Uses the US Dollar as the currency.
I used Nomad e-sim in Ecuador as it was the cheapest for 1GB for 7 days.
The capital, I wouldn't recommend spending more than 1-2 days here as while it has a few nice architectural buildings, it's mostly pretty dirty and an urban ghetto compared to nicer places like Montanita.
It's also high altitude so you'll get tired walking around, especially going uphill for hundreds of steps to the Virgin of the Panecillo.
- Historic Center for sightseeing - the population is a bit more sketchy though
- La Mariscal for nightlife & social, it's a bit more upmarket, as you can tell from my recommended restaurant review of Marcando El Camino further down. It might be better to stay here and visit the centre during the day as there is nothing going on in the centre in the evening anyway
- Virgin of the Panecillo - large iconic Virgin of Quito statue - beware it's like 500 steps up there and many dogs running around will bark at you on the way like you're a burglar - so you might just want to take a taxi up there
- Church of the Society of Jesus
- Basílica del Voto Nacional
- La Mariscal Artisan Market
- Centro Comercial Espiral - high spiral circle mall full of phone shops
- Casa Museo Guayasamín - recommended by another traveller but I didn't find time for this one
Not Recommended:
- Mirador San Juan - La Independencia - not worth the long walk up all the steps through the ghetto suburbs
- Marcando El Camino - so good I ate here both nights I was here. It was packed on even Tuesday and Wednesday nights, and you'll see mainly upper-middle class people dining here because spending $30 per head without alcohol is expensive by local standards. The bread and vinegar vegetables starter is interesting. The shrimp main with sliced potatoes was great - it came with 3 large langoustine in a tasty sauce. The beef cheeks in red wine with mashed potatoes and leeks was good too. The chocolate mousse bomb with red berries was great and so too was the passionfruit tiramusu chocolate bomb. I wish I'd tried the breakfasts here as they also look good. WiFi 195/213 Mbit/s
TODO:
- Enzzo - 4.9 - I wish I'd tried this instead of doing Marcando again, the "Louisiana" restaurant title put me off, but upon closer inspection the menu looks good
- Uku Pacha - 4.7 Ecuadorian
- Miskay - 4.6 Ecuadorian
- Hacienda de Los Arrieros - 4.6 Colombian
- Catedral - 4.6 Ecuadorian - was closed at 7pm on a Wednesday when I tried to go, even though it should have been open
Mariscal Sucre Quito International Airport is a small airport and unfortunately neither of the two power sockets I tried worked to recharge.
Terminal Terrestre Quitumbe - Quito Sur is the bus station hub to many destinations in Ecuador.
There are a confusing number of ticket booths so leave yourself a good 45 minutes to orient yourself and ask around for the destination you need. They are split by sections, some going to the coast, others the highlands etc. In each region section of booths there are many different bus vendors with different schedules and prices.
I managed to connect to a free wifi network WIFI_EPMMOP, although not the expected one
(always a slight risk to connect to an unknown / unexpected network, make sure your laptop's firewall is enabled).
There were no power sockets that you'd usually find at airports and bus terminals these days, but instead a small stall, near the platform entrnace barriers on the upper level, that charges $0.50 to recharge per 1 hour.
There were also stray dogs wandering around looking for food as there is a "food court" (2 small cafe stalls) near the platform barriers on the upper level. I think one guy had a confrontation with one to the side of me, he looked like it had bitten his forearm sleeve but he wasn't hurt.
I was tempted to get some food here, but thought this might be tempting fate to get an upset stomach before a 9 hour bus ride (which turned out to be 11 hours 😭).
Two options:
- Fly to Manta and then take a bus or taxi to Montanita
- Taxi could be $100 though (update: I tested using my favourite cheapest InDrive taxi app and it was only $50 cash)
- Bus from Quito to Montanita (they said 9 hours but it was 11 😭)
- from bus station Terminal Terrestre Quitumbe - Quito Sur
I tried the second option on a Saturday as I had an early flight arriving in Quito at midday, so even with the 1 hour taxi to the bus station, I thought I'd have an afternoon of hourly buses to choose from, which turned out to not be the case - there was only a single bus going at 7pm for $18, so I ended up stuck at Terminal Terrestre Quitumbe for 5 hours waiting for that only last bus option.
I used the bus company "Cooperativa De Transporte Terrestre Carlos Alberto Aray". The bus itself had large comfortable reclining seats to sleep in overnight, but no power sockets so make sure you have a fat power bank if doing this run, at least 20,000 mAh just for your phone recharges, more if you're using a laptop.
Update: after about 4 hours I noticed there are classic USB sockets built in to on the bulkhead above by the air conditioning (the seats were so comfortable I fell asleep within 5 minutes and woke up at nearly 11pm). Of course my cable was the more modern USB-c to USB-c, then I remembered that I had a small pack of USB format converters - this worked. It needs to be a 2M cable though, as a 1M might not quite reach. The power was 15 Watts measured, not quite enough to keep a busy laptop alive indefinitely, but enough to slow the power drain by several hours, which is sufficient.
At the first stop (that I noticed at least having woken up) at Santo Domingo, there were bathrooms and a few street snack vendors, but also several people came on board to try to hustle, beg, sell USB power banks etc. This seems to be common across Latin America.
