Montecristi & The Rain Forest
Manta, Ecuador
- 5 to 6 hours (approx.)
- Pickup offered
- Mobile ticket
- Offered in: English
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Overview
Experience the highlights of the city of Manta with this comprehensive tour. Visit Pacoche Wildlife Refuge to see famous local animals such as howler monkeys, see a local button factory, witness artisans weaving a fine Montecristi hat, stop by the Ciudad Alfaro museum, and more. This is a great chance to expose yourself to a whole range of Ecuadorian culture and history with a guide who is there to explain and answer questions, too.
- See a wide range of Manta highlights in just a few short hours
- Enjoy natural sights and museums and get insight into the life of locals
- Travel in a comfortable air-conditioned vehicle with hotel pickup included
- Bottled water is provided for convenience to keep you hydrated
What's Included
- Air-conditioned vehicle
- Bottled water
- All Fees and Taxes
Meeting and Pickup
You can head directly to the meeting point, or request pickup
Operating hours.8:30 am
Itinerary
1
Plage de Tarqui
20 minutes • Admission Ticket Included
2
Plage de Tarqui
20 minutes • Admission Ticket Included
3
Pacoche Wildlife Refuge
1 hour • Admission Ticket Included
4
Montecristi
1 hour • Admission Ticket Free
5
Museo Ciudad Alfaro
30 minutes • Admission Ticket Included
Additional Info
- Confirmation will be received at time of booking
- Not wheelchair accessible
- Stroller accessible
- Near public transportation
- Not recommended for pregnant travelers
- No heart problems or other serious medical conditions
- Travelers should have a moderate physical fitness level
- During December and May we face the rainy season, so we might have to deal with some light rain.
- If you require a guide that speaks another language other than English or Spanish, you will have to notify us, extra charges might be applied.
- Boots or running shoes, do not wear sandals, Mosquito repellant long pants and long sleeve clothing
- This tour/activity will have a maximum of 50 travelers
Supplied by
Cancellation Policy
You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.
Traveler Photos
Featured review
David_G
An excellent tour! A great ‘sampler’ tour to experience Ecuador and the area around Manta for those of us visiting here for the first time! Very informative, interesting and a great guide (and driver). We arrived here via cruise ship and would HIGHLY recommend other cruisers take this as it was well organized and easy to do — at a more economical price point than a ship tour!
Reviews
4.3
based on 25 reviews
Nancy_L, Mar 2026
Bring mosquito repellent for the rainforest!!!! The tour and tour guide were great. Very informative and you get to do a good amount of things. The fish market is super interesting but we spent way too much time there. Grab a snack at the rainforest gift shop because there's not another location to get food. They really need to add some places to grab snacks or lunch along the way. Maybe the hat demonstrating place could work with the empanada cart across the street to be open on the day and time when they'll have a bunch of people coming to their store.
Response from Host, Mar 2026
Hello,
There is a version of this tour that includes lunch, you picked the one without it, however there are two restaurants next to the rain forest path, and many other stores that our guide would have loved taking you to.
Thanks so much for your suggestion
Kind regards
David_G, Nov 2025
An excellent tour! A great ‘sampler’ tour to experience Ecuador and the area around Manta for those of us visiting here for the first time! Very informative, interesting and a great guide (and driver). We arrived here via cruise ship and would HIGHLY recommend other cruisers take this as it was well organized and easy to do — at a more economical price point than a ship tour!
Laura_D, Nov 2025
Our guide Mariss was fantastic - so friendly and knowledgeable. We especially enjoyed the fish market and the walk thru the preserve. The guide at the preserve was also excellent. The hat store in Montecristi was interesting but took too long.
Response from Host, Nov 2025
Thanks so much for your nice review, we will pass this to our guide.
The warmest regards
Rainer_K, Nov 2025
For a short cruise stop in Manta a perfect experience. Good mixture of interesting sightseeing points.
Response from Host, Nov 2025
Thanks so much for your visit, we hope you can come back again.
Greetings
Ellen_H, Nov 2025
This was a day full of nice and interesting experiences. I just loved everything that Manta and surroundings had to give
Response from Host, Nov 2025
Thanks so much for such a nice review.
We appreciate you using our services.
Kind regards
Dale_T, Mar 2025
The tour was similar in scope and price to what was offered by the cruise ship, but going in a small group made this tour better. We enjoyed the stops, especially the hat factory. The museum was closed so the tour guide substituted with a stop at a vegetable ivory (button) family business. I would like to have went a little faster on the rainforest hike since it was hot and because there were no animals to be seen in the hot part on the day. Also, there were 2 ships in port and it would have been nice to group tourists from the same ship together, especially since we were able to input arrival info when we purchased the excursion. The trip was delayed by 45 minutes while waiting on the other ship to arrive. Eventually, we left without some of the guests after waiting those 45 minutes. My recommendation to the company would be to group by ship, give a 15-minute grace period, and then get going. Alejandro was a fantastic guide, both on the bus and during our stops.
Chris_P, Apr 2024
The trip began well as we promptly spotted the company representatives and gave our names. We were asked to wait with the other guests until all were present. 45 minutes later we were still waiting and losing patience with the two travellers who had not turned up. Eventually it was decided, not unreasonably, to leave without them. Only then did we discover that the two missing persons were ourselves since our names had not been checked off. But things did improve after that. Although the bus was clearly not designed for a six foot three gringo, other passengers also struggled with the cramped seating. However, the well-planned itinerary and the enthusiastic commentary did help to distract from the discomfort and there were several walkabouts to stretch our legs. Our guide responded to a question about chocolate from one of the guests and took the initiative to fit in an extra stop, which was a nice gesture. Overall the trip was very interesting and worthwhile.
