Quito 7 Day Itinerary (No Tourist Traps)
Seven days is enough to do Quito properly without rushing a single day, the Old Town, one big-view day, three genuine day trips, and a final morning that isn’t a mad dash.
Day 1
Mariscal Sucre airport at Tababela sits around 2,400 meters, lower than the city itself, so you ascend into Quito on arrival rather than the reverse. A licensed taxi runs a flat $25-35; apps like Uber or inDrive typically cost $15-25. Take the afternoon slow: mild altitude symptoms, headache, breathlessness, are genuinely common on day one at 2,850 meters.
Walk Plaza Grande, La Compañía de Jesús ($6, gold-leaf interior of disputed quantity), and San Francisco, birthplace of the Quito School of colonial sculpture. Dinner: locro de papa, $8-15.
Tip: don’t schedule anything strenuous today; let the first 24 hours be about adjusting.
Day 2
Climb the Basílica’s towers ($2) for Galápagos-animal gargoyles, then taxi up to El Panecillo ($3-5); walking carries real mugging risk even though the summit itself is safe and patrolled. Afternoon: the TelefériQo ($8.50 round trip) to about 4,050 meters, before midday cloud rolls in. Evening: La Ronda for canelazo, staying on the lit main street after dark.
Tip: book your ride home from La Ronda through an app in advance rather than hailing a street taxi.
Day 3
Mitad del Mundo, 30-40 minutes by taxi ($10 each way): the famous monument sits roughly 240 meters off the true equator, with the actual GPS line and demonstrations next door at Museo Intiñan ($5). Continue to Pululahua’s inhabited crater, a few dollars entry, with a 45-minute descent trail into the farmed caldera.
Tip: hire the taxi round trip with waiting time included, roughly $30-40 total.
Day 4
Full day at Cotopaxi National Park, about two hours south, 5,897 meters at the summit. A guided tour with transport runs $60-100 per person. Most visitors walk to the José Rivas refuge around 4,800 meters rather than attempt a summit. Check current park access and eruptive status before booking.
Tip: treat any dizziness or nausea on the trail as a stop signal, not something to push through.
Day 5
A full day at Otavalo, ninety minutes to two hours north, one of South America’s great indigenous textile markets. Saturday is the biggest market day, though a smaller daily market runs the rest of the week. A genuine hand-woven textile runs $15-80 depending on size and quality, and bargaining is normal.
Tip: bring small bills; early-morning vendors often can’t break large ones.
Day 6
Mindo’s cloud forest, about two hours northwest, a full-day tour with transport runs $55 per person in a group, $90-120 private. Over 500 recorded bird species fill the valley; hummingbird feeders draw multiple species at dawn, and a chocolate farm tour ($10) walks through Ecuador’s fine-aroma cacao from bean to bar.
Tip: book the earliest tour departure; hummingbird activity and bird sightings both drop off as the morning warms up.
Day 7
Spend the morning in La Mariscal for last-minute shopping and a final Ecuadorian ceviche lunch, tomato-based and soup-style with popcorn and plantain chips, genuinely different from the Peruvian version. Head to the airport with real buffer time; the same 40-90 minute range that applies on arrival applies just as much leaving.
Tip: withdraw cash from a bank ATM in the city rather than the airport; fees run lower.
Read more: for a shorter version of this trip without Mindo, see our 4-day itinerary , and for the deeper story behind the Old Town this plan starts with, our Quito Old Town piece.