OFFROAD Ecuador ADVenture Guided Motorcycle Tour

The Guided OFFROAD Ecuador ADVenture is six days for riders looking for travel that is connected, engaging, and earned — with an experienced Ecuador Freedom guide leading you deep into the parts of the country most visitors never really get to know.

You’ll ride from the high Andes through cloudforest, remote farming country, páramo, tropical lowlands, and back into the mountains again. The route mixes dirt, mud, cobblestones, steep climbs, river crossings, changing weather, and long riding days with some of the most beautiful and interesting parts of Ecuador.

The guide is what turns the route into something more than a series of roads and viewpoints. He knows who to stop and talk to, what is being grown in the fields, what is being made behind the workshop door, where the food comes from, and which places deserve more than a quick photo. You’ll meet farmers, artisans, cheese makers, coffee growers, carpenters, families, and people your guide has come to know through years of riding these roads.

You still do the riding. You still deal with the weather, the mud, the long days, and the changing terrain. But instead of spending your energy figuring out where to go next or what you are looking at, your guide handles the route, the timing, the local connections, and the context so you can concentrate on the motorcycle and the country unfolding around you.

The tour carries our 5/5 Challenging rating because it demands more stamina, concentration, and sustained riding than our other tours. The rating is relative to the rest of the Ecuador Freedom lineup, not a claim that this is extreme enduro riding.

If you want a serious motorcycle ride with somebody out front who knows the roads, knows the people, and can pull you farther into Ecuador than you would get on your own, start reading the day-by-day itinerary.

⚠ WARNING: This is not a normal motorcycle ride. This tour requires elements of endurance and stamina. Riders must be able to ride in adverse weather conditions and adverse road conditions for extended periods of time (up to 10 hours).

Day 1

Quito – Intiñan – San José de Minas – Laguna de Mojanda – Otavalo

Your six-day OFFROAD Ecuador ADVenture begins at Ecuador Freedom Bike Rental in Quito’s La Carolina neighborhood. Quito sits high in the Andes at approximately 2,850 meters / 9,350 feet, directly on the Equator and surrounded by volcanoes, steep valleys, and some of the most dramatic geography of any capital city in the world.

Before departure, your guide will go through the route, Ecuadorian traffic customs, riding etiquette, hand signals, communication, road conditions, and the terrain ahead. We’ll also make sure everyone is comfortable with the motorcycle and luggage setup before heading out.

Day 1 gives you a proper sample of what the next six days are going to look like: pavement, cobblestone, natural dirt roads, agricultural valleys, dry canyon country, high páramo, mountain weather, and a steady progression away from the city and into rural Ecuador.

The first stop is the Intiñan Solar Museum, located directly on the Equator. Intiñan means “Path of the Sun” in Kichwa, and the museum explores how Indigenous cultures understood astronomy, seasons, agriculture, and the movement of the sun long before modern surveying equipment arrived.

You can stand with a boot in each hemisphere and try the museum’s familiar demonstrations involving balance, water, shadows, and latitude. It is a good introduction to the cultural geography of Ecuador before the route begins pushing into the countryside.

Leaving the Equator, the route drops into a dry canyon landscape that looks considerably different from the green Ecuador most visitors expect. The road cuts through steep walls and scrubby vegetation before climbing again toward greener agricultural country.

Vegetable fields, dairy farms, rose greenhouses, eucalyptus trees, and small farming communities begin replacing the dry canyon as you work toward San José de Minas.

The town is known for its stone church, tidy central plaza, and relaxed highland atmosphere. It also marks the point where the day begins getting considerably more interesting for anyone who came to Ecuador to ride dirt.

From San José de Minas, the pavement is left behind and the route heads into the mountains on a natural dirt road through some of the most beautiful farming country in northern Ecuador. Green fields cover the hillsides, cattle graze beside the road, and small family farms are scattered across the slopes with the mountains rising behind them.

Before long, you’ll come to a small river crossing — nothing heroic, but enough water and loose rock to remind you why you brought an adventure motorcycle instead of a rental car. From there, the road begins climbing steadily toward the high Andes.

Then the dirt gives way to something much older: several miles of ancient hand-laid cobblestone road. These roads were built stone by stone, long before anybody showed up with asphalt, graders, or yellow paint. In many places they are still maintained the same way today — by hand, replacing and resetting individual stones as generations of local residents have done before them.

The cobbles twist uphill through intensely green farmland, past small houses, grazing animals, cultivated fields, and broad views across the valleys below. They can be smooth in one section, rough and uneven in the next, and occasionally remind you that motorcycle suspension was a pretty useful invention.

As the route climbs above 11,000 feet / 3,350 meters, the farms gradually become smaller and the landscape begins changing. Trees thin out, temperatures drop, and the cultivated hillsides start giving way to the open grasslands of the high Andes.

This stretch is one of the great transitions of the day. In a relatively short distance you go from warm agricultural valleys, through a river crossing and miles of hand-built cobblestone, into increasingly remote mountain country. Traffic becomes increasingly theoretical, the views get considerably bigger, and the road keeps climbing.

This is also your first real opportunity to settle into the motorcycle on Ecuadorian backroads. Stay loose on the bars, look where you want to go, let the bike move underneath you, and take the time to stop occasionally and look around. There is a lot happening on this road besides getting to the other end of it.

The route eventually climbs above 12,000 feet / 3,700 meters into the high Andean páramo. The last cultivated fields disappear and the landscape opens into rolling grassland, volcanic slopes, dark mountain lakes, and fast-moving clouds.

This is a good place to stop and add a layer. Mojanda can go from postcard to refrigerator surprisingly quickly when the clouds roll across the mountains.

The final approach to Laguna de Mojanda continues across the open páramo on dirt roads surrounded by volcanic mountains and high grasslands. Up here there are few buildings, very little traffic, and plenty of room to appreciate just how quickly the country has changed since leaving Quito that morning.

The road reaches the beautiful high-altitude lake beneath the slopes of Fuya Fuya. The cold water, open grasslands, and surrounding volcanic terrain feel worlds away from the dry canyon you crossed only a few hours earlier.

That rapid change is one of the things Ecuador does particularly well.

From Mojanda, the route begins descending toward Otavalo, one of the most important Indigenous commercial centers in the Andes.

The Otavaleño people are famous throughout Ecuador and far beyond it for weaving, music, craftsmanship, and an extraordinary tradition of commerce. Otavaleño families have traveled throughout South America, Europe, and North America selling textiles and other handmade goods while maintaining a strong cultural identity at home.

