Northwest Ecuador Explorer Self-Guided Motorcycle Tour

The Self-Guided Northwest Ecuador Explorer is a six-day motorcycle journey designed for riders who want to experience more of Ecuador without turning every day into a mileage contest. 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 the people who make this part of Ecuador so interesting.

You’ll follow a carefully programmed route through the northern Andes, visiting 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 you descend toward the Pacific, spend a rest day at the private Cumilinche Club conservation property, and then turn inland again through tropical farmland, waterfalls, suspension bridges, and remote forest communities.

Food is a major part of the experience. Along the way, you’ll find 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. Your Road Book and programmed GPS guide you to the bakeries, farms, markets, restaurants, workshops, and other stops that give the route its character.

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.

Because this is a self-guided tour, you set your own rhythm within the itinerary. Stop longer when something interests you, take more time over lunch, spend an extra half hour in a market, or simply pull over when the view demands it. The route, accommodations, cultural stops, and practical details have already been worked out for you, leaving you free to concentrate on the riding and the places you came to see.

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

Before departure, we’ll spend plenty of time going through the route, Ecuadorian traffic habits, local customs, the programmed GPS, your Road Book, and the stops worth making along the way. This tour is designed around relaxed riding days with plenty of time for food, history, artisans, and whatever catches your interest, so there is no need to spend the morning pretending you are qualifying for anything.

Once outside Quito, the city gives way quickly to green pastures, farms, flower greenhouses, and the broad northern Andes. Your 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, the route continues north toward Cayambe and the Quitsato Sundial, positioned directly on the Equator. Here you can stand with a boot in each hemisphere and spend some time learning why the Equator mattered to the cultures that lived here long before somebody painted a line on the ground for photographs.

Quitsato explores the Andean understanding of the sun, seasons, agriculture, and the Chakana, or Andean Cross. Your Road Book provides additional cultural background so the stop makes more sense than simply arriving, taking the obligatory Equator photograph, and riding away again.

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 point you toward one of our favorite places to see them being made and try them while they are still fresh.

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, the GPS takes you away from the main highway and 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.

Your route includes a stop with an Otavaleño artisan family, where you can see traditional weaving on backstrap looms. Natural fibers are transformed 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 Self-Guided Northwest Ecuador Explorer is built around: good roads combined with enough time to park the motorcycle, look around, talk to people, 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 the advantage of doing it self-guided is that when something deserves another twenty minutes, you can give it another twenty minutes.

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 you get back on the motorcycle.

Day 2 is another relaxed riding day with plenty of time off the bike. The route begins around Otavalo, one of the most important Indigenous commercial and cultural centers in the Andes.

Your 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, continue to 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.

Take your time wandering, talking with vendors, practicing a little bargaining, and buying something to take home. Just remember that whatever you buy eventually has to fit into your luggage. A full-size alpaca blanket can become surprisingly large once you are standing beside a motorcycle trying to explain why it absolutely had to come with you.

Your route also includes a visit to a family workshop where traditional Andean musical instruments are still made by hand. You can see how pan flutes, stringed instruments, and other traditional pieces are constructed using techniques passed from one generation to the next.

The family may even try to teach you how to play something yourself. Results will vary. Some riders discover a previously hidden musical talent. Others confirm that buying the instrument is probably the better contribution to Andean music.

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.

There is plenty of 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, the programmed route follows 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 you approach Urcuquí and Chachimbiro, the climate becomes noticeably warmer and drier. One of the day’s best stops is 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 suddenly nobody is asking how many kilometers are left.

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

The route then passes 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.

You’ll follow a narrow paved road beside the river, passing waterfalls and increasingly dense vegetation as you work your 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.

Your 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 you plenty of reasons to stop riding for the day. There are comfortable rooms, good food, a spring-fed swimming pool, and forest all around you. You 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 you. After markets, artisans, leatherworkers, coffee, hot springs, haciendas, Afro-Ecuadorian history, mountain roads, and cloudforest, nobody is going to complain that you failed to rack up 500 kilometers.

