Quilotoa Loop Self-Guided Motorcycle Tour

The Quilotoa Loop is one of the best short motorcycle rides in Ecuador and one of the easiest ways to pack a serious amount of the Andes into just two days.

Leaving Quito, the route heads south through the Avenue of Volcanoes, with Cotopaxi rising above the highland farms before turning west toward the remote mountain roads of the Quilotoa region. Along the way, you'll have lunch at historic Hacienda La Ciénega, ride through Indigenous farming communities, pass through Sigchos, and spend the night in the small mountain village of Chugchilán.

The next morning, the road climbs to Quilotoa Crater Lake, one of Ecuador's most dramatic volcanic landscapes. From there, you'll continue through Zumbahua and the art-producing communities of Tigua, visit a working rose plantation, and ride back toward Quito through the central Andes.

This is a self-guided tour, but you are not simply handed a motorcycle and sent on your way. We provide a programmed Garmin GPS, detailed daily route sheets, a full pre-ride briefing, local phone, luggage, back-office monitoring, and 24-hour support.

For riders with limited time, the Quilotoa Loop delivers an enormous amount of Ecuador in two days: volcanoes, high mountain roads, Indigenous culture, historic haciendas, local artists, working farms, and one of the most remarkable crater lakes in South America.

Day 1

Quito – Hacienda La Ciénega – Sigchos – Chugchilán

Before departure, you'll receive a comprehensive briefing from an experienced Ecuador Freedom guide who knows and has ridden this route. We'll cover Ecuadorian traffic laws, local driving customs, weather, altitude, important stops, and what to expect during the two days ahead.

Your programmed Garmin GPS contains the route and brings you to the exact locations of hotels, restaurants, attractions, viewpoints, and cultural stops. Your daily route sheet gives you the history, background, practical information, and recommendations behind those places.

Once the motorcycle is loaded and everything is adjusted, you're out of Quito and heading south toward one of the great motorcycle landscapes in the Andes.

South of Quito, the Pan-American Highway runs through intensely green high-altitude pastureland before opening into the enormous valley Alexander von Humboldt famously called the Avenue of Volcanoes.

Two great Andean mountain ranges rise on either side of you, with volcanoes dominating the skyline in nearly every direction.

The most obvious is Cotopaxi, its nearly symmetrical cone rising above the farmland to the east. On a clear day, the snow and glacier-covered summit seems to keep getting larger as you ride south.

This first stretch gives you a sense of the scale of Ecuador's Andes. Farms, towns, roads, and entire valleys look small beneath mountains that rise several miles above sea level.

Your first major stop is Hacienda La Ciénega, one of Ecuador's oldest surviving haciendas.

Construction began in the late 1600s, and the property still has massive stone walls, heavy timber, old courtyards, hand-carved doors, fireplaces, antique furnishings, and the unmistakable atmosphere of a building that has been standing here for more than three centuries.

La Ciénega has also hosted some serious history. Members of the French Geodesic Mission, including Charles-Marie de La Condamine, stayed here during their work in Ecuador in the 18th century. They had come to the Equator to help settle one of the great scientific debates of their time: 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 observations in this region helped shape early ideas about ecology and the relationship among climate, altitude, vegetation, and landscape.

Your route brings you here for lunch, so you'll be eating inside a building that has watched scientists, explorers, landowners, farmers, politicians, and travelers pass through its corridors for generations.

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

It is a pretty civilized way to begin a motorcycle trip.

From La Ciénega, the programmed route turns west toward the legendary Quilotoa Loop.

The road starts climbing into a much more rural Ecuador, passing high-altitude farms, Indigenous communities, deep valleys, steep mountain walls, and small towns scattered across the western Andes.

The pavement curls through long sweepers and tight switchbacks while enormous views open across the surrounding mountains.

You pass through Sigchos, a highland town with a long history as a regional trading center. The central market and surrounding streets still serve farmers and Indigenous communities from the mountains around it.

From Sigchos, the route continues through increasingly dramatic terrain toward Chugchilán.

The road runs along steep cliffs above deep canyons, natural terraces, farms, and predominantly Kichwa-speaking villages where agriculture and traditional ways of life remain central to the local economy.

