15 Things You Need to Know Before Visiting Ecuador

[Music] thank you [Music] [Music] [Music] hey guys welcome back to the channel if you're new here my name is Brittany from shoe Run the World travel blog and for the past few months I've been on additional Nomad journey through South America right now I'm in Ecuador and I've been here for about three weeks now so I thought it'd be really helpful to put together a video of 15 things that you should know before your trip to Ecuador let's go ahead and dive in first things first is currency something that you may not know is that the official currency of Ecuador is actually the US dollar they used to have the Ecuadorian sucre but they transitioned to the USD back in the year 2000 so it's been about 23 years since they switched over if you're coming from the US that's awesome hit the ATM in the US before you come here to avoid international fees but one thing to note is that they do not accept large bills so as much as you possibly can get fives and tens and possibly even 20s 20s or sometimes a hit or miss here but no one will accept a 50 or even a hundred dollar bill I did bring a few 100 bills that I was obviously hoping that I could use here and have yet to find someone who will accept it so keep that in mind and try to get the smallest bills you possibly can number two is paying for things so kind gonna piggybacks off the first point if you are in a big city like keto or Cuenca you're going to be able to use your credit card or debit card no problem but in the smaller cities around Ecuador cash is still King so before you leave a big city and go to one of the smaller places in Ecuador make sure you have enough cash to cover the entire time that you're going to be there because you honestly don't know if you're going to be able to get cash when you get there for example when I went to mindo I had read online that there was only one ATM in the town so you know my plan was to of course get as much cash as I possibly can to cover my trip but in the back of my head I was thinking okay at least there's an ATM there in case I need anything and then after I booked my hotel they actually messaged me on booking.com and let me know that the one ATM in town is actually broken so make sure I bring enough cash to cover my entire trip in Lindo so just use that as a kind of a general rule of thumb act as if there's no ATM there make sure you have enough cash to cover you for the duration of your time outside of the big cities just in case number three plugs they do use the US style plug so if you are coming from America again you will be able to use all your advice is no problem without an adapter number four Visas so any of the countries that you see on the screen right now are able to stay in Ecuador for 90 days without needing a Visa just make sure to double check on your country's website how long you are allowed to stay without a Visa or if you need a visa to enter Ecuador number five the local language of course you guess it is Spanish and although there is a big expat community in Ecuador English isn't very widely spoken so I would recommend learning and memorizing some key phrases in Spanish before you arrive another hack is if you have the Google Translate app on your phone you can actually download the language of Spanish so anywhere you are if you have service or not you can still translate Spanish to English or vice versa number six is food out of all the places I've been in South America Ecuadorian food is by far my favorite local food you have insuboyado which is this really great fish soup you have locra which is like a potato soup Ceviche which is really great with shrimp tree tomato which is best served as a juice versus eating the tree Tomatoes by themselves which is like grilled meat we had ours out was smothered in garlic butter it was absolutely amazing you have empanadas which you know most of South America has but still great or not though which is whole roasted pig and Qui I think it's Qui is the roasted guinea pig obviously if you can I recommend trying as many dishes as you possibly can like I said I haven't had a dish yet that I didn't like here in Ecuador so highly recommend eating as much as you possibly can while you're here number seven it's namesake so Ecuador actually got its name because of the fact that it sits along the Equator and only 20 kilometers north of Quito you can actually go to the center of the world matad del mundo where you are at zero degrees latitude and zero degrees longitude so you literally are in the center of the world and you can stand in both hemispheres at once so it's the only place in the world you can do this highly highly recommend visiting Ecuador along the Equator number eight is crime so for the most part it really is just like petty theft you know pickpocketing stealing things like that on the bus Journeys you do want to be careful about where you put your bag I highly recommend keeping your bag on your lap at all times and not putting it on the floor you know underneath of you or even up above they do have bus sleeves that will you know sit right behind you use a razor or a knife slit open your bag and steal things and you don't even realize that anything's been stolen until you get to your hotel so as long as you keep everything on your lap you should be good when we first