Getting Around Ecuador

Ecuador is compact. Quito to Cuenca is a long day by road and under an hour in the air, and almost nothing in the country is more than a day's drive from anything else. That compactness is deceptive, because the roads climb and descend constantly and an average speed of fifty kilometers an hour is a good one.

Long distance buses

The bus network is comprehensive, frequent and inexpensive, and it is how the country moves. Terminals are organized, tickets are bought at the company counter on the day for most routes, and the better companies run modern coaches on the main corridors.

• Book ahead around Carnival, Semana Santa and the new year, when the network is full.
• Keep your bag with you rather than in the overhead rack, and keep it on your lap or between your feet on a night service.
• Night buses save a day and cost you the scenery, which on the Andean routes is the point of the journey. On the mountain roads, prefer to travel in daylight.
• The cited source advises against all but essential travel to seven coastal provinces, which rules out a large part of the coastal bus network. See the travel safety guide.

Internal flights

Quito, Guayaquil and Cuenca are connected by frequent short flights, and the Amazon towns by small aircraft. Flying Quito to Cuenca turns a ten hour day into a morning. Baggage allowances on the smaller aircraft are tight, and on the Amazon and island services they are enforced.

Getting to the Galapagos

Flights leave from Quito and Guayaquil, and most Quito services stop in Guayaquil. ⚠ Guayaquil is in Guayas, and the advisory's exemption covers airside transit within Guayaquil Airport and nothing else in the province. Connect airside; do not plan an overnight there. The Galapagos guide sets out the routing in full.

Taxis and city transport

• Use taxis booked through your hotel or through an application rather than hailed on the street, which is what the cited source advises.
• Agree the fare before setting off where the taxi is not metered, which is most of the country outside the capital.
• Quito has a trolleybus and a metro, Guayaquil a bus rapid transit system. Both are crowded at peak and both are where pickpocketing happens; carry nothing in a back pocket.
• Cuenca is small enough and flat enough inside the old grid to walk everywhere, which is rare in Ecuador.

Driving

Renting a car makes sense for the highland volcano corridor and for reaching places buses serve badly, and makes very little sense in the cities. The roads are in better condition than the region average and the mountain driving is demanding: blind curves, fog above 3,000 m, unlit vehicles and livestock. Avoid driving at night outside towns. Roadblocks associated with demonstrations can close intercity routes at short notice, so have a fallback rather than a fixed schedule.

The train

Ecuador's tourist rail services, including the celebrated descent of the Devil's Nose, have been suspended and partially restored more than once in recent years. Check whether anything is running before building a plan around it rather than after.

For what a journey costs, see the money guide.

Sources

• UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office: Ecuador travel advice: the standing warning that the FCDO advises against all but essential travel to parts of Ecuador, the Coastal Region province list, the twenty kilometer strip along the Colombian border, and the state of emergency declared on 15 September 2026 for sixty days in eight provinces including Pichincha. Accessed 17 September 2026.
• UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office: Ecuador safety and security: the crime picture in the cities, the advice on demonstrations and roadblocks, and the standing guidance that no travel can be guaranteed safe. Accessed 17 September 2026.
• UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office: Ecuador regional risks: the Coastal Region provinces the FCDO advises against all but essential travel to, the exemption for airside transit within Guayaquil Airport in Guayas province, the twenty kilometer Colombian border strip with its named exceptions in Carchi province, and the note that Esmeraldas city and San Lorenzo both sit inside that strip. Accessed 17 September 2026.