Real Audiencia, Quito

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

...We happened upon the Plaza de la Fundación rather by accident, because it does not feature prominently in the guide books. Fortunately, my wife and I had only just started out on our walk around the old town of Quito, and it helped us orient ourselves, both historically and geographically. As its name implies, the Plaza de la Fundación was where the original Spanish colony was founded. An Inca city had stood on the site, but was hastily demolished by its inhabitants, a tribe who called themselves the Quitu, to prevent it falling intact into the hands of the conquerors. Not long before, the last Inca emperor Atahualpa had been perfidiously executed, despite a vast ransom having been paid for his release, thus starting an ignoble tradition that some Latin American kidnappers persist in upholding to this day. The Quitu must have... Read review

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

...were not overly impressed with the 'middle of the world'. It's a bizarre dead little touristy complex of restaurants, shops, etc, plonked in the middle of one of the poorer suburbs just outside Quito, with a line painted down the middle of it where they thought the equator was until discovering it's actually about 200m down the road. What's probably much more worthwhile is going 200m down the road to the 'Solar Inti Nan' museum, which contains the real equator and some interesting little tricks to prove it. Shame that I didn't find out about that one till I got back home. Salsa lessons: Well, why not. Everyone does salsa in South America. You'll find all the locals dancing it in the bars and clubs around Gringoland, so if you want to join in and salsa with some fit Ecuadorians (they always love gringos), then why not give lessons... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

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 architecture, streets populated equally with wealthy businessmen and poor beggars, noisy bustling markets separated by quiet parks and streets, upmarket fashion and souvenir shops contrasting with impoverished street stalls. There are many attractions here including the huge Virgin of Quito who looks down over the city from her lofty position on Panecillo Hill. The views from here... Read review

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