Backroads of Ecuador Self-Guided Motorcycle Tour

The Self-Guided Backroads of Ecuador Motorcycle Tour is built for riders who want to explore some of Ecuador’s best paved secondary roads independently, without having to figure out the route and logistics from scratch. Over ten days, you’ll ride through the Andes, cloudforest, Pacific lowlands, cacao country, the Amazon Basin, high páramo, volcanic landscapes, dry forest, and some of the most enjoyable backroads we have found anywhere in the country.

We provide the motorcycle, a programmed GPS, detailed Road Book and daily route sheets, a local cell phone, prearranged accommodations, and the practical information you need to follow the route confidently. We also monitor your progress during the riding day for added safety, and Ecuador Freedom is available if you need advice or assistance along the way.

The route benefits from years of experience operating the Backroads of Ecuador as a guided tour. You’ll stand on the Equator, descend to the Pacific Coast, ride through farming and cacao country, cross Cajas National Park, visit the artisan towns east of Cuenca, ride through the Amazon foothills, pass Sangay and Chimborazo, follow the Route of the Waterfalls, explore the Amazon, soak at Papallacta, and finish through dry forest and the twisting Guayllabamba River canyon on the way back to Quito.

The tour is almost entirely paved, although a couple of longer riding days require good stamina. At night, you’ll stay in carefully selected haciendas, boutique hotels, rainforest lodges, hot spring resorts, and character-filled inns that make the accommodations part of the experience.

Because this is sold as a tour package under Ecuadorian law, qualifying non-resident travelers also benefit from tax savings built into the package price, including the 15% sales tax and the additional hotel taxes and service charges that can add approximately 25% when accommodations are purchased separately. That makes the self-guided package an especially attractive way to experience the route while keeping the freedom to ride it independently.

Day 1

Quito – Inti-ñan – Pululahua – Valle Hermoso

The Self-Guided Backroads of Ecuador begins at Ecuador Freedom Bike Rental in Quito, high in the Andes at about 9,350 feet above sea level. Volcanoes rise around the city, neighborhoods climb the mountainsides, and the thin mountain air tells you immediately that this ride is starting somewhere unusual. Quito was among the first cities named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978, recognized for its remarkably well-preserved historic center.

We strongly recommend arriving a day or two before the tour. It gives you time to explore Quito, adjust to the altitude, and begin the ride rested. Our headquarters in La Carolina are surrounded by hotels, restaurants, cafés, shopping, galleries, and one of Quito's largest parks, making it an easy place to settle in before the trip begins.

Before you leave, we'll fit you with your motorcycle and go through a detailed pre-ride briefing covering the entire ten-day tour. Someone who knows the route will walk you through each day, including recommended starting times, fuel planning, road conditions, important stops, restaurants, accommodations, and practical details we have learned from years of riding these roads ourselves.

You'll also receive your Ecuador Freedom Road Book with practical travel information and a detailed route sheet for every riding day. Your GPS will already be programmed with the Backroads route, and we'll show you how to use it and how to interpret the projected arrival time it displays. You'll also carry a local cell phone so you can reach us if you need help or advice. We monitor your progress during the riding day for added safety, while you remain responsible for navigating the route and reaching each night's destination.

Once the briefing is finished, the luggage is packed, and the GPS is ready, you leave Quito on your own. It doesn't take long before the dense city gives way to mountain roads, farmland, and the volcanic landscape surrounding the capital.

Your first stop is the Inti-ñan Museum, directly on the Equator. Inti-ñan means “Path of the Sun,” and the visit is a fun introduction to Ecuador's geography and indigenous cultures. You'll stand with one foot in each hemisphere, learn about traditional homes and customs from different parts of the country, and get your first sense of how strongly Ecuador's identity is tied to its position at the middle of the world.

After Inti-ñan, the route carries you beyond the Quito metropolitan area and toward the western slopes of the Andes. One of the first big views comes at the overlook above Pululahua Crater Geo-Botanical Reserve.

Pululahua is enormous. From the rim, you look down onto cultivated fields, scattered homes, steep crater walls, and drifting cloud. It is a great introduction to the geography that shapes Ecuador. Volcanoes here are part of daily life. People farm on them, build towns beside them, cross their passes, and organize entire communities around the terrain they created.

From Pululahua, the road begins dropping down the western face of the Andes. The transformation happens quickly. Temperatures rise, the air becomes heavier and more humid, and the dry highland vegetation gives way to dense green cloudforest. The road twists downhill through steep forested mountains, with vines, ferns, waterfalls, and tropical plants filling the slopes around you.

Your Road Book points you toward one of our favorite lunch stops in the heart of the cloudforest. The restaurant sits in a garden where hummingbirds and other colorful birds move through the surrounding trees while you eat. Quito is still relatively close, but by this point the cool Andean capital already seems like it belongs to another part of the trip.

As you continue into the warmer lower cloudforest, the route takes you to Cascada La Sucia, a popular local swimming hole where families and friends come to cool off in the river. This is a lively local scene, especially on warm afternoons, with people swimming below the falls, relaxing along the water, and enjoying food from the small collection of stands nearby.

The little food court around the swimming area is part of the experience. Depending on what is being prepared that day, you may find roasted corn, ceviche, cevichochos made with lupini beans, and exotic fruits grown in the warmer valleys below the Andes. After spending the morning high above Quito, stopping for a swim and local snacks in warm tropical air makes the day's descent feel very real.

From Cascada La Sucia, the route continues through dairy country, fruit farms, small settlements, forested hills, and increasingly lush vegetation. The paved roads keep twisting through the foothills as you make your way toward Valle Hermoso, where the mountains begin opening toward Ecuador's western lowlands.

The day ends at Kashama Lodge, a colorful rainforest hotel and spa built around flowing water and a natural waterfall. The property climbs into the hillside, surrounded by dense vegetation, with water running through the grounds and a private waterfall pool waiting at the end of the ride.

Dinner is served beside the waterfall with first-class service. You began the morning in Quito's thin mountain air, crossed the Equator, looked down into a volcanic crater, navigated your way through the cloudforest, stopped for a swim with local families, and ended the day beside a tropical waterfall. Ecuador doesn't waste much time getting started.

Day 2

Valle Hermoso – Pedernales – Canoa – San Clemente

The day begins with breakfast beside the waterfall at Kashama Lodge before you turn west toward the Pacific Coast. Your programmed GPS leads you away from the main roads and into warm, rolling agricultural country, where small farms, roadside homes, cattle pastures, tropical fruit, and quiet villages define the landscape.

This is where the Backroads of Ecuador really begins to show its personality. These smaller roads carry local traffic between farms and communities rather than simply moving people from one city to another. They bend through the land instead of cutting across it, and that means you see much more of the country at ground level.

Not long after leaving Kashama, watch for the pineapple farms along the backroad. We have been riding through this area for years and know some of the farmers here. They keep the prime pineapples aside — the sweetest, ripest ones that are too good to disappear into the ordinary harvest.

Stopping for one makes an excellent second breakfast. Cut it open beside the road and eat it while it is still warm from the field. It is ridiculously sweet, impossibly fresh, and usually messy enough that nobody escapes with clean hands. Sticky fingers be damned. There are few better ways to understand where you are than eating a pineapple beside the farm where it was grown.

