BARRÉ family
Did a tailor made trip based on: Journey to the middle of the world
Hello Mariane,
We came back from our trip delighted.
Ecuador is a geographically varied country with a pleasant cuisine, an extremely diverse environment, and kind, clean and honest people, which makes it a superb destination for tourism, including for families.
Individually, they just need to be a little more open and give a little more of themselves to make the experience perfect.
In concrete terms, our arrival in Quito went very well. My choice of the Ikala Quito hotel was not a good one, given the work going on in the House of Culture and the electricity restrictions...
Our guide Carlos was competent and pleasant, and he accompanied us without any false notes.
The visit to Wikiri is great for young and old alike.
In Mindo, the butterfly farm was a little less interesting because there was no guidance to help us learn about what we were seeing.
The visit to the El Quetzal chocolate factory is very complete, the food is good and everything is done to explain the special characteristics of Ecuadorian chocolate.
The Sachatamia Lodge is a beautiful, authentic place, with the feeling of staying in an animal reserve. It was almost too short...
The zip-line activity was a complete success, as was the beautiful hike to discover the Nambillo waterfalls.
The arrival at the hacienda El Porvenir fulfilled our expectations. The climb up Cotopaxi and the horse ride were memorable. It's a rare place, and we would have liked to have stayed there for two nights...
The transfer to the Galapagos went well, the island of Santa Cruz is very charming and the Ikala Galapagos hotel was perfect. The planned visits went well, and the discoveries were extraordinary, even if the fact that we had to change guides each time was a bit of a shame.
The transfer to Isabela was a disaster; we arrived last on the boat, which had no windows and the staff on board were reserved, to say the least. On arrival, Bike and Surf handled the formalities well so we didn't have to wait any longer and the transfer to the hotel went smoothly.
Hotel Iguana Crossing is fine, the only problem is that the double beds are 140cm wide and to fit our two teenage daughters in them was too small. Fortunately they were able to add a bed in the room to solve this problem, but the room wasn't necessarily sized for that. The excursions to Isabela were splendid and left us with some very nice photos and videos, including the one we added to discover the sulphur mine of the Sierra Negra volcano.
As the return transfer had to be changed so that we could make the most of the morning in Isabela, we did it on the WOLF boat, which was much more comfortable than the one on the outward journey.
If I had to change things:
- I'd start the trip in Mindo to get straight into the greenery, limit the number of return trips and maybe spend two nights at the Sachatamia.
- Then a stopover in Quito (and I'd trust you for the choice of hotel...)
- then Cotopaxi with, if possible, two nights at the El Porvenir hacienda (we weren't able to do everything)
- In the Galapagos, I wouldn't change much apart from perhaps the size of the room at the Iguana Crossing and especially the transfer from Santa Cruz to Isabela on the WOLF boat...
In hindsight, I would have really regretted not doing this morning's snorkelling at the Concha de Perla, as it summed up all our marine discoveries. We really must recommend it!
Thank you very much for your work, we'll be recommending it.
Adios!
Ronan Barré
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