The best things to do in Cuenca are the blue-domed cathedral on Parque Calderón, the walk along El Barranco above the Río Tomebamba, the free Pumapungo museum and Inca terraces, the páramo lakes of Cajas half an hour west, and a workshop visit to see a Panama hat woven. Three days covers the centre, one day trip and the craft towns. Come between June and August.
Cuenca sits at 2,560 metres in a bowl of the southern Ecuadorian Andes, on ground that has been a capital twice already. The Spanish grid of 1557 is still legible: eleven blocks by seven, cobbled, low, and closed off to the south by the escarpment where the ground drops to the river.
The 10 best things to do in Cuenca
1
Catedral de la Inmaculada Concepción
Landmark· Benigno Malo y Mariscal Sucre, Parque Calderón
The building on every photograph of Cuenca, and the reason is the roofline: three domes faced in blue and white tile above a facade of pink Andean marble. Begun in 1885 and not finished until 1975. Climb to the roof terrace, where the tile, the park below and the ring of Andes all line up at once.
Time1 hr
CostFree to enter
Best atLate afternoon
TipThe dome climb is a tight spiral staircase and closes earlier than the nave
The southern edge of the old town is a cliff, and the houses hang over it on whitewashed balconies that drop four storeys to the river. Halfway along stands the broken bridge, a stone arch left when a flood took the rest of the span in 1950. Walk the path west in the morning, when the light is on the balconies.
Time1.5 hrs
CostFree
Best atMorning
TipThe riverside path floods after heavy rain in February and March
Cuenca's best museum is free, and built on the site it explains: the eastern quarter of the Inca city of Tomebamba, whose terraces run down the slope behind the building. The archaeology room is the clearest account anywhere of the Cañari, and of what the Inca did when they arrived.
Time2.5 hrs
CostFree
Best atMorning
TipThe terraces and the aviary are behind the building and close before the galleries do
Outdoors· Vía Cuenca–Molleturo, about 33 km west of Cuenca
Half an hour west the road climbs onto páramo: a plateau of tussock grass, cloud and more than two hundred glacial lakes. The polylepis woods here are among the highest-growing forests on Earth. The park closes at 16:30, which is the real constraint: start early, because cloud usually wins the afternoon.
Landmark· Between Benigno Malo, Bolívar, Luis Cordero and Sucre
The main square is where the two cathedrals face each other across a block of clipped araucaria pines. The Old Cathedral was begun in 1567 with stone lifted from the Inca ruins. Sit on a bench for twenty minutes before doing anything else in Cuenca: it is the fastest way to understand how the place works.
Time1 hr
CostFree in the park
Best atMidday
TipThe best coffee terraces face the park from the west side
Viewpoint· Iglesia de Turi, Turi parish, about 4 km south of the centre
The terrace in front of the white church at Turi is the standard view of Cuenca, and it earns the reputation: the whole grid below in one frame, the three domes in the middle and the Andes closing the back. Come late in the day and stay past dusk, when the streetlights pick out the grid.
The Panama hat is Ecuadorian, woven from toquilla straw, and Cuenca is where most of it happens. This exporter keeps a museum inside the working factory, and the guided tour is the point, because it takes you past the floor where the hats are washed, blocked and ironed.
Time1 hr
CostTicketed guided tour
Best atWeekday morning
TipTours run in Spanish and English on weekdays and in Spanish only on Saturday mornings
Three floors of the city feeding itself: produce below, a food hall above where hornado is carved to order, and grain and herbs at the bottom. The limpias are here too, cleansings performed with herbs and eggs, treated as ordinary rather than as a spectacle. Eat where the local queue is longest.
Time1.5 hrs
CostFree to browse
Best atLate morning
TipLunch is served until it runs out rather than until a closing time
A flower market the width of a lane, pressed against the carved stone doorway of a Carmelite church begun in 1682. The whole thing takes up perhaps thirty metres, which is why it photographs the way it does. Buy something: the plaza works because it is a market, not a viewpoint.
Time30 min
CostFree
Best atMorning
TipThe stalls are busiest and fullest on Thursday and Friday, ahead of the weekend
Archaeology· Ingapirca, Cañar province, about 75 km north of Cuenca
The largest Inca site in Ecuador, and it survives because it was built to last: dressed stone laid without mortar on a ridge the Cañari had already occupied. The elliptical Temple of the Sun is the centrepiece. Admission includes a guided tour, which is not optional and is what makes the visit worth the drive.
Three. The first covers the historic centre on foot: Parque Calderón, both cathedrals, El Barranco and the market. The second goes to Cajas. The third takes the craft towns of Gualaceo and Chordeleg, or Ingapirca if Inca stonework matters more to you than silverwork.
When is the best time to visit Cuenca?+
June to August, the driest and sunniest months, with August the driest of all. Temperatures barely move across the year, around 20°C by day and 10°C at night, so the rain is the only real variable. For the festivals instead, aim for Corpus Christi in June or the Pase del Niño on 24 December.
Will the altitude be a problem in Cuenca?+
Less than in Quito. Cuenca sits at 2,560 metres, roughly 300 metres lower, and most travellers feel nothing worse than shortness of breath on the stairs for a day. Cajas is the exception: the trailheads sit near 3,900 metres, so leave that for your second or third day.
