Local Tour Operator in Ecuador & Galapagos

  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!

  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!

  Adrian and Carlos were the perfect guides, they knew shortcuts and stopped on the journey to show us different plants and foods and most importantly volcanoes. We saw 12 at... read more once from one view point. The lagoon was incredible and beautiful, the hike was tough back to the top, with the altitude and my asthma I didn’t know if I could do it but both guides helped me all the way down and up and I had an amazing sense of achievement at the end. An incredible trip all round and I’d recommend with these guides all day,

  This was a great tour to fully see Quito in 1 day. My guide Raul was incredibly knowledgeable and friendly. I visited during COVID and all safety and health precautions... read more were followed, I felt very safe and had an amazing time!

  After our tours were cancelled by another company we ended up jumping on a last minute city tour of Quito with Latin Adventures. I am so glad our other tours... read more were canceled because we loved our experience with Latin Adventures. It was amazing. My sister and I learned so much from our guide Oscar. He was very knowledgeable about the city and history. Oscar really went above and beyond and even helped us set up two other tours during our stay which were equally amazing. We had a different guide on the last day, Jose, who spent extra time stopping to let us take in the sites. I highly recommend them.

  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.

  We had a great day trip from Quito to Cotopaxi with our guide Daniel. He picked us up from our hotel on time at 8am and drove expertly to Cotopaxi... read more taking a scenery road which allowed us to appreciate the geography of the inter-valley region. The drive took about 1.5 hours. His approach takes you around the volcanoes from all angles. Daniel was truly passionate about Ecuador and very knowledgeable about wildlife and vegetation of the region. He stopped plenty of times for awesome picture opportunities. We hiked from the parking lot (15K ft) to the refuge (16K ft) doing the zig-zag approach and experienced no issues with altitude sickness whatsoever (he stopped by a kiosko where we could buy coca candy and leaves if needed before entering the park). The weather was awful as we ascended, with small hail and dust from the strong winds, but he was patient and set the pace perfectly for us to successfully reach the refuge. We grabbed hot chocolate up in the refuge (2.5 per cup, bring change) and warmed up before going back down. On our way back to Quito, we stopped by an authentic local restaurant around 3pm where we had a soup, a pork dish, and an ice cream. Back to the hotel by 5pm promptly. This is a great experience for a Quito escapade which you should consider if you're looking to do something based off the city. …

  Our guide was very knowledgeable and lead us through the day with an excellent mix of history and fun. And the chocolate tasting at the end was a wonderful surprise!

  Diego was our guide and Dante our driver for today's tour. WHAT A BARGAIN!! Dante conveyed us safely from place to place, while Diego gave the play-by-play. ... read more A fantastic day; Diego was so knowledgeable, friendly, and passionate about teaching us the history, culture, and everything Quito. He is a biologist, a geologist, a meteorologist, and a cultural and historical expert of the region. It seemed like he is a one man Ambassador for both Quito and Ecuador. A thoroughly delightful day here in the Metad del Mundo.

  We had a blast! Rodrigo was on time, and early. Our itinerary changed in mid tour and he made it even better than what we anticipated. Super

  My favorite part of this tour was getting to see the llamas. The entire experience was great - from the views during the drive to the hike back up for... read more a great lunch. Our guide and our driver were great.

I would certainly recommend this tour and would do it again. Thanks to Adrian.

  We had a fabulous day on a private tour of Quito and the surrounding area, coordinated by Alex Manzaba. Alex was terrific with adjusting the schedule to fit best... read more with the ever-changing weather in Quito. He flexed to get in as much as possible with the pending rain, and made great suggestions that were “off the beaten path.” He accommodated all of our requests (for example, we didn’t want a long lunch, we wanted to see the city) and was knowledgeable and passionate about his home town. It was an absolutely perfect day in Quito!

  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.

  Our guide Oscar was amazing! It ended up being a private tour for my husband and I, and it was everything we could've hoped for! Oscar planned our day around... read more the weather and we were able to see everything! This is a great way to see Quito especially if you have limited time there! We went to a really cool lunch spot he recommended and it was delicious! He was very friendly and chatty and told us a lot about the city we wouldn't have known otherwise! Definitely recommend this trip - you will see some really cool things and hit all the tourist sites in just 1 day!

  I came to Quito to work remotely for a month. I absolutely didn't know what to expect from Ecuador in general. I got this tour last week, just because I... read more wanted to do something different on the weekend, and it blew my mind! The tour was private for me because Latin Adventures couldn't gather more people for the day. For that, I paid just a bit extra, and worth it all. I started contacting them via Whatsapp as soon as I purchased the ticket, and they responded very quickly. During the whole week before the trip, they gave me clothing advice and arranged the pick up in the Airbnb ap that I'm renting. My guide was Diego, and I couldn't be happier. He was terrific, had all the exciting information and cool facts, sometimes personal stories that were even more interesting.
We stopped a few times on the way to the Lagoon, went to the bathroom, bought trip supplies, and visited a small store (@sinchi_toaquiza) and Maria and Julian's indigenous house. The later ones were the highlights for me. I loved to get intimate contact with real people from the place, and this was it. They spoke Quichua, that was special. I bought with them a beautiful scarf made of sheep fur. About this topic, for the ones who like shopping, bring cash cause there are many beautiful goods.
Once at the top of the Lagoon, I couldn't describe the magnitude of the beauty in words. It's majestic. Diego knew the best paths to hike down and helped me with good pictures. It was a bit crowded, and that made me a bit uncomfortable, especially during the pandemic when I was trying to avoid gatherings, but the majority of the people were wearing masks, which was good enough. At the bottom, I rented a kayak for 20min. Hiking up, I "hired" a mule to bring me back because I was concerned that my physical abilities wouldn't be good enough. The altitude played a tool. But in the end, I regretted because I could have all the breaks I wanted.
On our way back, I had lots of conversations with Diego, about our lives, the details of the parts that I liked, and even philosophized about how small we are in the big world. I'd recommend Latin adventures for everyone who asks me Ecuador. It was an unforgettable experience!

  We spent our last day in Ecuador with Francisco and Dante, and it couldn’t have been a more perfect day. Our boys (11 and 13) agreed. We started the day... read more with beautiful views from the Teleferico, spent some time at the equator, and stopped for empanadas for lunch. After this we walked around the Old Town and learned about the history of this area. Through the day, our guides explained Ecuadorian customs and culture, introduced us to local snacks, and even arranged a last-minute chocolate tasting. Would highly recommend this tour for a day in Quito. …

  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!

  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!

  We booked the evening before because we had just arrived and the weather was looking iffy. We weren’t sure someone would actually pick us up but Diego arrived... read more right on time despite Sunday road closures all around us. He was very knowledgeable and ready to answer all our questions. We covered all the highly recommended sights and had a short chocolate tasting too. The threatened rain held off until our last 15 mins. Perfecto!

  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.