Quito, Ecuador

Quito's Old Town is one of the largest and best-preserved colonial centers in the Americas, dense with churches and plazas within walking distance of each other; the Basílica del Voto Nacional's towers give a rooftop view over the whole historic core. Mitad del Mundo, the equator line monument just outside the city, is an easy half-day trip and a genuinely fun photo stop for kids straddling two hemispheres.

Quito is also the mainland gateway most of our Galápagos bookings connect through — see our separate Galápagos guide — and it's worth treating as its own two- or three-day stop rather than a rushed overnight before flying on to the islands.

Quito sits above 9,000 feet, one of the highest capital cities in the world, and some travelers feel the altitude on arrival the same way they might in Cusco or La Paz — pacing the first day is worth planning for. June through September brings Quito's drier stretch, though the city's high elevation keeps temperatures mild and fairly consistent year-round.

Quito's well-preserved colonial center, one of the largest and best-conserved in Latin America, sits at over 9,000 feet, making it the second-highest capital city in the world after Bolivia's La Paz. The city straddles the equator itself, with a monument and museum at the actual line a short drive north, and Quito functions as the main gateway for both the Galápagos Islands and Ecuador's Amazon rainforest region.

Two to three nights, typically as the gateway before the Galápagos or Amazon. It suits history-focused travelers as well as those using it purely as a transit point, and the city's high elevation is worth a day of acclimatization before strenuous activity.

Getting there: About 4.5-5.5h nonstop from Miami and Houston. We compare that routing against the alternatives before booking, and help plan the trip's dates around June to September (drier), though a year-round destination.

Quito sits at over 2,850 meters above sea level, making it the second-highest official capital city in the world after La Paz, Bolivia, and its well-preserved historic center — one of the largest and best-preserved in the Americas — was, along with Kraków, among the very first sites UNESCO designated as a World Heritage Site in 1978, reflecting the extraordinary concentration of colonial-era churches, convents and plazas built during roughly three centuries of Spanish rule atop what had been an important Inca city before that. The city straddles the equator almost exactly — the Mitad del Mundo monument just outside Quito marks the line, though GPS measurements later revealed the original French geodesic survey that placed it there in the 18th century was off by about 240 meters, a detail now marked by a separate, more precise line nearby. Quito's La Compañía de Jesús church, completed in 1765 after over a century of construction, is covered almost entirely in gold leaf on its interior and is considered one of the most significant examples of Spanish Baroque architecture in South America. Ecuadorian cuisine in the Andean highlands around Quito centers on dishes suited to the altitude and climate — locro de papa (a hearty potato and cheese soup) and cuy (roasted guinea pig, a genuine Andean delicacy with roots predating the Inca) reflect a highland food tradition distinct from the country's coastal or Amazonian regions.