“In conclusion, Cotopaxi is the best!” This is the final sentence of a recent writing assignment that our son,Isaac, submitted. (The full version is at the bottom of this post.) I do hope that he remembers our adventurous day on a Cotopaxi tour as “the best” because it was pretty awesome.
However, I’m not sure if it is good or bad, but Isaac doesn’t always seem to remember things how they actually happened. I clearly remember him crying for the first half of the climb and really losing it when he dropped a few M&Ms that were meant to help appease him. But let’s back up and start from the beginning.
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Best Time For Visiting Cotopaxi National Park
If you want the best chance of seeing Cotopaxi volcano, and who doesn’t, a visit between June and September is your best option. This time of year has great temperatures and the clearest skies. I can’t promise that the skies will be clear, but it is the dry season, so chances are greater.
We visited at the end of November which is the beginning of the rainy season. We didn’t get lucky with clear skies, but it was still an enjoyable experience nonetheless.
The time of day can make a difference too. The earlier in the morning you go the better it is for clear visibility of Cotopaxi Volcano. The late afternoon and evenings are cloudier and have a higher chance of the volcano being hidden.
Options For Booking A Cotopaxi Tour
We booked our day trip to Cotopaxi from Quito through Quito Tour Bus which you can easily book online. If you prefer to shop around for Cotopaxi National Park tours, an easy way to find a tour similar to this is through Viator.
Viator is such an easy way to find any travel tour that you need and has reviews that can help you decide which one would work best for you. They also have free cancellation because life happens, even on vacation.
Pro Tip: Don’t combine a Cotopaxi day tour with Quilotoa Crater. If you want to visit both, book them on separate days. They are both long day activities, so cramming them both together will feel rushed.
Another option is to book a tour through our local travel guide expert, Jorge. He is a local travel guide that leads tours in Quito, but also to nearby day trips, like a Cotopaxi tour. Jorge also helped me write a travel guide to Quito and was our tour guide when we toured downtown Quito.
Jorge recommends taking horses into Cotopaxi National Park. You can find his Cotopaxi tour with Footprint Journeys here.
Pro Tip: Another great Cotopaxi tour tip he mentioned to me was that you shouldn’t sign up for the tours where you bike down Cotopaxi, as it is very uncomfortable and dusty. Not a great experience!
Quito Tour Bus has a few different options for a Quito to Cotopaxi day trip. You can go with a big group, small group or private tour. Cotopaxi can be a bit fickle about showing itself, and so we opted for the cheaper option of doing a big group tour.
We don’t normally like to do large group options. Our reasoning was that we would have been disappointed if we went all of the way there, and it was in clouds the whole time, and we had paid extra.
We did another tour with this company to the Quilotoa crater and even though there were a lot of people, it was easy to get away from the group and still enjoy ourselves.
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How Much Is A Cotopaxi Tour?
For the Cotopoxi National Park tour with Quito Tour Bus, we paid $49/adult and $40/child for a total of $178 + we ended up tipping our guide $20 at the end of the day. This was in 2022. As of today, 2025, it is still the same price!
You’ll also want to bring a few snacks or money for snacks, plenty of water, and money for any extras like souvenirs.
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Getting To Cotopaxi National Park
We were picked up at a hotel near our Airbnb at 7am. Super early for us, but it is a full-day tour, and you want to try to get there before afternoon clouds roll in.
Since we were the northernmost pick-up location, we were on the bus first and sat through all the rest of the pick-ups as we slowly worked our way south. This is really the worst part of the group tour. We were prepared for this and sat back and enjoyed the coffees we brought.
Cotopaxi National Park is about an hour and a half outside of Quito. After a quick breakfast stop outside of the city, we had arrived at our first stop on the Cotopaxi National Park tour.
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Cotopaxi National Park Visitor’s Center
Upon arriving, our first stop on our Cotopaxi day tour was the small visitor’s center. Our amazing guide, Jennifer, went through the museum with us and gave us history, cultural, and environmental information about the park.
Cotopaxi, despite all the well-deserved hype, is actually not the tallest volcano in the range, but actually the second tallest. We even sang a little song about a native bird, Curiquingue, which was fun.
