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Otavalo Market Tour: Explore Indigenous Crafts
5.0
10 Ratings
Cayambe
Immerse yourself in the vibrant culture of Ecuador’s Otavalo Market, a bustling hub of indigenous traditions. Discover colorful textiles, handicrafts, and delicious local food.
Immerse yourself in the vibrant culture of Ecuador’s Otavalo Market, a bustling hub of indigenous traditions. Discover colorful textiles, handicrafts, and delicious local food.
Duration:
8 hours
Cancellation:
24 hours
Highlights
- Fabrica de Bizcochos San Pedro - Next, the journey continues to Cayambe, where visitors can enjoy a “bizcocho cayambeño” or biscuit as a snack. This treat pairs perfectly with dulce de leche, also known as milk delicacy, and can be enjoyed with leaf cheese, chocolate, or coffee, all traditional foods of Cayambe.
- San Pablo Del Lago - Miralago…
- Fabrica de Bizcochos San Pedro - Next, the journey continues to Cayambe, where visitors can enjoy a “bizcocho cayambeño” or biscuit as a snack. This treat pairs perfectly with dulce de leche, also known as milk delicacy, and can be enjoyed with leaf cheese, chocolate, or coffee, all traditional foods of Cayambe.
- San Pablo Del Lago - Miralago Viewpoint: Departing from Cayambe, the tour heads to the Miralago viewpoint, located south of Otavalo. Here, one can admire the breathtaking view of the Imbabura volcano and the San Pablo Lagoon.
- Otavalo Market - Mid-morning, the tour arrives at the Otavalo market. There will be 2 hours to explore the Plaza de Ponchos and its crafts. Lunch is provided at a local restaurant.
- Laguna Cuicocha - Following the visit to Otavalo, a 30-minute drive leads to the lake. Cotacachi Lake is renowned for being situated within the crater of the Cotacachi volcano and is referred to as the “lagoon of the gods” due to its Kichwa translation.
- Cotacachi - Discover the delightful town of Cotacachi, famous for its premium leather goods and lively artisan market. Set in the Andes, Cotacachi boasts stunning views, a rich cultural heritage, and a friendly, inviting atmosphere. Join the tour to explore this scenic destination and shop for distinctive leather crafts.
What's Included
- Visit Otavalo Market
- Bilingual Tour Guide
- Miralago View Point
- Entrance to Cuicocha Lagoon
- Visit Bizcocho factory
- Pick Up / Drop Off
- Private Transportation
- Visit Otavalo Market
- Bilingual Tour Guide
- Miralago View Point
- Entrance to Cuicocha Lagoon
- Visit Bizcocho factory
- Pick Up / Drop Off
- Private Transportation
What's Not Included
- Breakfast
- Lunch
- Breakfast
- Lunch
Additional Information
The Otavalo Market, featuring its vibrant Plaza de Ponchos, stands as one of the most significant and well-loved indigenous markets in both Ecuador and South America. Otavalo is home to a large indigenous community known as the Otavalos, whose native language is Kichwa.
At the Otavalo Market, visitors can discover traditional foods and numerous stalls…
The Otavalo Market, featuring its vibrant Plaza de Ponchos, stands as one of the most significant and well-loved indigenous markets in both Ecuador and South America. Otavalo is home to a large indigenous community known as the Otavalos, whose native language is Kichwa.
At the Otavalo Market, visitors can discover traditional foods and numerous stalls where the Otavaleños offer their crafts, textiles, ponchos, blouses, shirts, hats, alpargatas, and handmade alpaca tapestries. The market, also referred to as the Otavalo Fair, is bustling with activity every Saturday, though a smaller selection of vendors can be found on other days of the week.
