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Mindo Cloud Forest: Nature's Hidden Gem
4.9
48 Ratings
Quito
Embark on a private day tour from Quito to Mindo Cloud Forest and immerse yourself in the wonders of nature. Experience hiking, birding, and discovering breathtaking waterfalls in this unique destination.
Embark on a private day tour from Quito to Mindo Cloud Forest and immerse yourself in the wonders of nature. Experience hiking, birding, and discovering breathtaking waterfalls in this unique destination.
Duration:
10 hours
Cancellation:
24 hours
Highlights
- Pululahua Volcano & Geobotanical Reserve - Our Mindo Cloud Forest Day Tour begins at 8:00 am from Quito, heading northwest through Pichincha Province and crossing various climatic zones. Our first stop is the Pululahua Volcano, where we’ll enjoy a panoramic view of the crater. You’ll see native plants like bromeliads, orchids, and some medicinal…
- Pululahua Volcano & Geobotanical Reserve - Our Mindo Cloud Forest Day Tour begins at 8:00 am from Quito, heading northwest through Pichincha Province and crossing various climatic zones. Our first stop is the Pululahua Volcano, where we’ll enjoy a panoramic view of the crater. You’ll see native plants like bromeliads, orchids, and some medicinal species.
- San Tadeo Birding - Want to feed hummingbirds right from your hand? This is the place to do it. You’ll also see toucans, tanagers, agoutis, squirrels, orchids, and bromeliads. Bring binoculars and a camera with a good zoom for an amazing experience.
- Mariposas de Mindo - After birding in San Tadeo, we’ll head to Mindo town and visit the butterfly farm. Here, you’ll learn about butterfly anatomy and reproduction in their natural habitat. Hummingbird feeders along a small trail offer great photography opportunities.
- Nambilla Cascadas - Next, we’ll journey to the cloud forest and explore trails leading to the waterfalls. A short drive from Mariposas de Mindo takes us to Cascadas Nambillo. We’ll take a cable car to another section of the cloud forest and hike to the Nambillo waterfall or the Waterfall Route, which takes about 1.5 hours. Afterward, we’ll enjoy lunch in a serene and beautiful setting.
- Mindo - After lunch, we’ll relax with a chocolate-tasting activity. Yumbos is the best spot in Mindo for artisanal chocolate. Then, we’ll head back to Quito.
What's Included
- National tour Guides
- In-vehicle air conditioning
- Admission fees
- National tour Guides
- In-vehicle air conditioning
- Admission fees
What's Not Included
- Lunch
- Gratuites are welcome
- Lunch
- Gratuites are welcome
Additional Information
Enjoy a unique day trip to the Mindo Cloud Forest, one of the last remnants of the Choco Darien Region. Discover diverse and unique natural spots. Engage in various activities such as hiking in the Cloud Forest, visiting a butterfly farm, photographing hummingbirds, bird watching, and exploring waterfalls along the Nambillo River. Experience fun and…
Enjoy a unique day trip to the Mindo Cloud Forest, one of the last remnants of the Choco Darien Region. Discover diverse and unique natural spots. Engage in various activities such as hiking in the Cloud Forest, visiting a butterfly farm, photographing hummingbirds, bird watching, and exploring waterfalls along the Nambillo River. Experience fun and adventure with additional activities like tubing and zip-lining in the Mindo River. This is a tailor-made experience, so please share your preferences with us.
Location
Pululahua Volcano & Geobotanical Reserve
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
4.9
(48 Ratings)
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185meilis
Sep 12, 2024
Amazing bird and zip lining adventure - This is a wonderful private tour for all bird lovers and our guide, Kathy, is a patient and encouraging person for photographers who want time to sit still in silence to capture pictures of the ever elusive hummingbirds. She was also so helpful in identifying the different hummingbird, tananger, and toucan species we were lucky enough to spot. We got so many wonderful pictures and were given plenty of time to do this. This is the best part about this tour is it is fully customizable for what you want to do whether you want to spend the whole day doing photography, taking a hike, or doing zip lining. We wanted to do the zip lining in addition to doing the bird watching. Kathy was a great sport since my curse of zip lining in other countries seems to come with a deluge of rain every time I seem to go. She said it’s always been sunny when she goes (whelp). We had a great lunch and then went to a chocolate factory to learn how chocolate is farmed and made. The drive is also beautiful since you learn so much about the land and can see other things than the city. I highly recommend this very personalized trip.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Extraordinary284564
Sep 9, 2024
An iridescent day in the cloud forest - We had a once in a lifetime day with Pato. The tour exceeded our expectations especially as we saw a Toucan and an incredible number of iridescent hummingbird species and butterflies. Our friends had the same excellent experience a week earlier. Pato was so helpful and knowledgeable.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Jena_c
Aug 29, 2024
Knowledgeable and fun guide to Quito and Mindo! - If there were 10 stars, he would have 10! Pato was absolutely wonderful. He explained the full day’s itinerary as we headed to our first stop, so we had an idea of his general timing of our day. He was very knowledgeable about the history, animals, and plants we saw which made what we were seeing extra special. He was also great about going with the flow. We saw a billboard for air biking (yes, it’s real!), so we took a pit stop for that. He rode as well! :) I highly recommend Pato for your Quito and Mindo tours.