At the Plaza de los Ponchos, textiles, jewelry, hats, leather goods, spices, carvings, and brightly colored woven products fill the market stalls. Take some time to walk through, look around, talk with the vendors, and sample a little of the town before continuing to the hotel.

The market is part of a living commercial tradition rather than something created solely for visitors. Produce, clothing, household goods, food, crafts, and textiles all move through Otavalo, and the surrounding communities remain deeply connected to the town.

After a day of dirt roads and mountain riding, walking through the market also provides an excellent opportunity to discover just how much stuff you suddenly believe should come home with you.

The day ends on the shores of Lake San Pablo, beneath the slopes of Imbabura Volcano, at Hostería Cabañas del Lago.

You’ll settle into a private lakeside cabin, sit down to dinner, and have the chance to warm up beside a wood-burning fireplace.

It is a comfortable finish to a first day that has already carried you across the Equator, through dry canyon country, agricultural valleys, a river crossing, miles of hand-laid cobblestone, high páramo, Laguna de Mojanda, and one of the most culturally distinctive towns in Ecuador.

Day 2

Otavalo – Cotacachi – Cuicocha Lake – Apuela – Nangulví – Mindo

After a full breakfast on the shore of Lake San Pablo, we’ll ride north toward Cotacachi, a town famous throughout Ecuador for its leather artisans. The streets are lined with workshops and small shops selling belts, wallets, jackets, boots, bags, saddlery, and handmade leather goods at prices that can make luggage capacity become an immediate concern.

But before looking at the finished products, we’ll visit our friend Luis, an Indigenous leather tanner who still works hides using traditional, chemical-free methods passed down through generations.

Walking into Luis’s workshop feels a little like stepping through a door into the Middle Ages. There are large piles of animal hides packed in salt, flies doing what flies do, heavy wet skins hanging and drying, and enormous vats where hides soak in vegetable-based tanning solutions. There is nothing polished or sanitized about the place. This is a working tannery, and leather begins here a long way from the clean jackets and handbags hanging in Cotacachi’s storefronts.

Luis works with water, salt, natural vegetable solutions, time, muscle, and experience. Hides are cleaned, soaked, scraped, treated, stretched, dried, and worked repeatedly before they become usable leather. The smell alone makes it very clear that this is a trade learned by doing it for years, not by watching a few videos on the internet.

Seeing the process from raw animal skin to finished leather gives you a completely different appreciation for Cotacachi’s reputation as Ecuador’s leather capital. It is messy, physical, ancient work, and Luis is one of the people keeping that knowledge alive.

Once you have seen the salted hides, tanning vats, scraping, stretching, and drying that go into the process, those finished leather jackets hanging in town suddenly make a lot more sense.

From Cotacachi, we’ll ride through small towns and fertile highland farmland toward Laguna Cuicocha, a spectacular volcanic crater lake at the foot of Cotacachi Volcano, which rises to approximately 16,300 feet / 4,968 meters.

Cuicocha was formed by massive volcanic eruptions thousands of years ago. Two forested islands rise from the dark water inside the crater, surrounded by steep volcanic walls and cultivated Andean farmland.

The lake is more than 600 feet deep, and local Indigenous traditions once held that it had no bottom or was connected through a hidden underground passage all the way to the Pacific Ocean. Standing at the rim with cold wind moving across the water, you can understand how a place like this accumulated a few stories over the centuries.

After Cuicocha, we’ll leave the pavement and head into some of the most remote country of the day. At first, the road stays high in the Andes, crossing exposed mountain country with wide views, cool temperatures, and very little traffic.

The pavement disappears quickly. From here, we are riding unimproved dirt roads through farms, steep hillsides, and tiny settlements that see very few outside visitors.

This is where the riding begins doing what you came here for. The roads narrow, surfaces change, the valleys get deeper, and the surrounding mountains seem considerably larger once there is no highway running through them.

Cattle, dogs, chickens, and the occasional farmer tend to have a stronger presence than cars.

The road twists across the mountains before beginning a dramatic descent into the Intag River Valley. In a relatively short distance, the air warms, the vegetation thickens, and the high Andean landscape begins changing into something much more tropical.

The riding stays remote as we work our way down through the mountains. Forest replaces open farmland, rivers appear far below, and the road winds through a part of Ecuador that most visitors never see.

Deeper in the Intag Valley, we’ll pass through the tiny village of Plaza Gutiérrez, where local women have built a cottage industry around a plant called cabuya.

Cabuya looks a lot like the agave used to make tequila, but it is a different plant. Its enormous fleshy leaves contain an exceptionally strong natural fiber that has been used in the Andes for generations.

The leaves are cut, crushed, and stripped of their soft material, leaving behind long, tough fibers that are washed, dried, combed, dyed, and worked by hand.

The women of the Asociación Mujer y Medio Ambiente turn those fibers into hats, bags, baskets, mats, and other handmade goods. What starts as a huge green leaf growing on the side of a mountain eventually becomes something surprisingly refined — although getting from one to the other involves considerably more pounding, scraping, washing, and patience than the finished product lets on.

From Plaza Gutiérrez, we’ll continue toward Apuela. The dirt road winds deeper into the valley through forest, small farms, rivers, and steep green mountains.

Intag is one of Ecuador’s most beautiful rural regions, known for its rivers, cloudforest, biodiversity, family farms, and excellent coffee. Coffee here is commonly grown beneath banana, naranjilla, guayaba, and other broad-leaf plants that provide shade while also producing food for the families working the land.

The route eventually brings us into the small town of Apuela, where the roads, shops, and farms feel a long way removed from the high Andes we crossed earlier in the morning.

Here we’ll stop at the Río Intag Coffee Growers to see how locally grown beans are selected, processed, and roasted.

The coffee comes from the same mountains we have just ridden through, much of it grown organically on small family farms tucked into steep green hillsides. The cooperative helps local growers process and market their crop while keeping more of the value within the valley.

There are worse places to drink a cup of coffee than a mountain town surrounded by the farms that grew it.

After lunch, we’ll continue through the Intag Valley to Nangulví, where we’ll park the motorcycles and take a break at the thermal pools beside the rushing Intag River.

Motorcycle gear comes off, swimsuits go on, and the warm mineral water takes care of some of what the morning’s dirt roads have done to your shoulders, back, and general opinion of your own fitness.

The pools are surrounded by steep green mountains and tropical vegetation. It is a pretty good place to soak for a while before getting back on the bikes. We still have plenty of riding ahead of us, so eventually somebody has to make the unpopular decision to get out of the water.

Leaving Nangulví, we’ll ride back into the hills through remarkably productive farming country. Small farms cover the slopes and valley bottoms, growing tomatoes, celery, green peppers, and all kinds of other vegetables in the rich soil and warm, wet climate.

