Quito: 12 Things Actually Worth Doing
Before you go: Ecuador in 2026. Quito is a welcoming Level 2 city, well away from the coastal areas most travel advisories flag. Ecuador is under a national state of exception in 2026 (it currently covers Quito’s province but with no curfew in place), so the sensible approach is ordinary big-capital street smarts plus one specific habit: only take licensed orange-plate taxis or ride-hailing apps (Uber, Cabify, inDrive), never an unmarked street taxi, to avoid “express kidnapping.” Conditions shift, so check your government’s current advisory before you fly.
Quito sits at roughly 2,850 meters in a long Andean valley, and the thing almost no first-timer expects is that you ascend into the city rather than land into it: Mariscal Sucre airport is out at Tababela, about 2,400 meters, noticeably lower than downtown. Take your first afternoon slow, drink more water than feels necessary, and save the higher-altitude sights for day two.
1. The Centro Histórico. Quito’s Old Town was named in UNESCO’s very first World Heritage cohort in 1978, one of the earliest cities ever recognized, and it’s still the best-preserved colonial core in Latin America. Plaza Grande, La Compañía de Jesús with its gold-leaf interior (the exact tonnage is disputed, so take “several tons” as an estimate, not a fact), and San Francisco, where the Quito School of colonial sculpture began, are all within a fifteen-minute walk of each other.
2. The Basílica del Voto Nacional. Neo-Gothic, unfinished by design, and worth the climb up its steep interior stairs and ladders for gargoyles carved as Galápagos iguanas and armadillos instead of European monsters.
3. El Panecillo. The winged aluminum Virgin overlooking the Old Town has real views, but the walk up has a genuine mugging history. Take a taxi or app ride up; the summit itself is safe and well-patrolled.
4. La Ronda in the evening. A restored colonial lane for canelazo and empanadas de viento. Safe on the lit main street; skip the surrounding side blocks after dark.
5. The TelefériQo. A cable car that climbs from around 2,950 to 4,050 meters on the slopes of Pichincha. Go in the morning before clouds roll in, and know that the air up there is genuinely thin.
6. Mitad del Mundo, honestly. The famous equator monument sits about 240 meters off the true GPS line. The real line, with the science demonstrations, is next door at Museo Intiñan. Visit both and enjoy the slightly absurd history rather than expecting monument-as-fact.
7-11. Day trips. Otavalo’s market, Cotopaxi, Papallacta’s hot springs, Mindo’s cloud forest, and Pululahua’s inhabited crater are all genuine day trips, an hour and a half to two hours out. Quilotoa and Baños are better, and more honestly planned, as overnights rather than rushed same-day drives.
12. The food. Hornado, fritada, llapingachos, and locro de papa are the highland staples. Ecuadorian ceviche is its own thing, tomato-forward and soup-style, not the Peruvian leche-de-tigre version. Cuy shows up matter-of-factly on local menus, a real Andean tradition rather than a stunt dish. For a sit-down meal, Casa Gangotena, Zazu, Urko, and Nuema are the names that hold up; Café Mosaico is worth it for the view as much as the plate.
Getting around: the Quito Metro’s Line 1 opened in 2023 and runs alongside the Trolebús and Ecovía BRT lines, all fine for daytime use. For anything after dark, stick to apps or licensed orange-plate taxis. Ecuador uses the US dollar, so there’s no currency exchange to worry about, though the local centavo coins are worthless the moment you leave the country, so spend them before you fly. Entry is a visa-free 90-day stamp for US, UK, EU, Canadian, and Australian passports, and the yellow-fever certificate requirement was dropped in August 2025. Same-sex marriage has been legal in Ecuador since 2019, and Quito is generally an easy, welcoming city for LGBTQ+ travelers.
Read more: for the fuller day-by-day plan, see our 3-day itinerary , and for the festival calendar worth timing a trip around, see festivals worth timing for .