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 you 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 you.

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

Your first coastal stop is Las Peñas, a quiet beach community where you get your 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, you 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.

The route continues south, skirting the busier city of Esmeraldas and passing through a completely different Ecuador from the one you 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.

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

Your 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 motorcycle is parked at Cumilinche, 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 you 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 motorcycle is 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 motorcycle can stay parked while you enjoy one of the most unusual places on Ecuador’s northern coast at your own pace.

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.

If you want a little more activity, you can ride toward Same or Atacames for restaurants, beach activity, and nightlife. Or you can leave the motorcycle exactly where it is and enjoy the fact that, for once, there is nowhere you need to be.

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 you leave the Pacific behind and begin working your 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.

You 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, you 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, 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, continue to Cascadas Verdes and leave the motorcycle 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 your 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, you 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, you continue deeper into the green interior of northwest Ecuador. The roads wind through farms, forest, and small communities as you make your way toward Cielo Verde.

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

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

Tonight you 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, the programmed route begins 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, you 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, the route continues upward toward the Pululahua Geobotanical Reserve, where you can 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, 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 you one last chance to stand with a foot in each hemisphere before heading back into Quito.

The final stretch carries you back into the city and to Ecuador Freedom’s headquarters in La Carolina, where your Self-Guided 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 motorcycle finally gets 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 Self-Guided 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 plenty of good places to spend time before or after the tour. Our location also gives you quick access to the main tunnel out of the city, so within minutes of departure you can be working your way toward the northern Andes instead of spending the morning fighting Quito traffic.

This tour has been designed around comfortable riding days and plenty of time to experience the places along the way. The distances are deliberately reasonable. You have time for markets, farms, artisan workshops, historic haciendas, hot springs, rainforest swimming holes, beaches, chocolate farms, good lunches, and the occasional second breakfast without constantly watching the clock.

Pre-Ride Briefing and Route Preparation

Before departure, we’ll spend plenty of time preparing you for the journey. One of our experienced guides who knows the route firsthand will take you through the six-day itinerary, day by day, covering Ecuadorian traffic customs, road conditions, weather, fuel planning, cultural stops, accommodations, restaurants, activities, and the practical details that make the trip run smoothly.

You’ll receive a programmed Garmin GPS containing the complete route, along with an Ecuador Freedom Road Book with detailed daily route information, maps showing the general locations of important stops, cultural and historical background, practical information, and useful contacts.

The GPS handles the precise navigation. The Road Book helps explain why you are stopping there in the first place.

Current Local Information

One of the most valuable parts of a self-guided tour in Ecuador is having current information. Roads change. Construction starts. Landslides happen. Rivers rise and fall. Businesses change their hours, and sometimes somebody decides that Tuesday is a perfectly reasonable day to close the bakery.

We have spent years riding these roads and building relationships with the people along them. Before you leave, we review current conditions and make sure you have the best information available for the route ahead. That local knowledge is an important part of what turns a line on a GPS screen into a properly organized motorcycle journey.

Motorcycle and Equipment

Your motorcycle is carefully prepared before departure and fitted with an installed luggage system appropriate for the bike. We go through the motorcycle with you before you leave, make sure everything fits properly, and give you time to get comfortable with the controls and luggage setup.

You’ll also carry a local cell phone for use during the tour. Our team monitors your progress during riding days, and 24-hour Ecuador Freedom support is available if something unexpected comes up along the way.

The Riding

The Northwest Ecuador Explorer follows almost entirely paved roads, with occasional cobblestone sections and short stretches of unpaved road. The riding ranges from smooth Andean mountain curves to sweeping coastal highways and quiet rural roads through farms, forest, and small communities.

The pace is yours. There is enough riding each day to make the motorcycle an important part of the experience, while leaving plenty of time to get off it. Spend another twenty minutes at an artisan workshop. Have a second cup of coffee. Stay in the hot springs a little longer. Stop because the view deserves it. Nobody is waiting around the next bend with a stopwatch.

