Top Quito Day Trips

This was a great excursion and Josue was more than a fantastic guide, he saved the rest of our vacation! Josue arrived early to pick us up at our hotel and set out for our eventful day. He had checked the weather forecast and recommended that we start the day at the Intinan Equator Museum. The museum had many informative settings and the museum guide was helpful and informative. They even had a building with a demonstration on how cocoa is harvested and processed. We purchased a few inexpensive hand woven items from their gift shop. We then set off for TeleferiQo. Fortunately, the predictions for heavy rain did materialize and we were able to make the ride to the top, take a stroll around and get some pictures of Quito and the mountains. We were warned that the cable car may be shut down if the rain and wind arrives. I'm sure the view would be much better on a clear day. Josue was very knowledgeable and answered all of our questions about the area and pointed out several areas of interest for us. We had done a walking tour of Old Town the day before so Josue customized the schedule to get us into the churches that we really wanted to go into. He was well informed about many aspects of each church and the surrounding areas that we walked through. We then went to the Panecillo to see and hear about the history and legend of the Virgen del Panecillo statue. We stopped and had a bite to eat in a nice local restaurant and then asked to return to our hotel to end the day. But this is where Josue really saved the day. While driving to the hotel, we found out that our flight had been changed and that we missed our shuttle to the airport. Josue helped us return to the hotel, gather our things, and raced us to the airport where we made it just in time to catch our flight. We would have missed the connection to our Galapagos cruise if we had not made that flight so we are extremely grateful that Josue saved us from disaster! We highly recommend him for his vast historical knowledge and for going far above and beyond what was expected.

Tour started on a good note with very small group of 3 others + myself + driver cum guide. Visited independence square, church of society of Jesus, San Francisco church, Jesuit church, TelefriQo to up the mountain above 14000feet than to middle of the earth equator line. Jorge Sandoval driver/guide was well spoken in English, professional, knowledgeable with calm personality. He was fantastic & I would highly recommend him for English speaking tourist to Quito.

Our tour guide Ximena was amazing. We went in the Mindo Cloud tour and got to feed hummingbirds and butterflies. Hiked to the waterfall. We stopped for lunch at the greatest place to bird watch. Ximena was knowledgeable, funny and knew some great stops. Great experience!