Northwest Ecuador Explorer Guided Motorcycle Tour

The Northwest Ecuador Explorer is a six-day guided motorcycle journey designed for riders who want to see more of Ecuador without turning every day into a test of endurance. The pace is relaxed, the riding is almost entirely paved, and the route leaves plenty of time for the things that make travel memorable: good food, local history, traditional markets, artisans, hot springs, cloudforest, Pacific beaches, working farms, rainforest swimming holes, cacao, coffee, and conversations with the people who live along the way.

The tour begins in the northern Andes, where you’ll visit the Equator, Cayambe, Otavalo, Cotacachi, and historic haciendas before winding west through quieter mountain roads and into the cloudforest. From there, the landscape keeps changing as the route descends toward the Pacific, with a rest day at the private Cumilinche Club conservation property before turning inland again through tropical farmland, waterfalls, suspension bridges, and remote forest communities.

Food is a major part of the experience. You’ll taste fresh seafood on the Esmeraldas coast, locally grown coffee, traditional highland dishes, tropical fruits, artisanal chocolate made from Ecuador’s prized Nacional cacao, and regional cooking that changes as dramatically as the scenery. Stops at bakeries, farms, markets, restaurants, and family-run workshops are built into the route, giving the journey a sense of place that goes far beyond simply riding through it.

The accommodations follow the same philosophy. You’ll stay in historic haciendas, comfortable cloudforest lodges, private beach cabins, and small properties chosen for their character and setting. There is time to enjoy them too, whether that means a fireplace in the Andes, hot springs, a spring-fed pool in the forest, a swim in the Pacific, or dinner beside a tropical river.

The Northwest Ecuador Explorer is ideal for experienced adult riders who appreciate a good road but also want the freedom to stop, look around, eat well, learn something, and enjoy where they are. It is a tour built around curiosity rather than mileage, with enough riding to make every day satisfying and enough time off the motorcycle to make the journey worth remembering.

Day 1

Quito – El Quinche – Cayambe – Olmedo – Otavalo – Cotacachi

Your Northwest Ecuador Explorer begins at Ecuador Freedom Bike Rental in Quito’s La Carolina neighborhood. Our location gives us an unusually clean escape from the city: the tunnel leading toward the Panamerican Highway is less than a mile away, so we can get through the urban traffic quickly and start enjoying the ride.

Before departure, your guide will go through the day’s route, Ecuadorian traffic habits, riding signals, local customs, and what to expect on the road. This tour is designed around relaxed riding days with plenty of time for food, history, artisans, and the places along the way, so there is no need to spend the morning pretending we are qualifying for anything.

Once outside Quito, the city gives way quickly to green pastures, farms, flower greenhouses, and the broad northern Andes. Our first cultural stop is El Quinche, home to one of Ecuador’s most important Catholic pilgrimage sites.

The Basilica of El Quinche draws pilgrims from across the country, many asking the Virgin of El Quinche for protection, healing, or help with the sort of problems that have been troubling people for centuries. Vehicles are also traditionally brought here to be blessed for safe travels, which makes it a particularly appropriate place to begin a motorcycle journey.

From El Quinche, we continue north toward Cayambe and the Quitsato Sundial, positioned directly on the Equator. Here you can stand with a boot in each hemisphere while your guide explains why the Equator mattered to the cultures that lived here long before somebody painted a line on the ground for photographs.

Quitsato also gives us a chance to talk about the Andean understanding of the sun, seasons, agriculture, and the Chakana, or Andean Cross. It is an interesting place to spend some time because the Equator here is part geography, part astronomy, and part cultural history.

Then comes something considerably easier to understand: food.

Cayambe is famous for bizcochos, crisp, buttery biscuits traditionally baked in wood-fired ovens and usually eaten with local cheese or dulce de leche. We’ll stop where they are still being made and see how a very simple combination of flour, butter, salt, and heat became one of the foods most closely associated with the town.

Behind all of this rises Cayambe Volcano, whose snow-covered summit sits almost directly on the Equator. There are not many places on Earth where you can stand at zero degrees latitude looking toward permanent snow.

Leaving Cayambe, we turn away from the main highway and ride through quieter agricultural country toward Olmedo. The road crosses a broad valley beneath Cayambe Volcano, where farms climb the slopes and small communities sit among fields that have been cultivated for generations.