This is the Quilotoa Loop at its best: high mountains, very little traffic, constant changes in elevation, and small communities scattered across terrain that looks almost too steep to farm.

By late afternoon, you arrive in Chugchilán, a small highland village perched above deep Andean valleys.

Tonight you stay at Mama Hilda's, a family-run mountain lodge with a warm, rustic atmosphere and the kind of hospitality that has made it a longtime favorite on the Quilotoa Loop.

The rooms are simple and comfortable, the setting is quiet, and the lodge has the genuine feel of a small Andean village rather than a polished resort.

Dinner is included tonight, giving you a proper mountain meal before settling in for the evening.

Tomorrow, the route climbs higher still toward Quilotoa Crater Lake, then continues through Zumbahua, the Tigua art communities, a working rose plantation, and back toward Quito through the Avenue of Volcanoes.

Day 1 gets you out of Quito, under Cotopaxi, into one of Ecuador's oldest haciendas, and deep into the western Andes before the first day is even over.

Day 2

Chugchilán – Quilotoa – Zumbahua – Tigua – Rose Plantation – Quito

After breakfast at Mama Hilda's, you leave Chugchilán and begin climbing toward one of the most spectacular places in the Ecuadorian Andes: Quilotoa Crater Lake.

The road rises quickly through high-altitude farmland and Indigenous communities, with enormous views opening across the western Andes as you gain elevation.

This is high country. The air gets thinner, the vegetation changes, and the landscape becomes more exposed as the route climbs toward the rim of the ancient volcano.

Quilotoa Crater Lake sits above 12,000 feet in the remains of a massive volcanic caldera.

The lake was created by a catastrophic eruption roughly 800 years ago that sent pyroclastic flows and ash across an enormous part of western Ecuador.

Today, the crater is filled with intensely colored water that can shift between turquoise, blue, and green depending on sunlight, cloud cover, and the minerals suspended in the lake.

From the rim, you can look almost straight down into the crater while the surrounding Andes stretch away in every direction.

The contrast between the violence that created the crater and the silence of the lake today is one of the reasons Quilotoa leaves such a strong impression.

From Quilotoa, the route heads south through high Andean farmland toward Zumbahua.

Zumbahua is an important Indigenous market town surrounded by high-altitude farms. If your ride falls on a Saturday, the market fills with produce, textiles, livestock, household goods, tools, food, and handmade products brought in from surrounding communities.

Even outside market day, this is unmistakably working Andean country, with people moving between villages, farms, and trading centers much as they have for generations.

From Zumbahua, the road climbs again through a patchwork of golden fields and high mountain pasture toward Tigua.

Tigua is famous for its distinctive Indigenous art. Local painters became known for colorful scenes of Andean village life, farming, festivals, animals, volcanoes, and traditional stories painted in a bold, immediately recognizable style.

The community also produces brightly colored wooden masks used in traditional celebrations and rituals. There are numerous small studios and galleries in the area, and your route information identifies places where you can see the work and buy directly from the artists.

This is one of the stops that gives the Quilotoa Loop more depth. You are not just riding through the landscape; you are stopping in the small communities where a unique Andean art tradition developed and is still being practiced today.

The road then begins dropping out of the highest mountains and back toward the broad agricultural valleys of the Avenue of Volcanoes.

Along the way, you stop at a working rose plantation.

Ecuador is one of the world's leading exporters of premium roses, and the high Andes provide unusually favorable growing conditions. Intense equatorial sunlight, cool nights, rich volcanic soil, and high elevation allow growers to produce roses with exceptionally large blooms, long stems, and strong colors.

Many of the roses grown here are shipped by air to North America, Europe, and Asia within days of being cut.

The visit gives you a look behind the scenes at an industry that has become an important part of Ecuador's highland economy.

From here, the route turns north toward Quito, once again following the great valley of the Avenue of Volcanoes.

Depending on the weather, Cotopaxi may dominate the eastern skyline while the western Andes rise on the opposite side of the valley.

After two days of mountain roads, Indigenous villages, crater lakes, historic haciendas, high-altitude farmland, artists, and volcanic landscapes, you make the final run back toward Quito.

