Another woman and I are going for a nine day horse trekking trip in Ecuador. We're arriving in Quito March 31 at 7:15 PM. My questions: Is it safe for us to take a taxi from the airport to a hotel in view of the reports I've read about kidnapping/hostage taking? Hey, we're not young, good looking, or drug dealers. Second question: We're contemplating taking the cable car the next morning before meeting our transport to the hacienda. How much time do we need for the trip to the cable car depot, up and down the mountain, and back to Quito? Thank you for your help.
Ecuadar
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Hi Suoma,
You'll have no problems taking a cab from the airport to your hotel. It's common in Ecuador for folks to just put a 'taxi' sign in there cars and start taking fares without regestering there vehicles or working for a larger cab company. The kidnappings you have heard about come from criminals putting 'taxi' in there and picking up their victim. If you only get into regestered cabs you'll be fine.
Regarding the Cable car, Teleferiquo. It will probably take you 20-30 minutes to get to Teleferiquo, depedending on where you are in the city. Budget at least 1 hour to go up and down. There are some nice hikes up there and the view is really great. There is also some horse back riding to be done there too. So you could kill several hours up there.
FYI it's windy and can get chilly so dress warm and bring a wind breaker.
Greg
Amazon-Andes-Sky
Thank you so very much. We're waiting for March and a vacation break.
Hi, we used cabs throughout Quito. Our friends who live there gave this advice: Only use registered cabs, which means they have a number on the windshield on the drivers' side.
For our first night, our hotel actually arranged our airport pickup in a cab--this saved some hassle of insisting on the meter or negotiating the fare and on questioning whether the cab was safe. Perhaps wherever you are staying could do the same?