Quito 2 Day Itinerary (No Tourist Traps)
Two days is tight for Quito, but it’s enough to cover the Old Town properly and get one big view of the city, provided you don’t fight the altitude on day one.
Day 1
Mariscal Sucre airport sits at Tababela, about 2,400 meters, genuinely lower than the city itself, so you ascend into Quito rather than descend into it. A licensed airport taxi runs a flat $25-35 to the center; an app like Uber or inDrive usually comes in around $15-25. Check into a hotel in the Centro Histórico or La Mariscal and take the rest of the morning slow. Roughly one in four visitors feels some mild altitude effect, headache or breathlessness, in the first day, so this isn’t being overly cautious.
In the afternoon, walk the Old Town’s core at an easy pace: Plaza Grande, the main square framed by the presidential palace and cathedral, then La Compañía de Jesús ($6 entry, a gold-leaf interior whose exact quantity is genuinely disputed) and San Francisco church and convent, the largest religious complex in South America and the birthplace of the Quito School of colonial sculpture. For dinner, order locro de papa, the potato and cheese soup that’s a genuine local staple, expect $8-15 for a full meal.
Tip: skip the temptation to add El Panecillo or the TelefériQo today. Save the higher-altitude sights for tomorrow, once you’ve had a full day to adjust.
Day 2
Start with the Basílica del Voto Nacional, $2 to climb the steep interior stairs and ladders to towers decorated with Galápagos-animal gargoyles rather than the usual European ones. From there, take a taxi (not on foot) up to El Panecillo, around $3-5, for the winged Virgin statue and a panorama over the Old Town; the walk up has a real mugging history even though the summit itself is patrolled and safe.
In the afternoon, ride the TelefériQo, $8.50 round trip, climbing from about 2,950 to 4,050 meters up Pichincha’s slopes for the best single view near the city. Go earlier rather than later; afternoon cloud often rolls in. In the evening, walk La Ronda for canelazo and empanadas de viento, staying on the lit main street rather than the surrounding side blocks after dark.
Tip: use an app like Uber, Cabify, or inDrive for the ride back from La Ronda or El Panecillo after dark rather than hailing a street taxi.
Read more: for a fuller version of this trip with a day trip added, see our 3-day itinerary , and for the honest list of what’s worth doing beyond these two days, our things to do guide.