Cuenca, Ecuador Travel Guide

Best Things to Do in Cuenca, Ecuador

Cuenca is only a small city but it’s full of culture, museums and patisseries that are well worth a visit during your Ecuador trip.

Museo Pumapungo

This free museum’s main draw is the Incan-Cañari ruins that you can access by going through the main building. Indoors, the exhibits are split across three levels. There’s a section dedicated to Ecuador’s different ethnic groups on the upper level, a temporary exhibition and some exhibits supporting the ruins on the ground floor and an exhibition dedicated to Ecuadorian pre-dollar currency on the lower level.

Teatro Pumapungo

Next door to the Museo Pumapungo, you can find the Teatro Pumungo. We saw a free show by the impressive Orqestra Sinfonica de Cuenca, who play regularly each week or so.

CIDAP

CIDAP is a tiny free museum dedicated to artisans and popular art. We saw an exhibition dedicated to Carnaval. We’d recommend a 10-minute visit to this museum as part of a nice walk along the Rio Tomebamba river. If you continue along the river from CIDAP, you will pass Cuenca’s famous broken bridge, Puente Roto, and eventually reach Parque El Paraiso.

Casa Museo Remigio Crespo Toral

This museum was once home to Remigio Crespo Toral, a poet and collector who lived in Cuenca. The upper floors are mostly preserved in a colonial style and there is a section on the lower floors dedicated to his collection of pre-Hispanic artefacts. The museum has balconies and a cafe overlooking the Rio Tomebamba. Entrance is free, but visiting hours are limited on the weekends. The museum is just over the road from the popular Goza Espresso Bar.

Learn Spanish at Yunapuma Spanish School

Spanish lessons in Cuenca don’t come much cheaper than the $6.50 charged for a group class by Yunapuma Spanish School. The groups aren’t large — there were just the two of us in our group! I highly recommend you ask for Patricia, who was our Spanish teacher for a week. She was an excellent teacher who was able to explain tricky concepts very clearly. The only downside of this Spanish school is that your teacher can change weekly depending on the school’s schedule.

El Cajas National Park

Top pick! This beautiful national park is only an hour from Cuenca by bus. It’s an interesting highland landscape punctuated by lakes and forests made up of small trees. Entrance is free, but you’ll be asked to sign in at a visitors centre. We brought our passports to be on the safe side, but nobody asked to look at them.

We hiked “route 1” which was clearly marked and took us three hours, and were lucky enough to see some wild llamas (or maybe alpacas) grazing not far from the path. Be prepared for all weathers as it can rain at a moment’s notice. If you’re fair-skinned, you should put on plenty of sunscreen even if it’s cloudy.

To get to Cajas National Park:

• Catch a bus from the Terminal Terrestre de Cuenca.
• A bus ticket costs $2 each way. You also have to pay $0.10 to enter the bus platform.
• Buses leave throughout the day. We caught the 9AM Azuay bus.
• The bus stops right outside the national park.
• To return, simply flag a bus on the other side of the road.

Relax at the Piedra de Agua Fuente Thermal & Spa

Piedra de Agua is a popular spa in Banos, on the outskirts of Cuenca. We took advantage of a two-for-one deal and paid $35 to try the spa circuit. Friendly staff took us through the works: a steam bath, mud therapy, thermal pools, cold pools and a steam box. Afterwards, we were given time to relax in the outdoor pools. The main outdoor pools were popular with families, but there were also adult-only pools for some relaxation. A taxi costs $5 each way from the centre of Cuenca. We enjoyed the experience, but we’d recommend trying to take advantage of one of their deals.

Mirador de Turi

The Mirador de Turi is a viewpoint that overlooks Cuenca. Best explored on a clear day, there’s a picturesque church and a couple of stands selling food and drink. There are also bars and restaurants, though these were closed when we visited on a Sunday. It’s about an hour’s walk from the city centre to the Mirador de Turi, but some of the steps can be tiring.

Best Cafes in Cuenca, Ecuador

Cuenca is home to some of Ecuador’s best cafes and bakeries. If we’d known there would be so many nice bakeries in town and at such cheap prices, we would’ve fasted a few days before arriving so we could gorge!

El Francés — By far our favourite place for baked goods in Cuenca. This little cafe is run by a Frenchman, and true to its name sells real French baguettes and real French cheese. On the menu, you’ll also find divine deserts including little berry muffins, scones and passion fruit cheesecake. The bread and cakes were so good we visited nearly every day.

Café de Ñucallacta — The best coffee in Cuenca is roasted and brewed at Café de Ñucallacta — and they sell it by the cup and the bag. This unassuming cafe expands out the back with nicely tiled floors and tables filled with digital nomads tapping on their keyboards. Food here is good value and portions are plentiful. Expect burritos, tacos, eggs and fruit bowls.

Goza Espresso Bar — If you need a strong espresso hit, Goza is the place. This cafe-come-bar is a little more pricey than the others but is reliably always open and is a hub for both locals and expats. If it’s too late in the day, switch to a vino tinto or a cold local beer. If you come to eat, expect to pay $6+ for a small plate of food or a sandwich.