The fertile lowlands here produce passion fruit, cassava, melons, plantains, cacao, pineapples, and other tropical crops. Wild orchids, fruit trees, and roadside vegetation add color to the ride while farms and cattle country roll away across the hills.

This is also the homeland of Ecuador's Montubio people, whose ranching traditions, horsemanship, and rural way of life have shaped the Pacific lowlands for generations. You still see riders on horseback moving through the countryside, working cattle, traveling between farms, and carrying on traditions that remain very much alive.

The roads here are easy to enjoy: gentle curves, open farmland, small settlements, and long views across the rolling hills. There is no need to hurry. The interest is in what is happening beside the road as much as in the road itself.

By early afternoon, you reach Pedernales, one of the centers of Ecuador's shrimp trade and your first real encounter with the Pacific on this tour. Ecuador is one of the world's major shrimp-producing countries, and Pedernales is exactly where you want to eat it: close to the source, close to the sea, and prepared the way people here actually eat it.

This is the place for fresh shrimp ceviche, citrus, coastal heat, and that unmistakable Pacific flavor. After a morning spent winding through farms and inland roads, sitting down to seafood near the coast makes the day's transition complete.

Roadside fruit and coconut stands become increasingly common as you move through the coastal lowlands. When something looks good, there is usually a reason to stop. One of the advantages of riding self-guided is that nobody is waiting for you to finish your coconut.

Leaving Pedernales, the route threads through enormous shrimp farms. Narrow roads run between shimmering ponds stretching toward the horizon while herons, pelicans, egrets, and frigatebirds work the waterways overhead. It is one of the most distinctive landscapes of the day and a close-up view of an industry that has transformed much of Ecuador's coast.

Beyond the shrimp farms, quieter coastal roads take you toward the fishing town of Jama. Along the way is one of our favorite secluded beaches, a broad undeveloped stretch of sand where there is often nobody around except a few local fishermen preparing boats or working their nets.

Stop, stretch your legs, and take in the Pacific without a boardwalk, resort, or crowd in sight. The coast here still belongs mostly to the people who live and work along it.

From Pedernales south, the route follows stretches of coastline with high cliffs, ocean views, fishing villages, dry forest, and long Pacific horizons. This is another Ecuador entirely: salt air, boats pulled onto the sand, roadside seafood, and communities tied closely to the tides.

You ride through Canoa, a relaxed fishing and surfing town known for its broad beach and easygoing coastal atmosphere, before continuing toward Bahía de Caráquez and San Clemente.

When the tide and sand conditions are right, there is an opportunity for one of the most memorable rides on the entire tour: roughly 18 miles along the beach on firm, hard-packed sand beneath the coastal cliffs.

The tide has to be low and the sand has to be suitable, and you should only attempt the beach section if you are comfortable riding on hard-packed sand. When those pieces come together, it is exceptional riding. The Pacific is beside you, the cliffs rise inland, and for mile after mile the beach itself becomes the road.

If conditions are not right, simply stay with the paved inland route programmed into your GPS. It is excellent in its own right, cutting through dry tropical forest on quiet roads and showing another side of Manabí: dusty trees, warm wind, rural communities, and a landscape completely different from the lush green country where the morning began. Depending on the tides, you may also have another opportunity to ride the beach during tomorrow's rest day.

The day ends in San Clemente at the beautiful Palmazul Hotel & Spa, a comfortable coastal hotel close to the beach. After starting the morning beside a rainforest waterfall, eating pineapple on a farm road, crossing the coastal hills, having fresh ceviche in Pedernales, and following the Pacific south, the warm evening air and swimming pool are exactly where you want to finish.

Day 3

Rest Day in San Clemente

Distance Covered: 0 km / 0 miles

Today is a rest day, and the motorcycle can stay parked if you want it to. You wake up on the Pacific Coast with no luggage to pack and no destination to reach. The day can be spent swimming, walking the beach, eating seafood, exploring the area, or doing absolutely nothing with real commitment.

Because this is your self-guided tour, the day is entirely yours. If you want to ride, there are plenty of quiet roads in the backcountry of Manabí Province. Small farming communities, dry tropical forest, coastal viewpoints, and rural roads give you another look at the region without turning the day into another full itinerary. This is a good chance to follow your curiosity for a few hours and then return to the coast.

One of the best optional excursions is a boat trip to Isla Corazón, a birdwatching and mangrove reserve in the Chone River estuary between Bahía de Caráquez and San Vicente. The island takes its name from its heart-like shape and is protected through a community ecotourism project that gives local residents a direct role in guiding, conservation, and environmental education.

Native guides take visitors through the mangrove channels and raised walkways, explaining the birds, crabs, fish, and other species that depend on this ecosystem. After two days of motorcycles, mountain roads, cloudforest, farms, shrimp ponds, and Pacific coastline, the quiet water and tangled mangrove roots provide a completely different pace.

San Clemente itself gives you plenty of options. You can arrange fishing, surf lessons, snorkeling, swimming, or simply spend the day walking the beach. You can also choose the simpler option: find a beachside restaurant, order something cold, eat fresh seafood, and let the motorcycle sit for a day while the Pacific does the entertaining.

Lunch, dinner, and optional rest-day activities are not included, so you are free to decide how much or how little you want to do and where you want to eat.

Tonight, you'll stay again at Palmazul Hotel & Spa, with time to swim, relax, and enjoy another evening on the coast before the route turns inland again tomorrow. After riding from Quito's high Andes through the cloudforest and all the way to the Pacific, this day gives both you and the motorcycle a proper pause.

Day 4

San Clemente – Santa Ana – Vinces – Hacienda La Danesa

Today you leave the Pacific behind and turn inland toward the farms, floodplains, forests, and cacao country of western Ecuador. The route begins in the warm coastal landscape around San Clemente, where fishing birds patrol the shore and small communities move at their own pace, before the salt air gradually gives way to the heavier green atmosphere of the agricultural interior.

This is a day when the scenery becomes less about dramatic horizons and more about the working landscape around you. Your route carries you along smaller roads through places where rice, bananas, cacao, cattle, fruit, and timber shape the rhythm of daily life. The road passes close enough to farms, homes, irrigation ditches, and crop rows that you can see how the region actually works.

Some of the backroads pass through natural forest areas protected by local communities, where South American squirrels live in the wild and howler monkeys can sometimes be heard from the trees. If you hear them, you will remember it. Their deep, rough calls carry an extraordinary distance through the forest and seem far too large for the animal making them.

Along the way, watch for the great ceibo trees that define Ecuador's dry coastal forests. Their enormous pale trunks and spreading branches are unmistakable. Ceibos can store large amounts of water in their trunks, an adaptation that helps them survive the long dry season, and they have held an important place in local beliefs and traditions for centuries.

The route continues through Santa Ana and into the broad lowlands of Los Ríos and Guayas Provinces. Here the landscape flattens into rich floodplain country. Rice fields, banana plantations, teak, cacao, cattle pasture, and irrigation channels stretch away from the road in every direction.

