Otavalo Market Tour: Explore Ecuador's Vibrant Indigenous Market
5.0
4 Ratings
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: 1 day learn more
Highlights
  • Quitsato Mitad del Mundo Monument - The first stop is located near Cayambe, you can see the Sundial with a large mosaic, this site is of importance since you have the opportunity to stand in the northern and southern hemisphere.

  • Cayambe - Then we will go to Cayambe, here you can taste a biscuit or biscocho cayambeño as a snack, it can be accompanied with dulce de leche or also called delicacy of milk and with leaf cheese; traditional food of Cayambe.

  • San Pablo Del Lago - Miralago Viewpoint : Leaving Cayambe we go to the Miralago viewpoint located south of Otavalo, you can see a wonderful view of the Imbabura volcano and the Lagoon of San Pablo.

  • Otavalo Market - At half in the morning we will arrive at the Otavalo market. We will have a time of 2 hours to explore the plaza de ponchos and its crafts. Lunch is included at a local restaurant.

  • Laguna Cuicocha - After our visit to Otavalo, we make a 30-minute trip to the lake. Cotacachi lake is famous for being inside the crater of the Cotacachi volcano and is known as the lagoon of the gods because of its translation from Kichwa

  • Cotacachi - Finally we will go to Santa Ana de Cotacachi, known as a “leather” town. you’ll have time to explore the shops with your leather products. This tour is a full day of emotions on our visit to the Otavalo Market.

What's Included
  • Private transportation
  • Bilingual Tour Guide
  • Bottled water
  • Snacks
  • Lunch
What's Not Included
  • Alcoholic Beverages
  • Breakfast
Additional Information

Undeniably, the Otavalo Market, renowned for its vibrant plaza de ponchos, stands as a key and highly visited indigenous market in both Ecuador and South America. Otavalo is dwelling to a significant Otavalos indigenous community, with Kichwa being their primary language. The Otavalo Market is a hub of indigenous gastronomy and numerous stalls where Otavaleños exhibit their artisanal goods, such as textiles, ponchos, blouses, shirts, hats, alpargatas, and handmade alpaca tapestries. Though the Otavalo market or Otavalo fair bustles fully on Saturdays, a reduced number of sellers can also be found throughout the rest of the week.

Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Customer Ratings
5.0
(4 Ratings)
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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.
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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.
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April 2024
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