This is also the country of Dolores Cacuango and Tránsito Amaguaña, two of Ecuador’s most important Indigenous leaders. Both came from this region and spent their lives fighting for Indigenous education, land rights, and better conditions for rural workers. Their story gives this beautiful valley a history considerably tougher than the scenery first suggests.

In Olmedo, the road narrows and passes adobe homes before entering the Zuleta Valley, an area famous for extraordinary hand embroidery, leatherwork, saddles, and traditional craftsmanship. These are skills that have been handed down through families rather than rediscovered by somebody opening an artisan boutique last Tuesday.

The road climbs through the northern Andes, topping out above 10,000 feet before opening onto views of Lake San Pablo. The lake sits beneath Imbabura Volcano, surrounded by farms and Indigenous communities that have been working this landscape for centuries.

We’ll stop with an Otavaleño artisan family to see traditional weaving on backstrap looms. Natural fibers are turned into textiles using techniques that predate industrial machinery by a very long time, and seeing the work up close makes it easier to appreciate how much skill is hiding inside something most people would simply call a blanket or scarf.

This is exactly what the Northwest Ecuador Explorer is built around: good roads combined with enough time to get off the motorcycle and understand where you are.

The first day ends at Hacienda Pinsaquí, a historic hacienda outside Otavalo whose walls have seen considerably more Ecuadorian history than most hotels can claim.

Pinsaquí dates back to the colonial period and later played a role in the negotiations surrounding the Treaty of Pinsaquí in 1863, which helped bring an end to the Ecuadorian-Colombian conflict of that period. Today, the heavy walls, courtyards, gardens, old furniture, fireplaces, and traditional atmosphere make it a particularly good place to end the first day.

There is time to settle in, have a drink, enjoy the hacienda, and sit down to a proper dinner without having spent the day racing a clock. That relaxed pace is deliberate. You have ridden through the Equator, farming valleys, volcano country, artisan communities, and some of northern Ecuador’s best paved roads, and there is no reason to ruin a good day by hurrying through it.

Day 2

Cotacachi – Otavalo – Chachimbiro – Primavera

Morning at Hacienda Pinsaquí starts slowly, which is exactly how it should. The gardens are quiet, ducks drift around the ponds, fireplaces take the edge off the cool Andean morning, and breakfast comes with strong Ecuadorian coffee before we get back on the motorcycles.

Day 2 is another relaxed riding day with plenty of time off the bikes. We begin around Otavalo, one of the most important Indigenous commercial and cultural centers in the Andes.

Our first stop is Otavalo’s traditional animal market, where farmers and Indigenous families from the surrounding hills come to buy and sell pigs, chickens, cattle, goats, and other livestock.

This is a working market rather than a performance put on for visitors. Deals are made, animals change hands, families catch up with neighbors, and a tradition that has been part of rural life here for generations carries on much as it always has. It can be noisy, muddy, chaotic, and fascinating.

From there we visit the famous Plaza de los Ponchos, one of South America’s best-known Indigenous markets. Otavaleño families have been traders for centuries, and today the market fills with woven blankets, textiles, clothing, jewelry, leather goods, carvings, and handicrafts from throughout the northern Andes.

There is time to wander, talk with the vendors, practice a little bargaining, and buy something without trying to stuff an entire alpaca blanket into a motorcycle pannier afterward.

We’ll also visit a family workshop where traditional Andean musical instruments are made. Your guide can explain the role music plays in local celebrations and Indigenous culture, and you can see how instruments are still constructed by hand using techniques passed from one generation to the next.

Next comes Cotacachi, a small Andean town famous throughout Ecuador for leatherwork. Workshops and family businesses produce jackets, boots, belts, bags, saddles, and other goods, with many of the skills handed down within families.

We’ll have time to see the craftsmanship up close and wander through town before stopping for coffee. The surrounding province of Imbabura produces excellent high-altitude coffee, much of it grown by small farmers and cooperatives. A good cup and something from the bakery fit the pace of this tour considerably better than gulping gas-station coffee while standing beside the motorcycle.

Leaving Cotacachi, we follow quiet country roads through the northern Andes. Some stretches use old cobblestone roads that have connected farms and villages for generations, with very little traffic and broad views across the surrounding agricultural valleys.

As we approach Urcuquí and Chachimbiro, the climate becomes noticeably warmer and drier. We’ll stop at the thermal springs at Hacienda Chachimbiro, where naturally heated mineral water provides a very civilized interruption to the riding day.

