto Guayaquil to go to the Galapagos. Latin Adventures arranged our PCR tests (which we needed to get on the Lindblad Expeditions boat) and they also arranged our airport transfers. Latin Adventures was good to work with.

  I had poked around Quito's old town on my own for a couple of days but wanted to learn more and to visit El Panecillo. The Mitad del Mundo was... read more not something high on my list of must-sees, but I figured why not. It ended up being a fantastic day. Raul was an excellent guide: friendly, helpful, knowledgeable, and professional. It was just the two of us in town, and we had a really nice morning seeing the sights. We then met up with a couple for the Mitad del Mundo portion of the tour in the afternoon. I was surprised how much I enjoyed it. The drive there was interesting, and the equator complex was fun -- and kitschy only in the best possible way. My heart went out to the owners of all the shops and restaurants, since tourists were fairly thin on the ground. I decided to go on a tour to Cotopaxi with this same tour company, and Diego showed me and the other guest a great time there. Quito and Ecuador are amazing places to visit.

  For my first day in Ecuador, I booked the day tour to Otavalo and Cuicocha Lagoon. As Ecuador was the first country in South America that I visited, I was... read more a little apprehensive as to what to expect. However, my guide Daniel did an amazing job and completely put me at ease. Despite the weather not being great and tiredness on my part from traveling the day before, Daniel managed to keep my interest and remained fully engaged for the entire day. He did an awesome job giving me an introduction to Ecuador, and specifically Otavalo and Cuicocha Lagoon. I spent over two weeks in Ecuador with various guides on different tours and Daniel was by far the best. He was passionate, extremely knowledgeable, and made the day very enjoyable. He is a credit to the company and when I return to Ecuador, he will be the guide that I will request.

  Daniel was our tour guide going to Baños. He is an amazing tour guide. He was a conscientious driver and very knowledgeable of the areas we visited and drove... read more through. Since some of the mountains were visible during our travel to Baños, he would stop in good places so we could snap some photos. Daniel was well acquainted with the surrounding areas and knew short cuts when traffic was heavy. There was a landslide that delayed us for some time. Rather than sit while trying to get to Pailon del Diablo, he took us to a place to eat an early lunch. Then, with one lane open in the road, we went to the waterfall and thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a highlight of our whole trip. The return was an even longer delay and Daniel drove us to an overlook that was very nice. Daniel gave us an amazing day. We highly recommend this day trip with him. …

  We spent an awesome day with Alex as our guide. We were the only ones on our tour (3 adults, a 20 something and 18 year old) and were blessed... read more to have wonderful weather to see Quito and the surrounding sites. Alex was knowledgeable, friendly, and was easy to communicate with. He went out of his way to add some extra touches including getting permission for us to take a few pics in a cathedral, taking us the top of a beautiful hotel for more great pics, adding a stop for frozen treats, and a chocolate tasting. He was also willing and helpful in taking pictures of us throughout the day to commemorate the stops. Our driver was also friendly and made us feel safe throughout the day with his good driving. I highly recommend this tour!

  Booked this private tour prior to arriving. They were exceedingly helpful in tailoring the sites to our desires. The car picked us up at our hotel on time. We changed... read more things as we went along to avoid some bad weather. Everything was perfect. Also want to specifically thank our guide, Pablo Sebastien. He was great and we would strongly recommend that you ask for him as your guide - knowledgeable, friendly and full of great ideas.

  A really good and nice tour. The tourguide Diego was really nice, give us such good informations and looked so good after us. Thanks a lot

  Diego was an excellent guide. The entire day was fantastic! Diego even came to rescue me with chocolate and tea as I was struggling back up the volcanic... read more crater. Beautiful in every way and highly recommend!

  Fabian was our driver/guide and provided an excellent day excursion to the Lagoon. He picked us up on time at our hotel and provide a great narrative of the... read more country as we drove three hours from Quito. Upon arrival to Lagoon we were able to hike to lagoon. Hike down too, 35 minutes and hike back up took 55minutes. After hiking we were treated to a wonderful Ecuadorian lunch and then returned back to Quito. Once again Fabian was very informative about his country. Highly recommend this day trip from Quito and hope that you get Fabian as your guide, you wont be disappointed. All COVID safety protocols were in place, mask were worn when appropriate, hand sanitizer was readily available.

  The drive is very long but the sight of the lagoon is definitely worth it! The water is very blue and the whole landscape surrounding this lagoon and also on... read more the drive to the lagoon is so beautiful. Jennifer was our Guide and Carlos our driver. Both took really good care of us on the way down to the lagoon. Going down is not so easy because it is very steep and the ground is not always very firm but we made it. For the way up you have two options, you walk all the way up which will take you about one hour and is of course very hard because of the steep climb or you take a horse or mule that will take you up which costs $10. Either way the whole experience is lovely and definitely worth it. We had a great time in our group and got a lot of information about the area from Jennifer and Carlos. Even with some clouds that we had the views were spectacular! Thank you for the great day to Jennifer and Carlos!