The Regions of Ecuador:  El Oriente (Amazon) | La Sierra (Andes) | La Costa (Coast) | Galapagos Islands |

Galapagos Islands
Related Galapagos Pages
Galapagos Tours
Galapagos National Parks
Domestic Flights
Interactive Galapagos Map
Galapagos Map
Galapagos Hotels
Galapagos Scuba Diving
Galapagos Diving Tours

A modern Garden of Eden and a living laboratory of evolution, the Galapagos are unique on the planet. The Islands are peaks of enormous underwater volcanoes, and having never been connected with the South American continent, Galapagos’ flora and fauna developed in complete isolation, a fact that in many ways allowed Charles Darwin to form his theory of evolution. The Galapagos Islands are truly a wonder that should not be missed. Where else can you swim with hammerhead sharks, penguins, sea lions, and hundreds of tropical reef fish, and sleep on a volcanic peak?

Learn more about the Galapagos, or better, go there on a cruise!

El Oriente (Amazon)
Related Amazon Pages
Amazon Hotels
Amazon Rainforest Tours
Amazon Peoples
Amazon National Parks
Domestic Flights in Ecuador
Tena Guide

The Amazon jungle is without a doubt Creation’s greatest achievement, moreover, Eastern Ecuador, known as El Oriente, is blessed with some of the Amazon’s most biologically diverse, pristine areas. Experience nature’s most impressive orchestration of life; canoe along meandering rivers; climb into the canopy; hike along primary forest trails, learn about medicinal rainforest plants, or just “be” amidst the teeming forest.

Learn more about the Amazon, or better, visit the Amazon by staying in a rainforest lodge.

La Sierra (Andes highlands)
Related Andes Pages
Andes & Amazon National Parks
Andes National Parks
Climbing & Hiking
Climbing & Hiking Tours
Haciendas
Mountain Bike Tours

Quintessential Ecuador, La Sierra is the most visited region in the country. Boasting condors, glaciated volcanoes, bustling Indian markets, grand old haciendas, cloudforests, Incan ruins, and high-altitude paramo grasslands, it is hard not to love.

The Andes form a mountainous backbone that divides Ecuador’s lowland coastal plains and its treasured share of the Amazon jungle. In addition to serving as the physical middle, or spine, of Ecuador, La Sierra, as home to nearly 50% of the country’s population, and Quito, its capital city, occupies a place of chief political and economic importance.

Quito, Ecuador’s capital is where most travelers arrive and tend to use it as their base for the rest of their travels around Ecuador.

Learn more about the Andes!

La Costa (Coastal lowlands)
Related Coast Pages
Coast Hotels
Coast National Parks
Paragliding/Handgliding
Scuba Diving
Scuba Diving Tours
Surfing Tours
Transportation in Ecuador
Whale-watching

Almost a three-hundred-mile stretch, Ecuador’s Pacific coast is a combination of bikini-friendly beaches, mangrove forests, marshes, estuaries, and small fishing villages. The North is wet, wild, relatively undiscovered, and renowned for its vibrant afro-Ecuadorian communities which highlight the year with a Marimba dance festival. The drier and cooler Central and Southern Coast regions offer popular beach resort destinations. Furthermore, the vigorous port city of Guayaquil, Ecuador’s largest city, sits tucked behind the Santa Elena Peninsula at the mouth of the Guayas River.

Learn more about the Coast!

On this page: El Oriente (Amazon) | La Sierra (Andes) | La Costa (Coast) | Galapagos Islands

Updated August 18, 2023