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Quito, Ecuador, top 10 things to do (Wimup travel guide)
▶ Video · Best of Quito
Video guide · 16:31
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Top 10South AmericaEcuador

Top 10 Things To Do in Quito

Country
Ecuador
Best months
Jun · Jul · Aug · Sep
Population
1.76
Language
Spanish
Budget / day
$55–110
Quick answer

Give the first day to the old town on foot and nothing else: Plaza Grande, La Compañía, San Francisco and the Casa del Alabado, ending on La Ronda after dark. Day two goes up, with the TelefériQo on the first clear morning and Guayasamín's Capilla del Hombre afterwards. Keep the third for the equator at Mitad del Mundo and the Pululahua crater, or swap both for Otavalo's market.

Best of Quito

▶ Video guide Open the film page (16:31) →

Quito sits at 2,850 metres in a valley on the flank of an active volcano, 25 kilometres south of the equator. The Spanish laid the grid out in 1534 over an Inca settlement, and because the city was too poor to modernise and too remote to bomb, most of it stands: 320 hectares that went onto the first UNESCO list in 1978.

The 10 best things to do in Quito

Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesús, Quito, Ecuador (Wimup)
1

Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesús

Church· García Moreno N10-43 y Sucre, Centro Histórico

Ecuador's baroque showpiece, begun in 1605 and finished in 1765, with an interior sheeted in gold leaf from the pillars to the vaults. The facade is carved volcanic stone down to the twisting Solomonic columns, and the Quito School paintings inside are the reason to slow down. It is a working church, so a service can close part of it without notice.

Time45 minutes
CostTicketed
Best atWeekday mornings
TipPhotography inside is restricted
Map
Basílica del Voto Nacional, Quito (Wimup)
2

Basílica del Voto Nacional

Church· Calle Venezuela y Carchi, Centro Histórico

The largest neo-Gothic church in the Americas, begun in 1892 and still officially unfinished, which locals will tell you is deliberate: the legend holds that the world ends when it is completed. Instead of gargoyles the stonework carries Galapagos tortoises, iguanas and condors. The climb to the towers finishes on ladders and a plank above the nave.

Time1 to 2 hours
CostTicketed for the towers
Best atLate morning
TipThe tower climb is steep and exposed
Map
3

Plaza Grande and the Palacio de Carondelet

Landmark· Plaza de la Independencia, Centro Histórico

The square the city was laid out around in 1534, and still where Quito conducts itself: shoeshiners, pensioners on the benches, the cathedral on one side and the presidential palace on the other. Carondelet is the working seat of government, so the plaza doubles as the country's protest ground. The changing of the presidential guard draws a crowd on Monday mornings.

Time1 hour
CostFree
Best atMonday morning
TipStand on the cathedral side for the guard change
Map
4

Monasterio de San Francisco

Church· Cuenca y Sucre, Plaza de San Francisco

Work started in 1534, weeks after the Spanish founding, which makes this the oldest church complex in Ecuador and the largest colonial one on the continent. The plaza in front is the best public space in the old town, wide enough to see the whole facade at once. Inside, the Museo Fray Pedro Gocial holds Quito School sculpture and painting under a Mudejar ceiling.

Time1 to 2 hours
CostTicketed for the museum
Best atLate afternoon
TipThe cloister stays quiet even when the plaza is full of school groups.
Map
5

Museo Casa del Alabado

Museum· Cuenca N1-41 y Bolívar, Centro Histórico

Pre-Columbian art shown as art rather than as archaeology, in a 17th-century house a block from San Francisco. The collection runs from Valdivia figures to Manteño stone seats, lit and captioned so that objects thousands of years old carry an argument instead of a date. The best hour in the old town for anyone who thinks they dislike museums.

Time1 hour
CostTicketed
Best atWeekday mornings
TipStart upstairs and work down, which follows the way the collection is argued.
Map↗ Website
TelefériQo, Quito, Ecuador (Wimup)
6

TelefériQo and Cruz Loma

Viewpoint· Av. Occidental s/n, Cruz Loma

The cable car climbs the eastern flank of Pichincha to roughly 4,050 metres in under twenty minutes, a serious gain from a city already at 2,850. On a clear morning the view runs the length of the valley out to Cotopaxi and Cayambe. Trails carry on towards the summit of Rucu Pichincha, a four-hour return walk that is not a first-day plan.