This is some of the most productive agricultural land in Ecuador. From the saddle, you feel how closely the roads are tied to the farms around them. Trucks move produce, workers travel between fields, motorcycles connect homes and villages, and the route passes through the middle of an economy built on fertile soil, heat, water, and generations of agricultural knowledge.

One of the most interesting stops is Vinces, an old cacao town with a history unlike anywhere else on the route. During Ecuador's cacao boom, wealth from the surrounding plantations brought strong European influence to the town, particularly from France, and Vinces became known for architecture and tastes that earned it a reputation as a little piece of Europe in the Ecuadorian lowlands.

The region is also closely tied to the story of Arriba cacao. When buyers and chocolate makers traveled upriver looking for the finest cacao, they were told it came from arriba — “up river.” The name became associated with the fine-aroma cacao grown in this part of Ecuador and eventually with some of the country's most prized chocolate.

By late afternoon, your GPS leads you to the beautiful Hacienda La Danesa, a family-owned working farm that produces cacao and dairy products while offering one of the most refined stays on the tour.

The hacienda combines elegant rooms, open fields, old trees, excellent food, and the quiet rhythm of a real working farm. Depending on the program and season, there may be opportunities to learn more about cacao and chocolate production, walk the property, or simply enjoy the peace of the grounds after a full day in the lowlands.

In the morning, you may even have a chance to help milk the cows before breakfast. It is a fitting end to a day spent riding through the agricultural heart of western Ecuador: from fishing communities and dry forest to rice fields, banana country, cacao history, and finally a hacienda where the products of the land are still part of everyday life.

Day 5

Hacienda La Danesa – Cajas National Park – Cuenca

The day begins at Hacienda La Danesa, where the quiet rhythm of the farm gives way to another major change in landscape. You leave the warm lowlands behind and begin working your way back toward the Andes, passing pineapple farms, banana plantations, lowland fields, and tropical vegetation before the road begins to climb.

As elevation builds, the heat softens, the air thins, and the scenery changes quickly. Broad agricultural country starts folding into mountain valleys, clouds move closer to the road, and the tropical vegetation gradually gives way to the colder, more exposed high country of Cajas National Park.

The climb into Cajas is one of those classic Ecuador transitions that makes this country so satisfying on a motorcycle. Within a few hours, you can go from tropical agriculture and humid lowlands to cold páramo, high mountain lakes, bare rock, and wind moving across open valleys.

Cajas has a raw, ancient-looking landscape of glacial valleys, craggy ridges, wetlands, high grasslands, and hundreds of lakes. Clouds move quickly across the open country, sunlight comes and goes, and the temperature can change dramatically over a short distance. After the heat of the coastal plains, it can feel as though somebody changed countries while you were riding.

The park provides habitat for deer, rabbits, high-altitude birds, and the elusive spectacled bear. We have seen spectacled bears on our tours, although sightings are rare enough that you remember them for years when they happen. Most of the time, the spectacle is the landscape itself: rock, water, wind, cold air, and open páramo stretching away from the road.

Your Road Book points you toward a good lunch stop in Cajas, where fresh trout fits the setting perfectly. Cold mountain water, high-altitude lakes, and a simple meal in the middle of the páramo make a good reward after the long climb out of the lowlands.

From Cajas, the route begins descending toward Cuenca, one of Ecuador's great highland cities. Trees and farms gradually return as you leave the páramo, and eventually the road delivers you into a historic center of tiled roofs, old stone buildings, church towers, flower-filled plazas, and streets that are best explored on foot.

Cuenca is a UNESCO World Heritage City built along the Tomebamba River, with colonial houses, interior courtyards, monasteries, markets, and the unmistakable blue domes of the New Cathedral rising above the center.

The Spanish founded Cuenca in 1557 on the site of Tomebamba, an important Inca city established decades earlier. That layered history still gives Cuenca much of its character: indigenous roots, Inca history, Spanish colonial architecture, and modern Ecuadorian life all sharing the same compact historic center.

Your overnight stay is at Hotel Victoria, beautifully positioned in Cuenca's historic district. Once the motorcycle is parked, the city is best explored on foot.

A walk through the center can take you past Parque Calderón, the Old Cathedral, the flower market, colonial courtyards, cafés, shops, and churches, with the Tomebamba River only a short walk away.

Cuenca also has one of Ecuador's strongest restaurant scenes, with everything from traditional local dishes to international cuisine served in restored colonial buildings, courtyards, cafés, and elegant dining rooms. After starting the morning on a working cacao and dairy farm, climbing from tropical lowlands into the cold páramo of Cajas, and finishing in one of Ecuador's great colonial cities, dinner here gives the day a fitting ending.

Day 6

Cuenca – San Bartolomé – Chordeleg – Macas

Today begins in the cool southern Andes and ends in the warm southeastern Amazon, with one of the most interesting cultural and geographic transitions on the entire tour in between. The roads east of Cuenca curve through green valleys, fruit orchards, flower farms, cultivated hillsides, and small towns where old trades are still part of everyday life.

This part of Azuay Province forms a true artisan corridor. Neighboring towns developed specialties in much the same way towns in Spain once did, with one community becoming known for guitars, another for filigree, another for textiles, leatherwork, shoes, or weaving. These are skills learned slowly, often through years of apprenticeship under family members and experienced craftspeople.

In many parts of the world, including Spain, traditions like these have been fading as industrial production replaces handwork and younger generations move into other professions. Here in southern Ecuador, many of them are still very much alive. Workshops remain part of daily life, skills are passed from one generation to the next, and entire towns still carry identities built around what their people know how to make.

Near San Bartolomé, the route takes you through an area famous for handmade guitars, where families have been building musical instruments for generations.

Your Road Book points out one of the local luthier workshops worth visiting. Walk inside and you immediately smell fresh sawdust, wood, glue, and varnish. Guitar bodies, necks, braces, templates, and hand tools fill the room while work continues only a few feet away.

Watching a guitar come together makes you appreciate how much knowledge is hidden inside an instrument that looks simple from the outside. Wood is chosen for its grain and acoustic qualities, the body is shaped and joined, the neck is fitted, and the instrument is adjusted, sanded, and finished until it develops its own voice. Learning to do this well takes years.

These are working family workshops rather than factories, and that is what makes the stop worthwhile. You meet the people who make the instruments, see the techniques being used, and get a close look at a trade that survives because knowledge is still being passed from one generation to the next.

Nearby Chordeleg is famous for filigree jewelry. Artisans work extremely fine threads of silver and gold into earrings, pendants, rings, brooches, and intricate traditional designs.

Up close, some of the finished pieces look almost like metal lace. The work requires steady hands and enormous patience as fine strands are curled, shaped, joined, soldered, and polished. Chordeleg is a good example of how a highly specialized craft can become part of a town's identity.

If jewelry is your thing, this is also a dangerous place to leave your wallet unattended.

In nearby Gualaceo, the craft traditions continue with leatherwork, shoes, boots, textiles, and the famous handwoven macanas. These shawls are made using an ikat technique in which threads are tied and dyed before they ever reach the loom. The pattern is created in the yarn itself and slowly appears as the fabric is woven.

