Your Complete Guide to the Top 5 Tungurahua Province Full-Day Tours

So, you’ve found yourself in the amazing Tungurahua province of Ecuador, very likely in the super popular town of Baños de Agua Santa. First off, great choice. Anyway, the thing is, there are just so many tour options advertised on every street corner. Honestly, trying to pick the right one can feel like a bit much. That’s why we put together this guide, you know? It’s more or less a friendly chat about five of the most incredible day trips you can take. We’re going to talk about what each one is really like, so you can just find the one that feels absolutely perfect for you.

1. Baños to the Amazon: A Taste of the Rainforest

Okay, so let’s start with a really classic adventure, you know? It’s the full-day trip from the mountains of Baños straight into the upper Amazon basin. Basically, what’s incredible about this is how quickly the whole environment around you changes completely. You start in the Andes, and in just a short drive, you’re literally in a whole different world. The air gets all thick and warm, and it smells like wet earth and a million green things growing at once. This tour is seriously popular for a good reason; it’s just a fantastic look into the jungle if you only have a day.

Typically, your day starts with a drive towards Puyo, which is sort of a gateway town to the Amazon. The first stop is often a viewpoint to just look out over the vast sea of green that is the rainforest. Then, it’s pretty much all about getting deeper into the experience. You’ll probably take a motorized canoe ride down a calm, chocolate-colored river, which is absolutely amazing. Seriously, you feel so small floating through this huge, living place. A lot of these tours then take you to visit a local Quechua community. Frankly, this part is pretty special. You get to see how people live in the rainforest, try some traditional foods like chontacuro, which are beetle larvae, if you’re feeling adventurous, and learn about their customs and blowgun hunting techniques. It’s a very humbling and, you know, really cool cultural exchange.

After that, it’s usually time for a walk through the jungle itself. A guide points out all sorts of plants and explains what they’re used for—medicines, food, building materials, and so on. It really makes you appreciate the wisdom that local people have. At the end of the day, after a pretty full schedule, you will probably make a stop at the famous El Pailon del Diablo, or Devil’s Cauldron, waterfall on your way back to Baños. Honestly, feeling the spray from that powerful waterfall is just the perfect way to cap off a truly wild day of exploration.

2. The Quilotoa Loop: A Crater Lake of Stunning Beauty

Alright, now let’s talk about a totally different kind of spectacular. The day trip to Quilotoa is just all about one thing, and that’s the unbelievable view of the crater lake. Honestly, the pictures you’ve seen online, well, they don’t quite do it justice. Getting there from Baños takes a little while, as it’s a few hours’ drive. Still, the drive itself is a pretty big part of the adventure. You go up, up, up into the high Andes, through these patchworks of farmland and past tiny mountain villages where life feels a world away from home.

When you finally get to the rim of the crater, it’s just one of those moments that takes your breath away, seriously. The wind up there is often quite strong and cold, so definitely bring a jacket. But then you see it—this massive volcanic crater filled with the most stunning, turquoise-colored water. Its color seems to change with the sun and the clouds, and it’s just absolutely mesmerizing. Most tours give you a good amount of time here. You can choose to hike along the crater rim for different photo opportunities, which is just fantastic. Or, if you’re up for a physical test, you can hike down the steep, sandy path to the edge of the water.

“The mountains have a way of speaking to your soul without a single word. At Quilotoa, that voice is a powerful, beautiful silence.”

Just a little heads-up: the walk down is pretty easy, but the hike back up is another story entirely. It’s a steep, calf-burning climb at a very high altitude, so it can be pretty tough. Luckily, for a few dollars, you can usually hire a mule to carry you back to the top, which honestly is a lifesaver for many people. Many trips will make a quick stop at a local market or a small, traditional home in the Andes, which gives a nice little bit of cultural flavor to a day that’s really dominated by nature’s incredible artwork.

3. Cotopaxi National Park: Journey to the Giant

Okay, if you’re looking for a trip that feels really epic and kind of makes you feel small in the face of nature, then the day tour to Cotopaxi National Park is pretty much it. This one is all about getting up close to one of the most famous volcanoes on the planet. Cotopaxi is a nearly perfect cone shape, you know, and it’s covered in snow, looking exactly like a volcano from a drawing. The fact that it’s one of the highest active volcanoes in the world just adds to the whole feeling of awe. It’s a pretty long day from Baños, so you’ll start early.

