Travel

Editor’s note: This is the fifth installment of a multi-part series chronicling the adventures of Frank and Shel Drake on their first visit to Ecuador. Frank is a travel writer and Shel Drake is a professional travel photographer. I’d made reservations at Casa Sol in Quito for Casa Sol in Otavalo and it was a...

Editor’s note: This is the fourth installment of a multi-part series chronicling the adventures of Frank and Shel Drake on their first visit to Ecuador. Frank is a travel writer and Shel Drake is a professional travel photographer.  The International Living conference ended Saturday night. Sunday morning we walked to Budget to pick up our rental car....

Editor’s note: This is the third installment of a multi-part series chronicling the adventures of Frank and Shel Drake on their first visit to Ecuador. Frank is a travel writer and Shel Drake is a professional travel photographer. The next morning, Wednesday, the International Living conference commenced. After being one of perhaps 80 people at the conference I’d attended...

Editor’s note: This is the second installment of a multi-part series chronicling the adventures of Frank and Shel Drake on their first visit to Ecuador. Frank is a travel writer and Shel Drake is a professional travel photographer. We went to Ecuador, initially, to attend a four-day conference on expatriating sponsored by the venerable and recommendable International...

Editor’s note: This is the first installment of a multi-part series chronicling the adventures of Frank and Shel Drake on their first visit to Ecuador. Frank is a travel writer and Shel Drake is a professional travel photographer. We’d just spent 24 hours traveling and 36 hours awake and I could hardly hold my head up,...

Latin America has long enticed budget-oriented travelers with its low prices, and as the global economic crisis lingers, the bargains are increasingly tempting — especially when it comes to a luxury vacation. Meals are often half the cost of their European counterparts, hotels are generally more luxurious than what you’d get for the same money...

Cuenca, Quito and Guayaquil and the Ecuadorian Ministry of Tourism are teaming up to develop a five-year tourism marketing plan. The goal, according to the ministry, is to achieve annual tourism growth of 16% by 2014. Growth in the past five years has averaged 10%, although some areas of the country, including Cuenca, have averaged...

The feasibility of international flights between Cuenca and cities in Northern Peru is being studied by the Cuenca Airport Corporation, the Ecuador Office of Civil Aviation and the city of Cuenca. Cuenca airport officials report that most of the infrastructure is in place for new flights. The only missing element is immigration processing facilities but,...

Looking for a little piece of paradise in the middle of Cuenca? Parque Paraiso –Paradise Park— may be just the place.   A short walk from Iglesia El Vergel, at Av. 12 de Abril and Calle de las Herrerias, the park, with its groves of willow trees and grassy fields, offers a welcome break from the hustle...

Are you considering buying real estate in Ecuador’s most popular areas, the southern Andes and the South Coast? One of the best ways to check out the market –and to see the country at the same time– is to sign up for one of two real estate tours being offered in March. The Cuenca – ...

Chilean-based airline Lan has been granted a two-year concession to operate domestic flights in Ecuador, according to Ecuadorian transportation officials. Lan's entry into the national market may also signal the beginning of international flights to Cuenca. The concession grants Lan rights to fly to Guayaquil, Quito and Cuenca as well as to the Galapagos islands, Ecuador's...

Life just became a little more complicated for foreign tourists who want to remain in Ecuador beyond the 90 days granted by their passport entry stamp. A memo from the country’s ministry of foreign relations to local immigration offices on Monday, Sept. 22, eliminates the in-country 90-day extension that had been routinely granted tourists in...