3-Day Andes Adventure Visiting Cotopaxi, Quilotoa and Baños

Thanks to Irene for the great trip around Baños yesterday. Irene was not only warm but funny and the day went smoothly thanks to Irene and our driver. Thanks for the photos and videos too.

This 3d tour is a great idea if you have the time: it saves you a lot of bus-travel time to/fr Quito and offers the experience of local lodging. You are not on this trip with other 3d travelers --- as was our experience, we were the only couple who was doing the 3d adventure; all others each day we only doing the day-trips. This was okay with us, however the actual itinerary didn't always align with the published itinerary, so we often felt like we were in a constant state of 'wonder', as in "I wonder how much time we'll actually have" for any particular itinerary stop. Days 1 & 3 were pretty good. Veronica was our Day 1 guide: she was extraordinarily energetic and full of information about the sites along our drive route. She did the hike up Cotopaxi WITH us and paid attention to everyone making sure no one felt left out or behind. Irene was our Day 3 guide -- she too was great: tons of interesting information and very interested in learning what we had heard or learned about the areas we were visiting with her. She seems to be a natural tour guide --- she has the energy, interest and communication skills to make an excellent guide. She would be an excellent addition to any formal tour group. Day 2 held the most inconsistency/uncertainty for us. For starters, our first stop was (per our itinerary) to be at Tigua; it was actually at someone's home ("Julio" I believe was his name; an 80 year old indigenous man who apparently used to live in the ‘yurt’ we were visiting). The stop was apparently intended to illustrate an original indigenous home not to mention providing a 'donation if we would like'. We were there ~30 mins. I waited outside the hut for the others to finish their experience, when Julio himself came out of the hut and wasn't shy about rubbing his fingers with palms up at me. Not hard to translate that universal gesture ($$). We got to Tigua, spent ~30 mins here then headed to the Lake. We arrived around noon and were told we had the option of walking part-way or full-way down to the lake with strong warnings that the return climb would be difficult. We seemingly also had the choice of walking around the lake along the rim. We told Fernando (our guide) we wanted to do the 'around' walk. We stopped at the restaurant to place our lunch order before our walk and were told we had to be back in 2 hours (our itinerary said we had 4 hours at this stop). However before we could start the walk of our choice, we were told we had to walk down to the first lookout point for a group pic. We were with some slow walkers and at least got Fernando to get to the point at our pace and let the others catch up; this makes you wonder of the purpose of a group pic, but we tried to go along with him. However by the time we were done with this unexpected ‘lookout’ stop, we got back to the rim at 12:45 and only had 1.25 hrs to do our rim walk. There was NO WAY anyone could have completed even the 1/2-way down path with the time left let alone even consider the full descent. Even though we kept telling him, Fernando didn’t seem to understand that our itinerary was different until at lunch we showed him what we received. At that point he seemed to recognize that his energy toward us up to that point was a bit dismissive and started saying how our happiness was the utmost importance and that we are very important to him. At that point we were pretty much ‘done’ with that day out of frustration. After lunch, we found out that we would be part of a car-transfer midway to get us to Banos because the others were returning to Quito. We arrived in Banos ~6:30p; the itinerary said we had 3 hours to enjoy this stop ---- in the dark?? So Day 2 was our greatest disappointment; Days 1 & 3 were good though. Knowing what I know now, would I still do this trip? Absolutely. Only I would confirm the itinerary with the provider when booking the tour to make sure it will follow what is published and that the areas that are of particular interest to me will be available for the published times. Forewarned is forearmed.

We had a great time on the 3 day tour, experiencing what Ecuador's highlights have to offer. A special shoutout to our guide Irene, who was knowledgeable about the history and nature of the area, a fun storyteller and especially caring; not only did she looks after the group when we were battling the Cotopaxi climb, but she undoubtedly went above and beyond caring for my partner when she became unwell

Today was my VERY BEST tour experience in Baños and surroundings thanks to our wonderful, colorful, professional guide IRENE🥰! Keep up the good work and hope to see you again one day!🤗

The best option that Irene gave me at all times was watching us Eva when you hesitate and ask and today we meet him on Bath tour in person and he is an excellent person and guide

We had the opportunity to make 4 tours with Quito tour bus, starting the first day with the visit halfway around the world, cotopaxi, Quilotoa and today we finish our great adventure in bathrooms, all were wonderful and rewarding experiences, the organization of the tours, the attention of the guides and the wonderful drivers, very grateful with the guides who accompanied us in all our experiences and instructed us in many topics of general culture and very interesting to know, very grateful to Irene, Daniela, Josh and Pamela, all are fantastic and we exalted their great work and enthusiasm with which they allowed us to live wonderful experiences and know more of their beautiful country, thousand and thousand thanks...

This is a Great way to Explore the area around Quito with less back and Forth. We had three very nice guides, Alejandro, Diana and Jessy, and all were helpful and Communication. We saw a lot of cool stuff!

3 day/2 night is a great option if you have the time, less time spent travelling and more down time to enjoy Cotapaxi and Banos. Great communication from Grace on WhatsApp and Irene really was a 5 star tour guide, thanks guys!

Let's start with positives: * Tour guides were all great. Friendly, informative, etc. * Sights we ended up seeing were mostly interesting and correct based on the itinerary Negatives: * You will spend A LOT of time on a van/bus. We were the only ones who had booked the 3 day tour. All others were on a daily tour so there was a lot of inefficiency in getting us around to accommodate the other tours on the bus. The second day we were out 10 hours, and 7 of those hours were on a bus. * Itinerary was complete wrong for the 2nd day to Lake Quilotoa. The itinerary showed 8 hours in Banos. We didn't arrive in Banos until around 730 PM thus not able to partake in any of the hot springs, etc in Banos. * Hotel options given were all hostals. If you want to stay somewhere else, you have to pay for your own transportation to get there. We did opt for this in Banos and since we were the only ones actually doing the 3 day tour, the tour company was nice enough to drop and pick us up at a nicer hotel. * After day 2, we were not given any details about the following day like what time would we picked up, etc. I had to reach out several times to get clarification and a revised itinerary. We did ask for a partial refund, especially for the 2nd day that was nowhere close to the itinerary sent and we were declined stating that they went to all of the sights. This company needs to be a lot better about sending a realistic agenda and sticking to it. In the end all we got was one free lunch the last day. I'd say rent a car and do it on your own.

It's a three-day experience visiting Cotopaxi, Quilotoa and Banhos among other places that is perfect if you don't have enough time to do it by yourself. The activity is perfectly coordinated and guided thanks to our excellent official guides Diana, Jennifer, Adrián and their drivers, and also to Grace who will be resolving any question through the app.