The road climbs across several ridges where the vegetation opens just enough to give us beautiful views over the valley. Farms cling to the hillsides, rivers cut through the bottoms of the valleys, and layers of green mountains disappear toward the horizon.

It is one of those stretches where you start wondering exactly who looked at a mountainside this steep and decided it was a perfectly reasonable place to grow tomatoes.

Before continuing toward the cloudforest, we’ll stop at Cascada La Piraqua, a local waterfall and swimming hole tucked into the green hills.

After several more hours of riding, it is a very good place to get out of the gear again and cool off in the clear water beneath the falls.

There is another reason we stop here. Locals press fresh sugar cane and mix the sweet juice with mandarin lemon, producing a cold, sharp, ridiculously refreshing drink that tastes particularly good after a long stretch on a dirt bike.

The sugar cane provides a useful shot of energy, the citrus cuts through the sweetness, and after a swim and a glass or two, everybody generally looks a little more interested in getting back on the motorcycle.

From La Piraqua, we’ll continue climbing toward the cloudforest. The temperature begins dropping again, mist collects in the trees, and the vegetation becomes noticeably denser as the route works its way toward the Nono Biological Reserve.

This part of Ecuador is extraordinarily biodiverse. Orchids, bromeliads, giant ferns, moss-covered trees, insects, amphibians, and hundreds of bird species thrive in the cool, wet forest.

The road itself is part of the experience here, winding through thick vegetation with small waterfalls dropping from the mountainsides and forest closing in around us.

We’ll stop at Bellavista Bird Lodge, one of Ecuador’s best-known cloudforest birding destinations, for a refreshment break.

Even people who claim they have absolutely no interest in birds tend to shut up for a minute when six different hummingbirds start hovering two feet from their heads. With some luck, we may also spot toucans, tanagers, barbets, and other cloudforest species around the lodge.

Think about how much ground we have covered since breakfast: salted hides and tanning vats in Cotacachi, a volcanic crater lake, high Andean dirt roads, cabuya artisans, locally grown coffee, thermal pools, vegetable farms, a waterfall swim, fresh sugar-cane juice, and now hummingbirds buzzing around your drink.

By late afternoon, we’ll arrive in Mindo, a small cloudforest town famous for birds, butterflies, rivers, waterfalls, and cacao.

We’ll visit an organic chocolate maker to see how cacao moves from a strange-looking fruit growing on a tree to something most people are considerably more enthusiastic about eating. The process includes harvesting, fermenting, drying, roasting, grinding, and finally turning Ecuadorian cacao into chocolate.

Ecuador is one of the historic homes of fine-aroma cacao, and tasting chocolate where the cacao is actually grown gives you a much better idea of why Ecuadorian cacao has such a strong international reputation.

After a day of leather tanning, volcanic lakes, remote dirt roads, cabuya artisans, coffee farms, thermal pools, vegetable country, waterfall swimming, cloudforest, birds, and chocolate, we’ll check into Séptimo Paraíso Cloudforest Reserve Lodge.

The lodge sits inside its own private cloudforest reserve and has a heated swimming pool, jacuzzi, trails, gardens, and a billiards room. Dinner is hearty country-style food, accompanied by the lodge’s famous freshly baked onion bread.

By this point, nobody should need much convincing to eat dinner.

Day 3

Mindo – Las Pampas – Sigchos – Chugchilán

Leaving Mindo, we’ll ride straight back into the cloudforest, beginning the morning in cool, wet air with heavy green vegetation pressing close to the road and the sound of running water never very far away.

After crossing the roaring Río Blanco, one of Ecuador’s better-known whitewater rivers, we’ll leave the main road and turn onto a winding unpaved route through small rural communities and deep forest.

This is one of the most biologically rich parts of Ecuador. Ornithologists, botanists, and naturalists come from around the world to study these mountains, but we have the considerably better arrangement of riding motorcycles through them.

The road climbs, drops, twists, and climbs again through mist, flowers, wet leaves, mud, forest, and small patches of farmland cut into the mountainsides. After rain, some sections can get properly slick, so this is a good morning to stay loose on the motorcycle and pay attention to what is underneath the front tire.

From the cloudforest, we’ll descend dramatically into warmer rainforest, eventually dropping to around 2,000 feet / 600 meters above sea level.

The temperature rises, humidity increases, and the vegetation changes almost by the kilometer. Ferns and mossy cloudforest give way to thicker tropical growth, broad-leaf plants, cacao, coffee, bananas, and fruit trees.

It is another one of those Ecuadorian transitions that seems slightly unreasonable when you look back at the elevation profile afterward. We started the morning in cool cloudforest, and a few hours later we are riding through warm tropical country.

The route continues through coffee farms, cacao farms, fruit trees, rivers, and tiny settlements, with a few small water crossings thrown in to keep everybody awake.

The roads out here see very little traffic. Depending on recent weather, the surface can range from firm dirt to loose rock, mud, washed-out sections, and whatever the last tropical downpour decided to rearrange.

Eventually the route stops descending and the real climb of the day begins.

From here, we’ll be gaining altitude for hours.

The road begins throwing switchback after switchback at us as it climbs through lush jungle, rainforest, pastureland, and scattered farms. Views open across the valley below, then disappear again as we ride back beneath dense vegetation.

Eventually we reach the remote village of San Francisco de las Pampas, tucked deep into the western slopes of the Andes and well away from Ecuador’s main travel routes.

We have been riding through this area for years, and the relationships built along the route are part of what makes this tour different. These are places we know, families we know, and roads we have ridden again and again.

In Las Pampas, we’ll stop for lunch with a local family Ecuador Freedom has known for years. The food is simple, homemade, and exactly what you want halfway through a long dirt riding day.

This is one of the things that makes the route feel personal. We are not just following a line across a map. Over the years, that line has become a chain of families, farms, kitchens, small businesses, and communities that we return to again and again.

Lunch also provides the necessary calories for what comes next, because the road is nowhere near finished with us.

From Las Pampas, the climb continues through forest, farms, rocky sections, switchbacks, and stretches that can turn muddy when the weather has been enthusiastic.

The higher we climb, the bigger the views become. Warm tropical vegetation gradually disappears, the air cools, and open highland pasture begins replacing the dense forest.

Eventually we climb above 11,400 feet / 3,475 meters, reaching a completely different climate from the rainforest we crossed only a few hours earlier.

The landscape opens into high Andean country: cold air, grazing animals, broad valleys, distant ridgelines, enormous skies, and farms hanging onto hillsides that seem far too steep to be useful for anything.