Taita — Taita is a grungy bakery on the edge of Cuenca, but a super place for freshly baked bread, rolls and croissants. The dark-painted space has stools and a few overly-generous breakfast options that will leave you busting at the seams. Coffee was extremely weak.

Best Restaurants in Cuenca, Ecuador

Whilst the cafes in Cuenca are some of the best in Ecuador, we found they overshadowed the restaurant choice. That said, we explored quite thoroughly and have a shortlist of restaurants in Cuenca we’d recommend, though if you’re a foodie our advice is to get yourself to Quito!

Kamaq Gastro Arte & Cultura — Kamaq isn’t much to look at from the outside or the inside truth be told, but don’t let appearances deceive you. The chef here serves up Ecuadorian and Latin American fare with exquisite attention to detail. I recommend the llapingachos. At Kamaq, these humble potato cakes are taken to another level. Also, watch out for their live music. We listened to a brilliant singer play Latin American classics one Saturday evening. There was no cover charge, but an envelope was passed around for tips at the end of the show.

Moliendo Cafe — This always-busy Colombian restaurant looks nicer on the inside than it does on the outside. Moliendo Cafe serves up gut-busting portions of Colombian food for very reasonable prices. We tried the vegan guacamole arepa ($2.50) and the arepa vegetariana ($3). Authentic Colombian fare is also available.

Fabiano’s Pizzeria — This bustling pizza restaurant is supposedly the best in Cuenca. We visited on a Sunday evening and they were doing a roaring trade with both locals and expats. We split a medium-sized vegetarian pizza, a salad, and had a glass of wine each. The bill came to just over $20 and honestly, it was one of the best pizzas we had in South America.

Cofradia del Monje — We only visited the Cofradia del Monje for a beer and a glass of wine, but it was a scenic spot with good views of the Plaza de San Francisco and the impressive Catedral de Cuenca. Drinks were probably expensive by local standards, but worth the extra dollar or two for the view, in our opinion.

Loreto Empanadas — The best baked empanadas in Ecuador. We’re always hankering after vegetarian empanadas and found this excellent empanada joint to satiate our cravings. The empanadas here are oven-baked and are served on a wooden board with roasted tomato sauce and pico de gallo. Three empanadas of any type are priced at $4.50 and are well worth it.

Accommodation in Cuenca, Ecuador

Hotel Cuenca — We stayed 1 night at Hotel Cuenca. We mistimed our journey and arrived in Cuenca on an overnight bus earlier than expected. Hotel Cuenca is one of the few reasonably priced hotels that is centrally located and has 24-hour front desk service. Our stay was comfortable, though we wouldn’t recommend a long stay here.

Cuenca Loft Apartment — We booked 3 weeks in this gorgeous apartment in Cuenca. The apartment shares a courtyard with three other apartments and a French patisserie (which is the real highlight!) The apartment has a big double bed, small shower room with very hot water and a well-equipped kitchen. Not to mention how cute it is!

Getting In and Out of Cuenca, Ecuador

Cuenca is well connected to other large cities in Ecuador. Many travellers take a bus from Guayaquil to Cuenca or from Quito to Cuenca, though Quito to Cuenca is much longer (around 8 hours).

From Quito to Cuenca: Overnight buses run from Quito to Cuenca. Buses leave from Quito’s Terminal Terrestre Quitumbe and take approximately 11-12 hours. You can also fly between Quito and Cuenca, which is more expensive but flights take only 30 minutes.

From Guayaquil to Cuenca: Buses leave regularly from Guayaquil to Cuenca, and the journey takes around 4 hours. We travelled by bus from Guayaquil to Cuenca after a flight from the Galapagos to Guayaquil. We paid $12 per person for a minibus from Guayaquil to Cuenca and didn’t book in advance.

How to Get from Cuenca to Peru

Honestly, we were dreading travelling overland via the night bus from Cuenca to Peru. Ever since a couple of nightmarish night buses in Mexico and Vietnam, we’ve done our best to avoid them. But in the end, the experience was okay. Certainly not relaxing, but bearable.

Here’s what you need to know about the overnight bus from Cuenca to Peru:

• Take the bus from the Terminal Terrestre de Cuenca to Chiclayo in Peru.
• Opt for the Azuay bus. It seems to be the least bad option based on online reviews.
• Book your bus ticket a few days in advance. If you get motion sick, opt for a seat on the top floor of the bus.
• A ticket from Cuenca to Chicolay in Peru costs $20 per person with Azuay.
• The seats reclined and there was a place to rest your feet. Air conditioning is a tolerable level and they didn’t play any music or films.
• We boarded the bus at 8:30PM and we arrived at the Ecuador border at around 1:30AM.
• The border crossing took about two hours. The crossing was complicated by the coronavirus outbreak. They took everyone’s temperature before letting them into Peru, which took quite a long time.
• Make sure you don’t overstay your VISA in Ecuador as the fines can be brutal (around $800 per person).
• The bus also stopped in Mancora (around 5:30AM) and Piura (around 9AM) before eventually arriving in Chicoclay (11.30AM).
• In Chicoclay, we were able to catch another bus (yay) to Trujillo.
• The bus from Chicoclay to Trujillo cost 15 Neuvo Sol and took another four hours.

Are you travelling to Cuenca? Let us know your favourite things to do in the city!