Response from Host, May 2024
Thanks so much for such a nice review, this will help us to improve our services.
Kylie_W, Jul 2023
This tour was exactly what we were looking for! We were so happy to get to see the fish market, the rain forest, Montecristi, and more while driving around! Fernando was the best tour guide. Very informative, and he did he very best to ensure that we saw monkeys on our tour which was a must for us!! He was great. He has lots of connections with all of the locals which made the tour super smooth.
Response from Host, Jul 2023
We are glad you enjoyed this tour, please let us know if you need help on your next visit 😀
Have a wonderful week !
Emily_F, Apr 2021
The tour was a major rip off. The guide was late and we went to the rain forest first (despite paying extra for the pickup given our location) causing us to miss the fish market. There was very little cultural information or knowledge sharing that happened. The guide at the rainforest was great as was the hat making experience but these things can all be done alone for maybe $12. Overall was very disappointed, especially when i said thank you at the end and the guide’s response was “you owe me money” (which in fact was not the case). Would not book again.
Response from Host, Apr 2021
We are so sorry about that, you know you did not gave us the right location, you gave us the name of a hostal indicated in your messages, ( Puerto La Barca) that Fernando went to, then when they told him you were not staying there, he had to asks you on the phone to send your location that you could give from the beginning which was far away from the indicated pick up spot, this is not something you can do on your own unless you know the places and language there are places in the fish market that would not safe for someone without knowledge of the area, just going From Manta to the place you were, a cab would had charged you $15 for one trip, I apologize for Fernando, but he tried to say thank you but you walked away in the confusion with the payment.
suemanson1, Feb 2020
Jimmy was a very good guide. The trip was well organised and everyone's wishes were catered for. The rain forest trail was challenging but interesting and there was an option to do half. The lunch break was delightful.
William_H, Jan 2020
Our tour was scheduled for 0800 hours. We showed up at 0735 and no one around. At approx 0755 Fernando showed up and checked us in and said we would now leave at 0830. We ended up leaving at 0850. Tour guide Christina was very nice and apologized for being late. When we show up at the rain forest, total disorder and we were given the choice of waiting around or going to a beach. Went to beach for photos and returned to rain forest. Waited another 25 minutes then spent almost 40 minutes in the same spot because someone spotted a monkey. As other walked past us, they told us there were many more sighted at another spot but Christina said it would take too long to get there. I believe we missed our original spot for the rain forest because we arrived so late to begin with. We spent less than an hour at rain forest. We then went to a lunch at what seemed to be a friend of Christina. left there and wasted time at a museum where the museum guide could speak no english and everything was translated poorly. Last but not least went to Montecristi to shop and watch Panama hats being weaved. Four of us were separated and never saw the first weaving. Terrible excursion and worst we have done with Viator. We have more excursions lined up for the future so I am hoping this was a fluke!!
Response from Host, Jan 2020
I apologize for what happened but this was a shared tour, and we needed to wait for the other travelers to start the tour, our reservation for the rain forest was for us to arrive among 10:am and 10:30am, and our driver got there at 9:55am, I am sorry about that, and I will be talking to the park director, this was something that did not depend on us, this was a big cruise and many travelers went to the rain forest, and we always manage this very well; unfortunately the rangers did not respect our reservation.
We will look into this to see what happened.
Thanks so much for your review
cafred22, Jan 2020
The Good: The Fish Market, the shipyard, and the Museo Ciudad Alfaro were good stops. The Montecristi Panama hat-making demonstration was about what we expected. Our guide Johnathan was friendly and knowledgeable,
The Bad: The bus was decrepit. Seats wouldn't stay upright and some people moved around to try and find better seating. Our guide Johnathan was ill to the extent that he coughed and sneezed the entire trip (on a small bus where we were all breathing the same air). Although the entry was advertised as paid-for, Johnathan informed us that we owed $20 for the guide in the Wildlife Refuge. Only $4/couple, but annoying on principle.
The Ugly: Nothing in Viatour's advertising informed that the Pacocho Wildlife Refuge was strenuous. It was, in fact, extremely so. When my wife saw this at its beginning, she said she'd stay on the bus.
However, Johnathan was insistent that it wouldn't be a problem. Well it was a BIG problem for her....well over an hour of grueling ups and downs and a rocky trail along a creek bed. Just horrible.
Our most disappointing experience with Viatour
Response from Host, Jan 2020
Thanks so much for your review; We will improve the aspects that need to be taken care of, however, the description explains that none of the entries were included.
Kind regards!
Gema B.
Alain_G, Nov 2025
The paccoche rain forest has little to offer and the fish market is not terrible in short a very well organized good team but few interests for us.
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Sandra_v, Oct 2022
Wir hatten einige kurzfristige Änderungen wegen unserer Kreuzfahrt, aber unser Guide ist super darauf eingegangen. Alles hat sehr gut geklappt
Response from Host, Oct 2022
Vielen Dank, dass Sie sich für unsere Dienstleistungen entschieden haben. Wir freuen uns auf Ihre Rückkehr.
From $85.13
per personup to 24 hours before the experience starts (local time)
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