Motorcycle gear comes off, swimsuits go on, and nobody needs much convincing to sit in hot water for a while.

Lunch is at Hacienda Pantaví, a beautiful country hacienda filled with art and character, where we can take our time over local dishes before continuing west.

We then pass through Salinas, an Afro-Ecuadorian community whose history is tied to the salt deposits that gave the town its name. The old railway station and salt-mining history tell another piece of northwest Ecuador’s complicated story, shaped by Indigenous communities, Spanish colonial estates, African descendants, agriculture, mining, and trade.

The road now begins to descend toward the western side of the Andes. Farms become greener, vegetation thickens, and the landscape gradually changes from high Andean valleys to cloudforest.

We follow a narrow paved road beside the river, passing waterfalls and increasingly dense vegetation as we work our way toward the tiny community of Primavera. This is the sort of road this tour does particularly well: twisting, scenic, lightly traveled, and worth enjoying without rushing.

Our destination is Hacienda Primavera Wilderness Lodge, surrounded by forest in northwest Ecuador. Parrots, toucans, orchids, butterflies, and countless other species thrive in this extraordinarily biodiverse region.

The lodge gives us plenty of reasons to stop riding for the day. There are comfortable rooms, good food, a spring-fed swimming pool, and forest all around us. We can also explore the property’s coffee production and learn more about what grows as the Andes descend into the warmer western lowlands.

By evening, there is time for dinner, a drink, and a soak while the forest settles in around us. After markets, artisans, leatherworkers, coffee, hot springs, haciendas, Afro-Ecuadorian history, mountain roads, and cloudforest, nobody should feel cheated because the riding day was not 500 kilometers long.

Day 3

Primavera – Las Peñas – Same – Cumilinche Club

Morning at Hacienda Primavera begins with birdsong coming out of the forest and breakfast built around fresh fruit, eggs, and locally grown coffee. After two days in the Andes, today we follow the mountains all the way down toward the Pacific.

The change happens gradually. Cloudforest gives way to warmer rainforest, the vegetation gets heavier, the roads flatten out, and small agricultural communities begin replacing the highland towns behind us.

By the time we reach the province of Esmeraldas, the air is warmer, palms start appearing beside the road, and the Pacific begins making itself known.

Our first coastal stop is Las Peñas, a quiet beach community where we get our first proper look at the ocean. There is time to slow down, walk the beach, have something cold to drink, or get into the water if the mood strikes.

Lunch is built around what this coast does best: seafood. Depending on what is fresh that day, that might mean arroz marinero, shrimp, conch, fish, or seafood cooked with coconut. Esmeraldas has one of Ecuador’s most distinctive regional cuisines, with African, Indigenous, and coastal influences all ending up on the same plate.

Nobody is expected to conduct a scientific comparison of every seafood dish available. That said, volunteers are rarely difficult to find.

Farther south, around Rioverde, we get into some of the food that makes this part of Ecuador worth arriving hungry for. One local favorite is cevicangre, combining shrimp ceviche with crab and the unmistakable flavors of the Esmeraldas coast.

The prized Esmeraldas blue crab also makes an appearance. Served boiled and covered in coconut-based sauce, it requires a little work. Mallets, hands, napkins, and a complete lack of dignity may all become involved.

The reward is sweet crab meat and one of those meals where the table looks considerably worse when you finish than when you started. Around here, that is usually a good sign.

We continue south, skirting the busier city of Esmeraldas and passing through a completely different Ecuador from the one we left that morning. Shrimp farms, tropical agriculture, coastal communities, and broad stretches of warm lowland countryside now line the road.

The riding itself remains relaxed. Long sweeping curves replace the tighter mountain switchbacks, and there is time to enjoy the coast instead of treating it as scenery that needs to be crossed before sunset.

We pass around Atacames, one of Ecuador’s better-known beach towns, and continue toward the quieter coastline around Same.

Our destination is the Cumilinche Club, a private coastal reserve with cabins tucked beside one of the quieter stretches of beach in the area.

Once the motorcycles are parked, the difficult decisions are largely over. Swim in the warm Pacific, walk along the beach, explore the natural caves carved into the shoreline, or simply find somewhere comfortable and remain there for a while.

