Local Tour Operator in Ecuador & Galapagos

  Fantastic!! We signed up at midnight and they had a shuttle car ready to go the next day on Easter morning! Very good English and educated tourist. We had Carlos... read more and he was amazing! It was our timeframe and choice of what to do.. we asked if we try some chocolate and not only did they take us, they setup a quick presentation for chocolate sampling.. keep in mind, this was a special request and they made it happen. If you do not know Ecuador or you are only here for a very short time.. this tour is the most efficient and cost saving way to see a lot!! Highly recommend!

  Fabian did an excellent job taking us on the full day tour from Quito!

He is so knowledgeable on all aspects with all things Quito, including history, the countryside,... read more local people, the Andes...in fact you name it and Fabian has the knowledge!
The tour itself was extremely informative and interesting, and my husband and I both agree that if you have the time, this tour should not be missed!

  The tour is great for seeing most of the must-sees in Quito. Our guide Oscar provided a lot of information on Quito. In Mitad del Mundo we had a local... read more guide in the museum which was awesome. She was really great and listening to her was so good. Very funny as well. Taking the Teleferico up the hill to see Quito was also a highlight, even if the clouds kept coming in. The mountain is cloudy most of the day, but they keep coming and going, so if you are lucky you will catch some really nice views of Quito. I can also recommend the Café on the top, have a coffee and enjoy the views.
Later the day we visited the historic part of Quito including then interiors of three churches. Stunning. If you want to get a good overview of the most important parts of the city and area, this is the tour to take.

  Vanessa was very accommodating; dishes were delicious, Market tour helped us value Ecuador’s wealth of tropical fruit. What a great way to get to know Ecuadorean

  I had an incredible time on this visit! My guide Diego was incredibly helpful and accommodating. I visited during COVID and all health protocols were followed, I felt very safe.... read more I highly recommend this day trip, the drive is beautiful and the lagoon is a must see.

  Everything was so perfect and excellent donde the moment that they pick is until the moment they drop us no complaints thanks to the guy who was with us... read more in everything

  We had a fantastic experience. Oscar was our guide and he was so friendly and shared lots of great information throughout the day. The drive was beautiful- it’s a bit... read more far but we really enjoyed it. We stopped for coffee on the way and attended a local market. We hiked down into the lagoon and kayaked the lake which we highly recommend. We then took a mule ride up for $10. On the way back, we visited an indigenous family and also stopped for ice cream. It was a great day!

  This was a great way to experience Quito, Ecuador. Our tour guide was Ximena. Having a tour guide who is both a local and knowledgeable was great! She allowed our... read more trip and time to be flexible to our wants and needs. We skipped the chocolate tour (because we did something like on our own) and spent longer time elsewhere. We traveled with our son (14) and when we got hungry during lunch we mentioned “empanadas” and she took us to a popular local empanadas place! Delicious. Our favorite part was both the Teleferico (gondolas) and the Intenen Museum. Amazing day!!!

  Diego was a marvelous guide. Due to COVID, not many tourists are about and you'll often find you're the only ones booked on a tour on most days. ... read more In my case I was solo but wanted to visit Quilotoa, but unfortunately the tour will only run with a minimum of two people. Thankfully Diego's company worked with me and we reached a compromise where the tour would still go with just me and I wouldn't have to pay the full price for two.

Diego picked me up at my hotel early in the morning and off we went. First stop was with an indigenous family who seemed quite happy to show me around their traditional houses. Fascinating to see how they live with their animals, literally inside the same room in some cases. Very friendly encounter.

Then it was off to the main highlight of the day, a visit to the spectacular Quilotoa Lake deep inside a volcano center. It's possible to hike down to the lake itself and kayak for a bit but given the extremely high altitude and thin oxygen, it would be quite difficult physically to hike back out unless you're used to the altitude (I saw even native Ecuadorians experiencing severe nausea and dizziness, so this is not something to be taken lightly). Mules can be rented for $10 for the ride back up, which probably would be a more wise choice if you do want to hike down.

As a great alternative, instead of using up your time going down to the crater floor and back up, Diego can take you on a short hike around the crater rim to the left, which offers more spectacular views and gets you completely away from the crowds of people near the major viewing overlook point next to the parking lot. In just a few minutes you've got this incredible view all to yourself, and as an added bonus Diego is an excellent photographer and will happily shoot all the pictures you could ever dream of, with much better results than trying to do the same thing awkwardly with a selfie stick.

Lunch is at one of the restaurants near the crater, then it's time for the long drive back to Quito.

Loved this tour for the amazing mountain scenery, glimpses of indigenous life, and Diego's excellent customer service.

And just when I thought things couldn't get better, I asked Diego if it would be OK to make an impromptu stop on the way back to my hotel that wasn't on the tour. He didn't hesitate to grant my request and did quite a bit of driving down confusing narrow one way streets to make it happen.

Thank you again for a very excellent day!

  We had an amazing day on our day trip to Mindo from Quito. Oscar was our tour guide and he was the best. Our original trip included zip lining and... read more a Tarzan swing but we had just done zip lining and a large swing in Banos the day before so wanted some different activities. He had no problem changing our schedule last minute. We visited a beautiful butterfly farm, hiked along waterfalls, went tubing in a river (which was very cold but very fun), and had the best coffee and chocolate. Mindo was one of our favorite places we visited in Ecuador. We highly recommend this day tour and ask for Oscar if you can!

  I do not think you can squeeze more into a day.... Old town, a gondola ride up to almost 4k meters; the Equator and center of the world experiments. Great... read more fun and sites

  This was a really great experience, in one hand you will discover all the wonders of Quito in an unique way, in the other hand, having someone like Angel... read more guiding and enriching the experience with traditions, knowledge. You can read about the places as much as you can, but there are stories that are going to be unravel by someone like Angel, a true local, so proud of his legacy.. it makes you feel the land in a different way. Thanks a lot this was an awesome memory.

  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.

  We had a fantastic time with our guide Diego! His English was perfect and he was super friendly. He gave us detailed info at each stop and we... read more were never bored. Taking the cable car to the top of Teleferico was great but walking up the mountain/volcano to the swing was one of the things I just had to do! The pictures were worth the climb! We had a wonderful lunch (Diego recommended an authentic Ecuadorian restaurant in town) , went to a private chocolate tasting, and visited the Middle of the World where we participated in really fun gravity experiments. If I went back to Quito, I actually would do this tour again.

  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!

  Carolina was an excellent tour guide! We had the best time! She was able to share every question we had and more. We went all over the city with her... read more help

  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!!

  Had a great experience going to Quilotoa crater. Our tour guide Juan Pablo was exceptional; he gave great recommendations, made sure everyone was comfortable, gave us interesting history of... read more Quito on our ride, and was very personable. Our lunch and ice cream spot he recommended was great!

  Due to COVID lockdown in Quito the itinerary for the day had to be drastically changed on the spot, however Diego and Dante were able to use their years of... read more connections in the city to make the best day/experience possible for us. We truly had a great time, especially when we thought we were expecting to only see the city from the rooftop of our hotel during our short time in Quito! (Oh, and they even took us to a testing site so we could easily get our COVID test for our flight home the next day and picked up a friend stuck at another hotel to do the same!)

  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.

  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.