The climb from the tropical lowlands into this high country is one of the great pieces of riding on the entire tour. In the space of a few hours, we have moved from warm rainforest to exposed Andean mountain country under our own power.

As the route crosses the high pass, the road begins working its way toward Sigchos. From up here, the descent can feel a little like bringing an airplane down through the mountains.

Switchbacks curl down the slopes while farms, ridgelines, valleys, and mountain walls slowly come into view beneath us.

Sigchos has been an important settlement for centuries. Long before the Spanish established the modern town in the 16th century, Indigenous communities used this region as part of a network of routes connecting settlements throughout the central Andes.

Today, Sigchos marks our return to the famous Quilotoa Loop, one of Ecuador’s great highland riding regions.

From here, we’ll continue along sections of old Incan cobblestone road before joining one of the newer paved mountain roads that winds toward Chugchilán.

The landscape is classic central Andes: enormous canyons, high pasture, tiny villages, cultivated mountainsides, sheep and cattle, and roads cut into terrain that does not appear especially interested in accommodating roads.

As the afternoon gets later, we’ll continue through the mountains toward Chugchilán. Depending on the weather and pace of the day, the last light can turn the surrounding ridges gold while deep shadows settle into the valleys below.

By now, we have ridden from cloudforest into tropical rainforest, crossed rivers, climbed through coffee and cacao country, eaten lunch in a remote mountain village, climbed thousands of feet through switchbacks, crossed the high Andes, and dropped back into the Quilotoa region.

It has been a proper day.

The ride ends at Mama Hilda’s Inn in Chugchilán, a family-run mountain inn that has been welcoming travelers to the Quilotoa region for decades.

Dinner is served family-style, with pots of Ecuadorian food brought to the table and plenty to go around. After the riding we have done today, nobody is going to need a lengthy explanation of why dinner is included.

Mama Hilda’s has hosted Ecuadorian presidents, backpackers, riders, hikers, and travelers from around the world. At the end of Day 3, what matters is considerably simpler: a hot meal, a warm bed, and the satisfaction of having ridden from tropical rainforest to the high Andes in a single day.

Day 4

Chugchilán – Quilotoa Crater Lake – Zumbahua – Angamarca – El Corazón – Simiátug – Salinas de Guaranda

After a hearty breakfast at Mama Hilda’s, we’ll ride out of Chugchilán and immediately drop into a deep Andean canyon on a narrow dirt road. The route follows the edge of steep slopes through isolated Indigenous communities, with long views across fields worked into terrain that seems far too vertical for farming.

The morning starts with proper mountain drama: rocky precipices, dry forest, steep farms, and narrow roads that demand some attention while the scenery keeps trying to steal it.

Local sheepdogs occasionally charge out to herd the motorcycles away from their flocks. They take the assignment seriously, even though nobody asked them.

We keep the pace controlled, give the animals plenty of room, and continue climbing through the canyon country toward one of the great landmarks of the Ecuadorian Andes.

The road gains altitude quickly, winding between exposed cliffs, high farms, and broad mountain views before finally reaching the rim of the Quilotoa caldera.

At approximately 12,800 feet / 3,900 meters, we arrive at Quilotoa Crater Lake. A major eruption roughly 800 years ago emptied the magma chamber beneath the volcano and caused the summit to collapse, creating the enormous caldera seen today.

Minerals dissolved in the water give the lake its remarkable blue-green color, which changes constantly with the light and passing clouds. Even after years of bringing riders here, the first view over the rim still has a way of shutting everybody up for a minute.

From Quilotoa, we’ll ride into Zumbahua, an Indigenous highland town where Kichwa remains widely spoken and traditional clothing is part of everyday life.

This is an excellent place for what generally becomes our second breakfast: empanadas de viento, or “wind empanadas.” They are large, crisp pockets of fried dough with surprisingly little inside, usually dusted with sugar. The name is considerably more flattering than “fried dough full of air,” and they provide useful fuel before we head back into the cold, exposed high country.

Depending on what is cooking in the square, we may also find freshly fried potatoes grown in the surrounding fields.

Beyond Zumbahua, the pavement disappears again and we climb into the high Andean páramo. The sky becomes enormous, vegetation stays low to the ground, and the route crosses broad ridges overlooking deep valleys.

Weather can change quickly up here. Bright sun can turn into cold mist, wind, or rain as clouds move across the mountains.

We may encounter llamas, sheep, horses, and cattle moving freely near the road, with the occasional Andean condor circling above the ridgelines. Families living at these elevations practice subsistence farming under tough conditions, growing potatoes, barley, broad beans, chochos, and raising sheep and dairy animals.

Mud homes, cooking fires, stone walls, livestock, and tiny fields are part of daily life here. In some homes, guinea pigs are still raised indoors as both food and part of traditional household life in the cold highlands.

Nothing out here has been arranged for visitors. We are riding through communities that have adapted to one of the most demanding environments in Ecuador.

The road begins a long descent through tight dirt switchbacks toward Angamarca. Horses and llamas remain common transportation here, and surrounding farms send their produce into town for the local market.

Angamarca sits deep in the mountains, separated from Ecuador’s main highways by hours of rough road. Visitors are uncommon, traffic is minimal, and daily life remains closely tied to farming and the local market.

The name Angamarca is often translated as “Condor’s Nest,” which fits a town buried this deep among steep ridges and high valleys.

Our third breakfast is usually a bowl of cevichochos, a highland version of ceviche made with chochos, the protein-rich Andean lupin beans grown throughout the surrounding fields. They are mixed with citrus, tomato, onion, and herbs. It is bright, filling, and remarkably effective at convincing everybody they are ready for more dirt riding.

The road leaving Angamarca clings to the edge of the mountains, with the valley falling hundreds of feet below. There can be stretches of hours without passing another vehicle.

Small river crossings, rough surfaces, cliffside roads, farms, and almost nonexistent traffic make this section feel considerably more remote than the mileage would suggest.

Out here, the absence of traffic is part of the landscape.

The elevation continues to fall as we approach El Corazón. Heavy riding layers come off, tropical vegetation returns, and sugarcane begins covering the surrounding hillsides.

The town is known for its aguardiente, a powerful sugarcane liquor produced in small local distilleries. The stills are often fired with dried sugarcane fiber, filling the air with a sweet smell that resembles burning marshmallows.

Local aguardiente comes in flavors that demonstrate somebody had entirely too much creative freedom: coconut, pineapple, chocolate, bubblegum, and plenty of others.

We’ll stop for lunch with our friends Paquita and Sergio. Their farm raises the chickens served in the restaurant, roasted until the meat is tender and the skin is crisp. Maybe the dirt riding improves the appetite, but this is the best roast chicken we have found anywhere.

