Mainland Ecuador is a travel underdog. Peru’s got Machu Picchu, Argentina’s got stylish BA and Brazil has spirited Rio. What’s Quito got? For starters, it’s home to a snow-capped, 19,347-foot active volcano, called Cotopaxi, that sputters and hisses over the city like a South American Vesuvius. It’s also got sky, and plenty of it. Blue, pink, fluffy cloud-filled, fog-layered and thousands of other sky varieties that come with the job of being a city perched 9,350 feet above sea level.
But few who arrive into Quito’s new Mariscal Sucre International Airport realize how high they are until they begin the descent out of town. And that’s the problem. Visitors fly in to the 2 million-strong capital, stay a night, then promptly skip town for the charms of Cuenca, the mighty Big Ten along the Avenue of Volcanoes, the Amazon and the Galapagos. But the best of Ecuador can be found right in the heart of the millennia–old, equator-straddling city with a modern yet old-fashioned South American flavor all its own. And given that daily flights from JFK to Ecuador’s commercial capital Guayaquil started last month from TAME airlines — and Quito was recently named South America’s leading travel destination during this past summer’s World Travel Awards — it’s clearly time to check the city out.
A lot of writers focus on Quito’s exotic pre-Colombian melee of culture. Others focus on its legendary colonial cathedrals, crammed with gold and silver and terrifying conquistador-inspired paintings of fiery hell. But from where I stood — a crêperie to my left and a score of blond Norwegian tourists to my right, debating whether to eat at Tex-Mex, Brau Platz or Mulligan’s — I could be anywhere in the world. Yet, at sunset, that famed sky morphs into an orange and pink smoothie before dissolving into a dark blue inkblot. The cool night air is accompanied by constant strum of cumbia music.
Though the city has done a lot to tackle crime, Quito’s nightlife can still be dangerous. By day, however, it’s a different place. You might think an active volcano lording over a city would add edge, but Quito is relaxed. The sun-filled cobblestoned streets of Centro Historico’s Old Town, inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage list, snake up and down the rims of the bowl-shaped valley Quito sits in. They brim with shy Highland women wearing bowler hats and knee-length shirts, hawking everything from stevia leaves and crispy empanadas to fragrant naranjilla fruit and tangy jugo de mora (blackberry juice). No Quito tour is complete without a stop at the opulent and very baroque La Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesús ($3).
Its interior is almost entirely coated in gold leaf and the ghoulish painting “The Inferno” depicting sinners in a red-hot hell and described by travel writer Paul Theroux as “Pure Bosch.” The slightly less fear-inducing — but no less flamboyant Iglesia San Francisco (free) — was built on the remains of an Inca royal house weeks after the colonial city was founded in 1534. Its carvings include Inca-inspired sun gods.
Other neighborhoods worth exploring include gentrified Cumbayá, home to expats, upscale malls, locavore cacao shops and Universidad San Francisco de Quito. The Central Business District is filled with cafes and restaurants, not to mention La Carolina Park’s excellent Botanical Gardens ($3.50), where you can spend a morning exploring Ecuador’s orchids and bromeliads.
Ecuadorian cuisine is overshadowed by its ceviche-centric Peruvian neighbor. But understated savory Andean dishes like seco de chivo (braised goat stew), patacones (fried plantains), Andean soups — like rich creamy locro (potato and cheese soup) — are ideal comfort foods for the cold mountainous temperatures. Lunch at Cafe Del Fraile (+593-2-251-0113) is a great spot to nurse a jugo de mora ($2) and sample Quito’s iconic dishes like grilled trout with aji criollo ($9) or the more famous carne fritada ($8), a fried pork dish served with hominy, avocado, and plantains. Just off the Plaza Grande, it offers three tiers of dining balconies.
Hop on the Teleferico ($8.50; +593-2-222-2996), the world’s second-highest cable car, which glides up the eastern face of Pichinicha Volcano to 12,000-feet, to get a view Quito’s patchwork of colorful districts. The views are spectacular, including a fun but fakey photo you can take with a llama and a burlap poncho, both of which are filthy. Atop are a handful of cafés hawking coco tea ($2), recommended for those feeling dizzy. They makes for an excellent spot to catch your breath and admire the jaw-dropping vistas of the city’s six neighboring volcanoes.
Hotel-wise, consider the Casa Gangotena (from $375), a stylish 1920s mansion with 31 sound-proofed rooms swaddled in Egyptian marble and leather on Plaza San Francisco. Or, La Casona de la Ronda (from $135) in Old Town offers a more colonial feel with rooms featuring indigenous art and views of the Virgen de Quito.