Dinner keeps us firmly on the coast, with fresh seafood and local specialties from the Cumilinche kitchen. Their Cumilinche Salad has become a favorite with our riders, although after a day involving shrimp, crab, coconut sauce, and Pacific seafood, calling anything a “salad” may be stretching the definition.

By evening, the motorcycles are parked, the riding gear is off, and the Pacific is a few steps away. Yesterday ended in the cloudforest. Tonight ends barefoot on the beach. Northwest Ecuador changes quickly.

Day 4

Rest Day at Cumilinche Club

After three days on the road, Day 4 is deliberately slower. The motorcycles can stay parked while you enjoy one of the most unusual places on Ecuador’s northern coast.

Cumilinche Club is a private coastal conservation property established in the 1990s by our late friend Didier, from France, and his Ecuadorian wife, Consuelo. Rather than developing the property into a conventional resort, they protected the forest, cliffs, beach, and wildlife and placed only a handful of cabins among the trees.

The seven cabins are scattered across the property, giving Cumilinche a quiet, private atmosphere. Lizards move through the gardens, birds fill the trees, and foxes are sometimes seen around the grounds. Down at the small private beach, brightly colored crabs appear among the rocks and sand as the tide changes.

When the water recedes, you can walk beneath the cliffs and explore exposed rock pools filled with small fish, crabs, shells, sea urchins, and other marine life. The coastline changes hour by hour, so simply taking a walk along the beach can turn into considerably more entertainment than expected.

There is no prize for completing the greatest number of activities before dinner.

If you feel like exploring farther, Punta Galera and Punta Tortuga offer secluded stretches of coastline and small coves where you can swim, walk, or spend a few hours doing absolutely nothing useful.

Staying at Cumilinche is equally respectable. Swim in the warm Pacific, read under the trees, explore the property, or find somewhere comfortable with a cold drink and let the ocean handle the schedule.

Dinner is another reason we love staying here. The kitchen combines French techniques with Esmeraldine cuisine, reflecting Didier’s French background and Consuelo’s Ecuadorian roots. Fresh seafood, coconut, herbs, tropical ingredients, and local coastal flavors come together in dishes you are unlikely to find anywhere else on the tour.

The result fits the place perfectly: personal, unhurried, and deeply connected to this part of Ecuador.

Anyone wanting more activity can head toward Same or Atacames for restaurants, beach activity, and nightlife. But most riders discover that leaving Cumilinche once they have settled in requires considerably more motivation than expected.

That is the point of the rest day. You have spent three days riding through Andean towns, Indigenous markets, hot springs, cloudforest, tropical lowlands, and the Esmeraldas coast. Today you get to stay somewhere long enough to actually enjoy it.

Day 5

Cumilinche Club – La Isla – Cascadas Verdes – Cielo Verde

Day 5 starts with one more breakfast at Cumilinche Club, including one of their excellent shrimp omelettes, before we leave the Pacific behind and begin working our way inland through the rolling green hills of northwest Ecuador.

The transition happens gradually. Coastal vegetation gives way to farms, forest, and small roadside communities as the road begins climbing away from the sea.

We are in no particular hurry, which is useful because breakfast number two is waiting.

One of our favorite stops is a tiny roadside bakery where round rolls come out of the oven with a dollop of caramel baked into the center. They are served with strong, robust coffee harvested in the surrounding countryside. It is simple, local, inexpensive, and exactly the sort of place you would probably ride straight past if nobody told you to stop.

Farther inland, we reach the Caoní River and one of the more memorable approaches to lunch. Getting to La Isla requires crossing a narrow suspension bridge stretched above the river.

Once across, we settle in beneath the trees for lunch on the island. Fresh fish, tropical fruit, cold drinks, and the sound of the river make this an easy place to stay longer than planned.

Fortunately, the afternoon schedule contains another activity that does not require much persuasion.

After lunch, we continue to Cascadas Verdes and leave the motorcycles behind for a short walk into the rainforest.

The trail passes beneath towering tropical trees and through vegetation filled with cacao, ginger, berries, wild fruits, and enormous stands of bamboo. Birds are everywhere, although toucans, parrots, tanagers, and hummingbirds often announce themselves long before anyone manages to spot them.

The walk ends at a clear emerald pool where water drops nearly 30 feet through the forest. This is our swimming stop for the afternoon. You can get beneath the waterfall, swim across the pool, climb behind the falling water, or simply sit in the clear water and cool down.

