48 and 72 hours in Quito
Most itineraries for this city are written by people who had already been here a week. This one is built around the fact that you landed yesterday, from sea level, and that Quito is a city of hills at 2,850 metres. The order of things matters more than the list of things.
The principle behind both itineraries
- Day one is flat and short. Not because there is nothing to do, but because your body is busy.
- Day two is the full Old Town, on foot, downhill first.
- Day three goes high — Cotopaxi, the cable car, a crater — or goes to the airport.
- Everything below starts from San Blas, on the quiet northern edge of the Old Town.
One thing to check before you plan anything
Which day of the week you land changes the itinerary more than anything else.
Monday is the day of the Changing of the Guard: every Monday at 11:00 the Presidential Escort parades in the Plaza Grande, with horses, a band and the national anthem, and the president often appears on the balcony of the Palacio de Carondelet. It is free, it is genuinely impressive, and it is the single best-timed thing in the city. Arrive early for a decent spot.
Monday is also the day most museums are closed, and the day the free guided tours inside Carondelet do not run. So a Monday is a plaza-and-churches day, not a museum day. If you want to go inside the presidential palace on another day, book ahead and bring your actual passport — no photocopies.
Saturday matters for a different reason: it is the big day at the Otavalo market, which shapes the 72-hour version.
The 48-hour itinerary
Day one · the afternoon you arrive
- 15:00Drop your bags. Do not go out immediately, and do not shower and rush. Sit down for twenty minutes first.
- 16:00A short flat walk around San Blas — the plaza, the church, the streets around it. This is the quiet edge of the Old Town and it is a gentle introduction.
- 17:00Walk down to the Basílica del Voto Nacional and look at it from outside. Note the gargoyles: not grotesques but Ecuadorian animals — tortoises, iguanas, condors. Do not climb the towers today.
- 18:30Early dinner on Calle Antepara, a few minutes from the door. Keep it light, and skip the welcome drink — alcohol on your first night at altitude is the classic mistake.
- 21:00Bed. You will sleep badly and that is normal.
Day two · the Old Town on foot
The important structural point: San Blas is uphill from everything. Go down in the morning and take a taxi back up in the evening. Doing it the other way round on your second day at altitude is a needless punishment.
- 09:00Walk down to the Plaza Grande. Cathedral, the Archbishop's Palace arcades, and a coffee watching the square wake up.
- 10:30La Compañía de Jesús. Baroque interior covered in gold leaf, and the one paid entrance in the city almost nobody regrets. Photography is restricted inside; look properly instead.
- 11:30Down Calle García Moreno, the "street of the seven crosses", towards Plaza San Francisco and its convent — the oldest colonial complex in the city.
- 13:00Lunch. Either a set almuerzo near San Francisco, or the Mercado Central for the proper version. Casa del Alabado, with its pre-Columbian collection, is right there if it is not a Monday.
- 16:00Taxi up to El Panecillo for the winged Virgin and the whole city laid out below. Take a taxi both ways; do not walk the stairs, regardless of what a map suggests.
- 19:00La Ronda after dark. Restored colonial street, live music, and a canelazo — hot, sweet, cinnamon and aguardiente. Now you can have the drink. Or stay local and walk to Calle Antepara instead.
- 22:00Taxi home. Ten minutes, a few dollars, worth it.
Day three · the morning you leave
If your Galápagos flight is at dawn, day three does not exist and day two was your Quito. Read the flight guide and go to bed early.
If you have a morning, spend it like this: now that you have had two nights, climb the Basílica towers — steep ladders, exposed walkways, and the best view in the Old Town. Then the Mercado for fruit you have never seen, and a chocolate shop for the things you will want on the islands. Coffee and cacao are both cheaper and better here than anywhere you are going next.
The 72-hour version
Three nights buys you one full day trip, and by day three you are acclimatised enough to spend it high. Days one and two stay exactly as above. The question is only which direction to go.
| If you want | Go to |
|---|---|
| The Andes at their most dramatic, and don't mind altitude | Cotopaxi 4,864 m |
| Textiles, crafts and the biggest indigenous market in South America | Otavalo Saturday |
| Warm air, hummingbirds, waterfalls and chocolate | Mindo 1,250 m |
| One unforgettable view and a long drive to earn it | Quilotoa 3,900 m |
| To do very little, warmly | Papallacta |
Two pieces of honest advice. If the Galápagos or the Amazon are next and you are already tired, Papallacta — thermal pools at 3,300 m — is a better use of the day than a five-hour round trip to a crater. And if you are travelling on a Saturday, Otavalo is a different experience from Otavalo on a Tuesday; build around it if you can.
If you only have one afternoon
It happens: a late arrival, a dawn departure, and about five hours in between. Do this and nothing else.
- Walk down to the Plaza Grande and sit there for half an hour
- La Compañía, inside
- Walk to Plaza San Francisco
- Taxi to El Panecillo for the view, taxi back
- Early dinner near San Blas
That is four hours, mostly downhill, and it is a real impression of the city rather than a checklist half-completed.
The street around the corner
Most guides send you across the city for an evening. You do not have to.
Calle Antepara is a few minutes' walk from our door and has the densest run of bars, pizzerias and small restaurants in this part of town, with live music on most evenings. It is where people from the neighbourhood actually go, it is walkable rather than a taxi ride, and it means you are not committing your whole night to getting somewhere and getting back.
Our honest framing: Antepara is an evening, not an all-nighter. Go at seven or eight, eat well, have a couple of drinks, listen to whoever is playing, and walk home. It is at its best early and it is not the place to close down at three in the morning. Treated that way it is one of the easiest good nights in Quito, and it costs you no travel time at all.
Pair it with La Ronda rather than choosing between them: La Ronda on the night you want the colonial street and the canelazo, Antepara on the night you want to eat properly without planning anything.
What we would skip
- The TelefériQo on day one. Fifteen minutes to 4,100 m when you arrived yesterday is how a stopover becomes a headache. Day three, or not at all.
- Mitad del Mundo, if you are short of time. Half a day for a monument that is famously in the wrong place. Worth it on a longer stay, not on a 48-hour one.
- Trying to add a second day trip. Two day trips in three nights means you saw a lot of road.
Practical notes for walking the Old Town
- The centre is busy and well-policed in daylight. Keep your phone in your pocket rather than your hand, as in any big city.
- After dark, stay in La Ronda and around the main plazas, and take taxis rather than walking between neighbourhoods.
- Many churches close for a couple of hours over lunch. Plan around midday rather than being surprised by it.
- The cobbles are uneven and often wet. Bring shoes with grip, not new soles.
- Sun at this altitude burns quickly even under cloud. Hat, and sunscreen on your ears and neck.
What we do here
We will tell you honestly whether what you are planning fits the hours you actually have, which is a conversation we have most days and which usually ends with something being removed. We book the day trips at reception, arrange the airport car, and hold luggage while you are away.
Before you fix anything for that first afternoon, read what to expect in your first 24 hours at 2,850 m.
Both itineraries start at our front door
Nine rooms in a restored 1914 house, ten minutes on foot from the Plaza Grande and far enough from it to sleep. Book direct for our lowest rate, and tell us which day of the week you land — it changes the plan.
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