Finding Flights to Quito

1. Know when to go. Try not to fly during peak times.  Peak times in Ecuador are when the Ecuadorians living abroad come home to visit their families.  These times are mid-December through mid-January and the first week of April (Semana Santa (Easter week)). Expect prices to be higher during these times. 

2. Buy round-trip air tickets.  Round-trip fares are often the same price, or at times even a little lower than one-way fares.

3.  Fly from Toronto, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Atlanta, or Madrid. The cheapest direct flights from North America for Ecuador fly out of Miami (MIA), Houston (IAH), and Fort Lauderdale (FLL) airports, with New York (NYC) a distant second. You can sometimes save $$ by buying two separate tickets, one from your city to Fort Lauderdale and a separate one from Fort Lauderdale to Ecuador (for JetBlue).  From Europe, the cheapest flights are generally from Madrid (MAD) to Quito (UIO), so you can try booking two separate tickets, one from your city to Madrid and then the second ticket from Madrid to Quito.  This can save you hundreds of dollars or Euros.  Try it!  Also, try the application called "Skiplagged," which is pretty efficient at finding these loopholes - but may require you to travel with carry-on luggage only.

4. Know where to look online. Start your searches on Kayak.com, which is excellent because it checks for flights across many different sites like Expedia, Travelocity, Priceline, and Orbitz all at once.  The airport code for Quito is UIO.  Kayak also allows you to check for flights to nearby airports and allows you to see prices for dates both 3 days before and after your desired departure.  But after discovering which airlines are flying the cheapest on your chosen dates on Kayak, before buying,  hop over to the airlines’ official website and do a flight search again.  By doing this, you may find even cheaper flight prices than the ones advertised on Kayak.  Sometimes it is worthwhile to also do a separate check on google flights (https://www.google.com/flights/)

Entering the country

Passport

All nationals entering as tourists need a passport that is valid for at least six months after arrival. You are legally required to have your passport on you at all times. Many people carry only a copy when they’re hanging around a town, though this is not an officially acceptable form of ID. Never take buses, boats, motorcycle rides, or otherwise travel without your original passport.  If you are concerned about losing your passport, you can carry a notarized copy of the passport, which can be done at any notary shop (notaria) in Quito for a small fee.