Paquita and Sergio also produce flavored aguardiente. We’ll often pick up a bottle to open later, once the motorcycles are parked safely for the night.

After leaving El Corazón and beginning the climb back toward the Andes, we’ll stop with a local family that produces panela, the blocks of natural cane sugar used throughout Ecuador.

Fresh sugarcane juice is boiled in wide pans until it thickens, then poured into molds and allowed to harden. We’ll see the process, taste the warm sugar at different stages, and get a close look at how one of Ecuador’s everyday ingredients is still made by hand on a small family farm.

From here, the climb becomes steep, remote, and sustained, passing through Indigenous villages and small family farms connected by rough dirt roads.

Tropical vegetation slowly disappears as we gain elevation and return toward the colder highlands. The route switches back repeatedly across the mountains, with broad views opening behind us as El Corazón and the warmer valleys disappear below.

Eventually we reach Simiátug, a village sitting inside a broad mountain bowl surrounded by cultivated slopes. Livestock move through the streets, traditional clothing remains common, and the town serves as the commercial center for families living across the surrounding mountains.

A tremendous earthquake in 1970 destroyed much of Simiátug, including its main church. One surviving wall and the church bell remain as a stark reminder of the disaster. The town rebuilt around them while the broken wall continues overlooking the plaza and surrounding farms.

From Simiátug, we’ll climb again toward a pass above 13,000 feet / 4,000 meters. Tropical vegetation disappears completely, open páramo returns, and the temperature drops quickly.

If conditions are right, we may catch one of Ecuador’s most unusual sunset effects: the sun sinking between two layers of clouds, with one cloud bank above us and another filling the valleys below. It creates the strange impression that we are riding through the middle of the sky.

We see it often enough to hope for it, but never often enough for it to become ordinary.

By late afternoon, we descend into Salinas de Guaranda, one of Ecuador’s most unusual mountain communities.

Salinas developed its remarkable cooperative economy with important help from the Salesian order of the Catholic Church. That Italian influence left the town with two particularly useful skills: making excellent pizza and making proper espresso coffee.

At the same time, Salinas built a network of community enterprises producing cheese, chocolate, mushrooms, wool products, sausage, cured meats, and other goods using ingredients and skills developed right here in the mountains.

We’ll check into the family-run Cachi Yacu Hotel. The rooms are simple and comfortable, the views stretch across the surrounding mountains, and a large fire usually burns in the salon.

Our host, Amelia, often has hot coca tea waiting when we arrive. Salinas gets properly cold after dark, and the heavy blankets piled on the beds begin making considerably more sense around three in the morning.

Dinner is pizza, and Salinas knows exactly what it is doing.

The Italian influence from the Salesians is part of the story, but the ingredients are pure highland Ecuador: fresh local mushrooms, sausage, cured ham, vegetables, cheese, herbs, and other products made in and around the village.

Put those ingredients onto a properly made pizza and follow it with an espresso, and you get something remarkable. The pizza here is better than pizza in Italy.

The Italians have had a couple thousand years to work on the concept. Salinas has Italian technique, fresh mountain ingredients produced within a few miles of the oven, and a room full of hungry dirt-bike riders. Advantage Salinas.

The motorcycles are parked. If somebody remembered that bottle of El Corazón aguardiente, now would be the appropriate time.

Day 5

Salinas de Guaranda – Arrayanes – Quevedo

After yesterday’s marathon ride, this morning begins at a considerably gentler pace. Breakfast overlooks the rooftops of Salinas while the crisp mountain air reminds everybody why those heavy blankets were so welcome a few hours earlier.

Before getting back on the motorcycles, we’ll spend the morning discovering why Salinas de Guaranda has become one of Ecuador’s most remarkable mountain communities.

Only a few generations ago, many families here lived in deep poverty, selling milk, wool, and farm products to outside buyers for very little money. With support from the Salesian order of the Catholic Church and other development partners, the community began organizing cooperative businesses that could process those raw materials locally and keep much more of their value in the village.

What followed was not one big factory. Salinas built a network of small community businesses, each doing something different and all feeding into the same local economy.

We’ll start with some of the food cooperatives, where milk from cows grazing in the surrounding highlands is turned into cheese made right here in the village.

The cheese operation was one of the enterprises that helped establish the Salinas cooperative model. Instead of shipping raw milk away for somebody else to process and profit from, local families learned how to turn it into a higher-value product themselves.

Naturally, there will be some tasting involved. We take our research seriously.

One of the most interesting stops is the Salinas wool mill, where carefully maintained textile machines from the old mills of New England are still working thousands of miles from where they began their industrial lives.

Local sheep and alpaca wool passes through a series of machines as it is cleaned, prepared, carded, spun, and eventually turned into strong multi-ply yarn.

There is something wonderfully improbable about standing in a remote Andean village listening to machinery that once belonged to the textile industry of New England clattering away and doing essentially the same job it was built to do decades ago.

Nearby, the women’s knitting cooperative turns the finished yarn into sweaters, scarves, hats, rugs, blankets, and other substantial wool products made for actual cold weather and actual use.

These are not disposable souvenir-shop sweaters. The wool goods made in Salinas are heavy, practical, and built to last for years.

Between the machinery, the locally sourced wool, and the finished products being sold within a few hundred yards of one another, you can see exactly what the cooperative system was designed to accomplish: take a resource already produced here and keep as much of its value in the community as possible.

Then we’ll visit one of the more unexpected businesses in Salinas: the soccer ball workshop.

The balls are still produced by hand using natural latex, molds, ovens, and a surprising amount of manual work. It is another small-scale operation that has created useful employment from skills developed right here in the village.

We regularly buy balls here to carry farther into the mountains and distribute to rural schools through our Ride for a Purpose program.

A soccer ball made by one cooperative in Salinas can end up being kicked around a schoolyard in another isolated Andean community many miles away. That is a pretty good supply chain.

The walking tour also takes us through some of the town’s other cooperative businesses, including ham and sausage curing, chocolate production, fruit drying, mushrooms, and other locally produced foods.

Nearly every doorway seems to reveal another small enterprise. Cheese in one building, yarn in another, chocolate down the road, cured meats around the corner. The interesting part is how all of them connect back to the same basic idea: use local resources, teach useful skills, create finished products here, and keep people employed in the community.

And then there is the resource that started the whole story long before cheese, chocolate, wool mills, or soccer balls existed: salt.

The name Salinas comes from natural salt springs that emerge from the surrounding mountains. People have harvested salt here for centuries, long before refrigeration made food preservation easy.