Time2 to 3 hours
CostTicketed
Best atEarly morning
TipCloud usually closes the view by early afternoon
Map
7

Capilla del Hombre and Museo Guayasamín

Museum· Lorenzo Chávez EA18-143 y Mariano Calvache, Bellavista

Oswaldo Guayasamín's museum and the chapel he designed as one work about Latin America in the twentieth century, completed after his death in 1999. The paintings are unsparing, and the building is left open at the top so the sky finishes it. His house next door is kept as he left it, with the collection he spent a lifetime assembling.

Time2 hours
CostTicketed
Best atAfternoon
TipIt sits high above the city in Bellavista
Map↗ Website
El Panecillo, Quito, Ecuador (Wimup)
8

El Panecillo and the Virgen de Quito

Landmark· Cima del Panecillo, García Moreno S/N

The winged Virgin on the hill south of the old town is 41 metres of aluminium assembled from thousands of numbered pieces, modelled on Bernardo de Legarda's 18th-century carving in San Francisco. The platform under her gives the clearest read of the city short of a cable car: the colonial grid on one side, the modern north running away on the other.

Time1 hour
CostTicketed for the monument
Best atClear mornings
TipTake a taxi or the tour bus up
Map
Calle La Ronda, Quito, Ecuador (Wimup)
9

La Ronda

Neighborhood· Calle Juan de Dios Morales, Centro Histórico

One restored colonial lane, narrow enough to touch both walls, and the part of the old town that stays alive after dark. Workshops sell hats, candles and spinning tops made on the premises, the bars pour canelazo, and the crowd is mostly Quiteño rather than visiting. Thursday to Saturday evenings are when the street does what it was restored to do.

Time2 hours
CostFree to walk
Best atThursday to Saturday evening
TipOrder canelazo hot with naranjilla
Map
Ciudad Mitad del Mundo, Quito, Ecuador (Wimup)
10

Ciudad Mitad del Mundo

Landmark· Av. Manuel Córdova Galarza, San Antonio de Pichincha

The monument 26 kilometres north of the city marks the line the French Geodesic Mission measured between 1736 and 1744, the survey that gave the country its name. Satellite positioning puts the true equator a couple of hundred metres away, which the neighbouring Intiñan museum has made its business. Come for the measurement, not the trick with the egg.

TimeHalf a day
CostTicketed
Best atWeekday mornings
TipCarry on north to the Pululahua crater lookout while you still have the car or the taxi.
Map↗ Website

All 10, mapped

Quito · 10 spots
AllLandmarksMuseumsFoodFree

Quito travel FAQ

How many days do you need in Quito?+
Three. One for the old town on foot, one for the TelefériQo and Guayasamín's Capilla del Hombre, and one for the equator at Mitad del Mundo or the market at Otavalo. A fourth buys you Cotopaxi or the Papallacta hot springs without rushing either.
Will the altitude be a problem?+
Quito sits at 2,850 metres, high enough that some people get a headache, breathlessness or broken sleep for a day or two. Take the first day slowly, drink more water than usual, skip the alcohol on the first night, and leave the TelefériQo, which tops out at 4,050 metres, until day two. The sun is stronger than it feels.
What is the best time of year to visit Quito?+
June to September, the dry season, when the afternoons stay clear and July and August are the sunniest months. The rest of the year brings rain in the afternoon rather than all day. Temperature is not the variable: the average sits around 15C every month of the year, and every day is roughly twelve hours long.
Is Quito safe for visitors?+
The old town and the main districts are fine in daylight with ordinary city sense: bags in front on crowded buses, phones out of sight in markets. After dark, take a licensed taxi or a ride-hailing car rather than walking between neighbourhoods, and never walk the stairs up El Panecillo. Check your government's advice before booking.
What currency does Ecuador use, and how do you get around Quito?+
The US dollar, adopted in 2000, so there is nothing to change on arrival and small notes are worth carrying. In the city, Line 1 of the metro runs the length of it for a flat 45 cents, the trolleybus corridors fill the gaps, and Uber and Cabify cover the rest. The airport is 40 to 60 minutes away by car.
The old town in gold

Best colonial churches in Quito

Eight churches inside ten blocks, and the reason the centre carries a World Heritage listing.
Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesús
Baroque
Centro Histórico

Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesús

Church · García Moreno N10-43

The gold-leaf interior took 160 years to finish, from 1605 to 1765, and is the single most photographed room in Ecuador even though photography inside is restricted.

