ITINERARY: THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO BAÑOS DE AGUA SANTA, ECUADOR

ITINERARY: THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO BAÑOS DE AGUA SANTA, ECUADOR

Looking for more inspiration to book your trip? Check out my Ultimate Guide to Ecuador and 7 Photos to Inspire You to Travel to Ecuador.

The best way to get to Baños is via bus from the Quitumbe bus terminal in Quito. The buses leave multiple times per hour and the four-hour journey to Baños only costs about $4 USD. Since Baños is also a relatively small and walkable town, once you arrive in the town you can easily find your hotel or hostel on foot.

It’s easy to realize how Baños, which translates to Bath in English, got its name – the area is full of natural hot springs. The most famous baths are Las Piscinas de la Virgen and I can’t recommend the experience enough. You’ll pay up to $3 to enter the baths depending on the time of day you go and then an additional $1.50 to rent a mandatory swim cap. Once there, you’ll put your clothes into the nearby lockers and hop into your pool of choice.

There are three pools: one cold, one warm, and one blisteringly hot. After sitting in the warm pool for a while, we decided to venture downstairs to the hot pool, which is also where all of the locals spend their time. When you first step foot into the hot pool, you’ll likely jump out as fast as humanly possible due to the heat. But you’ll also quickly notice that locals are sitting deep in the pools with the water all the way up to their necks! How, you might ask, can they handle it? We learned from some locals that the strategy is to ease yourself into the hot pool and try to sit there for at least 30 seconds, at which point you can jump out and immerse yourself in the freezing cold pool only a few feet away. After going back and forth in this for a handful of minutes, you’ll start to realize the hot pool doesn’t feel so scorching and you can start to enjoy the bath like the locals. 

I told you that Baños was for the adventurous, didn’t I? My favorite adventure activity in Ecuador was canyoning and rappelling down waterfalls in Baños, as part of a tour with Geo Tours Banios, which was booked through my hostel. For only $60 USD we spent half a day stomping through ponds, jumping off of waterfalls, and ziplining through the rainforest. They give you all of the gear you could need and even a great classic Ecuadorian lunch on your way home. If there’s anything I’d recommend doing in Baños, it’s this!

For only $20 USD (no joke!) I spent a half-day ziplining through the Ecuadorian jungle via Geo Tours Banios, which was also booked through my hostel. After picking us up at the hostel, they took us through six different zip lines, each increasing in height, totaling 2000 meters in length once the day was over. I will say, this isn’t for the faint of heart or those scared of heights, but it gave us an unbelievable birds-eye view of Baños and you definitely can’t beat that price.

I personally figured that if I’m in a town that translates to Bath then that would probably be a good time to enjoy my only spa experience of my trip to Ecuador. I spent an hour at the Sangay Spa Hotel getting a wonderful massage. You don’t have to book in advance and I recall the price being fairly reasonable for what it’s worth.