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Photo Op Of Cotopaxi
Next stop was in a valley where you could potentially have amazing views of Cotopaxi and the surrounding volcanoes. Unfortunately Cotopaxi never quite fully emerged out of the clouds for us, but some of the surrounding peaks were on full display while we were in this spot. It is a stunning setting!
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Hiking In Cotopaxi To Refugio Jose Rivas
As we continued our drive winding up the base of Cotopaxi, we took in the amazing views and even caught a glimpse of the Curiquingue that we sang about at the visitor’s center.
We were on our way to the trailhead to hike to the Refugio Jose Rivas. This is one of the most popular things to do when visiting Cotopaxi National Park for good reason. It is an accessible trail for most and the refuge at the top is a perfect way to end the steep climb.
This hiking refuge is where hikers that plan to summit the volcano will relax and rest before taking off at midnight for their summit attempts.
Once at the parking lot, there are two paths to get to the refuge. The straight up version and the easier switchback route. We opted for easier on the way up since the refuge sits at 4864m or 15,953ft. We’ve never been that high before. Breathing was going to be difficult in the thin air.
As Isaac described, it was not an easy climb, but it was quick. Even hiking with our kids, we completed the hike in about 30 minutes.
I was surprised that it didn’t feel harder actually, but I was moving at a snail’s pace walking with Isaac. We also did this Cotopaxi tour near the end of our one month stay in Quito. This allowed our bodies to adjust to being at a higher altitude.
Mike and Levi were not having Isaac’s meltdown, so they had continued on up. Impressively, Levi proved to be only mildly impacted by the elevation. He and Mike beat every other person on the tour up to the refuge easily.
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Refugio Jose Rivas
The José Rivas refuge has a little cafe where you can get incredible hot chocolate and food if you want. They also have stamps that you can add to your passport for reaching the refuge and also if you summit it. The man actually asked me if I wanted a stamp for summiting the mountain, which felt weird, since I hadn’t.
We opted for hot chocolate and got our passports stamped for making it to the refuge. The kids loved having a treat at the end of the hike and being able to warm up a little bit.
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Last Stop In The National Park On The Cotopaxi Tour
On the way down Cotopaxi, our group went straight down together. While we didn’t know what to expect from this, we were up for it.
The first part was a little steep and you had to go slowly, but after that it was like walking down a large sand dune in the clouds. There may have even been a few snowballs thrown!
After we arrived back to the trailhead, we piled into the bus and headed back towards the Cotopaxi National Park entrance. We quickly stopped at a nearby lagoon which was pretty boring before leaving for lunch.
Before we left Cotopaxi National Park, we had one more bathroom break where Cotopaxi decided to show most of itself. It is a pretty breaktaking volcano. Just being close to it was exhilarating.
Lunch Break On The Cotopaxi Tour
Lunch was included on our Cotopaxi National Park tour. It was in a very beautiful location in the middle of nowhere. Literally nowhere. We drove for a while and then through this small town, by some cows and then we were there. So random, but I kinda liked it! The food wasn’t anything I will remember, but it was good.
Summing Up Our Cotopaxi Day Trip From Quito
The day trip to Cotopaxi from Quito was an incredible excursion even with Cotopaxi covered in clouds for most of the day. Hopefully one day we can go back on a clear day… or make a summit attempt!
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Exploring Cotopaxi By Isaac Smith
Exploring Cotopaxi
-Isaac Smith, 2022
First we started hiking. I got very exhausted. Luckily we had some candy. “Yummy,” I replied. Almost at the Refugio, but when we got closer it got colder. Next we arrived at the Refugio. We got our passport stamped. One of our stamps was a picture of Cotopaxi. Me and Levi got hot chocolate. I tried to drink it but it was too hot. I yelled, “hot, hot, hot, hot.” Finally we were running down the steep hill. Levi threw a medium snowball. He was aiming at dad, but the snowball almost hit me, but I moved out of the way. I replied, “whoa, ha! Levi, that was a close one. When we were almost there at the bus it started to hail. Me and dad were running so fast I almost tripped. In conclusion, Cotopaxi is the best.
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