Our Ecuador Route

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Our Review of Ecuador

Ecuador was a country we had never really considered visiting – it was more of a pass through from Colombia to get to Peru. We didn’t know much about the country (besides the Galapagos Islands – which we didn’t get to visit but really want to someday), before going there. But this only made how awesome Ecuador was even better! The culture was amazing, the food was tasty, the people were friendly, the landscapes were incredible, and adventure was literally everywhere you looked. It is the ultimate (overlooked) South American destination.

Cost: CHEAP

Oddly, the country uses the U.S. Dollar as their currency which took us a bit by surprise (you can read more about it here) but it is also a good thing for people from the U.S. because you don’t lose any money in the currency exchange. However, different from the U.S., is how cheap everything in Ecuador is. In Ecuador, we managed to stay under our budget of $68.00 per day, averaging almost $3.00 less each day at $65.02/day. We utilized a shared Airbnb home and private rooms in hostels the whole time. There are tons of options for both. We started cooking for ourselves more when we got to Ecuador to stay under our budget, but of course couldn’t pass up the cheap ‘menús’ once in a while. We tried to keep our spending on food down to make sure we had money in the budget for all the adventurous activities we wanted to take part in. To find out what else we did to keep costs down, read our full Ecuador Financial Review and take a glance at our Ecuador Spending Report.

Safety: SAFE

We had absolutely no issues with safety while in Ecuador. We took local buses, walked places at night, stayed with a local and felt super safe the whole time. With that said, always practice caution wherever you are.

Fun: SUPER FUN

We found Ecuador to be a super fun country. Quito was an awesome city to get lost in and explore the long winding streets while sipping on a fresh jugo (juice). Latacunga was our gateway to hiking up the Cotopaxi volcano. Baños is an adventure lover’s dream, where we canyoned down waterfalls, swung on the swing at the end of the world, and ziplined. In Cuenca, we were able to witness a parade complete with fireworks. All in all, we had an amazing time in our 16 days in Ecuador and the country far exceeded any expectations we previously had before visiting. We would recommend a visit to Ecuador to anyone who wants to climb active volcanos, see stunning waterfalls, visit amazing basilicas, among many other things. We already want to go back to Ecuador, specifically to go to the Galapagos Islands next time!