Location
Fabrica de Bizcochos San Pedro
Bolivar 600, Bizcochos San Pedro - Panamericana Norte Km 1 1/2
Cancellation Policy
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
Customer Ratings
5.0
(10 Ratings)
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Maddiess7684fe
Sep 21, 2025
A must-do tour! - Andrés is a knowledgeable guide who taught us so much about Ecuador! I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention how great our driver Jimmy was as well. My friend and I had a wonderful day exploring with them! Absolutely would recommend booking this tour to anyone.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Guillaumeto617te
Aug 30, 2025
Otalavo y Laguna Cuicocha trip - The trip was super good, the breakfast with the bizcochos, the cuicocha lake was amazing and Otavalo market was impressive
Lucia and Veronica were super helpful and their explanations about the region were very interesting
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Tourist29487595528
Aug 9, 2025
Extraordinary experience! - Extraordinary experience! We started tasting a delicious breakfast, Los Bizcochos and admire the panorama of Miralago. Then we went through Otavalo market, Catachi lagune and Catachi city. The tour guide, Chris, was amazing and nice. He deeply explain us everything about Quito environment, population and culture. 5 stars for him!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Helge
Jul 12, 2025
Fantastic trip to local market and beautiful nature. - Very nice trip to a very nice market. This is South America's largest outdoor market. Also got to stop at the original center of the world, and taste very good biscuits 😁
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Martedal
Jul 9, 2025
Otavala Market - Great trip to the Otavalo market. Andrés was a wonderful guide who shared so much history and stories about Equador and the area. A great day tour from Quoto.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Vicki_f
Mar 19, 2025
Francisco was an amazing... - Francisco was an amazing guide! His vehicle was roomy, clean and comfortable. With our initial outline of activities, Francisco worked with us to customize the stops and the length of time at the stops, so that the day was truly everything we wanted! Fransisco was a wealth of information, and shared so much about Ecuador and each of the places we visited. We would definitely use Franciso again and highly recommend both him and the tour.
Review provided by Viator
C3896ugjuliea
Jun 5, 2023
Just WOW! - Wow, what an amazing tour in the safe and very knowledgeable hands of Pedro our tour guide. He was amazing and really ensured we had the very best day out. Thoroughly recommend the tour but particularly with Pedro. Thanks
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Andrew
Jan 29, 2023
A full on day of fun, food and exploring! - We had a fun day with David (we left Quito at 08:10 and arrived back around 20:30, so bear timings in mind!), first going to Cayambe town right on the equator to try some delicious bizcocho biscuits. Also stopped here to buy some Andean tea. Then on to a viewpoint of Otavalo volcano and the lake near San Pablo del Lago before going to the market. After this we had a 3 course lunch (drinks are extra) in Cotacachi. We then walked around some of the Laguna Cuicocha with wonderful views. We headed back to to Cotacachi for a quick tasty surprise before heading home. David was very enthusiastic, knowledge and fun and enjoyed telling us about his country in good English. ¡Gracias!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Zo_h862
Aug 14, 2022
10/10. Highly recommend all Real Dreams Tours. - An excellent day trip! Highly recommend!!
On our holiday in Ecuador we decided to book a day trip to Mindo with Real Dreams which was amazing. We loved our day so much that we decided to book a second day tour with this fantastic company to Otavalo.
We were picked up promptly from our hotel and driven safely to all stops. We tasted traditional biscuits, went to a view point, visited Otavalo market, had lunch, went to a waterfall, saw a stunning lake and finished in a small village with traditional leather goods before being dropped back to Quito.
We had such a great time and felt we got to see so much! We learnt a lot from our helpful guides and were able to ask many questions. We loved both our trips with real dreams and thanks to Carolina and Pedro for making it so memorable.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Matthew
Oct 9, 2021
It was a ROCKING day! - My favorite part of this tour was my guide Pedro! He was on time, full of energy, great English skills, good sense of humor, knew exactly where he was going, drove flawlessly and allowed me to just enjoy myself ALL day! I found the actual market experience to be a bit underwhelming as many of the wares seemed to be overly redundant and wanted to be talking to artisans versus hawkers. But I found one young jewlery maker who made the trip worthwhile and the lunch I was treated to was fabulous. We visited a waterfall walk that was nice, moved to Cotacachi (leather central) which was a cute little town and then bought 24 stunning roses for $2 (how is that possible?) and back to Quito! I can't rave enough about how this all went so seamlessly.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
