Quito!
Before we start talking about historic downtown Quito, a lot of you lovely readers have been wondering what it’s like here. Quito is a very long, skinny city with a population of between 2 and 3 million people. Because it is surrounded by mountains, there are limits to where they have space for roads and buildings. The boundaries have been pushed beyond what you would expect though. There are buildings throughout the city and high up the surrounding mountains and volcanos. I mean everywhere you could possibly think of to build a structure! It’s truly remarkable.
Our Location
We are staying in a newer part of town near a very large park called Parque La Carolina. It is a very nice part of town that has many stylish apartment buildings, hotels, restaurants, and malls.
Huge malls!
And 3 of them! Just in case you are unable to walk or drive the mile that separates all of them.
All that to say, we have everything we need within a short walk from our apartment.
Our First Outing
After settling in, enjoying long hot showers, high speed internet, and stunning views of the skyline, we were excited to discover more that Quito has to offer. We looked up how to get to the historic city center on public transportation and it said 45 minutes to get there!
And it’s only 3 miles from where we are staying. Hmmm…..
UPDATE: As of 2023, there is now a metro that runs between Parque Carolina and downtown Quito making it much easier to get there. Now it’s only an 8 minute ride on the metro. So convenient.
In our younger years, and especially before kids, the challenge of navigating a new city would have been viewed as exciting and part of the experience. Now, not so much. There is a limit to the boys’ ability to be in uncomfortable situations. Also, our patience to deal with our boys in uncomfortable situations is exhaustible.
They… let’s be honest, Levi, repeats the same desire, i.e. “I want lunch!”, over and over again. Our response is usually something similar to, “I don’t know how you’d expect anything to have changed since the last time you said that. We are in a bus/boat/plane/taxi, etc. We literally can’t do anything about this right now. Also, you should have eaten what we gave you right before we left on this experience like we asked you to.” Okay, maybe we just needed to get that off our chests…
Anyways, we now find ourselves willing to pay for convenience! Maintaining our sanity is well worth it!
How We Explored Downtown Quito
We decided to look into a few tours to see if they would be worth it. Following some research, we landed on doing an Airbnb experience. While we use Airbnb for almost all of our lodging, this was our first time doing an experience on Airbnb. I’d highly recommend doing it if you haven’t already.
We have so many positive things to say about our Airbnb experience:
- Jorge, our guide, picked us up from our place and drove us everywhere! We didn’t need to figure out how to use or navigate the public transportation system, and the cost of transportation was included in the experience.
- Our tour was a private tour, so we could ask him anything we wanted at any time, and we were able to go at our own pace.
- Jorge was super knowledgeable about the area being a native Quiteño. He also has his own tour company and has been guiding for years. He informed us about the history of each of the places and was very pleasant company.
You May Also Like: I partnered with Jorge recently to create a complete Quito guidebook using his local knowledge. Check it out here: Quito: The Best Family-Friendly Guide to Ecuador’s Amazing Capital
What to See in Downtown Quito
La Basilica del Voto Nacional
Our first stop was the Basilica. This is a very iconic church that always pops up when you search downtown Quito. It is beautiful. It is a neo-gothic style church and instead of gargoyles on the side, has animals that are common to Ecuador including many of the animals we saw in the Galapagos. So cool!
We climbed up many steps to various viewpoints. Don’t forget that Quito is well over 9,000 feet in elevation, so 15 flights of stairs gets to you more quickly than normal.
On top of that, one of the towers we viewed was accessed by climbing up a very steep ladder-style staircase that afforded plenty of opportunities for you to see just how exposed you were through the gaps in the stairs and glass paneled floor at each landing area. This would totally not be allowed in the States. Levi continues to remind us that he will NEVER do that again! Mike and I thought it was definitely worth it! I mean look at that view. 👇🏼
La Plaza de Independencia
The next destination was to drive to the historic center of downtown Quito. We parked the car and just walked around for a short time. Then, we arrived to Independence Plaza. This plaza has a statue in the center that represents when Ecuador gained its independence.
The presidential palace is also located right on the square. Walking down the street you see many different churches and gorgeous architecture.
La Plaza de San Francisco
We continued roaming through the city’s historic downtown until we arrived at La Plaza de San Francisco. This is where the San Francisco Church is located and is well worth going inside. There is gold everywhere. It’s very stunning.
Yumbos Artisanal Chocolate
We also participated in a chocolate tasting right there in this plaza area. Surprisingly our guide took us to this nondescript door and rang a bell. We entered and found this nice little tasting room upstairs. You totally wouldn’t know it was there unless you were with someone that was in the know.
The chocolate tasting experience was better than I expected. The employee at the artisanal chocolate shop described the process of how chocolate is made. Yumbos is a fair trade company that has partnered with the Timbire Women’s Association for the Future which brings together almost 100 families.
We tasted a variety of chocolate from 100% to 60% chocolate with a lot of different flavors mixed in, such as orange, lemongrass, pieces of pure chocolate nibs, pieces of coffee beans etc… It was all delicious.
Calle La Ronda
Next destination in our tour of historic downtown Quito was Calle La Ronda. This narrow cobblestone street is part of a romantic neighborhood with beautiful balconies and lantern lit streets. Many shops and restaurants along the way. The city has been creating various events to attract more people to this area since COVID forced many businesses to close. When we were there, they were celebrating El Dia de Los Difuntos (the Day of the Dead).
La Virgen del Panecillo Statue
Our last area of historic downtown Quito that we explored took us up a winding hill through a dangerous neighborhood, according to our guide, to arrive at the statue of the La Virgin of Panecillo or better known as the Virgin of Quito. This statue can be seen from the historic district and La Basilica, and it is the highest statue in South America.
On the drive up the hill, Jorge mentioned that if something happened, that we should get out and run as fast as we could. Thinking he was joking, I responded, it isn’t really that bad is it? He replied with a simple “yes.” 😬
We survived without incident, and there were a lot of visitors at the top. I probably wouldn’t go back after dark though. Another reminder of why a private guided tour was the right choice for us.
Quito’s historic downtown is charming. Its narrow steep streets are packed with restaurants, shops, and tons of history. While it is an extraordinary place to visit (maybe numerous times), we remain in the opinion that the part of town we are staying in makes more sense for families like ours.
Read more posts about Quito:
- Take the TelefériQo for the Best Views of Quito
- What is the Cost of Living in Quito, Ecuador?
- Trip to the Middle of the World
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