Map
Oldest
Centro Histórico

Monasterio de San Francisco

Church · Plaza de San Francisco

Begun in 1534 and the oldest church complex in the country, with a Mudejar ceiling, a working friary and the Museo Fray Pedro Gocial in the cloister.

Map
Basílica del Voto Nacional
Tower climb
Centro Histórico

Basílica del Voto Nacional

Church · Calle Venezuela y Carchi

Neo-Gothic, begun in 1892 and officially unfinished. Galapagos tortoises and iguanas take the place of gargoyles, and the towers are open to climb.

Map
Centro Histórico

Iglesia de Santo Domingo

Church · Plaza de Santo Domingo

Sixteenth-century church at the foot of the old town, with a museum of Quito School work and a plaza that fills with buskers on a Sunday.

Map
Centro Histórico

Basílica de La Merced

Church · Chile y Cuenca

Begun in 1701 and consecrated in 1747, with the tallest bell tower in the old town and a cloister most visitors walk straight past.

Map
Centro Histórico

El Sagrario

Church · Calle García Moreno

The cathedral's parish church, and a lesson in how much painted decoration a 17th-century dome can carry without tipping into clutter.

Map
Centro Histórico

Iglesia de San Agustín

Church · Chile y Guayaquil

The Augustinian church whose chapter house saw the signing of Ecuador's first act of independence in 1809, which is why the date sits on the national calendar.

Map
Guápulo

Santuario de Guápulo

Church · Plaza de Guápulo

A 17th-century sanctuary on the slope below González Suárez, reached by a steep walk down and worth timing for the view back up at the city.

Map
What to see indoors

Best museums in Quito

Eight collections, from pre-Columbian art in a colonial house to a science museum inside a former textile mill.
Centro Histórico

Museo Casa del Alabado

Museum · Cuenca N1-41

Pre-Columbian art presented as art, in a 17th-century house. The best hour in the old town, and the one museum here that changes how the rest of the country reads.

Map↗ Website
Bellavista

Capilla del Hombre y Museo Guayasamín

Museum · Lorenzo Chávez EA18-143

Guayasamín's chapel and museum on the hill, finished after his death in 1999, plus the house and the collection he assembled in it.

Map↗ Website
Centro Histórico

Museo de la Ciudad

Museum · García Moreno S1-47

The city's own history, laid out in the old Hospital San Juan de Dios, a building that worked as a hospital for close to four centuries.

Map↗ Website
El Placer

Yaku Parque Museo del Agua

Museum · El Placer Oe11-271

Water, told through the reservoirs that supplied colonial Quito, on a terrace above the old town with one of the better free views in the city.

Map↗ Website
Chimbacalle

Museo Interactivo de Ciencia

Museum · Sincholagua y Av. Maldonado

A hands-on science museum in a converted textile mill in the south, and the most convincing reason to take the metro past the old town.

Map↗ Website
Centro Histórico

Museo del Carmen Alto

Museum · García Moreno y Rocafuerte

A working Carmelite convent that opens part of itself, including the cells and the garden, and sells sweets through a turntable in the wall.

Map↗ Website
San Juan

Centro de Arte Contemporáneo

Art centre · Montevideo y Luis Dávila

Contemporary shows in a former military hospital, high on the San Juan slope. Free, ambitious, and usually empty on a weekday.

Map↗ Website
Museo Nacional del EcuadorLa Alameda

Museo Nacional del Ecuador

Museum · Av. Patria y 6 de Diciembre

The national collection inside the round Casa de la Cultura: pre-Columbian gold, ceramics and the country's best single run of Quito School painting.