Tiny fish sometimes nibble at your feet. Consider it complimentary spa treatment with somewhat questionable licensing.

Cascadas Verdes is one of those places photographs never quite explain properly. Forest surrounds the pool in every direction, the water is remarkably clear, and it feels completely removed from the roads and towns only a short distance away.

Later in the day, we visit the remarkable exotic fruit farm and research center created by our friends Jim and Mimi. For decades, they have collected and cultivated more than 600 species of fruits, herbs, and spices from around the world on their remote forest property.

When they first settled here, reaching the nearest road required a six-hour walk through dense vegetation, and the property had no electricity. They built a rustic wooden home, grew much of their own food, and slowly turned the land into an extraordinary living collection of rare and unusual plants.

The visit is informal and hands-on. Colorful fruit and bags of seeds fill the open wooden buildings, and there is usually something unfamiliar waiting to be cut open, smelled, or tasted.

You will sample fruits most supermarkets have never heard of, try identifying herbs and spices by smell, and hear how Jim and Mimi built a life in a place that was once almost completely isolated from the outside world.

It is exactly the sort of stop this tour is built around: interesting people doing remarkable things in places most visitors would never know existed.

From the fruit farm, we continue deeper into the green interior of northwest Ecuador. The roads wind through farms, forest, and small communities as we make our way toward Cielo Verde.

By now the Pacific feels a long way behind us. The air is still warm, but thick vegetation, rivers, and forest have taken over again.

We finish the day in the small community of Cielo Verde, surrounded by thick tropical vegetation at approximately 1,200 feet / 365 meters.

Tonight we stay at Cielo Verde Lodge, with comfortable rooms, a swimming pool, jacuzzis, and private access to a clear river beach. After a day involving two breakfasts, a suspension bridge, lunch on an island, a rainforest swim, and several dozen fruits you probably cannot identify, the pool and jacuzzi arrive at exactly the right time.

Dinner features regional ingredients and local cooking, with the sounds of the forest and river close by. It is a relaxed finish to a day that covers a surprisingly broad slice of northwest Ecuador without ever feeling rushed.

Day 6

Cielo Verde – Mashpi Chocolate Farm – Intiñan – Quito

The final day begins with one last chance to jump into the clear waters of the Huanduriaco River before breakfast and departure from Cielo Verde.

From here, we begin climbing out of the tropical lowlands and back toward the Andes, passing through working farms, dense vegetation, and lightly traveled roads before reaching the award-winning Mashpi Chocolate farm, created by Alejandro Solano and Agustina.

Their cacao trees grow beneath the natural forest canopy, allowing the farm to produce exceptional chocolate while preserving habitat for the extraordinary wildlife of the region. Alejandro is also one of the area’s most knowledgeable birders and can often identify species by sound before anyone else has even figured out which tree to look at.

The farm cultivates Ecuador’s prized Nacional cacao, valued for its floral aroma and complex flavor. During the visit, you’ll see how ripe cacao pods are harvested, fermented, dried, roasted, and transformed into artisanal chocolate.

The tasting makes it very clear how much the forest shade, local soil, humidity, and careful processing influence the finished bar. It also makes supermarket chocolate considerably harder to take seriously afterward.

Leaving Mashpi, we continue climbing into the cloudforest. The temperature begins to drop, the road starts curling through steeper green valleys, and the vegetation changes from tropical lowland forest to misty mountain forest.

The riding here is some of the most enjoyable of the tour: smooth pavement, long bends, broad mountain views, and very little reason to hurry.

Lunch is at one of our favorite stops in northwest Ecuador, Los Armadillos. Hidden in the cloudforest, the restaurant feels like somebody built a dining room inside a bird sanctuary.

Feeders throughout the gardens attract hummingbirds, tanagers, barbets, toucans, and other species that dart through the trees while you eat. Some sit still long enough for a photograph. Most do not seem especially concerned about your camera settings.

The kitchen is every bit as memorable as the surroundings. Fresh trout is a local favorite, along with enormous pitchers of freshly pressed juices made from jackfruit, passion fruit, guanábana, tree tomato, and whatever else happens to be in season.

After lunch, we continue upward toward the Pululahua Geobotanical Reserve, where we stop at the rim of one of the few inhabited volcanic calderas on Earth.

