Where to Find Good Advice About Traveling in Ecuador...
Feb 12 '03
The Bottom Line The bookstores are chock full of guidebooks on Ecuador. There's a hundred web sites too. Here's my list of some of the best and most useful...
Thinking about a trip to Ecuador soon? Maybe you've always wanted to see the amazing wildlife of the Galapogos Islands. Or maybe you're thinking of taking a riverboat tour through the jungles of the Amazon Basin. Maybe you're into mountain sports and feel like risking life and limb as you scale some of the towering volcanic mountains of the Andes. Or maybe you just feel like getting in touch with your cerebral side by checking out some of the great colonial and ancient Inca sites. Whatever it is that motivates you to head out to the land of the Equator, you're sure to need a few pointers along the way.
I had a great time in Ecuador, but weeks before I ever set foot on the plane, I started checking out the web sites, visiting my local library to see what kinds of guidebooks they had on hand, and digging around in my local Borders and Barnes and Noble book stores to see what kinds of guidebooks were out there today. Here's my opinion on which ones offer the most insight and practical advice.
The Best of the Guidebooks...
The best source of info is always landing in a place and doing some good, current ground reconnaissance, but even the most rugged soldier appreciates a good map. That's where the guidebooks come in. A well-written guidebook should at least provide enough practical information to guide you towards good places for the first night or two, giving you time to look around and get your bearings for yourself.
Before I went down to Ecuador, I visited my friendly local bookstores and picked up a few tomes to get a feel for the lay of the land. Here are some of the books I looked at and how I think they stack up against each other...
***** Ecuador Handbook, Julian Smith, Moon Handbooks, 1998
I've mentioned before how much I like using Moon Handbooks for Mexico, and I'm glad to see that their standards for thoroughness and excellence also reach out to other parts of the latin world. This is one of the most authoritative guidebooks to Ecuador that you can buy. It is well researched and the recommendations are generally solid. I like that it includes almost 40 pages worth of info on Quito alone and over 50 pages on the Galapagos -- that should give you some idea of just how much bang for the buck you get with this guidebook. I feel that this handbook is better than the oft-recommended Let's Go or Lonely Planet -- both of which are good books, especially for the backpacker crowd, but I like the level of depth in the Moon Ecuador Handbook.
***** Lonely Planet Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands, Rob Rachowiecki, Lonely Planet, 2001
Like Smith's book, I like the Lonely Planet guide because of its depth of information. 50 pages on Quito alone, over 60 on the Galapagos (including some nice little passages describing individual islands) plus a guide to the unique wildlife that you'll see on the islands. This is generally a very good, solid guidebook, though I find some areas to be a little light (just 15 pages on Guayaquil? You guys need to take a few more trips there!)
*** Let's Go Peru and Ecuador, Rolan Hernandez et al., St. Martins Press, 2000
I like the range of practical advice given for each covered area, but I generally don't find it as informative as I do similar info in Julian Smith's Moon Handbook. I also don't care for having Ecuador and Peru lumped together since there is obviously enough to be said about either country to warrant having a dedicated (and more complete) book for each. The books are utilitarian in design with no photos and many of the maps lack detail and definition. This is a fairly good practical guide, but I think it could be beefed up a bit.
*** Travelers Ecuador Companion, Derek Davies, Globe Pequot Press (Kummerly-Frey), 1998
The strength of this book is its ability to convey a sense of place and history. Its range of color photos bring the place to life and help an armchair traveller really appreciate the diversity of this wonderful land. Unfortunately, its shortfall is in the area of practical advice. A limited number of recommendations for hotels, restaurants, night spots, etc. makes the book only somewhat useful as a guidebook for a traveller on the road. I recommend reading this book before going, but I wouldn't lug it with me...
If you have any special interests, especially wildlife in the Galapagos Islands, birdwatching, backpacking, etc., I recommend doing a search using Amazon.com or bn.com. There are a ton of great books out there that I've not yet had the pleasure of leafing through -- I'm sure you can easily unearth a few gems that I've overlooked.
Surfing Ecuador's Online World...
You're better off with a good guidebook than with any web site out there, but if you're like me, you'll take travel info where you can get it, and besides, it's free! Still, these sites can whet your appetite and give you tantalizing glimpses of what to expect in Ecuador, and every now and then, you stumble across some amazingly rich treasure troves of information that make it worthwhile to wade through all the slop that's out there in netland. Here are the web sites where I'd start digging...