The journey takes you into the Cotopaxi National Park, and the scenery is just completely unique. It’s called the páramo, a high-altitude Andean grassland that is almost like a tundra. You’ll see low-lying shrubs, tough grasses, and, if you’re lucky, some wild horses or even a condor soaring way overhead. The van or 4×4 will take you up a bumpy road to a parking area at about 4,500 meters, which is seriously high up. From there, the real challenge begins. The main goal for most people is to hike from the car park up to the José F. Rivas Refuge, which sits at an incredible 4,864 meters.

Honestly, this hike is very, very demanding, just because of the extreme altitude. Every step feels like a real effort, so you have to take it slow and steady. But reaching that mountain hut, getting a hot chocolate, and looking out at the glacier just above you is an absolutely incredible feeling of accomplishment. Some tours offer a super fun option after the hike: mountain biking back down from the car park. You can just cruise down the volcano’s slopes for a good long while, which is a really fun, adrenaline-pumping way to end the high-altitude part of the day before the long drive back to Baños.

4. The Swing at the End of the World & The Devil’s Cauldron

So, maybe you want a day that’s a little less about super long drives and more about iconic, fun activities right around Baños. In that case, the tour that combines the famous “Swing at the End of the World” with the “Route of the Waterfalls” is just perfect for you. This trip is more or less a greatest-hits compilation of Baños’ most famous spots, and it’s a really fun and action-packed day. It’s arguably the most ‘Instagrammable’ tour you can do, but it’s actually a lot of fun, not just for the photos.

The first part of the day usually involves heading up the mountain to the Casa del Árbol, which is where the famous swing is located. It’s basically a simple treehouse with a long swing that sends you flying out over a steep canyon. On a clear day, you can get some incredible views of the active Tungurahua volcano in the background. It feels a bit scary at first, but it’s totally thrilling and really safe. Then, you head back down and start on the “Ruta de las Cascadas.” This road winds its way down the valley towards the Amazon, and, as the name says, it’s just lined with waterfalls.

Your tour will stop at a few of them, and sometimes you can even ride in a Tarabita, which is a sort of cable car, across the gorge for an even better view. The main event, of course, is the last stop: the incredible El Pailon del Diablo, the Devil’s Cauldron. You can get right up close to this unbelievably powerful waterfall. There are two entrances, and you’ll probably go to the one with the suspension bridges and the tight crawl-space that lets you get right behind the curtain of water. Feeling the raw force and the thundering sound of the falls is an experience you just won’t forget.

5. Chimborazo Volcano: Reaching for the Closest Point to the Sun

Finally, for a really unique and record-breaking kind of adventure, there’s the day trip to Chimborazo. This volcano is pretty special. You see, it isn’t the tallest mountain from sea level, but because of the Earth’s bulge at the equator, its summit is literally the furthest point from the center of the Earth. So, in a way, it’s the closest point on land to the sun. Just knowing that fact makes the whole trip feel incredibly cool. This is another very high-altitude adventure, and it feels even more remote and wild than Cotopaxi, to be honest.

The drive itself takes you through the Chimborazo Wildlife Reserve. The landscape here is stunningly stark and beautiful. The real highlight of the drive is seeing the herds of wild vicuñas. These animals are relatives of llamas and alpacas, but they’re wild, graceful, and protected here. They’re just beautiful to watch as they graze on the high-altitude plains with the massive, ice-covered dome of Chimborazo in the background. It feels like you’ve been transported to a totally different planet.

Similar to the Cotopaxi trip, the goal is to drive up as far as you can, to the first refuge, Carrel Hut, at around 4,850 meters. The air up here is extremely thin and very, very cold, so you absolutely need to dress in warm layers, with a hat and gloves. From the refuge, most tours will guide you on a short, more or less flat hike to a small lake called Condor Cocha, which sits at about 5,100 meters. The altitude makes it a very slow walk, but standing at that small high-altitude lake, looking up at the immense glaciers of Chimborazo, is a profoundly humbling moment. It’s a quiet, powerful place that makes you feel a deep respect for the mountains.

Read our full review: [Tungurahua Province Full-day Tours Full Review and Details]
See Prices, Availability & Reserve Now ([Reserve a Tour in Tungurahua])