Map
Where Quito eats out

Best restaurants in Quito

Six kitchens worth planning an evening around, from the first Ecuadorian dining room on Latin America's 50 Best to a Mariscal counter cooking regional plates.
50 Best
San Marcos

Nuema

Restaurant · Junín E1-44 y Juan Pío Montúfar

Alejandro Chamorro and Pía Salazar cook a tasting menu built on Ecuadorian produce, and made Nuema the first restaurant in the country to reach Latin America's 50 Best.

Map↗ Website
La Floresta

URKO Cocina Local

Restaurant · Isabel La Católica N24-862

A menu organised by altitude and region, coast to Amazon, cooked from producers the kitchen works with directly. Ecuadorian cooking as fine dining.

Map↗ Website
La Pradera

Zazu

Restaurant · Mariano Aguilera 331

Open since 2007 and still the reliable answer for a long dinner in the new town, with Ecuadorian ingredients handled in a Peruvian-inflected kitchen.

Map↗ Website
Centro Histórico

Casa Gangotena

Restaurant · Plaza de San Francisco

The dining room of the mansion on the corner of the San Francisco plaza, cooking Ecuadorian dishes at hotel-kitchen precision. The terrace is the reason to book early.

Map↗ Website
Centro Histórico

Theatrum

Restaurant · Teatro Nacional Sucre, Plaza del Teatro

On the second floor of the 19th-century national theatre, which makes it the only serious dinner in the old town that comes with a curtain call downstairs.

Map
La Mariscal

Miskay

Restaurant · Joaquín Pinto, La Mariscal

Traditional highland plates cooked properly and priced for a weeknight, in a district better known for its bars than its kitchens.

Map
Cacao, at the source

Best chocolate in Quito

Ecuador grows the fine-flavour cacao the rest of the world buys. Four places in Quito to taste it where it is made.
La Mariscal

República del Cacao

Chocolate · Reina Victoria y Joaquín Pinto

Single-origin bars from Ecuadorian cacao, with a small cacao museum and a chocolate laboratory attached to the boutique.

Map↗ Website
La Floresta

Pacari

Chocolate · La Floresta

The organic bean-to-bar maker that put Ecuadorian chocolate on international award lists, with a tasting room in La Floresta.

Map↗ Website
La Mariscal

Kallari

Chocolate · La Mariscal

A Kichwa growers' association from the Napo province in the Amazon, selling the bars and the drinking chocolate made from their own cacao.

Map↗ Website
Centro Histórico

Chez Tiff

Chocolate · Plaza Grande and La Ronda

Two small artisanal shops in the old town, one off the Plaza Grande and one on La Ronda, both worth stopping at for the hot chocolate alone.

Map
Air and altitude

Best viewpoints & parks in Quito

Six places to see the city whole, from the hill the Virgin stands on to 558 hectares of forest above Bellavista.
Centro Histórico

El Panecillo

Viewpoint · Cima del Panecillo

The 41-metre winged Virgin on the hill between the colonial centre and the south, and the view that explains the shape of the valley.

Map
Bellavista

Parque Metropolitano Guangüiltagua

Park · Av. Guangüiltagua

558 hectares of eucalyptus and running trails on the ridge above the city, and the closest Quito comes to walking out of itself on foot.

Map↗ Website
Parque La CarolinaIñaquito

Parque La Carolina

Park · Av. Amazonas y Naciones Unidas

Sixty hectares in the middle of the modern north, and the city's Sunday: football pitches, paddle boats, a market at the edges and the botanical garden inside it.

Map↗ Website
Itchimbía

Parque Itchimbía

Park · Cima del Itchimbía

Grassland on the hill east of the old town, with the Palacio de Cristal on top and the best straight-on view of the colonial centre at dusk.

Map↗ Website
Jardín Botánico de QuitoIñaquito

Jardín Botánico de Quito

Garden · Parque La Carolina

Two orchid houses and a run through Ecuador's ecosystems, from páramo to cloud forest, inside the north's biggest park.