Salt was essential for preserving meat and other foods and was an extremely valuable commodity in everyday Andean life. These springs gave this isolated mountain settlement economic importance long before either the modern cooperative system or the roads we use today existed.

We’ll visit the springs and see the natural resource that first gave Salinas its reason to exist.

Eventually it is time to get back on the motorcycles. We have spent the morning looking at what Salinas produces; now we’ll ride out through the country that produces it.

The route heads into deep backcountry and begins one of the most beautiful descents of the tour, following mountain roads along steep slopes with enormous views across clouds, valleys, and eventually the coastal plains far below.

Small family farms line the way, with pigs, donkeys, cows, sheep, and chickens wandering near the road as though they have more right to be there than we do. In many places, they probably do.

We’ll pass through tiny high Andean communities including Arrayanes, a hamlet consisting of only a handful of homes where local families make their own mountain cheese.

We’ll stop to taste a savory, ripened cheese produced right here and see the small operation behind it. Other nearby communities specialize in different varieties, including Parmesan-style and mozzarella-style cheeses made from milk produced by healthy dairy cattle grazing these cold green mountains.

There are no industrial-scale dairies hiding behind the scenery. In many cases, what you are eating was made a short distance from the cows that produced the milk.

The people in these villages are usually warm and curious, partly because motorcycle travelers are among the relatively few outsiders who ever pass through.

These are also the communities where our Ride for a Purpose program becomes part of the journey. Depending on the route and the needs of local schools, we may stop to deliver soccer balls, school supplies, or other useful items carried with us from Quito and Salinas.

It is a small part of the day, but it is also a reminder that these roads connect real communities rather than simply giving us somewhere interesting to ride motorcycles.

As the descent continues, the climate starts changing rapidly. Cold highland air scented with grass, wood smoke, and dairy farms gives way to warmer air, wet earth, citrus, and tropical vegetation.

Lemon, orange, and mandarin trees begin appearing along the road. Clear rivers cut through the valleys, vegetation grows thicker, and every thousand feet of descent seems to introduce another group of plants that could not survive where we ate breakfast.

By now you can start putting away some of those warm layers. They have completed their shift.

By the time we reach the lowlands, we are riding through a completely different agricultural world.

Cacao, bananas, teak, palm, citrus, and tropical fruit replace potatoes, pasture, and dairy cattle. The roads become warmer and greener as they roll through enormous agricultural areas fed by the rich soil and heavy rainfall of Ecuador’s coastal lowlands.

We’ll meet farmers and producers along the way, getting a closer look at the crops that drive the regional economy and at the people growing them.

Once again, the remarkable part is how quickly Ecuador changes. This morning we were drinking coffee in an Andean village at roughly 11,500 feet, surrounded by wool, cheese, cold air, and wood smoke. A few hours later we are standing beside cacao and banana plants in tropical heat.

By late afternoon, we’ll arrive in Quevedo and check into the Hotel Olímpico. Checking into Hotel Olímpico is checking straight into the summer of 1979. Earth-tone tile, dark wood, geometric patterns, and an Olympic-size swimming pool from an era when Olympic decathlon champions graced cereal boxes, running shorts were alarmingly short, tube socks climbed halfway to the knees, and hotels still believed personality mattered more than corporate branding.

The staff still treats guests the old-fashioned way — polite, attentive, genuinely friendly, and always ready to help everybody have a good time. The rooms are spacious, the air conditioning is excellent after a warm afternoon in Los Ríos, and the enormous swimming pool comes complete with waterslides and a towering high dive from the days before lawyers started designing swimming pools.

After checking in, there is plenty of time to cool off with a swim, relax beside the pool with a cold beer, and clean up before heading out for one of the best evenings of the entire tour.

Tonight we’ll visit the best chifa restaurant in Ecuador: Chifa Jade.

Chifa is Ecuador’s distinctive Chinese-Ecuadorian cuisine, born after Cantonese immigrants began settling around Quevedo and other parts of the country in the early 20th century. Many became involved in the region’s agriculture, food processing, transportation, shipping, and commerce. Over generations, their cooking blended with Ecuador’s seafood, tropical produce, herbs, peppers, and other local ingredients to create something with unmistakably Chinese roots but a character all its own.

Dinner at Chifa Jade arrives as a table-filling feast built for sharing. A rotating Lazy Susan carries lacquered roast duck with crisp skin, Pacific prawns and shrimp rushed from wok to plate, fragrant fried rice, hand-tossed noodles, and vegetables that still have some snap to them.

The sauces bring the tropics into the meal — tamarind, pineapple, ginger, citrus, and a measured kick of ají — creating combinations you will not find in a Chinese restaurant anywhere else.

Plates keep circling, everybody tries a little of everything, and somebody inevitably reaches for one last piece of duck after announcing several minutes earlier that they are completely finished.

It is the kind of meal that makes you rethink what Chinese food can be — and one you will still be talking about long after you have forgotten how many miles you rode that day.

Day 6

Quevedo – Pucuyacu – Sigchos – Isinliví – Quito

The final day starts in the hot agricultural lowlands of Quevedo, and by the time we are finished, we’ll have hauled ourselves and the motorcycles all the way back into the high Andes.

If anybody was hoping Day 6 would be a ceremonial victory lap back to Quito, the route has other plans.

There is still work to do.

We’ll start through plantations of palm, banana, cacao, and tropical fruit before the road begins nosing its way toward coffee country.

The morning air is heavy and humid, carrying the smell of wet soil, fermenting fruit, sun-warmed leaves, and cacao drying near farms and roadside homes.

Enjoy the warmth while it lasts.

We are about to spend most of the day climbing out of it.

The route passes through enormous plantations of gmelina, also known as white teak. These fast-growing trees thrive in Ecuador’s equatorial climate and can reach harvestable size in roughly eight years.

The wood is used for furniture, shipping pallets, construction materials, and plenty of other practical products that will never make the cover of an adventure-motorcycle magazine.

Riding through the plantations is another matter. Tall straight trunks stand in long rows, filtered sunlight cuts through the leaves, and the dirt road disappears beneath a green canopy. For a while, it looks as though somebody planted an entire forest specifically so we could ride motorcycles through the middle of it.

As we gain elevation, we’ll pass through small working towns and villages including Guasaganda and Pucuyacu. Dairy farms, cattle, roadside fruit stands, little markets, and cooler air begin marking the transition between Ecuador’s tropical lowlands and the mountains.

Pucuyacu often has an animal and farmers’ market, and the town square is a good place for some fresh fruit and a quick snack.

