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! …

  Diego was great! He was very knowledgeable and flexible. He gave us lots of options about how the day would flow. Great way to spend a first full day in... read more Quito! Highly recommend. 10 out of 10!

  My husband and I had a fantastic time touring Mindo with our guide Óscar and our driver Bolívar. Our main objective was to spend a day in the cloud forest... read more hiking to waterfalls and ziplining, but our trip was so much more than that. Óscar taught us about the hummingbirds, orchids and butterflies and how the flora changes through the different altitudes. After a super fun and exhausting day, we had a delicious meal at El Chef in Mindo and finished with a coffee from Mindo Forest Coffee and Tea. (note to anyone traveling with Óscar, you should totally trust his restaurant recommendations. He knows his stuff!) Óscar and Bolívar really went above and beyond to get us back to our hotel safely during a very busy night in Quito’s old town with lots of closed roads due to a show happening in front of our hotel. ¡Gracias a Óscar y Bolívar!

  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 have been to 30 countries and this was our best tour ever. The guide was very knowledgeable and was able to answer every question we had. ... read more He taught us so much about this wonderful country. We plan to book two more tours with this company while we are here

  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

  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!

  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 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!

  Cotopaxi was closed due to unusual activity from the volcano, so we went to Quilotoa instead. Oscar was a great guide - knowledgeable and friendly, and stopped several times along... read more the way for us to get coffee, use the washroom, and learn about the indigenous peoples and how they live in the highlands. Our van was comfortable and had AC which was welcome! The visit to Quilotoa was great as well and ended with lunch at a local restaurant (get the locro de papa soup!). Would definitely recommend this tour! :)

  Alex and Dante were fantastic tour guides!! We learned the history of the city in a fun way! Alex was so knowledgeable and the tour was personalized making it an... read more amazing experience.

  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!!!

  Half Day Tour Of Quito - We came back to Quito from a cruise in the Galápagos and had ten hours before our flight back and booked a half day tour with a pick up and... read more drop off at the airport. Our tour guide was excellent and he took us to several historical sights as well as a chocolate factory in the city. He was very knowledgeable and made sure we were safe during our walk through the old city. I highly recommend this tour if you are in this area!

  We didn’t do any extravagant hiking but was beautiful. The hummingbirds were beyond compare-unlike anything we’ve ever seen.

  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.

  Thanks for a great experience! As a solo traveler, I felt much safer traveling around the city in the comfort of the van with a small friendly group. Our group... read more leader organized our stops to adapt to the weather and maximize our experience. He was quite knowledgeable, and open to questions. I highly recommend this experience :-)

  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

  We enjoyed the whole experience. Oscar was a great guide and made learning about Cotopaxi fun. The hike up was difficult, but possible if you take it slow. It felt... read more great to make it to the top. Make sure you dress warm— almost the same as if you were going skiing— gloves, hat, and layers. Rain coat is advised.

  This was more amazing than I ever expected. The pictures here don’t grasp how awesome of a place Quilotoa is and the surrounding area. It is far more massive in... read more person and the crater is ginormous. I’m still in awe days later of this experience. You can either walk the rim or walk within the canyon. The walk around the rim is far easier. The walk inside the crater is gorgeous but is kinda straight down and then. Straight up. If you go within I’d recommend taking a mule back up so you can enjoy the scenery more. Also the tour group was awesome. The bus ride was stupendous and we even had the opportunity to sit on the top of the bus (safely) and see all the plains and beautiful landscape of Ecuador. 100/10 experience.

  We had a fullday tour picked up at our Hotel at 7am driving with Leonardo and our guide Miriam to Cotopaxi. The weather was cloudy but Leonardo knew where to... read more drive to for a clear spot and so we changed our plans spontaneously and hiked up to the Cotopaxi refugium where we had the best views and photos! Afterwards we drove to the Little Lagoon where meanwhile the good wheather arrived as well. From here we drove all the way to Quilotoa with the best views and explanations from Miriam- we really learned a lot. In Quilotoa we had a delicious ecuadorian lunch with both Leonardo and Miriam and learned more about people and culture- Thank you! Afterwards we had a wonderful view over Quilotoa and again best photos arranged by Miriam. We had a really exciting day and would recommend everyone to come to Ecuador and book a Tour with this Agency! We felt very safe all the time and had a real benefit from what we saw and learned! …

  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