Pululahua is enormous. From the viewpoint, the crater floor spreads out below in a patchwork of farms, roads, homes, and green fields surrounded by steep volcanic walls. It can take a moment to register that you are looking down into the collapsed interior of a volcano rather than an ordinary valley.

The caldera was formed by a series of violent eruptions thousands of years ago, leaving behind exceptionally fertile volcanic soil. Farmers later settled inside the crater and continue to cultivate the land today. Depending on the weather, mist can drift across the rim and partially hide the landscape before opening again just as quickly.

It is one of the stranger geographical stops on the tour: a living farming community inside an ancient volcanic crater, only a short ride from Ecuador’s capital.

How does water drain when you're standing directly on the Equator?From Pululahua, we continue to the Intiñan Solar Museum, directly on the Equator. “Intiñan” means Path of the Sun in Kichwa, and the museum explores the relationship between latitude, astronomy, Indigenous culture, and daily life at zero degrees.

Interactive demonstrations involving balance, water, shadows, and the position of the sun make this a surprisingly entertaining stop, and it gives everyone one last chance to stand with a foot in each hemisphere before heading back into Quito.

The final stretch carries us back into the city and to Ecuador Freedom’s headquarters in La Carolina, where the Northwest Ecuador Explorer comes to an end.

After six days of highland farms, Indigenous markets, artisans, hot springs, cloudforest, Pacific beaches, tropical food, suspension bridges, rainforest swimming holes, exotic fruit, cacao, volcanoes, and some extremely serious eating, the motorcycles finally get parked.

The Freedom Riders’ Lounge™ is waiting with hot showers, a jacuzzi, luggage storage, and an honor bar. Many international flights leave Quito late at night, so there is time to clean up, change clothes, have dinner nearby, relax for a while, and head to the airport when it is actually time to go.

That is a much better end to the tour than spending your final hours in riding gear wondering whether the person sitting next to you on the airplane has noticed.

The Northwest Ecuador Explorer begins and ends at Ecuador Freedom’s headquarters in Quito’s La Carolina neighborhood, surrounded by hotels, restaurants, cafés, parks, shopping, museums, and other places worth exploring before or after the tour. Our location also gives us quick access to the main tunnel out of the city, allowing us to get through Quito efficiently and onto the roads we came here to ride.

This tour has been designed around comfortable riding days and plenty of time to experience the places along the way. We are not trying to cover enormous distances each day. We want enough time to stop at markets, farms, artisan workshops, historic haciendas, hot springs, rainforest swimming holes, beaches, chocolate farms, and restaurants without constantly checking the clock.

Pre-Ride Briefing and Your Guide

Before departure, your guide will cover Ecuadorian traffic customs, riding etiquette, hand signals, group procedures, road conditions, weather, and what to expect over the coming six days. Our guides know these roads and communities firsthand and bring much more to the trip than navigation. They provide the cultural and historical background that helps make sense of the places we visit and introduce you to many of the people Ecuador Freedom has come to know over years of riding through northwest Ecuador.

Our guides receive regular first-aid training through the Ecuadorian Red Cross, including motorcycle accident scene management. Riders are also equipped with Cardo Packtalk helmet communication systems, allowing the guide to communicate with the group while riding.

Motorcycles and Support

The motorcycles are carefully prepared before departure and fitted with quality tires and durable luggage systems. Your guide performs a daily check of the motorcycles and handles routine issues that may arise during the tour.

When the group includes five or more riders, a support vehicle accompanies the tour carrying luggage, refreshments, tools, and additional equipment. The support vehicle is not intended as passenger transportation, so riders should plan to ride their motorcycles throughout the tour.

The Riding

The Northwest Ecuador Explorer follows almost entirely paved roads, with occasional stretches of cobblestone or short unpaved sections. The roads range from sweeping coastal highways to wonderfully twisting Andean mountain roads, generally with relatively light traffic once we leave the major towns.

The pace is relaxed. There is enough riding each day to make the motorcycles an important part of the experience, while leaving plenty of time to get off them. If your idea of a good motorcycle tour includes an excellent mountain road followed by a good lunch, a farm visit, a hot spring, or an hour talking with somebody who makes something interesting with their own hands, you are going to understand this tour very quickly.

Food and Meals

Food is a significant part of this journey, and meals are included. Northwest Ecuador changes dramatically with elevation and climate, and the food changes right along with it.

