Quito > Reviews

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

...the Pinchincha 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 ... Read review

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

...City 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 ... 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 ... 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 ... Read review