5 Best Day Trips from Quito
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Quito makes an easy base for the Ecuadorian highlands, since most of the region’s best sights sit within about 2 hours of the city. Here are the five that genuinely work as day trips, plus honest notes on two more that don’t.
Otavalo Market
About 2 hours north, Otavalo runs a market every day, but Saturday is the big one, when the plaza fills with woven textiles, leatherwork, and jewelry from Kichwa artisan families who have traded here for generations. Budget a full day: the drive alone eats close to 4 hours round trip, leaving a solid few hours to browse and haggle once you’re there.
Cotopaxi National Park
About 1.5-2 hours southeast sits Cotopaxi, one of the world’s highest active volcanoes at 5,897 meters. Most visitors don’t summit; instead you drive or hike partway up to the José Rivas refuge at roughly 4,864 meters for views over the surrounding highland landscape. Park access has seen elevated volcanic unrest since late 2022, so confirm current entry status before you go.
Papallacta Hot Springs
Roughly 1.5-2 hours east, Papallacta’s thermal pools sit at altitude with views of the surrounding peaks, and it’s the most relaxing of the five, especially as a half-day add-on to a longer Amazon-bound trip. Towel and swimsuit rental are available on site if you’re traveling light.
Mindo Cloud Forest
About 2 hours northwest, Mindo drops you into a warmer, greener cloud forest known for hummingbirds, chocolate tours, and birdwatching. It’s easy to overfill a Mindo day trip with activities; pick one or two (a hummingbird garden plus a chocolate tasting works well) rather than trying to do it all before the drive back.
Pululahua Crater and Mitad del Mundo
Just 30-45 minutes north, the Pululahua Geobotanical Reserve overlooks an inhabited volcanic crater and pairs naturally with a stop at the Mitad del Mundo equator monument next door. Worth knowing before you go: the monument itself sits about 240 meters off the actual equator line, which runs through the smaller Museo Intiñan a short walk away, where the “experiments” you may have heard about actually take place.
What’s better as an overnight, not a day trip
Two popular highland destinations get shoehorned into day trips more than they should be. The Quilotoa Loop is roughly 3 hours each way by road, and the crater lake deserves an overnight in one of the loop’s small villages rather than 6 hours of driving for a couple of hours at the rim. Baños is 3.5-4.5 hours from Quito and built around waterfalls, hot springs, and adventure activities that reward at least one night’s stay. If either is on your list, plan them as their own leg of the trip rather than squeezing them into a single day from the capital.
For a fuller first-timer overview of the city itself, see the Quito travel guide .