Food and Meals

Food is a major part of this journey. Northwest Ecuador changes dramatically with elevation and climate, and the cooking changes right along with it.

Along the route, we point you toward the places we have discovered over years of traveling these roads: traditional Andean kitchens, small roadside bakeries, seafood restaurants on the Esmeraldas coast, haciendas, cloudforest restaurants, tropical fruit farms, coffee producers, and places serving food you may have never encountered before.

Expect fresh Pacific seafood, shrimp and crab, locally grown coffee, tropical fruits and juices, regional soups, farm products, Ecuador’s prized Nacional cacao, artisanal chocolate, and some meals that will probably remain part of the trip stories long after you have forgotten the mileage.

Cultural Visits and Activities

This tour spends a lot of time away from the motorcycle. Your programmed route and Road Book lead you to an Indigenous animal market, textile and musical-instrument workshops, leatherworkers, thermal springs, rainforest trails, waterfalls, an extraordinary exotic fruit collection, cacao producers, the Equator, and one of the few inhabited volcanic calderas in the world.

The self-guided format works particularly well here because you can spend more time on the things that interest you. If an artisan has an interesting story, stay and listen. If the hummingbirds are putting on a show over lunch, order another coffee. If the Pacific looks particularly inviting, the motorcycle can wait.

Accommodations

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

You will spend one night beside a fireplace in a historic Andean hacienda, another surrounded by birds in the cloudforest, another with the Pacific a few steps from your cabin, and another beside a tropical river with a swimming pool and jacuzzi waiting at the end of the day.

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 and notify you.

Weather and Temperatures

One of the pleasures of this tour is experiencing several of Ecuador’s climate zones in only six days. You’ll 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 showers are always possible, particularly in the cloudforest and on the western slopes of the Andes, so good waterproof riding gear and layers 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, your route brings you back to Ecuador Freedom’s headquarters in Quito. Once the motorcycle is returned, the Freedom Riders’ Lounge™ has hot showers, a jacuzzi, luggage storage, and an honor bar, giving you somewhere comfortable to clean up and relax.

Many international flights leave Quito around midnight, so there is usually enough time to shower, change, have dinner at one of the restaurants nearby, relax for a while, and take a taxi from our shop to the airport later that evening.

It is considerably more civilized than spending your final hours in Ecuador wearing six days of motorcycle travel onto an airplane.

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.

• Unlimited-mileage motorcycle rental
• Highway tolls using our electronic toll-payment system
• Installed luggage system on the motorcycle
• Programmed Garmin GPS with the complete Northwest Ecuador Explorer route for each day
• Ecuador Freedom Road Book with detailed daily route information, maps showing important points of interest, fuel and meal stops, cultural and historical background, practical information, and local hidden gems
• Back-office monitoring of your progress during riding days
• Comprehensive pre-ride briefing covering the route, road conditions, cultural stops, accommodations, weather, and practical logistics
• Pre-tour preparation information, packing guidance, checklists, and videos
• Local cell phone with 24-hour Ecuador Freedom support
• Tire repair kit, first-aid kit, and basic tools
• Single-occupancy accommodations in the hotels, haciendas, lodges, and other properties listed for the tour
• Breakfast each day during the tour
• Dinner each night during the tour
• Exotic fruit farm tour and tasting
• Mashpi Chocolate farm tour and chocolate tasting
• 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
• Fuel
• Lunches and any other meals not specifically listed as included
• Tours, activities, and entrance fees not specifically listed as included
• Alcoholic beverages
• Trip cancellation, medical, and emergency evacuation insurance
• Gratuities for Ecuador Freedom staff, including preparation and support staff, at your discretion
• Gratuities for hotel staff, restaurant staff, and tour or activity providers

Ecuador sales tax does not apply to foreign visitors purchasing tour packages.

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.