Map↗ Website
Guápulo

Mirador de Guápulo

Viewpoint · Guápulo

The edge where the city stops and drops towards the Tumbaco valley, with the sanctuary below and the eastern cordillera behind it.

Map
Where to spend an evening

Best neighborhoods in Quito

Six districts that each read differently, from the colonial grid to a valley suburb 500 metres below it.
World Heritage
Centro Histórico

Centro Histórico

Neighborhood · Old town

320 hectares of colonial city, still lived in rather than preserved. Busy by day, quiet by nine, except on La Ronda.

Map
La Floresta

La Floresta

Neighborhood · East of 12 de Octubre

Low houses, independent kitchens, the Ocho y Medio arthouse cinema and most of the city's design studios. Where Quiteños in their thirties actually eat.

Map
La Mariscal

La Mariscal

Neighborhood · Around Plaza Foch

The backpacker district, thinner than it was and better for it. Hostels, language schools, chocolate shops and the city's densest run of bars.

Map
GuápuloGuápulo

Guápulo

Neighborhood · Below González Suárez

A near-vertical village hanging off the eastern edge of the city, with a 17th-century sanctuary, a handful of bars and a walk back up that you will feel.

Map
Iñaquito

Iñaquito

Neighborhood · Around Parque La Carolina

The modern centre: towers, the park, the malls and the metro stations that serve them. Where Quito does its business and its Sunday afternoons.

Map
Cumbayá

Cumbayá

Neighborhood · Tumbaco valley

Five hundred metres lower and several degrees warmer, in the valley east of the ridge. Restaurant terraces, the old rail bed as a cycle path, and no altitude to speak of.

Map
Within a few hours

Best day trips in Quito

Eight trips out of the city: a volcanic crater, a market town, hot springs at 3,300 metres and a cloud forest full of hummingbirds.
San Antonio de Pichincha

Pululahua crater

Day trip · 25 km north

A geobotanical reserve inside an extinct volcanic crater with farms still working on the floor of it. The Ventanillas lookout is ten minutes past Mitad del Mundo.

Map
Saturday
Imbabura

Otavalo

Day trip · About two hours north

The Plaza de Ponchos market runs daily and doubles in size on a Saturday, when the animal market opens at dawn on the edge of town.

Map
Cotopaxi National ParkCotopaxi

Cotopaxi National Park

Day trip · About 50 km south

One of the world's highest active volcanoes, with a road to the refuge car park at around 4,600 metres and the Limpiopungo lagoon below it.

Map
Napo

Termas de Papallacta

Day trip · 1.5 to 2 hours east

Thermal pools at about 3,300 metres on the road to the Amazon, fed by the volcano behind them. The best possible answer to a day spent walking the old town.

Map
Mindo

Mindo

Day trip · About two hours northwest

Cloud forest on the western slope, at 1,200 metres and warm with it: hummingbird feeders, waterfalls, a cable car over the valley and small-batch chocolate.

Map
Cotopaxi

Quilotoa

Day trip · About three hours south

A green crater lake in a caldera at 3,900 metres. The walk down to the water takes half an hour and the walk back up takes twice that.

Map
Laguna Cuicocha and CotacachiImbabura

Laguna Cuicocha and Cotacachi

Day trip · About two hours north

A crater lake with two islands in the middle of it, under Cotacachi volcano, with a rim trail and a leather-working town at the bottom of the road.

Map
Antisana Ecological ReserveNapo

Antisana Ecological Reserve

Day trip · About two hours southeast

High páramo under a 5,700-metre glaciated volcano, and the most reliable place near Quito to see Andean condors without a telescope.

Map
What's on

Festivals & annual events in Quito (2026)

Time your trip around the city's biggest dates.
February

Carnaval

Four days off across the country and water thrown in every street of them. In 2026 the holiday fell on 16 and 17 February.

April

Semana Santa and the Jesús del Gran Poder procession

The Good Friday procession leaves San Francisco and fills the old town with purple-robed cucuruchos carrying crosses.

June

Inti Raymi

The Andean solstice festival, marked around 21 June in Quito and hardest in the Cayambe and Otavalo valleys two hours north.