Moving through these towns by motorcycle gives the morning a very different rhythm from simply visiting a market in a city. You ride from one community to the next and decide how much time you want to spend exploring each one. Your Road Book gives you the background and recommended stops; the pace is yours.

The route continues through the valley toward Paute, where the climate is already becoming warmer. Fruit trees, flowers, gardens, and cultivated hillsides surround the town, and the plaza makes a good place to stop for coffee, something fresh from a bakery, or whatever local product catches your attention.

Then the character of the day changes completely. The artisan valleys begin to fall away behind you as the road turns east and starts crossing the mountains toward Ecuador's southeastern Amazon.

This is one of the great paved crossings of Ecuador's Andes. The mountains become steeper, the settlements become smaller, and cloudforest begins closing in around the road.

Water is everywhere. Streams rush beneath bridges, mist hangs against the mountains, and waterfalls appear on cliffs beside the road. The pavement winds through tunnels, sweeping curves, switchbacks, and enormous green valleys as you work your way toward the eastern side of the range.

As you lose elevation, the temperature rises and the vegetation becomes increasingly tropical. Within a few hours, the cultivated valleys outside Cuenca have been replaced by steep forest, rushing rivers, waterfalls, and warm air climbing up from the Amazon Basin.

Eventually you reach Sucúa, in the traditional territory of the Shuar people. The word Shuar means “people” in their language, and the Shuar are one of the major Indigenous peoples of Ecuador's southeastern Amazon.

Their history is closely tied to the forests and rivers around you. For generations, Shuar communities maintained a strong degree of independence and developed extensive knowledge of rainforest plants, agriculture, medicine, hunting, and the waterways that connected communities throughout this part of the Amazon.

The culture continues to evolve while many traditions remain strong. People may use motorcycles and smartphones, attend university, and work in modern businesses while still speaking Shuar, maintaining family traditions, practicing ceremonies, and passing knowledge of the forest from one generation to another.

The Shuar also earned a formidable reputation for defending their independence. Spanish expeditions searching for gold and attempting to establish control in southeastern Ecuador repeatedly encountered fierce resistance. One historical practice that became famous outside the region was the preparation of tsantsas, commonly known as shrunken heads. These had specific ceremonial meaning connected to warfare and spiritual beliefs. Outsiders' fascination with them has often overshadowed a much larger and more complex culture.

By afternoon, waterfalls seem to appear everywhere as you continue toward Macas. The road curves through an intensely green landscape of steep mountains, rivers, farms, tropical vegetation, and cloud-covered forest.

This stretch is a pleasure to ride. The air has become warm again, the pavement twists continuously through the foothills, and the high Andes you left in the morning feel much farther away than the mileage would suggest.

Macas is the capital of Morona Santiago Province and one of the principal gateway towns to Ecuador's southeastern Amazon. It has a relaxed pace and strong connections to the Shuar communities, rivers, farms, and forests surrounding it.

Tonight you'll stay at Hostería Arrayán y Piedra, one of our favorite places to stay in this part of Ecuador. Its solid stone private cabins are arranged around a large swimming pool, with big comfortable beds and plenty of space to settle in after the ride.

The property sits just outside Macas in a warm, comfortable climate, with a bar area and an excellent restaurant overlooking the powerful Upano River. The staff are cheerful and attentive, and the setting makes the evening feel like part of the journey rather than simply the end of the riding day.

After beginning the morning among guitar makers, jewelers, weavers, and shoemakers in the Andes, crossing one of Ecuador's great mountain roads, and finishing beside a tropical river near Macas, Day 6 manages to fit several completely different versions of Ecuador into a single ride.

Day 7

Macas – Zuñac – Atillo Lakes – Chimborazo – Baños

Today is one of the biggest riding days of the tour, with enormous changes in elevation, temperature, vegetation, and scenery. Leave Macas early and point the motorcycle west toward Sangay National Park, climbing out of the warm Amazon foothills on one of Ecuador's great paved mountain roads.

This route was talked about for more than a century before the modern road was finally completed. From the saddle, you quickly understand why building a road through this terrain was such an undertaking. Mountains rise almost vertically from river valleys, waterfalls pour from cliffs, and the road has to twist, climb, tunnel, and bend its way through the eastern Andes.

The lower section is pure motorcycle country: warm humid air, intensely green mountains, fast well-cambered curves, waterfalls beside the pavement, and rivers rushing below. As the road climbs, the temperature begins to fall and dense tropical vegetation gradually becomes cloudforest.

The road keeps working its way deeper into the mountains, following valleys and carving around steep green slopes as you approach the tiny community of Zuñac.

Around Zuñac, waterfalls seem to come from everywhere. Some tumble from cliffs directly beside the road while others appear high above you on the green mountainsides. This is one of those stretches where stopping for photographs becomes almost unavoidable.

The combination of good pavement, continuous curves, steep mountains, rushing water, and very little traffic makes this one of the signature backroads of the entire tour.

Just beyond Zuñac is a roadside observation tower with a distant view toward Sangay Volcano. Sangay is one of Ecuador's most active volcanoes and has been in near-continuous eruptive activity since around 2001.

When the clouds cooperate, you can see the volcano rising beyond the mountains and may catch a plume coming from the summit. This is a good place to whip out those travel binoculars if you brought them. Sangay is far enough away that a little magnification makes the view much more interesting.

Standing on the tower also puts the geography of the day into perspective. Behind you lies the warm Amazon Basin. Ahead, the road continues climbing toward cold high-altitude lakes and páramo. Sangay rises beyond it all. Ecuador manages to stack an unreasonable number of landscapes into a very small amount of space.

From Zuñac, the road continues climbing. Waterfalls keep appearing beside the pavement, the valleys deepen, and the forest gradually becomes shorter and more exposed until you finally emerge above the cloudforest into windswept páramo.

Then the landscape opens around the Lagunas de Atillo, a chain of high mountain lakes set among jagged peaks, open grasslands, wetlands, and cold Andean air. After leaving Macas in tropical warmth only a few hours earlier, the transformation is extraordinary.

The Puruhá people lived throughout this region long before the arrival of the Spanish, and local history holds that the icy lakes at Atillo were once used as a place of punishment for convicted criminals. Whether you are thinking about that history or simply trying to keep your gloves warm, this is one of the most atmospheric stops of the day.

Take some time for photographs before continuing through a patchwork of bright and dark green fields cut by cold, fast-running streams. Sheep graze beside the road, small farmhouses sit against the hillsides, and everything looks sharp, open, and intensely high.

The route continues through rural highland communities before eventually joining the Pan-American Highway and turning north. You pass Laguna de Colta, where totora reeds grow along the water and local people use them for traditional woven products.

Nearby is Balbanera Church, dating from 1534 and considered one of the earliest Catholic churches established by the Spanish in what is now Ecuador. The small stone church, rural highland setting, and enormous presence of Chimborazo beyond it make this one of the day's great historic stops.

Then the route turns toward Chimborazo and begins climbing again. At 20,548 feet, Chimborazo is the highest mountain in Ecuador and one of the great volcanic giants of the Andes.

Because the Earth bulges around the Equator, Chimborazo's summit is farther from the center of the planet than any other point on Earth's surface. Mount Everest rises higher above sea level, but Chimborazo gets a geographical advantage from sitting almost directly on the Equator.

