Things to Do in Quito, Ecuador

Quick facts: The cable car takes you from 2,950 meters in the city up to 4,000 meters on the volcano in under 20 minutes, one of the world's highest cable rides. On clear days, the view stretches all the way to Cotopaxi, 50 kilometers away, and hummingbirds race the cabin all the way up.

Highlights: Just a few meters from the cable car station, a hiking trail begins that slowly unfolds the volcano's underground wonders, and on quiet mornings the Andean condors glide close enough that you can hear the wind in their nearly three-meter-wide wings. Almost no one bothers to walk the last small kilometers to the Ruco Pichincha summit, so suddenly you stand alone with 360 degrees of the Andes, completely without other tourists in the picture.

Quick facts: At a height of 115 meters, the Gothic spires tower over the neighborhood, and the nave is considered the largest neo-Gothic structure in the Americas. An old prophecy promises that the end of the world will come the day the building stands completely finished, so the topmost details have therefore deliberately never been put in place.

Highlights: Instead of the classic Gothic gargoyles, local animals such as iguanas, turtles, armadillos, and monkeys guard every exterior corner, all carved in stone. High up, the climbing route ends right below the unfinished spires, where the craftsmen deliberately leave the last piece missing, because tradition ties the end of the world to the building's final stone.

Quick facts: A 45-meter-tall virgin of aluminum weighs roughly 300 tons, which corresponds to about 40 heavy elephants, and she stands on a globe with a dragon under her feet. The hill rises just under 3,016 meters above sea level, and on a clear day you can see all the way over to the volcanoes far out on the horizon.

Highlights: Few know that she has wings, making her one of the only winged madonnas in the world, and on the pedestal she crushes a serpent against the globe. The hill once served as the Incas' sacred sun site, so centuries of history literally lie under the soles of your shoes when you stand up there.

Quick facts: Colonial houses over 300 years old with brightly colored facades and wrought iron balconies sit side by side with craft workshops and candy stalls. When evening comes, the bar doors light up under the old beams, and pasillo music fills the cobblestone courtyards.

Highlights: Most facades look quiet in daylight, but when the sun goes down, the street closes to traffic, and the courtyards transform into open night scenes with live music. Here you hear the requinto play pasillo in 300-year-old houses, while the scent of canelazo with cinnamon and aguardiente fills the air around you.

Quick facts: The presidential palace has no fewer than 260 rooms, but visitors are only allowed to see a fraction of them. The countless crystal chandeliers and hand-painted ceilings date themselves through several renovations, and the building lies on Quito's oldest pedestrian street.

Highlights: The guard parade in front of the building is not just a formal ceremony: when the hour strikes, the guards march in time with the heavy Andean morning traffic and the horns of the cars. On the rooftop terrace, you can stand face to face with the three volcanoes Pichincha, Cotopaxi, and Antisana, and watch the city stretch out in 360 degrees.

Quick facts: A full 557 hectares of eucalyptus forest give the park a third more area than New York's Central Park. From the trails at 2,800 meters, the view opens toward three volcanoes, and on clear days Cotopaxi's towering 5,897-meter cone stands crystal clear.

Highlights: At the La Cruz cross, raised on the hill's highest point, the whole city lies like a glowing carpet far below you, while Cotopaxi's white cone towers to the south. Wild Andean foxes often sneak across the trails at dawn, long before the city's joggers have even laced up their shoes.

Quick facts: The church behind the square is the city's oldest colonial building, and construction dragged on for more than 130 years. On the square, which lies 2,800 meters above sea level, women sell seed to massive flocks of pigeons, a ritual you can experience every single morning.

Highlights: Beneath the square's paving lie the remains of the Inca ruler Huayna Capac's residence, a clear trace of the conquest that shaped the city. Behind the wide facade awaits one of the continent's largest monastery complexes with around 30,000 square meters, gold-leaf altars, and hundreds of Baroque sculptures.