Quito Old Town is the largest and best preserved historic center in the Americas, and in 1978 it became one of the first places on Earth added to the UNESCO World Heritage list. It is not a museum quarter. People live, shop and go to Mass here, in buildings four centuries old, at 2,850 m above sea level.
The good news for a short trip is that the essentials of Quito Old Town sit inside roughly one square kilometer. Schoolchildren cut across the main square, shoeshiners work under the arcades, bells ring at seven in the morning. Everything is close enough to walk, and high enough that the uphill blocks will surprise you.
Dozens of churches and convents crowd into a handful of blocks, and nobody sees them all in one visit. So this is the short list: seven stops, in the order that makes sense on foot, starting at the top of the hill and ending with a view over the whole basin.
Start at the Basilica del Voto Nacional
The neo-Gothic Basilica is the tallest church in Ecuador and the easiest landmark to navigate by. It is also deliberately unfinished. Building started in 1892, nobody has ever formally completed it, and local legend says the world ends the day someone does.
Look up before you go in. Instead of European gargoyles, the stonemasons carved Ecuadorian animals along the roofline: iguanas, tortoises, armadillos, condors, monkeys. Walk a full lap outside with your head up.
Climbing the towers is the part people remember. Steep stairs, then a plank walkway over the nave, then a ladder in the open air. So it is not for anyone uneasy with heights. You buy the ticket at the door. This is also where our walking tour begins, and where our office sits, on the corner at Venezuela N11-99 y Carchi.
Plaza Grande, the square everything turns around
Walk downhill for a few blocks and you land in the Plaza de la Independencia, which nobody calls that. Plaza Grande has been the city’s living room for almost five hundred years. Four buildings frame it: the Carondelet Palace, seat of the presidency, and the Metropolitan Cathedral. Then the Archbishop’s Palace, now a warren of small shops, cafes and courtyards. Finally the City Hall, the only modern face on the square.
Sit on a bench for ten minutes before you photograph anything. Shoeshiners, retired men arguing about football, students, pigeons: you learn more about the city there than in any museum. The changing of the presidential guard happens on Monday mornings, when it runs, and the times shift. So ask before you build a Monday around it.
Three church interiors in Quito Old Town worth a ticket
From the plaza, walk down Garcia Moreno, the Street of the Seven Crosses. Each interior charges its own ticket, paid on the spot, and you cannot do them all properly in one visit. If you have appetite for two or three, make them these.
- La Compania de Jesus. Most Ecuadorians will tell you it is the finest church in the country. From outside it is dark volcanic stone and twisted columns. Inside, gold leaf covers almost every surface, and the first sight of it is disorienting. The Jesuits took roughly a century and a half to finish it. Photography rules are strict and they change, so follow what the staff say at the door.
- San Francisco. The Franciscans began building within a few years of the Spanish founding of Quito in 1534, on ground that had been an Inca site, and they never really stopped. Church, monastery, cloisters, chapels and museum fill a single block, still the largest colonial complex in the Americas. In the main altarpiece, look for the winged Virgin of Quito carved by Bernardo de Legarda. It is the original of the statue on the hill you can see from the plaza, and one of the very few winged Virgins in Catholic art. Ask about Cantuna as well, who in the legend hired the devil to build the atrium, then hid one stone so the work would never be complete.
- Santo Domingo. Quieter, at the far end of the historic center. Most people cross its plaza on the way somewhere else, but a painted ceiling waits for those who stop.
One practical note on San Francisco: its wide sloping plaza is the best place in the city for late afternoon light. So if you can only fit one square in at golden hour, make it that one.
La Ronda, and where the evening goes
Calle Juan de Dios Morales, which nobody calls anything but La Ronda, is one of the oldest streets in Quito and the narrowest thing that still counts as one. The balconies almost touch overhead. The restored houses hold workshops of trades that were disappearing: hat makers, toy makers, candy makers, printers.
By day it is quiet enough to watch people work. In the evening the lamps come on and the lane fills up, and the drink to order is a canelazo, the hot sugarcane spirit with naranjilla and cinnamon.
El Panecillo, and the higher view above it
El Panecillo is the loaf-shaped hill that closes Quito Old Town to the south, crowned by the winged Virgin assembled from thousands of aluminum pieces. From the base you see the whole basin, the tiled roofs and the volcanoes behind them on a clear morning. Go up by taxi or with a guide. The slope from the Old Town is not a walk we recommend.
The other view is the cable car on the western side of the city, which lifts you to 3,945 m. From that top station our Rucu Pichincha acclimatization hike carries on up on foot to a summit of 4,698 m. It leaves our Old Town office at 08:30 a.m., every day. The minimum is two participants, though a single traveler can go as a private excursion, and the cable car ticket is not part of the price. So if a bigger mountain is on your list, this is your acclimatization day.
Three hours on foot with a guide
Our Half Day Walking Tour Quito follows its own route through Quito Old Town, not the list above:
- Where it starts: the Basilica del Voto Nacional, with our office on the corner.
- Departure times: 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m., every day of the week.
- How long: three hours, all walking, rated easy.
- What you see: the facades of the main colonial churches and the squares where the city’s history actually happened, plus the legends locals still tell about them.
- How it ends: a tasting of the traditional sweets made in the historic center, then Ecuadorian chocolate at Yumbos Coffee Shop.
- Price: $13 per person, shared tour, bilingual English-Spanish guide included.
What the $13 does not cover: entrance fees to churches and museums, any other food and drinks, and tips. That is deliberate. The walk is about the streets, the squares and the stories, and you choose which interiors deserve a ticket. So carry cash, and keep a second morning free for the ones you pick.
The 10:00 a.m. departure leaves your afternoon open. The 2:00 p.m. one works well on the day you land.
What to know before you set off
Walking Quito Old Town is not difficult, but the combination of thin air, hard stone and equatorial sun catches people out on day one.
- Altitude: the cobbled streets are steeper than they look. You will walk slower than you expect, so drink more water than usual.
- Sun: the equator plus altitude. Sunscreen and a hat matter even when the sky is gray, and the weather turns by the hour.
- Shoes: uneven stone, sloping sidewalks, worn steps. Leave the smooth soles at the hotel.
- Cash: Ecuador uses the US dollar. Church tickets, street sweets and taxis are cash, in small notes.
- Timing: churches in the morning, plazas in the late afternoon, La Ronda once the lamps are on.
- After dark: stay on lit, busy streets, and take a taxi rather than crossing the center on foot late.
How Quito Old Town fits into the rest of your trip
Put the Old Town on your first day. An easy walk at 2,850 m is what your body wants before altitude, so a day in the capital is not lost time before the mountains. It also leaves the rest of the week free to go higher.
- Cotopaxi Hike and Bike: the refuge at 4,800 m, 10 hours, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, from $61, pick-up at Foch Square at 7:10 a.m.
- Quilotoa Culture and Hike: 12 hours, Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday, from $56, same pick-up points and time.
- the Otavalo culture and shopping tour: leaves Quito on Tuesdays and Saturdays.
The whole list is on our day tours from Quito page.
Walk Quito Old Town with a guide who lives here
We have been operating out of Quito for fifteen years with our own guides, and our office sits inside the historic center itself, on the corner by the Basilica. So this is the one walk we run on our own doorstep, not from a rented meeting point. You can even walk in and ask before you book.
Check the two daily departures and book on the Half Day Walking Tour Quito page, or see what else leaves the city on our tours from Quito page. Or send us a WhatsApp at +593 98 094 2338, and we will tell you which departure fits your day better.