It sounds like an obscure bit of trivia until you are riding beneath it. Up here, the mountain dominates everything.

The road crosses through the Chimborazo Wildlife Reserve, where wild vicuñas graze across the open páramo. These smaller, lighter relatives of llamas and alpacas are beautifully adapted to life at extreme altitude, and sightings along this part of the route are common.

You climb to 14,460 feet, where the weather can change quickly and without much sympathy. Sunshine can become fog, freezing rain, hail, wind, or even snow with very little warning. Heavy gloves and warm layers matter up here. The high Andes do not care how tough you thought you were at breakfast.

Eventually the route rounds the northern side of Chimborazo and begins losing elevation. The air warms, sensation returns to your fingers, and the wide-open páramo gives way again to farms, valleys, villages, and narrower mountain roads.

The ride changes personality one more time as you leave the high volcano country behind and begin following twisting backroads toward the eastern side of the Andes.

Raging whitewater rivers run below, farms cling to steep slopes, and the road squeezes through valleys on the way toward Baños. The final descent includes a steep series of switchbacks where brake management matters.

Use lower gears and strong engine braking rather than riding the brakes continuously. Overheated brakes are a real concern on this descent. Stop at the viewpoint along the way, take in the valley below, and give the brakes time to cool before continuing. This is one section where patience and good technique matter far more than speed.

You cross a narrow gorge over the Pastaza River and enter Baños, a lively small city tucked into a warm green valley at the base of Tungurahua Volcano. Waterfalls pour from the surrounding mountains, thermal springs rise beneath the town, and after the cold heights of Chimborazo, the warmer subtropical air feels exceptionally good.

Tungurahua, whose name is commonly translated as “Throat of Fire,” rises above town to more than 16,000 feet. The volcano has gone through repeated periods of activity in modern times, and its presence has always shaped life in Baños. The town manages to be a spa town, pilgrimage destination, adventure center, and volcano town all at once.

Tonight you'll stay at the cozy and friendly Posada del Arte, just a block from the thermal baths that made Baños famous.

After a day of waterfalls, Amazon foothills, Sangay Volcano, Atillo lakes, high páramo, Chimborazo, vicuñas, cold mountain air, whitewater rivers, and more curves than anyone is going to bother counting, soaking in hot volcanic water is exactly the right ending. Some of the pools are hot enough that staying too long can leave you looking suspiciously like a cooked lobster.

Baños has plenty of choices for dinner, with restaurants, cafés, bars, music, and a lively evening atmosphere all squeezed into a compact center surrounded by steep green mountains.

It has been a big day, a high day, a cold day, a warm day, and a long day. You started near the Amazon, crossed the spine of the Andes at more than 14,000 feet, and finished beside another active volcano. That is Ecuador showing off.

Day 8

Baños de Agua Santa – Pailón del Diablo – Puyo – Puerto Misahuallí

Today starts at a more relaxed pace. There is time for another soak in the volcanic baths or a walk around Baños de Agua Santa before getting back on the motorcycle. Baños is compact and easy to explore on foot, and Posada del Arte puts you in one of the best corners of town for doing exactly that.

Once you are riding, the route heads east along the famous Route of the Waterfalls, following the Pastaza River Gorge down the eastern slopes of the Andes toward the Amazon Basin. Cliffs rise above the road, tunnels cut through mountains, waterfalls pour into the gorge, cable cars hang above the river, and the pavement twists through one of Ecuador's most dramatic transitions from mountains to rainforest.

Pailón del Diablo, the Devil's Cauldron, is one of the major stops along the route. The waterfall itself is spectacular, but reaching it is half the experience. Leave the motorcycle behind and follow walkways, stone steps, and suspension bridges deeper into the gorge. The roar gets louder with every turn until the trail brings you close enough to feel the spray.

It is one of those places where you understand just how much water comes off the eastern Andes. What looks like another green mountain valley from the road suddenly becomes a wall of moving water once you walk down into it.

There are plenty of opportunities along this road to get off the motorcycle and do something mildly unreasonable. One of them is the enormous zip line stretched across the Pastaza Gorge, an activity that has become something of an Ecuador Freedom tradition over the years.

Somehow, riders who begin the morning explaining very clearly that they have no intention of flying across a canyon often end up wearing a harness a short time later.

As you continue east, the Andes slowly loosen their grip. The steep mountain walls remain around you, but the air becomes warmer and more humid, broad tropical leaves begin replacing highland vegetation, and the scents and sounds along the road change with the elevation.

The route keeps descending toward Puyo. The forest thickens, the curves become broader, and the mountains behind you begin opening toward the Amazon lowlands. You don't need a sign announcing that you have entered Amazonía. You can feel it.

Puyo is the principal city of Pastaza Province and a good introduction to the flavors of Ecuador's Amazon region.

Regional cooking uses ingredients such as ishpingo, an intensely aromatic Amazonian spice sometimes compared with cinnamon, and guayusa, a naturally caffeinated leaf traditionally brewed throughout this part of the Amazon. You may also encounter maito — fish wrapped in leaves and cooked over heat — along with yuca, hearts of palm, plantain, tropical fruits, and other locally grown ingredients.

By now, the food itself has become a useful map of the trip. Highland potatoes, grains, trout, and dairy have given way to yuca, river fish, tropical fruits, aromatic leaves, and ingredients most riders had probably never heard of before arriving in Ecuador.

Leaving Puyo, the road settles into broad sweepers before a few series of switchbacks carry you lower into the Amazon Basin. The Andes still rise behind you to the west, but the country ahead becomes flatter, hotter, and increasingly dominated by rainforest.

Eventually you reach the drainage of the Napo River, one of the great tributaries of the Amazon. Out here, the river is more than scenery. It is transportation, food source, meeting place, and a highway connecting communities that can be far easier to reach by canoe than by road.

By late afternoon, you arrive in Puerto Misahuallí, one of Ecuador's best-known gateways into the Amazon. Motorized canoes line the riverbank, rainforest rises beyond the water, and daily life feels increasingly connected to the rivers flowing east toward the Amazon system.

The town is also famous for its resident capuchin monkeys. They have become extremely accomplished at relieving distracted visitors of snacks and anything else that looks interesting, so this is not the place to wave food around unless you are prepared to negotiate with a monkey who has very little respect for private property.

Tonight you'll stay at El Jardín Misahuallí Lodge. The lodge was built by our friend Edgar, whom we knew for years before there was ever a hotel here. He already operated one of our favorite restaurants in the Amazon and had an extraordinary instinct for hospitality, so we spent years encouraging him to build a place where our riders could stay.

He eventually did, and today El Jardín has become one of those places that feels naturally connected to the tour rather than simply somewhere we booked a room.

Comfortable private cabins sit among tropical gardens, and each has its own plunge pool — an exceptionally useful feature after a full riding day in Amazon heat and humidity.

Dinner is another part of the experience, with Amazonian ingredients, fresh tropical juices, and the easy hospitality Edgar has always been known for. Afterward, the soundtrack changes completely. Frogs, cicadas, and thousands of unseen insects take over while the rainforest settles in around the lodge.