got here we met a guy who had moved to Ecuador in 1986 and he's been here ever since and he was kind of giving us tips and tricks helping us you know plan out our itinerary and he did let us know that in the city of wyakil right now for the past few years um there have been a lot of murders so I'm not exactly sure what's been going on there I know there's been some civil unrest and things like that so you know comment down below if you know what's going on there if it is safe for visitors he recommended for us not to go to wyakil because of how many murders there have been but everywhere else you said is relatively safe it's just petty theft petty crime number nine is altitude sickness it really is easy to get altitude sickness on your trip here in Ecuador because there are so many places around the country that you'll visit that have super high elevation you have Cuenca at 2560 meters Quito at 2008 150 meters the quilatoa Lagoon at 4 000 meters and Chimborazo at 5000 meters to avoid altitude sickness acclimating is key so the first few days that you get to keto take it easy don't do anything too strenuous and drink lots of water speaking of water that's number 10 the tap water is not safe to drink in Ecuador just like it is in most of South America water is relatively cheap so make sure that you do buy the water in the stores to avoid getting sick if you want to save money I do recommend getting the biggest possible bottle you can find we found a 10 liter bottle and then we each just have a small water bottle that we fill up every day versus going and buying small water bottles every day because that does add up number 11 is transportation Ecuador has an amazing bus system and so I highly recommend that you take advantage of that it's cheap it's comfy and the rides aren't too long most bus Journeys in South America are crazy long you know like 20 30 hours but you can go anywhere in Ecuador within eight hours so it really is awesome to utilize that bus travel not have to fly as much and save a bit of money number 12 is diversity there's so much geographical diversity within the small country of Ecuador you have Charming Colonial towns big cities coasts waterfalls high mountains Cloud forests rainforests volcanoes craters Lakes Islands valleys Inca ruins the list literally goes on and on of how much diversity Ecuador has so there's literally so much to do and see jam-packed in this small country so the more that you research and even the more that you're there you're going to realize how much more that there is to do so give yourself enough time to really experience all the Ecuador has to offer number 13 is packing so to piggyback off of my last Point yes it's so awesome that Ecuador is so geographically diverse but it does make packing a bit difficult because you kind of have to pack for every climate that there possibly is the key here is layers obviously lots of layers when you're cold and in the colder climates and you can strip those layers in the hotter climates and some places we'll have both climates within the same day in Quito it's always sunny and nice in the morning and by afternoon it's raining so again those layers will really help you adjust to whatever time of day it is or whatever climate you go to number 14 is the time of year to visit so because because Ecuador is along the Equator the temperature doesn't really shift too much it does stay pretty consistent year round no matter where you are in the country here on the screen you can see three main cities within Ecuador their highest temps and their lowest temps month by month throughout the year you can see that they really shift by like one degree every single month it's pretty consistent so there isn't really a hot versus a cold or like summer versus winter time to come to Ecuador but there is a Rainy versus not rainy season and there are pros and cons of visiting during both times during rainy season you know there's less tourists things will be a little bit less expensive the waterfalls will be awesome but you're going to be dealing with rainy weather pretty much every day and then obviously in the not rainy season it's the complete opposite so you know there will be more tourists things might be a little bit more expensive but for the most part you probably will have pretty good weather and the last one number 15 how much time do you need to visit Ecuador in my opinion you need a minimum of two weeks just for the mainland of Ecuador and then add on a third week if you're planning on doing the Galapagos I will be doing a day by day Ecuador itinerary so if you haven't subscribed already make sure to hit that subscribe button so you don't miss out on that itinerary that I'll be posting soon there you have it 15 things you should know before you visit Ecuador if you found this video helpful please hit that like button let me know that yes this video was helpful so I can continue to make videos like it and make sure to hit that subscribe button so you don't miss out on any upcoming videos as I continue my digital Nomad journey through South America thank you guys so much for watching and I'll see you in the next video [Music]

Channel: She Run the World

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Id: ByUIjLWIDIg

Length: 8min 58sec (538 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 23 2023