You can expect traditional Andean cooking, fresh Pacific seafood, shrimp and crab, locally grown coffee, tropical fruits, fresh juices, cacao and artisanal chocolate, regional soups, farm products, and plenty of things you may never have encountered before. Some meals are served in historic haciendas and comfortable lodges; others come from small restaurants and roadside places we have discovered over years of traveling these roads.

Gasoline is also included, so there is no need to keep track of fuel receipts or divide expenses during the trip.

Cultural Visits and Activities

This tour spends considerably more time exploring Ecuadorian culture than most motorcycle trips. Depending on the day, you may find yourself at an Indigenous animal market, watching traditional weaving or musical-instrument making, visiting leatherworkers, soaking in thermal springs, walking through rainforest, tasting unfamiliar tropical fruits, learning how Nacional cacao becomes chocolate, or standing inside one of the few inhabited volcanic calderas in the world.

The itinerary is full, but it is deliberately not rushed. We would rather spend another twenty minutes talking with an artisan or drinking a good cup of coffee than brag about how many kilometers we covered that afternoon.

Accommodations

Nights are spent in carefully selected haciendas, wilderness lodges, small hotels, and distinctive locally owned properties chosen for comfort, character, setting, and hospitality.

You might spend one night beside a fireplace in a centuries-old Andean hacienda, another surrounded by birds in the cloudforest, another in a private cabin beside the Pacific, and another beside a tropical river. These properties are part of the experience rather than simply places to sleep.

Occasionally an accommodation may need to be substituted because of availability or circumstances beyond our control. When that happens, we select a property of comparable quality whenever possible.

Weather and Temperatures

One of the pleasures of this tour is experiencing several of Ecuador’s climate zones in only six days. We ride from the cool northern Andes down through cloudforest to the warm Pacific coast and tropical lowlands before climbing back toward Quito.

Temperatures can range from around 90°F / 32°C in the lowlands to the 50s°F / 10–15°C in the higher Andes. Passing rain showers are always possible, particularly in the cloudforest and on the western slopes of the Andes, so layers and proper waterproof riding gear are important.

For more information, see our Weather in Ecuador guide.

Packing and Preparation

You do not need to pack for a survival expedition. Bring quality motorcycle gear, clothing that can be layered for changing temperatures, comfortable shoes for walking, a swimsuit, and casual clothes for evenings.

We provide detailed preparation information before departure, and our packing guide covers what works well for motorcycle travel in Ecuador.

After the Ride

On the final afternoon, we return to Ecuador Freedom’s headquarters in Quito. The Freedom Riders’ Lounge™ has hot showers, a jacuzzi, luggage storage, and an honor bar, giving you somewhere comfortable to clean up and relax after the motorcycles are returned.

Many international flights leave Quito around midnight, so there is usually enough time to shower, change, have dinner at one of the restaurants nearby, and take a taxi from our shop to the airport later that evening. Riders staying in Quito can simply settle back into the city and begin debating how long they need to wait before booking another trip.

• Unlimited-mileage motorcycle rental
• Highway tolls using our electronic toll-payment system
• Installed luggage system on the motorcycle
• Support vehicle carrying luggage, refreshments, tools, and additional equipment when the tour has 5 or more riders
• Experienced English-speaking guide trained in first aid and motorcycle accident scene management
• Comprehensive pre-ride briefing
• Pre-tour preparation information, packing guidance, checklists, and videos
• Single-occupancy accommodations in the hotels, haciendas, lodges, and other properties listed for the tour
• All meals during the tour
• Gasoline
• Cardo Packtalk helmet communication system for communication with the guide and group while riding
• Activities, visits, and tours specifically included in the itinerary
• Luggage storage and locker use while riding
• Souvenir Ecuador Freedom T-shirt
• Souvenir tour decal
• Pre-tour 20% discount on high-quality riding gear from the Klim website
• VIP access to the Freedom Riders’ Lounge™ with hot shower, jacuzzi, luggage storage, and honor bar

• 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
• Trip cancellation, medical, and emergency evacuation insurance
• Alcoholic beverages
• Gratuities for Ecuador Freedom staff, including guides, preparation staff, and support staff, at your discretion
• Gratuities for hotel staff, restaurant staff, and tour or activity providers

There are no taxes when you purchase a tour package in Ecuador (non-residents only).

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