Day Trips

17POSTS

7 years ago

Visiting Cuenca in June and heard nice things about Vilcabamba and was wondering if there are day trips by bus there and is it worth seeing. Any other possible 'day trip' suggestions would be most welcome. Thank you.

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lebowski888 Serial expat

318POSTS

7 years ago

How many hours are you willing to travel by bus in a day?

For a day trip, I think 3 hours each way is my personal limit, giving me about 7 hours spent traveling (figuring on added time waiting for the bus, taxis, etc) and 9 hours at my destination. That gives me roughly a 16 hour day.

Vilcabamba is over 4 hours by car, one way. By bus? I'm not sure, but surely longer

If you google "day trips from cuenca" several bloggers suggest villages like Sigsig, Azogues, Ingapirca, Chordeleg-- all within a couple hours of Cuenca.

If your travel plans are more flexible and an overnight is possible, visiting both Loja and Vilcabamba would be very doable, both on the same route. Or a totally different overnight trip might be to visit Cuenca > Guayaquil > Salinas.