Day 9

Puerto Misahuallí – Jumandy – Paccari Chocolate Experience – Baeza – Papallacta

The morning begins in the warm, wet rhythm of the Amazon. You'll wake up at the jungle lodge with birds, insects, river life, and dense green forest all around you. After breakfast, a local guide joins you for a morning Amazon excursion before the motorcycle is packed and the route turns back toward the Andes.

Depending on conditions and your interests, the morning may include a short jungle hike, a visit to a natural waterfall pool, or time with an indigenous community to learn more about life along the river. This part of Ecuador is a living river world of canoes, plants, food, medicine, animals, stories, and people whose lives are closely tied to the forest.

Puerto Misahuallí is famous for its sandy riverfront, canoe traffic, jungle setting, and bold little monkeys that wander around town like they own the place. The Napo River is close by, and the whole area has that unmistakable Amazon character: warm air, moving water, damp earth, broad leaves, and the sense that the forest is always closer than you think.

After the morning excursion, you ride toward Jumandy and into cacao country for one of the best cultural and culinary stops of the tour: the Paccari Chocolate Experience. Ecuador produces some of the finest cacao in the world, and Paccari has become one of the country's best-known chocolate makers, recognized for high-quality chocolate and close relationships with cacao-growing communities.

This is not a quick stop where someone hands you a chocolate bar and calls it culture. You'll learn how cacao is grown, harvested, fermented, dried, roasted, and transformed into chocolate. You see the work behind the flavor and understand why cacao here is more than a crop. It is agriculture, family income, tradition, and identity tied directly to the land.

The experience also includes a traditional lunch prepared with local ingredients and help from the community. You may roll up your sleeves, lend a hand, and learn how Amazonian ingredients are used in everyday cooking. It is one of those stops where the ride slows down in the best possible way: food, people, chocolate, smoke, fruit, river-country heat, and a better understanding of where Ecuador's famous cacao actually comes from.

The road now turns west through the lush forests around Sumaco National Park. Before leaving the Amazon behind, there is a mushroom farm we almost never manage to pass without stopping. Oyster mushrooms and shiitake grow in carefully controlled rooms, while the little shop sells Amazonian teas, medicinal herbs, spices, chocolates, and other products from the surrounding rainforest.

It is a fascinating little stop and one more look at the extraordinary variety of things grown and produced in this part of Ecuador before the road begins climbing toward the Andes.

By the time you reach Baeza, there is one last essential stop at our friend Gina's.

Gina seems to know absolutely everyone. She served as Governor of Napo Province, and spending ten minutes in her café is enough to convince you that half the people walking through the door are old friends. The other half soon will be.

In the next hour, you'll climb more than 8,000 feet (2,450 m) back into the Andes. Strong coffee earns its place here. So does Gina's famous chocolate cake — thick, rich, unapologetically chocolatey, and made with locally grown Amazonian cacao. Somehow the combination of caffeine and chocolate arrives in your bloodstream at exactly the right moment, just as the oxygen begins quietly negotiating for a little more attention.

Gina's café is also a gathering place for hardcore whitewater kayakers who travel from around the world to paddle the legendary rivers nearby. We always seem to end up talking with them because they're our kind of people. They wear helmets, disappear into remote places, spend unreasonable amounts of money on specialized equipment, and constantly hear that their hobby is going to get them killed. Adventure motorcyclists recognize their own immediately.

From Baeza, the serious climb begins. Tropical warmth gives way to cooler cloudforest, waterfalls cut through the green mountainsides, and the road keeps twisting upward toward the high Andes.

This is one of Ecuador's great geographical transitions. In roughly an hour, you gain more than 8,000 feet of elevation, moving from Amazon foothills into cold mountain air. The vegetation changes with every mile, clouds move in and out across the road, and eventually the dense green slopes give way to the much more exposed high country.

By late afternoon, you reach Termas de Papallacta, a high-elevation hot spring resort tucked into the cold mountains. After spending the morning in Amazon heat and climbing through cloudforest back into the Andes, the thermal pools are exactly where you want to end up.

The hot springs sit right outside the cabins, surrounded by mountain air and gardens. Steam rises from the water while the temperature drops around you, creating one of those simple pleasures that makes the day's long climb feel worthwhile.

Tonight is about hot mineral water, cold mountain air, and tired muscles beginning to forgive you. After jungle rivers, cacao, Amazonian food, mushrooms, Gina's coffee and chocolate cake, waterfalls, cloudforest roads, and a huge climb back into the highlands, Papallacta gives the day the right ending: warm, quiet, and earned.

Day 10

Papallacta – Jerusalem Dry Forest – Guayllabamba Canyon – Quito

Start the final morning with one more soak in the hot springs at Papallacta. There is something satisfying about sitting in steaming mineral water surrounded by cold mountain air, knowing that there is still one more good riding day ahead.

After breakfast, pack the motorcycle and climb back toward Papallacta Pass, crossing the Continental Divide at roughly 13,400 feet. The air is cold and thin, clouds move quickly across the high páramo, and the mountains give you one last reminder that nothing about riding Ecuador stays at one elevation for very long.

From the pass, the road begins descending through twisting mountain country. The temperature rises, vegetation changes again, and before long you are heading toward an ecosystem that seems almost impossible after everything you have ridden through during the previous nine days: the Jerusalem Dry Forest Reserve.

After rainforest, cloudforest, Amazon rivers, wet mountain slopes, high páramo, and tropical lowlands, the scenery suddenly turns pale, thorny, dusty, and almost desert-like. Cactus, scrub, dry hills, exposed earth, and warm air replace the dense greenery that has defined so much of the tour.

The Andean dry forest receives far less rainfall than Ecuador's cloudforest or rainforest. Its plants and animals have evolved to survive hard sun, limited water, rocky soils, and long dry periods. This is another side of Ecuador's biodiversity, where survival depends on conserving water rather than dealing with too much of it.

The beauty here is quieter. There are no giant waterfalls or walls of tropical vegetation. Instead, the landscape is open, sharp, sunbaked, and surprisingly peaceful. After ten days of watching Ecuador change around you, this final ecosystem still manages to feel completely different.

The final stretch runs through the Guayllabamba River canyon, one of the best backroad finishes on the tour. The road carves through the canyon in tight, twisting turns, with dry hills, river cuts, cliffs, and sudden views opening around the bends.

It is a proper last blast before Quito. After all the different roads you have ridden during the tour, this one feels almost like a farewell gift: narrow enough to be interesting, twisty enough to keep you working, and close enough to the capital that it is hard to believe you are still riding through scenery like this.

By the time you roll back into Ecuador Freedom's headquarters, you will have crossed the three great worlds of continental Ecuador: the Andes, the Amazon, and the Pacific Coast.

You started in Quito's thin mountain air, stood on the Equator, dropped through cloudforest to the Pacific, crossed Manabí farm country and cacao-growing lowlands, climbed through Cajas into Cuenca, followed the artisan corridor into the southeastern Amazon, crossed the Andes again beneath Sangay and Chimborazo, rode the Route of the Waterfalls, spent time along the Napo River, climbed back through Baeza to Papallacta, and finally returned through dry forest and canyon roads.