That is also about where anybody who thought the final day might be easy gets corrected.

Outside Pucuyacu, the route crosses a river and then points uphill.

And we mean uphill.

We’ll gain roughly 6,000 feet in only a few miles on one of the steepest and roughest climbs of the entire tour. The road becomes narrow, rocky, uneven, and steep enough that momentum stops being an abstract concept and becomes something everybody suddenly cares about very much.

Line choice matters. Looking where you want the motorcycle to go matters. Keeping the bike moving matters.

Staring at the rock you do not want to hit remains a terrible strategy.

This is one of the toughest stretches of the entire six-day route, which is exactly why it comes now. By Day 6, we have already spent five days getting used to the motorcycles, loose surfaces, mud, rocks, altitude, switchbacks, and Ecuador’s occasional habit of turning a perfectly respectable road into something entirely different after a hard rain.

The switchbacks keep coming. The temperature drops. Every time we look back, the tropical lowlands are another thousand feet farther below us.

Eventually, the road drags us all the way back into highland country and toward Sigchos, reconnecting us with the famous Quilotoa Loop.

We passed through this region earlier in the tour. Now we are arriving from a completely different direction after crossing a good chunk of western Ecuador the difficult way.

The route rolls through highland farms on a mixture of dirt and old cobblestone roads, with broad views across deep valleys, cultivated slopes, and mountain ridges.

By now the rhythm is familiar. Stand when it helps. Relax the grip. Let the motorcycle move underneath you. Keep rolling.

In Isinliví, we’ll stop to visit our friends at the Don Bosco school, where skilled craftsmen teach local young people traditional woodworking and furniture making.

These are not little souvenir projects designed to keep tourists busy for twenty minutes. Students learn how to select wood, cut it properly, shape it, create strong joints, carve details, finish surfaces, and build furniture designed to last for generations.

Good wood. Sharp tools. Solid joinery. Patience. No shortcuts.

There is something deeply satisfying about seeing young people learn a serious trade from craftsmen who still care about doing the job correctly.

We have known the people here for years, and we regularly bring supplies for students and rural schools through Ecuador Freedom’s Ride for a Purpose program.

The route may be built around motorcycles, but stops like Isinliví are part of why we keep riding these same roads year after year.

From Isinliví, we’ll climb again toward Guingopana Pass, crossing high Andean country at around 13,400 feet / 4,085 meters.

The landscape becomes wide open and exposed, with huge views over deep valleys and surrounding mountains. When the weather opens, several of Ecuador’s great volcanoes can appear across the horizon.

When it does not, we get wind, fog, cold fingers, and a useful reminder that the Andes are under no obligation to cooperate with anybody’s vacation plans.

From the pass comes a twisting cobblestone descent through highland farms toward Toacaso.

Cobblestones have a special talent for making a perfectly good motorcycle feel as though somebody loosened every bolt while we were stopped for lunch.

Relax the grip and let the motorcycle do its job.

The country up here is wide open, with farms clinging to steep hillsides and enormous views across the Andes. It is difficult to believe we woke up this morning in the tropical heat of Quevedo.

Six days into the trip, none of this feels particularly strange anymore.

Around the next bend might be cobblestone, loose rock, mud, cattle, a dog asleep in the middle of the road, or a view good enough to make everybody pull over and forget for a minute how tired they are.

After six days of dirt, mud, river crossings, rocks, ruts, switchbacks, and enough elevation change to scramble everybody’s internal thermostat, the route makes one of its stranger transitions: we’ll stop at a working rose plantation.

Ecuador produces some of the best roses in the world. Strong equatorial sunlight, cool highland temperatures, rich volcanic soil, and elevation combine to produce exceptionally long stems, huge blooms, and intense colors.

We’ll see how the roses are grown, cut, graded, packed, and prepared for shipment around the world. We may also get to try some of the less obvious products people have learned to make from roses.

After everything the last six days have thrown at us, stopping to smell the roses is no longer a figure of speech.

We might as well do it.

Then we’ll ride into Hacienda La Ciénega, one of Ecuador’s oldest surviving haciendas. Construction began in the late 1600s, and the place still has massive stone walls, heavy timber, old courtyards, hand-carved doors, fireplaces, and rooms filled with antiques.

After clawing our way up roughly 6,000 vertical feet from the tropical lowlands, walking through the front door is quite a change of scenery.

La Ciénega has also seen some serious history pass through those doors. Members of the French Geodesic Mission, including Charles-Marie de La Condamine, stayed here during their work in Ecuador in the 18th century. They came to the Equator to help settle one of the great scientific questions of their age: the true shape of the Earth.

In 1802, Alexander von Humboldt also stayed at La Ciénega while exploring the Ecuadorian Andes with Aimé Bonpland and Carlos Montúfar.

Humboldt studied volcanoes, plants, geography, climate, and the way the natural world changes with elevation. His work in this region helped shape modern ideas about ecology and the connections among climate, altitude, vegetation, and landscape.

So when we walk through the stone corridors and sit down for our final lunch together, we are eating in a building that has watched scientists, explorers, landowners, farmers, politicians, and travelers pass through for more than three centuries.

The walls are thick. The fireplaces are real. The furniture has some weight to it.

After wrestling motorcycles up 6,000 vertical feet earlier in the day, eating a proper Andean lunch inside a 17th-century hacienda feels almost indecently civilized.

From La Ciénega, the final stretch joins the Avenue of Volcanoes and carries us north toward Quito.

On a clear afternoon, some of Ecuador’s great volcanic peaks rise around us, including Cotopaxi, one of the tallest active volcanoes on Earth.

Dirt gradually gives way to pavement. Traffic starts appearing again. Buildings begin closing in around the road.

Six days ago, all of that felt normal.

Now it feels a little strange.

By the time we roll back into Ecuador Freedom’s headquarters in Quito, we will have crossed cloudforest, tropical rainforest, high páramo, agricultural lowlands, remote Indigenous communities, plantations, rivers, cobblestones, mud, rocks, cliff roads, volcanic passes, workshops, farms, and enough forgotten dirt roads to understand why we have spent years putting this route together.

The motorcycles get parked and the riding gear finally comes off. Hot showers, the hot tub, and a drink at the Freedom Riders’ Lounge are waiting before everybody heads off for dinner, another night in Quito, or the next part of the trip.

Six days earlier, we left Quito with clean motorcycles and clean riding gear.

We probably will not return with either.

This guided off-road 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 your paperwork, and spend some time exploring the capital before departure. Our guide to enjoying Quito before your motorcycle tour includes suggestions for nearby attractions, restaurants, museums, and other worthwhile places to visit. Taking care of registration in advance allows Day 1 to begin smoothly, without rushing, and with your attention where it belongs: on the ride ahead.