Review provided by Viator
Z8660jwheidir
Aug 1, 2024
An awe - My boyfriend and I had an amazing day with professional, knowledgeable and gracious private tour guide, Kathy Rea. Kathy was a safe driver, athletic and it was a lot of fun getting to know and share with her during the drive and during a delicious lunch in a quiet, serene setting. Kathy was very accommodating, giving us many options on what and how we’d like to experience during our 10+ hour private tour. I loved seeing the plentitude of native birds, butterflies and learning how to make coffee and chocolate. Unfortunately my boyfriend had injured his knee, so we didn’t hike to see the many beautiful waterfalls. Regardless, we had a great day and plan to come back again to hike with our new friend and guide Kathy.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
L9458ewtinac
Jul 4, 2024
Fantastic experience with an amazing guide - We highly recommend this day tour - the gorgeous scenery and unique wildlife were made even more interesting by our wonderful guide Kathy. She was very pleasant and professional, and knowledgeable about the places we visited and about Ecuador in general. The variety of activities was perfect, from birding and butterflies to a waterfall hike complete with a cable car ride. All followed by a delicious lunch. Last stop was an entertaining chocolate tour and tasting! Many thanks for a great day!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
L1471wpwendya
Jul 1, 2024
A trip that provided everything I had hoped for - The trip was all I had hoped for - lots of birds and butterflies, an enjoyable trip to a waterfall and an impressive guide, Misa. I was the sole participant for this tour with a main interest in hiking and bird watching. Misa took my interests into account when planning where we would tour. The drive was long, but Misa provided a lot of interesting information about the country and the area we would be visiting.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Venkannab_13
Jun 29, 2024
Great tour of Mindo cloud Forest - Patricio ( Pato) is an excellent guide and very knowledgeable on the Ecuadorean culture and the visiting places . He has all the time and patience to help you and make you feel that the tour is comfortable
We visited all places as per tour itinerary
Specially the travel through Mindo forest itself is very great . We enjoyed Hummingbird farm and butterfly farm . Cable car ride and hike to the Mindo water falls was very enjoyable
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Jamie_m
Jun 10, 2024
Amazing Cloud Forest Experience - The entire tour was wonderful. Nice clean vehicle for transport. The bird watching was excellent and we ticked a few rare birds off our list as well. Our guide Kathy was so friendly and knowledgeable. The waterfall hike was not for the faint of heart but being so close to the waterfall was breathtaking. Lunch was at a beautiful restaurant that we had all to our selves aside from the toucans!
Review provided by Viator
Julianahsu3
May 23, 2024
Wonderful fun packed day excursion - This was a wonderful fun packed day. Pato was our guide and he was excellent! He started off texting the night before with a recommended list of things to bring (which was very helpful) and confirmed the pickup time for the next morning. The vehicle for the day tour was very comfortable. The Pululahua Volcano has excellent views. We saw an Olinguito stealing bananas at the bird sanctuary. It was fun to feed the hummingbirds and some even landed on your hand. There were some types of hummingbirds we'd never seen before. The bird sanctuary also had excellent views.
At the butterfly farm they showed you how to get a butterfly to stay on your finger which was interesting and they were flying all around you. There were also many beautiful tropical flowers. The teleferico had wonderful views of the cloud forest. There was a nice hike to a waterfall. Pato was very accomodating when we asked for changes in the itinerary. We asked to have Paila for lunch instead of a regular lunch and to see the Inca ruins near the equator line and Pato kindly accomodated both requests. We very much enjoyed this lunch :-) The Yumbos chocolate factory tour is probably the best one I've been on so far. Very comprehensive. We've been to a couple others before. It concluded with a chocolate tasting with fruit as palate cleansers, bitter hot chocolate (with syrup sweetners), cacoa tea, and a chocolate face mask. The cacao pulp syrup is a very unique product, yummy. The Inca ruins were very interesting especially shrouded in mist. So much history. Thanks to Pato we were able to see it!
Thank you, Pato, for a wonderful day!!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
D9866jgbryann
May 20, 2024
Loved our day in Mindo Cloud Forest - Kathy picked us up early in the morning for the drive to Mindo. On the way, we stopped to visit hummingbirds, which were everywhere. We were even able to feed the adventurous ones by hand. Then we were off to a bird sanctuary, where we saw some of the most amazing and colorful birds we have ever seen. Our favorites were the multiple species of large toucans. Then, we were off to do some hiking to a gushing waterfall in the Mindo Cloud Forest, noting many other types of plants and wildlife along the way. Kathy was extremely knowledgeable of all of the plants and had interesting stories of how they were used by indigenous people over the centuries. After the waterfall and some additional hiking, we took the cable car through the cloud forest and back to the trailhead. We had lunch at a great little restaurant in Mindo at the Sisikuna Lodge, followed by an amazing tour at Yumbos Chocolate, where we got to see the entire process for the preparation of delicious artisan chocolate. Tracey and Kathy enjoyed a rejuvenating chocolate facial treatment during the tasting. As we returned to the hotel and later reviewed our pictures, we were amazed at how much of Mindo and the cloud forest we were able to enjoy and learn about during this single day there. Huge thanks to Kathy for organizing a perfect day for us in the cloud forest.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