Ten days is not very long. Ecuador makes an unreasonable amount of geography fit into it.

Back at our shop, hand over the motorcycle, drop the riding gear, grab something cold, and settle into the Freedom Riders' Lounge™. There is a hot shower, jacuzzi, honor bar, and space to reorganize your luggage while the ride starts sinking in.

If you're leaving Quito that evening, you're welcome to relax here until it's time to head to the airport or your next destination. If you're staying in Ecuador, our staff can help point you toward your hotel or wherever the next part of the trip takes you.

By now, the motorcycle has probably become second nature, the roads make considerably more sense than they did on Day 1, and Ecuador no longer looks like a small country on a map. You have ridden through too many different versions of it for that.

This self-guided motorcycle adventure begins at Ecuador Freedom Bike Rental’s headquarters in Quito’s secure and convenient La Carolina neighborhood. We strongly recommend arriving one or two days early so you can adjust to the altitude, complete the necessary paperwork, and spend some time discovering the capital before departure. Our guide to enjoying Quito before your motorcycle tour includes suggestions for nearby attractions, museums, restaurants, and other worthwhile places to visit. Completing the registration process in advance allows Day One to begin smoothly, without pressure, and with your attention where it belongs: on the ride ahead.

Pre-Ride Briefing, GPS, Road Book & Support

Before departure, you’ll take part in a comprehensive pre-ride briefing with a member of our staff who knows the route firsthand. We’ll cover Ecuadorian traffic laws, local driving customs, cultural courtesies, safety procedures, fuel planning, known road conditions, recommended starting times, important attractions, accommodations, and the practical details you’ll need for each day of the tour. We walk through the entire itinerary day by day so you understand what lies ahead before you ever leave Quito.

You’ll be provided with the adventure-ready motorcycle of your choice, equipped with a waterproof luggage system and a programmed Garmin GPS. Before leaving Quito, the motorcycle will be inspected with you so that you understand its controls, accessories, luggage, and any model-specific features.

The GPS contains the Backroads of Ecuador route we have developed and refined through years of riding these roads on our guided tours. It provides the precise navigation you’ll use throughout the trip and also displays a projected arrival time. During the briefing, we’ll explain how to interpret that arrival estimate together with our recommended starting times so you can judge your progress during longer riding days and decide how much time you have for stops along the way.

You’ll also receive an Ecuador Freedom Road Book with detailed daily route sheets, maps showing the general locations of important points of interest, historical and cultural background, practical information, contact details, and other useful context about the places you’ll encounter. The Road Book helps you understand what you are seeing and why a stop is worth making; the GPS handles the precise navigation.

We also provide a local cell phone so you can contact Ecuador Freedom for advice or assistance while traveling. During riding days, we monitor your progress for added safety while still giving you the freedom to ride independently and set your own pace.

Solo riders are strongly encouraged to download the Garmin Drive app before arriving in Ecuador. During orientation, we can help connect the app to the GPS so the incident-detection feature can be activated. If the GPS detects a possible accident, the system can alert Ecuador Freedom, adding another layer of safety when you are riding alone.

The Route & Riding Experience

The Backroads of Ecuador route is the result of years spent exploring, riding, testing, and refining some of the country’s finest paved secondary roads. The same experience we use to operate our guided tours has gone into building the self-guided version, from the roads themselves to the important cultural stops, accommodations, daily timing, and practical information riders need along the way.

The journey is almost entirely paved, with only occasional unpaved driveways, short construction sections, cobblestone streets, or rough patches depending on current road conditions. The roads are selected for scenery, rhythm, minimal traffic, cultural value, and riding enjoyment rather than technical difficulty.

Expect long mountain curves, highland passes, warm valleys, quiet agricultural roads, small towns, working farms, and dramatic changes in climate and elevation. Ecuador’s compact geography allows you to move between completely different landscapes within a single riding day. Some days are relaxed and exploratory, while others are substantial riding days that reward an early start and good stamina.

The self-guided format gives you the freedom to decide how long you want to spend at a viewpoint, museum, artisan workshop, waterfall, market, or town along the route. The recommended starting times discussed during your briefing and the projected arrival time on the GPS help you make those decisions without having to guess how much riding remains.

This tour is especially well suited to riders who appreciate excellent paved roads without wanting a physically demanding off-road itinerary. Couples and two-up riders can enjoy the journey together, groups of friends can travel at their own rhythm, and solo riders get the satisfaction of riding Ecuador independently while still having Ecuador Freedom’s route knowledge and local support behind them.

The itinerary passes through farms, artisan communities, small towns, locally owned businesses, historic sites, and natural areas we have returned to for years. Your Road Book provides the background that makes these places more meaningful, while the freedom of a self-guided tour lets you decide which ones deserve more of your time.

Participants are also encouraged to support our Ride for a Purpose program, developed in association with Pack for a Purpose. Riders may bring requested school supplies, sports equipment, art materials, and other useful items for children in remote communities along our routes. Please review the program page before packing for the current list of requested items.

Meals, Hotels & Tour Expenses

Your scheduled accommodations are reserved and paid in advance as part of the tour package, and you’ll receive hotel vouchers for the properties along the route. That means you can arrive at the end of each riding day knowing where you are staying without having to search for rooms or negotiate rates along the way.

Our meal arrangements are designed around the location of each overnight stay. When you stay at a remote lodge, hacienda, or other property where there are no practical restaurant alternatives nearby, meals are included as part of the package. When you stay in a town with a good selection of restaurants, dinner is generally left open so you can choose the restaurant, cuisine, atmosphere, and price that appeal to you.

This gives you the convenience of having meals handled when you need them and the freedom to explore local restaurants when good choices are within walking distance. Specific included meals and activities are listed in the What’s Included section of this page.

Because the Backroads of Ecuador is sold as a tour package under Ecuadorian law, qualifying non-resident visitors also benefit from important tax savings. The package is exempt from the 15% sales tax and avoids the hotel taxes and service charges that can add approximately another 25% when accommodations are purchased separately. That makes the self-guided package significantly more attractive than trying to assemble the same motorcycle rental, hotels, activities, and services individually.

Make the Tour Longer

One of the advantages of a self-guided tour is how easily you can slow the itinerary down when a particular place deserves more time. Additional nights can be added at selected stops along the route, including Palmazul in San Clemente, Cuenca, Macas, Baños, Puerto Misahuallí, and Papallacta.

These extensions can turn a riding day into a rest day, give you more time to explore a city, spend another day in the Amazon, enjoy the hot springs without watching the clock, or simply build more breathing room into the trip. We highlight some of our strongest extension recommendations in the day-by-day itinerary, and you can add them while arranging your tour.

After the Ride

When you return to Ecuador Freedom in Quito, you’ll have access to the Freedom Riders’ Lounge™, including the honor bar, jacuzzi, hot showers, luggage storage, and a comfortable place to unwind. Ecuador Freedom staff can also assist with hotel arrangements, onward travel plans, local recommendations, or your next destination in Ecuador.

Weather & Temperatures

Ecuador’s general weather patterns remain fairly consistent throughout the year, but the elevation changes along this route can create very different conditions within a single riding day. Passing showers are common in the highlands, although an entire day of rain is unusual. Longer periods of rain are more likely on the western slopes of the Andes during March, April, and early May.