Orientation, Motorcycles & Support

Before departure, you’ll receive a detailed pre-ride briefing covering Ecuadorian traffic laws, local driving customs, road courtesies, riding signals, group-riding procedures, safety protocols, and the conditions you can expect along the route. Riding in Ecuador has its own rhythm, particularly on narrow rural roads where motorcycles may share the route with livestock, farm vehicles, pedestrians, and local traffic. The orientation is designed to help everyone ride predictably, confidently, and comfortably from the first mile.

You’ll be provided with the off-road-capable adventure motorcycle of your choice, prepared with suitable tires, protective equipment, a waterproof luggage system, and an optional tank bag. Before leaving Quito, the motorcycle will be inspected with you so that you understand its controls, luggage, accessories, and any model-specific features.

For groups of more than five riders, a support truck will accompany the tour to carry luggage, bottled water, tools, emergency supplies, and other equipment. The support vehicle provides an additional layer of safety and comfort, but it is not intended as routine transportation for riders who simply want to skip part of the day. Participants should arrive prepared to ride the complete route each day.

For groups of fewer than five riders, a support truck may not be provided. In that case, riders will carry their personal gear in the saddlebags or luggage system supplied with the motorcycle. Packing lightly and using waterproof or water-resistant luggage will make the off-road sections considerably easier and more enjoyable.

The Route & Riding Experience

The route you’ll follow over the next six days is the result of years spent scouting, riding, testing, and refining Ecuador’s remote backroads in a wide range of weather and surface conditions. Your guide knows the route thoroughly and understands where the terrain changes, where mud or standing water can develop, where difficult climbs begin, where visibility becomes limited, and where the views make it worth stopping for a few minutes.

This tour is mostly unpaved and follows natural, unimproved dirt roads rather than maintained gravel highways. Many sections are narrow, remote, and single-lane, with very little traffic. You should expect dirt, mud, loose rock, embedded stone, ruts, ancient cobblestone, steep climbs, rough descents, shallow water crossings, and rapid changes in weather and elevation. The roads are selected for their scenery, remoteness, cultural importance, and riding character rather than convenience or speed.

The objective is not to push riders beyond their limits. The objective is to provide a tough, beautiful, and rewarding ride while giving you enough time to read the terrain, choose a safe line, enjoy the scenery, and experience Ecuador’s backcountry with confidence. Your guide will adjust the pace to the group, stop regularly, and provide guidance when the route becomes more technical.

Those stops are also an important part of the experience. Your guide will introduce you to people who live along the route, explain regional history and traditions, point out details that would otherwise be missed, and share places that most travelers never reach. This route is more than a track on a GPS. It has been shaped through years of returning, adjusting, and building relationships with farmers, artisans, families, and rural communities throughout Ecuador.

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 visited during the tour. Donations are delivered directly to local schools, allowing participants to meet students and teachers while making a practical contribution to the communities through which we ride. Please review the program page before packing for the current list of requested items.

Meals & Tour Expenses

Meals on riding days are included, along with fuel, tolls, and normal tour-related expenses. You will only need additional spending money for gratuities, alcoholic beverages, snacks, souvenirs, and personal purchases. This allows you to focus on the riding and the experience rather than repeatedly reaching for your wallet throughout the day.

After the Ride

When the tour returns to 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, airport transportation, onward travel plans, local recommendations, or your next destination in Ecuador. More information about our facilities and location is available on the Ecuador Freedom headquarters page.

Weather & Temperatures

Ecuador’s general weather patterns remain fairly consistent throughout the year, but the elevation changes on this route are dramatic enough to produce very different conditions within a single riding day. You may begin near sea level in warm, humid air where temperatures approach 90°F / 32°C and later climb to approximately 14,500 feet, where temperatures can fall into the 30s°F / 0–4°C.

Passing showers are common in the highlands, although a complete 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. Rain can make the unpaved sections significantly more demanding by adding mud, standing water, slippery stone, deeper ruts, and reduced visibility.

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 regional conditions, seasonal patterns, altitude-related temperature changes, and what riders should expect throughout the country.

Accommodations

Throughout the tour, you’ll stay in carefully selected hotels, lodges, haciendas, and family-owned inns chosen for comfort, character, location, secure motorcycle parking, and practical access to the route. These accommodations are part of the overall experience rather than generic places selected simply to divide the journey into manageable distances.

After a full day of dirt roads, mud, rocks, high passes, and water crossings, you can expect a comfortable room, a hot shower, a good meal, and a welcoming place to recover before the next day’s ride. Details, photographs, and links for the scheduled accommodations are provided elsewhere on this page.

Ecuador Freedom reserves the right to substitute a property of comparable quality when required by availability, weather, road access, or other operational considerations. You will be notified 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, protective equipment, documents, physical readiness, and the riding conditions you are likely to encounter. We also recommend reviewing our complete Motorcycle Tour Packing Guide, which covers riding gear, layering, waterproof clothing, electronics, personal items, and other considerations for Ecuador’s varied climates and elevations.

No knowledge of Spanish is required. Your guide speaks English and Spanish fluently and will assist with communication, logistics, meals, accommodations, mechanical issues, local interactions, and cultural context throughout the tour.

The better prepared you are, the more you’ll enjoy the changing weather, varied terrain, altitude, cultural encounters, and inevitable backcountry surprises. The route is demanding enough to feel earned, but carefully planned and supported so that riders can concentrate on the terrain, the landscape, and the experience of crossing rural Ecuador by motorcycle.

• Unlimited Mileage Motorcycle Rental 
• Knowledgeable, Experienced, Local Resident Guide
• Saddlebags or hard luggage system
• Luggage storage and locker use while riding
• Guaranteed departure policy (we go even if only one participant signs up - we do not cancel tours on you!)
• Support Vehicle (5+ motorcycles)
• Single occupancy - no extra charge for your own room!
• All meals
• Tolls
• Fuel
• All other activities and tours listed in the itinerary and more
• Pre-tour 20% discount on any high-quality riding gear from our partner, Klim
• Souvenir T-Shirt
• Souvenir decal
• VIP access to the Freedom After-Ride Lounge with a hot shower, library, gym jacuzzi, and honor bar.

You do not have to pull your wallet out on our guided tours!

• 100% Refundable security deposit to cover any damage to the rental motorcycle
• Hotel accommodations before and after the tour in Quito
• Trip cancellation, medical, and emergency evacuation insurance
• Any activity not described in What's Included
• Meals not listed
• Alcoholic Beverages
• Gratuities

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