If I had to do this again, I'd fly to Manta and then bus or taxi only the remaining shorter distance which is only 45km instead of 600km.
On the way back I decided to fly from Manta, the nearest airport, back to Quito.
However, Manta is not close to Montanita at all.
The bus from Montantita takes a solid 4 hours of driving to get to Manta (it's 3 hours in a car without stops) but the bus is slower and stops along the way. That small 300ml coconut water you have at the start of the journey will come back to punish you with a vengeance by the end of the journey.
The bus runs roughly once an hour and you wave it down on the main road heading north.
The bus terminates at Terminal Terrestre de Manta - Luis Valdivieso Moránn which is about a 20 minute walk, but in the Ecuadorean sun I recommend taking an Uber taxi for 3 minutes instead, it only cost me $1.70, although I had to walk across the parking lot to the highway to its meeting point, but better than than dealing with yellow cab taxi drivers trying to price gouge you).
Terminal Terrestre actually has a small mall attached to it but I didn't have time to explore the shops there.
Manta Eloy Alfaro International Airport is very small, with only a single coffee stall in the corner with drinks, sandwiches and desserts - all with no prices, hmmm. Past security there was only 1 waiting area with 2 doors, no planes outside and only 1 small cafe. It was $7 for a partly defrosted chicken sandwich with a little bit of chutney on it - a far cry from my enjoyment of food in Montantita. Eat before you go to the airport if you can or take something with you!!
Beach town destination popular with surfers and backpackers.
Montanita is one of my favourite beach towns I've been to, with a good wide flat sand beach, cheap food, clothes, warm weather, not too touristy - but you pay for this in the arduous journey to get there.
It's small enough that you don't need to worry about which area to stay in as it's only about 10-15 minutes walk across town, so just pick somewhere nice that is close on Google Maps to the town and then enjoy the beach and walking around.
Food in Montanita is both good and cheap as it's a little touristy, but not so much they can get away with taking advantage.
You probably won't need a taxi as Montanita is small enough to just walk across in 10-15 minutes, but if you need this to take you to the airport (I used the bus for $6 instead which goes almost exactly to the airport).
- Playa Montañita - the main beach that runs north to south
- Calle de los Cockteles - cocktail street next to the beach - has lots of small bars for drinks
- Lost Beach Club - the main nightclub here
- Mirador de Montañita - scenic viewpoint with Montanita sign - worth a few minutes detour out of the town to walk up and take pics overlooking the town and sea
- Arena Gym Montañita - gym with $4.50 daily entry, smoothies for $3 (add-ons like protein or creatine are another ~$2), open until 9pm, and there is even a pull up and dip bar outside
- Billar Montañita - small pool / billiards club
- Rose's Burger - I’m shocked how good the Rosa burger is, so flavourful and well balanced. They must have put drugs in it or something. The Hawaiian burger with bacon and pineapple pieces in it was good too. The fries were the non-crispy medium-thick style, and great with the sweet chilli garlic sauce they give you, as well as the ketchup and mayo-type sauce. The passion fruit juice with lemon was good for $3, and so was the lemon, honey and ginger juice. A burger a fries is around $7, which is twice as expensive as the burgers sold at the street stalls (which I didn't get time to try), but this place is so good I don't see how it could be topped. It has a large selection of burgers, and is open late until 2am too. The only downside is that 3 flying cockroaches or locusts or something landed on me in a row, probably due to the open front store and it being nearly midnight. WiFi 202/227 Mbit/s
- La Terreta - I've heard people rating this as their favourite place to eat, it's certainly good quality at a reasonable price. The caprese salad came well presented, fresh ingredients and with 4 warm fat pita quarters. The spaghetti with shrimps was good, although only 4 shrimps, but was cooked al dente with a very tasty creme le leche buttery sauce. Overall excellent quality, catering to European palette and standards. Has wifi
- Calle de los ceviches - street food vendor with good fresh seafood ceviches with shrimp, octopus, fish, and oyster for $8 - $10. In hindsight I'd go with the $8 instead of being upsold to the $10 for 1 oyster on it. I tried to go again for another ceviche the next day but they were all gone by the time I got there at 7pm
- Tía Montanita - medium-sized supermarket with a good selection of products
- TuTi Montañita - smaller budget style supermarket, marginally cheaper but cash only
TODO:
- Medias Dulces - 4.9, cafe, not restaurant
- Pimientos - 4.8
- Home Grill - 4.5, cheap, wholesome and well rated, I was just too full to squeeze it in between meals since it wasn't a small meal like the ceviche stalls diagonally across the street
- The Wave Surf Resto Cafe - 4.5
- Dekel Montañita Restaurante & Bar
- Kapadokia restaurant
- Tiki Limbo - 4.2, good venue and menu but expensive - $16.50 for a ceviche that is $8 at calle de los ceviches above. You'll easily spend $20-$30 per head, plus drinks, which makes it one of the more expensive places in the area, I suspect its rating would be higher if not for this
- Hamburguesas Beach grill and beer - 4.9, highly rated but was closed both evenings I went
- Los Helechos - 4.9 but few reviews
- Juancho Panza - 4.8 but unhealthy porky style