The route ranges from warm lower elevations where temperatures may approach 90°F / 32°C to the high Andes around Chimborazo, where the route reaches approximately 14,460 feet and temperatures can fall into the 30s°F / 0–4°C. The temperature may change quickly as the road climbs or descends, making flexible riding gear especially important.

Dressing in layers is strongly recommended. Waterproof outerwear, warm gloves, breathable protective gear, moisture-wicking base layers, and quick-drying clothing will make the ride far more comfortable. Our detailed Weather in Ecuador Guide explains seasonal patterns, regional climates, and the temperature changes riders can expect as the route moves between the Andes, valleys, cloudforest, Pacific lowlands, and Amazon Basin.

Accommodations

Throughout the tour, you’ll stay in carefully selected boutique hotels, historic haciendas, rural lodges, rainforest properties, hot spring resorts, and family-owned inns chosen for their comfort, character, location, hospitality, and access to the route. These are biker-friendly properties where the motorcycles can be parked securely and where riders are welcomed rather than merely accommodated.

The places you stay are an important part of the Backroads of Ecuador experience. Each property reflects something about the region, whether it is a working cacao and dairy hacienda, a private stone cabin beside a swimming pool near Macas, a jungle lodge with a private plunge pool, a boutique hotel in historic Cuenca, or thermal pools waiting outside your cabin at Papallacta.

Details, photographs, and links for the scheduled accommodations are provided elsewhere on this page. Because the rooms are reserved in advance and included in the package, your hotel vouchers provide the information you need when you arrive. Ecuador Freedom reserves the right to substitute a property of comparable quality when required by availability, weather, access, or other operational considerations, and we will notify you whenever a change is necessary.

Packing List & Preparation

Before your trip, Ecuador Freedom will provide detailed preparation information, including a recommended packing list and practical guidance on luggage, riding gear, documents, electronics, and the range of conditions you are likely to encounter. We also recommend reviewing our complete Motorcycle Tour Packing Guide, which explains how to prepare for Ecuador’s changing temperatures, elevations, and weather.

No knowledge of Spanish is required, although knowing a few basic words and phrases can add to the experience. Your Road Book provides useful contact information and practical details, and the local cell phone keeps Ecuador Freedom within reach when you need help or advice.

With the route already developed, the GPS programmed, accommodations reserved and paid, hotel vouchers prepared, the Road Book in hand, and Ecuador Freedom monitoring your progress, you can concentrate on the part that matters most: riding the backroads, exploring the places along them, and experiencing Ecuador independently at your own pace.

• Unlimited-mileage motorcycle rental
• Programmed Garmin GPS with the complete Backroads of Ecuador route
• Comprehensive pre-ride briefing covering the entire tour day by day
• Ecuador Freedom Road Book with detailed daily route sheets, maps, points of interest, background information, practical details, and contact information
• Local cell phone for use during the tour
• Back-office monitoring of your progress during riding days
• 24-hour Ecuador Freedom support while you are on the tour
• Installed luggage system on the motorcycle
• Luggage storage and locker use while riding
• Single-occupancy accommodations in the luxury haciendas, boutique hotels, lodges, and hotels listed on this page
• All scheduled hotel accommodations reserved and paid in advance, with hotel vouchers provided
• Breakfast every day
• Dinner at Kashama Lodge in Valle Hermoso
• Dinner at Hacienda La Danesa
• Dinner at Hostería Arrayán y Piedra near Macas
• Dinner at El Jardín Misahuallí Lodge in Puerto Misahuallí
• Traditional lunch during the Paccari Chocolate Experience
• Tolls
• Amazon jungle excursion with a native guide
• Paccari Chocolate Experience
• All other activities, excursions, and tours specifically listed as included in the itinerary
• Pre-tour preparation information, packing guidance, and other trip-planning materials
• 20% pre-tour discount on high-quality riding gear from Klim
• Souvenir Ecuador Freedom T-shirt
• Souvenir tour decal
• VIP access to the Freedom Riders' Lounge™ with hot shower, jacuzzi, luggage storage, and honor bar

Your self-guided tour is already organized before you leave Quito. The motorcycle, programmed GPS, accommodations, hotel vouchers, Road Book, briefing, included meals and activities, local phone, back-office monitoring, and 24-hour support are all arranged in advance. You get the independence of riding Ecuador on your own without having to build the trip from scratch.

• 100% refundable motorcycle security deposit to cover any damage to the rental motorcycle
• Airfare to and from Ecuador
• Airport transfers before or after the tour
• Hotel accommodations in Quito before and after the tour
• Gasoline
• Lunches, except for the traditional lunch included with the Paccari Chocolate Experience
• Dinners not specifically listed as included in the itinerary
• Lunch and dinner on the rest day
• Optional activities on the rest day unless specifically listed as included in the itinerary
• Alcoholic beverages
• Trip cancellation, medical, and emergency evacuation insurance
• Gratuities for hotel, restaurant, and activity staff
• Gratuities for Ecuador Freedom staff who assist with your departure, motorcycle preparation, and return, at your discretion
• There are no taxes when you purchase a tour package in Ecuador (non-residents only)

Want to spend more time exploring Ecuador? You can extend the Andes Twist with any of the options below. Each extension has a fixed add-on price that includes the additional motorcycle rental days along with the accommodations, meals, activities, and other items indicated in the individual extension description.

The extension price is the same regardless of which motorcycle you choose, which can make these additions especially attractive if you are riding one of our higher-priced motorcycles.

You do not need to decide on an extension before you begin the booking process. During online booking, you can review the available extensions, select the ones you want to add, and see your updated total price before completing your reservation.

Book your self-guided Andes Twist online in just a few steps.

You can book this tour solo or with a group of friends, and self-guided departures are available throughout the year except on dates when we already have a Guided Andes Twist departure scheduled.

Our reservation system provides up-to-date availability and pricing. Simply enter your preferred dates, select your motorcycle, and choose any tour extensions you would like to add. The system will calculate the exact price of your tour based on your selections.

You can also extend your trip with any of the tour extensions listed below. Add them during the booking process and the reservation system will automatically include them in your itinerary and calculate the updated tour price.

If more than one passenger will be traveling in a 4x4 support vehicle, please contact us so we can arrange the appropriate room-sharing configuration and provide accurate pricing.

We can also customize the Andes Twist if you would like to modify the itinerary, add extra days, combine it with other destinations, or create a more personalized version of the tour. Contact us and we can discuss the possibilities with you.

Our booking system asks for an identification number as part of the reservation process. You may use your passport number, driver’s license number, national ID number, or another government-issued identification number.

If you prefer not to enter that information online, or if you have any difficulty completing the payment, just contact us. We can take your credit card information over the phone and process the payment for you.

You may also select the “Request PayPal Invoice” option at checkout. We will send you a PayPal invoice that can be paid with any major credit card. No PayPal account is required.

If you prefer to pay by bank transfer, we can provide our banking instructions upon request.

If you have any questions, need help configuring a booking for several riders or passengers, or would like to discuss a customized version of the tour, please email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or click the chat button below.