Quito

Advantages: Beautiful setting, churches and Spanish colonial architecture
Disadvantages: Traffic noise and fumes, some street crime

...volcano. The whole of Quito lies in a long high furrow in the Andes, with the old town at its south-western end. Standing in front of San Francisco church, one looks downhill across the Plaza and over the rooftops ahead to where the mountains rise again to the east, their green slopes speckled with the pink and white of buildings. To the right - the south - another hill forms the end of the valley. This hill is called el Panecillo and was originally ...
...view the full panorama of Quito from above, but it is a stiff climb when one is already short of breath from the altitude. At nearly 3000 metres above sea level, Quito is the second highest capital city in the world after La Paz (or third highest, if you regard Lhasa as a capital, as I would be inclined to). Apart from breathlessness, the other disincentive to ascending Panecillo is its reputation as a haunt of muggers. For this reason, the guidebooks ... Read review

Advantages: Stunning mountains surrounding a bustling and colourful city
Disadvantages: The smog

...I became really attached to Quito during my seven weeks there. It's a lively, very colourful city in a stunning setting - I think the thing I loved the most about Quito was being able to look up, walking anywhere west in the city, and see the most amazing jagged green mountain range towering up past the outskirts. It was wonderful. Ecuador's capital is maybe not quite as traditional as Bolivia's, or nearly as Westernized as Peru's, but it creates ...
...fact that most people split Quito up into two halves, new and old, when describing the city. The old city is beautiful, full of narrow winding streets, grand old colonial buildings, little local shops and cafes, wide-open plazas, impressive-looking theatres, and it's absolutely littered with churches. It's a lovely place to wander round for a day or two. The new city extends to the north of the old city, and the bit that most tourists are concerned ... Read review

Advantages: pleasant climate, lots to see, bustling with local activity
Disadvantages: usual big city issues - traffic, smog, beggars, street vendors

Quito is the capital of Ecuador and stands almost 3,000 metres high on a plateau nestled among the Andes mountain range. It is just 22 km south of the Equator and yet, because of its height, it benefits from a warm eternal spring-like climate. It is a large and sprawling urban mass that is split into the two distinct areas of old city and new city. This produces a place of startling contrasts – a strange mixture of old colonial and new contemporary ...
...including the huge Virgin of Quito who looks down over the city from her lofty position on Panecillo Hill. The views from here are excellent and include the surrounding volcanoes as well as the city itself. The old city is a place of churches and traditional markets. The central square is the Plaza de la Independencia at the heart of colonial Quito. The square is surrounded by the Cathedral, Presidential Palace and the Archbishop's Palace as well ... Read review

Advantages: see text
Disadvantages: see text

...four visits we made to Quito while criss-crossing Ecuador. Accommodation Casa Sol - a warm and friendly place, complete with an affectionate Golden Retriver more than willing to play with you all night and dispense prodigious amounts of saliva over freshly laundered clothes. Breakfasts were hearty and useful information on hand. As mentioned, ecuador lends itself to a base in Quito and trips out to various parts - Casa Sol levied small storage charge ...
...There are distinct areas to Quito - we stayed in the modern part and made a couple of visits to the southern, older section where most of the monuments are located. The modern half is foreigner-friendly, with more internet cafes, restaurants, pool tables and bars than you could ever need. As a consequence it does attract its share of crime. For up to the minute info on this, as well as the more positive aspects of Quito and Ecuador, join the South ... Read review