**** Best of Ecuador
http://www.thebestofecuador.com
I don't know whether the site really does manage to capture everything that is the best of this wonderful country, but the site is surely one of the best sources of info on the web. What makes this site so good is its comprehensive viewpoint with pages for just about all the major destinations -- from Quito and Guayaquil to beaches like Esmereldas, highland cities like Cuenca, and even national parks. I like that there are specific recommendations in each category (like restaurants, bars, museums, etc.) If there is a failing, it is that there's not enough description for me to know which places are truly the best in each category. Some annoying misuse of Flash.
**** Ecuador Travel Guide
http://www.ecuador-travel-guide.org or http://www.ecuador-travel.info
Lean and mean. This site is quite professional with an attractive design and elegantly simple navigation. Content is often not much deeper than you find in Ecuador guidebooks, and it lacks a lot of details, but it nonetheless presents a very good general overview of the country, its sites, and its culture. Recommended first site.
**** Ecuadorial
http://www.ecuadorial.com
Bills itself as "the expert's Ecuador". In its favor, the site does a very good job of representing the many diverse faces of this fascinating small nation. I like that the articles are well focused and not just another series of short summaries. This is a site with greater depth than breadth, and I respect them for that. The write-ups are from authors of popular travel books, and they show a greater level of professionalism than the summary write-ups that are popular on the web's many amateur sites. Definitely recommended. I like the section on security updates, but I wish there was information more current than 1 year old (by the way, pickpockets and robberies are a huge problem right now in Quito -- be aware of it).
**** Ecuador Explorer
http://www.ecuadorexplorer.com
I like the clean feel and the broad range of topics on this site. Unfortunately, recommendations seem to be limited to those businesses having web pages (which as any latin American traveler knows, is never more than the tip of the iceberg, and which usually means an emphasis on gringo-owned or pricier establishments -- not the best places in a region, to say the least). I like the features, but wish there were more of them, and I love the links to news articles about Ecuador.
*** Travels in Paradise
http://www.travelsinparadise.com/ecuador/
Limited amount of information and only on isolated locations from a backpacker perspective, yet what is here is lucid and generally sound. The writer does a good job conveying how things generally work and how the place feels, though the site lacks good hard specifics for most travelers.
*** Lonely Planet Ecuador
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/destinations/south_america/ecuador_and_the_galapagos_islands/
Hate the long URL, but the info is generally sound, and of course, is based on the popular series of guidebooks. There is some good background information here, and a few tempting tidbits on sights and activities, but of course, it's nothing more than a teaser. The real meat of the info is in the guidebook itself, and even then, its less info than a really curious traveler will want.
** ExploringEcuador
http://www.exploringecuador.com
I like the wide range of categories, but sadly, many categories are underpopulated. For example, I thought having a category for media was a great idea, but there are no links to many of Ecuador's major newspapers (like El Comercio or Hoy) even though they most certainly do have web sites. Some of the things that are linked are not necessarily the best sites or providers, and some are in strange categories (the Transportation category has links to climbing guides, but not to the web site for TAME -- Ecuador's primary domestic airline). Bottom line: Some good info -- if you can root it out, but a lot of trash and noise too. Dubious value.
** Planet Ecuador
http://www.planetecuador.net
Attractive design, and some good background information, but lacks depth. For example, looking at hotels in Quito, I find only two hotels: Amazonas and Sierra Madre. Both are probably good, but I'd rather see a more authoritative set of reviews, or links to a hundred different hotels, perhaps grouped geographically or by price range. I do like the wide range of info in some of the activities categories (especially diving in the Galapagos).
* Ecuaventura
http://www.ecuaventura.com
Very attractive design and some excellent reference information (like heights of major volcanoes, etc.) There is also some good background information here. Limited specific information though, and few truly useful recommendations to a serious traveler. The site is also marred by excessive and annoying use of Flash, pop-up ads, and blinking. If not for all the amateurish Mickey-Mouse rubbish, it would be a professional feeling site.
Related Epinions:
You might find some of my reviews of various places in Ecuador to be useful to you as you plan your own trip to the Equator. I've also got some photos online at http://www.tiogringo.com/ecuador.html and http://www.tiogringo.com/quito.html
Cultural Sites Around Quito
Markets of Otavalo and Saquisili
J.W. Marriott Quito
Windsor Hotel Quito
Drinking Beer in Ecuador
La Cartuja Hotel
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