Best hotels in Ecuador

Ecuador squeezes the Andes, the Amazon and the Galápagos Islands into a country roughly the size of Colorado. First-timers will usually start in Quito, the capital, whose old town is chock-full of gold-leafed churches and steep cobbled lanes. Out in the Galápagos, families tend to base themselves on Isla Santa Cruz, where the water is clear enough to count the fish below. Repeat visitors prefer the slower villages of Isla Isabela and its giant tortoise breeding centre. Hikers head for the Avenue of the Volcanoes, the highland valley south of Quito, to walk the rim of the turquoise crater lake at Quilotoa. You can choose between 155 properties across Ecuador, and prices range from USD 90 to USD 2,200 per person per night. In Cuenca, ITZA Hotel Boutique Internacional is a short walk from some of the country's prettiest colonial architecture. And deep in the Ecuadorian Amazon at Sacha Lodge, you'll share the forest with sloths, pink river dolphins and squabbling monkeys.