Back at Ecuador Freedom, our team will meet you, help unload the motorcycle, and get you checked back in.

In only two riding days, the Quilotoa Loop takes you from Quito into some of the highest inhabited parts of Ecuador, through one of the country's most important Indigenous regions, past Cotopaxi, to the edge of a volcanic crater, through traditional mountain communities, and back again.

It is a short tour, but there is very little wasted road.

This two-day self-guided motorcycle adventure starts at Ecuador Freedom Bike Rental's headquarters in Quito's La Carolina neighborhood, one of the city's safest and most convenient areas.

Before departure, you'll receive a detailed pre-ride briefing covering Ecuadorian traffic laws, local driving customs, road courtesies, weather, altitude, fuel, the route, important stops, and what to expect during the two days ahead.

Your programmed Garmin GPS contains the complete route and brings you to the exact locations of your hotel, restaurants, attractions, viewpoints, cultural stops, and other points of interest. Your daily route sheets provide the history, background, practical information, restaurant recommendations, and details behind those stops.

The Motorcycle & Support

You'll receive the adventure motorcycle of your choice, prepared for the tour and equipped with waterproof luggage, a first-aid kit, tools, tire-repair equipment, and an optional tank bag.

Before departure, we'll review the motorcycle with you and make sure the controls, mirrors, luggage, and riding position are properly adjusted.

You will also have a local cell phone, back-office monitoring during your riding days, and 24-hour Ecuador Freedom support if you need assistance.

The Route

The route is paved and follows one of Ecuador's great mountain roads through the central Andes, combining the Avenue of Volcanoes with the legendary Quilotoa Loop.

In only two days, you'll ride beneath Cotopaxi Volcano, have lunch in a centuries-old hacienda, climb through Indigenous farming communities, follow mountain roads above enormous Andean canyons, stay overnight in Chugchilán, visit Quilotoa Crater Lake, pass through Zumbahua and Tigua, meet local artists, visit a working rose plantation, and return to Quito through the Avenue of Volcanoes.

The route climbs from Quito at roughly 9,350 feet / 2,850 meters to more than 12,800 feet / 3,900 meters at Quilotoa.

That elevation change puts you deep into Ecuador's high Andes, where farmland climbs improbable mountainsides, small villages sit above enormous valleys, and the weather and landscape can change within a few miles.

Two Days in the High Andes

Day 1 heads south from Quito through the Avenue of Volcanoes, with Cotopaxi rising above the agricultural valley. You'll stop for lunch at historic Hacienda La Ciénega before turning west onto the Quilotoa Loop through Sigchos and some of the most spectacular mountain country in Ecuador.

The day finishes in Chugchilán, where you'll stay at Mama Hilda's, a family-run mountain lodge that has welcomed riders, hikers, backpackers, and travelers exploring the Quilotoa Loop for years.

On Day 2, you'll climb higher through Andean farmland to Quilotoa Crater Lake, one of Ecuador's most extraordinary volcanic landscapes. From the crater, the route continues through Zumbahua and the art-producing communities of Tigua before descending toward Ecuador's rose-growing country and returning to Quito.

Quilotoa Crater Lake

Quilotoa sits above 12,000 feet / 3,650 meters inside an enormous volcanic caldera created by a catastrophic eruption roughly 800 years ago.

The mineral-rich water can shift from turquoise and emerald green to deep blue depending on sunlight, clouds, and weather. From the crater rim, the walls plunge steeply toward the lake while the western Andes stretch away in every direction.

It is one of those places photographs have trouble explaining. Standing on the rim in the cold mountain air makes the scale considerably easier to understand.

Local Experiences Along the Way

The programmed route brings you to places and people that are easy to ride past if you don't know where to stop.

You'll visit Hacienda La Ciénega, explore Indigenous highland communities, pass through the traditional market town of Zumbahua, visit the artists of Tigua, and stop at a working rose plantation to see one of Ecuador's most important export industries from the inside.

The GPS brings you there. The daily route sheets explain why the place matters.

Tigua Art & Culture

The small communities around Tigua have developed one of Ecuador's most recognizable Indigenous art traditions.

