Ecuador grandparent & grandchild tours - family trips
Sample itinerary Grandparent & Grandchild tours
We invite you to join our trips designed and designated exclusively for families with well chosen hotels with facilities for everyone. Our Ecuador Family Adventure trips and tours are the perfect way to introduce your kids to the great Latin American culture. You will experience beautiful landscapes of the Andes Mountains, the immense virgin rainforest of the Amazon Jungle and the Pacific coast lowlands and beaches with possibility of extending your trip to cruise the amazing natural resources of the Galapagos Islands. We also offer a variety of meals especially made for kids: fun, nutritious and healthy.
This is a trip for all ages with activities that are friendly for children and adults alike. It is an ideal tour for Grandparents travelling with Granchildren.
Day 1 - Quito
Arrive in Quito and transfer in to your family friendly hotel.
Day 2 - Quito - City tour - Center of the world tour
Today we will briefly explore the colonial downtown of Quito, a Unesco heritage site, we will walk around the churches and visit an interactive museum with child friendly lectures. From here we will visit the "Teleferiqo" one of the highest altitude cable cars in the world for an excellent birdseye view of the city. We will also have a short visit at Vulcano park (amusement park) on the skirts of Pichincha volcano where kids will get the chance to ride the highest altitude roller coaster in the world.
After lunch (optional) we will visit the middle of the world monument at the Equator line. Here we will learn about the line that divides the planet in to hemispheres, north and south. We will finalize the day with a fun and educational visit to the Inti Ñan interactive museum where will enjoy a series of experiments to prove we are at the exact equator.
Return to your hotel and overnight.
Day 3 - Quito - Amazon basin - Amazon lodge (cruise)
A short flight takes you over the high Andes and down to the Amazon frontier town of Puerto Francisco de Orellana (called Coca by locals). From here you travel by motorized canoe two and a half hours down the Napo River, followed by a short walk through thick palm forest to Sacha Lodge (it is also possible to cruise the Amazon on board the Manatee Amazon Explorer)-- your home for the next week and base for an incredible Amazon travel adventure!
Day 4 through 6 - Amazon lodge (cruise)
During your Ecuador travel, days in the amazon rainforest are filled with discovery. During excursions, visitors are divided into small groups (max 6), each with its own native guide and bilingual naturalist. Native guides carry a lifetime of knowledge about the medicinal and functional uses of rainforest plants. They proudly display the wonders of their home environment, sometimes even offering a tasty treat like the strange lemon tasting ants that coexist in the stems of certain trees. Naturalists, educated in biology and ecology, translate for native guides and complement excursions with explanations of the scientific workings of the rainforest. Sacha Lodge has something for everyone. A favorite activity includes paddling dugout canoes along blackwater creeks and lakes past luxuriant lianas, bromeliads, and enormous palms. Swimming and piranha fishing are also popular (the piranha here are harmless, really!). And for the adventurous Ecuador traveler there are night walks and canoe trips in search of caiman and other nocturnal creatures. Sacha Lodge offers a number of very unique sites to its visitors.
A 130-foot observation tower and a 940-foot canopy walkway both give visitors a chance to get above the rainforest canopy for incredible views of the area. These area also great places to observe toucans and macaws and, with luck, spot noisy howler monkeys or a three-toed sloth. Another site is the butterfly house where over 40 local butterfly species are bred. Visitors can see the process of breeding and raising these colorful insects and wander through the "flying room." Finally, there's the Yasuni Parrot Lick. Just a short distance from Sacha Lodge is Ecuador's most famous parrot lick, where visitors can observe dozens of the magnificently colored birds feeding on the clay.
Day 7 - Amazon lodge (cruise) - Quito
After an early breakfast, you'll head back up the Napo River for the flight back to Quito to complete your Amazon tour. At the airport, you'll be picked up and transferred to your hotel and have the evening free to enjoy Quito.
Day 8 - Quito - Manta - Bahia de Caraquez - Canoa
After a short flight from Quito down to the coastal plains arriving at the city of Manta. From here we will be transfered by bus to the ecocity of Bahia de Caraquez.
A visit to the farm has three main aspects:
- Agroecology/ sustainable living
- Adventure and the local environment, flora and fauna of the transition forest.
- Culture - the coastal montubio culture
The farm demonstrates a combination of organic agriculture, permaculture, local traditional moon planting, alternative energies and recycling of almost everything !
Introduction and Orientation of the farms ecotourism practices. Info kit for
children. We will start our adventure with a tour of Saiananda Park where we will observe tropical fish, deer, ostriches etc. Visit Miguelito, the huge Galápagos turtle. Lunch in Bahia de Caraquez ecocity.
In the afternoon we will visit Isla Corazón (heart island): explore the mangroves in canoe with a local guide. Navigate narrow channels to reach the frigate bird colony. Return to the beach town of Canoa.
Dinner and camp fire with toasted marshmelows, we will play several games. Spend the night in the beach town of Canoa
Day 9 - Canoa - Rio Muchacho ecolodge
Today we start with a nutritious breakfast. A morning at the beach follows with a swim in the sea. Travel to Rio Muchacho Organic Farm. Tour of the farm to see the animals, crops and hammocks!
Lunch. Visit the giant mysterious fig tree… swing like tarzan !
Introduction to horse riding. Handcraft workshop where we learn to make key rings with tagua (vegetable ivory) and colored markers.
Dinner. Make yummy chocolate from the bean to the pot over a bonfire. Night in Rió Muchacho in a thatched roof cabin next to the river
Day 10 - Rio Muchacho ecolodge - Bahia de Caraquez - Manta - Quito
Gentle interaction between children and animals at our local petting farm. Milk the cow and make cheese. Ride horses, (longer trek to the water fall and to see the monkeys with packed lunch depending on the age of the children ). Make rings from palm seeds.
Lunch and opportunity to go fishing for river shrimp and swim in the river. Return to Bahia de Caraquez and on to Manta for your flight to Guayaquil.
Day 11 - Guayaquil - ?
Transfer out for your return flight home or join a trip extension on a Galapagos family cruise or into the cloudforest near Mindo at a fun family friendly lodge.
Trip Notes
The above is a sample itinerary prepared for a Family trip. It can be customized to fit the needs and special interests of your travellers.