August

Fiesta de la Luz

The video-mapping festival that lights the facades of the historic centre after dark.

November

Día de los Difuntos

On 2 November families drink colada morada, a spiced purple berry drink, with guaguas de pan, bread shaped as swaddled infants.

November

Quitofest

The city's free rock festival, three days and dozens of bands. The 2026 edition runs from 27 to 29 November.

December

Fiestas de Quito

The founding of the Spanish city on 6 December, marked with a week of chivas, orchestras and neighbourhood parties.

December

Año Viejo

On 31 December the city builds papier-mâché effigies of the year just gone, politicians and cartoon figures alike, and burns them.

Getting around

Quito transport & airports

How to arrive and move around the city.
UIO

Mariscal Sucre International Airport (UIO)

Ecuador's main gateway, opened in 2013 at Tababela in the valley east of the city, roughly 40 kilometres from the old town. Allow 40 to 60 minutes by car.

Map↗ Website
Metro

Metro de Quito, Line 1

Fifteen stations over 22.5 kilometres, from Quitumbe in the south to El Labrador in the north, opened in December 2023. A flat 45-cent fare covers any journey. San Francisco is the old town station.

Map↗ Website
BRT

Trolebús, Ecovía and city buses

Three bus corridors run north to south on their own lanes, the Trolebús along the western edge of the old town and the others through the newer city. Cheap, frequent and crowded at rush hour.

Taxi

Taxis and ride-hailing

Yellow taxis are metered and licensed, with the co-operative name and a number on the door. Uber and Cabify both operate and are simpler at night, since the fare is agreed first.

Traditional food

Must-try dishes in Quito, Ecuador

The classics to order before you leave.
Llapingachos, Quito (Wimup travel guide)

Llapingachos

Potato patties stuffed with cheese, griddled and served with chorizo, a fried egg and peanut sauce.

Fritada, Quito (Wimup travel guide)

Fritada

Pork simmered in its own fat and citrus until the edges catch, plated with hominy, plantain and avocado.

Canelazo, Quito (Wimup travel guide)

Canelazo

Hot aguardiente with cinnamon and naranjilla juice, poured on La Ronda and at every December street party.

Locro de papa

The highland soup: potatoes cooked down with achiote and onion until creamy, served with avocado and cheese.

Hornado

Whole pig roasted slowly and carved to order at a market stall, with mote, a llapingacho and pickled onion.

Empanadas de viento

Wind empanadas: a thin cheese pastry that puffs hollow in the fryer and is dusted with sugar. Only good hot.

Yaguarlocro

Potato soup with lamb offal and a spoonful of the animal's blood, sharpened with onion, avocado and mint.

Colada morada and guaguas de pan

A hot purple drink of black corn flour, Andean berries and spices, drunk with bread figures shaped as infants.

Quito fact sheet

Quito at a glance

The essentials worth knowing before you go.
Country
Ecuador
Region
Pichincha Province · Metropolitan District of Quito
Population
1.76M in the city, 2.68M in Quito canton (2022 census)
Founded
Spanish city founded on 6 December 1534
Nickname
Luz de América · Carita de Dios
Language
Spanish · Kichwa
Currency
US dollar (USD), adopted in 2000
Time zone
UTC-5, no daylight saving
Calling code
+593 2
Airports
UIO
Power
120V · Type A & B
Emergency
911 police, ambulance and fire
Ideal length
3 days
Getting around
Metro, trolleybus & walking
Tourism board
Official site

Interesting facts

  • Quito's historic centre was inscribed on the very first UNESCO World Heritage list in 1978, and is still among the least altered anywhere.
  • At 2,850 metres it is the second highest capital after La Paz, and it sits on the flank of Pichincha, which last ashed the city in 1999.
  • The French Geodesic Mission spent 1736 to 1744 measuring an arc of the meridian here to settle the shape of the Earth.
  • The interior of La Compañía de Jesús took roughly 160 years to complete, from 1605 to 1765, and is finished almost entirely in gold leaf.
  • Line 1 of the metro opened in December 2023 and runs 15 stations from Quitumbe to El Labrador on a flat 45-cent fare.

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