Baños is a small town in the centre of Ecuador, famous for the swing at the end of the world, hot chocolate and for being the base for adventurous activities.
After the Galapagos, I headed straight to Baños for a whistle stop 1.5 day visit. Here’s what I got up to…
Swing at the Casa del Arból
The Casa del Arbol is famous for its swing at the end of the world. When in Baños, I had to go and swing!
To get there you can take the local blue bus. It leaves several times a day (6am, 11am, 2pm and 4pm) and costs $1. The return times are 8am, 1pm, 4pm and 6pm.
Once at the Casa del Arbol, you’ll see that there’s more to the place than one swing. There’s several other swings, slides, ziplines and activities to do if you fancy.
For the iconic swing, follow the trail to the top of the hill (it’s not the first swing you see when getting off the bus!) and pay $1 entrance.
Having arrived to Baños in the rain, I was prepared for a rainy visit. We got lucky with clouds and a bit of sunshine for our trip to the swing! And we could see the view so a definite win!
There are two swings on either side of the treehouse. There’ll most likely be some sort of line or queue to join for the swings which did move pretty quickly. Once you’re up, clip yourself in and enjoy! One of the guys working there gets you really high and spins you too.
Although the angles of the photos give the impression you’re swinging over nothing, there is a grassy hill below. I was slightly nervous about swinging so high but really enjoyed it!
Tip: For the photos, I’d go for the swing on the left. Better angles!
Aromi Cafe for Hot Chocolate
Baños has some great hot chocolate and Aromi Cafe is the place to drink it! I ordered a dark organic one ($2.50) and wow was it rich!!! So good!!!
Arte Cafe for Crepes
After swinging at the Casa del Arbol, we headed back to town and went in search of lunch. We found a cafe, Arte Cafe, that did amazing crepes! I know not very Ecuadorian, but I was craving them!
I had a cheese, ham and egg one, followed by a chocolate and banana one. So yummy!! The chocolate and banana one was heaven! I resisted some serious temptation to get a second!
El Salado Hot Springs
To end the day, we went to El Salado, one of Baños’ hot springs. Entrance was $3 and you need a cap to enter. There are small shops to buy or rent one and your hostel may give you one if you say you’re going. Ours did which was appreciated.
I’d recommend going to the springs in the evenings. Last entrance for most is at 8pm and they close at 9pm. We went at 7pm and and an hour of switching from cooler to hotter pools was enough for me. I couldn’t last long in the hotter pool! It was a really relaxing way to spend the evening.
My white floral bikini bottoms are now a peachy pink colour from the water!
Cycling the waterfalls
On my last morning in Baños, I rented a bike for $5 to cycle the 18km waterfalls route. I met another girl at the rental shop and we teamed up to go together. It was a really good way to visit them.
We got to see more of the green hilly landscapes and pretty much the entire ride is downhill or flat which was fun and easy.
The most impressive waterfall on the ride is Pailon del Diablo. It’s super powerful! What I didn’t know beforehand was that there are two entrances and two sides to visiting it; in a sense just like Brazil’s Iguazu Falls but on a much smaller scale. We only realised this after visiting the side with a higher bird’s eye view first.
We decided to visit the other side as well which is lower and gets you closer to the drop pool. To get to the second side, it’s about a 20min walk down a trail to the entrance. We went down to the lower platform and got showered on by the spray.
There’s also a cave with a seriously low hanging ceiling that you can crouch and squeeze through to get closer to the fall. With my rucksack I had to get really low, I was almost crawling at points.
Note: Both sides charge $2 for entrance.
The last waterfall, Cascada Machay (entrance is $1), was a whirlwind visit. I dashed down the what felt like hundreds of steps, took a photo and cycled back fast to Pailón del Diablo so I could catch a truck back to town and get my 2.30pm bus to Latacunga. I would have liked longer there to chill but hey!
Good to know: I mentioned earlier that most of the cycle is downhill. The return cycle would be very uphill so most people make use of the $2 trucks back to Baños. The trucks only go when there’s at least four bikes. I didn’t know this, but thankfully mine was the fifth bike and we left within 5 minutes of me arriving. If you have a bus to catch or have somewhere to be, I’d give yourself more time than you think. I got lucky and made my bus with 10mins to spare but it could easily have gone the other way.
Back in Baños, the guy lifting my bike out the truck somehow managed to detach the rear wheel. Luckily, the other couple in the truck helped to put it back on and I was back on track to make the bus.
How to get to Baños
Baños is pretty much in the middle of Ecuador. You can get there by bus from Quito, Guayaquil, Cuenca, Riobamba etc.
From Quito it’s about a 3.5hr journey and costs around $4.
From Guayaquil, there are two options. There is a direct bus to Baños that leaves several times a day, costs around $10 and takes approx 6hrs. In the Guayaquil bus station go to stand number 76 on the ground floor to buy tickets for this journey.
The other option is to first get a bus to Ambato and then a second one from Ambato to Baños. For the first leg of the journey, buses to Ambato leave Guayaquil almost hourly with several bus companies, cost $8 and take around 5hrs.
From Ambato, it’s another 1hr bus drive to Baños that costs $1.50. They leave frequently too. Tell your bus driver to Ambato that you’re going to Baños and they’ll let you know where to get off and point you in the right direction.
I went with the second option simply because it meant less time hanging around the Guayaquil bus station and I thought it would get me to Baños earlier provided connections worked! They did!
Final thoughts
I enjoyed my whistle stop stay in Baños. The crepes and hot chocolate were a highlight on the food front. It was fun swinging at the Casa del Arbol and not too crazy touristy.
Cycling to the waterfalls was a great way to visit them. It was a bonus the ride was downhill! The Pailón del Diablo waterfall was the most impressive and worth a visit! Ending the day with a dip in the hot springs was also very welcome and relaxing.
You could definitely spend several more days in Baños doing some of the activities on offer: canyoning, zip lining, white water rafting…
I was happy passing on the activities (I’d already been white water rafting in Chile so didn’t feel the need to do it again so soon) and didn’t feel like I missed out on a quintessential Baños experience.
Next up is hiking the Quilotoa Loop which I’m really looking forward to!