Local painters are known for vividly colored scenes showing Andean farms, markets, festivals, animals, volcanoes, legends, and everyday village life. The tradition grew from painted ceremonial drums and eventually expanded into paintings that are now collected throughout Ecuador and abroad.

Your route information identifies local galleries and workshops where you can see the work and buy directly from the artists who produce it.

Accommodations

Your overnight stay is at Mama Hilda's in the small mountain village of Chugchilán.

Mama Hilda's has been welcoming riders, hikers, backpackers, and other travelers to Chugchilán for years. It is a family-run mountain lodge with simple, comfortable rooms, wood-burning stoves for the cold Andean nights, and hearty home-cooked meals served in a relaxed communal setting.

The place has the warm, slightly scruffy character that fits the Quilotoa Loop perfectly, and after a full day of riding through the high Andes, it feels exactly like where you ought to end up.

Dinner and breakfast are included.

Single occupancy is standard on our self-guided tours, so solo riders receive their own room without an additional single-room surcharge.

Ecuador Freedom may substitute accommodations when availability or operational circumstances require it. Any replacement will provide a comparable standard of comfort and experience.

Weather & Temperatures

This is a high-altitude Andean tour, and conditions can change quickly.

Daytime temperatures are generally comfortable while riding, but exposed sections around Quilotoa can fall into the 30s–50s°F / 1–10°C, particularly with wind, rain, or cloud cover.

Sunshine can be intense at altitude, and passing rain is possible throughout the year. Layers and waterproof riding gear are strongly recommended.

For more detail, see our Weather in Ecuador Guide.

Packing & Preparation

You carry your personal gear on the motorcycle using the installed luggage system, so packing light matters.

Because this is only a two-day trip, you need very little beyond riding gear, a change of clothes, basic toiletries, and whatever personal items you want for the evening in Chugchilán.

After booking, we'll send detailed preparation information covering clothing, riding gear, luggage, electronics, documents, and practical travel information.

See our Packing Guide for more information.

Language

No knowledge of Spanish is required. The programmed GPS handles navigation, the daily route sheets provide the information you need at each stop, and your local phone connects you directly with Ecuador Freedom if communication becomes difficult.

After the Ride

Your programmed Garmin brings you directly back to Ecuador Freedom Bike Rental at the end of Day 2.

Once the motorcycle is returned, you'll have access to the Freedom Riders' Lounge, hot shower, jacuzzi, luggage storage, and honor bar.

Two days earlier you left Quito beneath the volcanoes. Since then you've eaten lunch in a 17th-century hacienda, ridden deep into the western Andes, stayed in a mountain village, stood above Quilotoa Crater Lake, visited Indigenous artists, crossed high-altitude farming country, and seen how Ecuador's famous roses are grown.

For a two-day motorcycle trip, it packs in an enormous amount of Ecuador.

• Unlimited mileage motorcycle rental
• All highway tolls using our electronic toll-payment system
• Garmin zūmo GPS with the complete route and pre-programmed daily navigation
• Road Book with daily route sheets, maps, points of interest, cultural background, and practical information
• Saddlebags or luggage system
• Local cell phone for communication with Ecuador Freedom
• Back-office monitoring during your riding days
• 24-hour Ecuador Freedom support
• Single occupancy accommodation at Mama Hilda's – your own private room with no single-room surcharge
• Dinner at Mama Hilda's
• Breakfast at Mama Hilda's
• Guided rose plantation tour
• Exclusive pre-tour 20% discount on high-quality riding gear from KLIM
• Souvenir T-shirt
• Souvenir decal
• Luggage storage and locker use while riding
• 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
• Gasoline or diesel
• Meals not specifically listed as included
• Tours, activities, excursions, and entrance fees not specifically listed as included
• Souvenirs and personal purchases
• Alcoholic beverages
• Travel insurance – including trip cancellation, medical, and emergency evacuation coverage; strongly recommended
• Gratuities for Ecuador Freedom preparation staff who assist with your briefing, motorcycle preparation, departure, and return, at your discretion
• Gratuities for hotel staff, restaurant staff, local guides, and tour or activity providers

Good to know: Ecuadorian tour packages for qualifying non-resident international travelers are not subject to Ecuadorian VAT, so there is no additional Ecuadorian tour tax added to the advertised package price.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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