Are Panama hats really made in Cuenca?+
Yes. The hat is Ecuadorian and always has been, woven from toquilla straw in villages across Azuay and Manabí, and Cuenca is where most of it is finished and exported. The name comes from the trade route, not the origin. UNESCO listed the weaving tradition as intangible cultural heritage in 2012.
How do you get from Cuenca airport into the city?+
You barely need to. Mariscal Lamar is about two kilometres from Parque Calderón, so a taxi reaches the historic centre in under ten minutes. The tram stops at the terminal as well. The intercity bus station is next door, which makes arriving by air and leaving by bus straightforward.
Where to look up
Best colonial churches in Cuenca
Five churches inside the UNESCO core, and what each one is actually for.
Parque Calderón
Catedral de la Inmaculada Concepción
Neo-Gothic, 1885 to 1975
The New Cathedral, begun in 1885 and completed in 1975. Pink Andean marble below, three tiled domes above, and a roof terrace between them.
The Old Cathedral, begun in 1567 with stone taken from the Inca ruins and finished in 1791. Now a religious museum, kept for the interior and the organ.
Begun in 1682 for an enclosed Carmelite community. The carved stone portal is the thing to look at, and the flower market against it is how most people find it.
Twin towers on Gran Colombia, and the most theatrical interior in the city: a nave painted rather than carved. A working parish, so services take priority.
The eastern edge of the old grid, and the only church in Cuenca built on a Latin cross plan. The square in front is still the neighbourhood's meeting point.
A museum inside a working hat factory: three rooms on the history of the toquilla straw hat, its manufacture and the company. Guided tours on weekdays.
The house of a Cuencan writer on Calle Larga, restored as the city's own museum of itself. The building carries as much of the story as the collection.
Six kitchens, from the room that has been on Parque Calderón since 1933 to the city's two award winners.
Book ahead
El Centro
Tiesto's
Ecuadorian, upscale
Ecuadorian and Andean cooking in a restored adobe house, served with a spread of house-made sauces in small clay tiestos. The most booked table in Cuenca.
The restaurant of the Mansión Alcázar, in a nineteenth-century townhouse with a garden behind. Traditional Ecuadorian dishes in a room that suits a long lunch.
On Parque Calderón since 1933, which makes it the oldest restaurant in the city. Big portions of the national repertoire at fair prices, looking onto the square.
Cuenca is Ecuador's craft capital. Five places to buy from the people who made it.
Eat here
Calle Larga
Mercado 10 de Agosto
Food market
The main food market, three levels of it: produce and juice below, hornado in the upstairs hall, grain and herbs at the bottom. Lunch costs a few dollars.
A nineteenth-century exporter with a factory shop and museum. Buy here to understand what you are paying for: grade, weave count and block, before the price.
A rebuilt riverside park with running tracks, outdoor gyms and a planetarium. Where Cuenca exercises, and the best place to see it out of its Sunday clothes.
The eastern parish, and the other end of the same colonial axis. Local rather than visitor-facing: bakeries, small squares, five minutes from Pumapungo.
Ecuador's largest Inca site, 75 km north, built around an elliptical Temple of the Sun on ground the Cañari held first. Admission includes the guided tour.
The wettest festival in Ecuador and Cuenca takes it further than most: water, foam and flour in the streets before Lent.
Mar/Apr
Semana Santa
Holy Week fills the churches of the historic centre, and fanesca appears on every menu: a soup of twelve grains and salt cod.
12 Apr
Fundación de Cuenca
The city was founded on 12 April 1557, and the anniversary is a municipal holiday with concerts and craft fairs.
Jun
Corpus Christi and the Septenario
Sixty days after Easter, and the sweetest week in Ecuador: seven nights of adoration and stalls of traditional sweets.
Every 2 yrs
Bienal de Cuenca
The international art biennial the city has run since 1987, across the municipal museums and temporary venues.
3 Nov
Independencia de Cuenca
Cuenca declared independence on 3 November 1820, and the anniversary is the biggest week of the year. Book beds well ahead.
24 Dec
Pase del Niño Viajero
The largest Christmas procession in Ecuador, on the morning of 24 December, with thousands of children in costume.
31 Dec
Año Viejo
Effigies of the old year are built through December and burned in the street at midnight, with a testament read out first.
Getting around
Cuenca transport & airports
How to arrive and move around the city.
CUE
Aeropuerto Mariscal Lamar
The airport sits inside the city, about two kilometres from Parque Calderón, which makes it one of the shortest airport transfers in South America. Service is domestic, principally to Quito.
A single 10.7 km line with 27 stations, from the airport and bus terminal through the edge of the historic centre. Fares are paid with a rechargeable card that now works on the city buses too.
The intercity bus station is beside the airport. Departures run all day to Guayaquil over the Cajas road, to Quito and Loja, and to the Azuay craft towns.
Taxis are metered and plentiful, and almost every trip inside the city is a short one. The historic centre is eleven blocks by seven, so most of this guide is walkable.
Ecuador 
