4 Best Sights in Guayaquil and the Pacific Coast, Ecuador

If Ecuador doesn't spring to mind when someone mentions art, a visit to one of Guayaquil's most impressive museums might change that. Ecuadoran artists began to break the connection with religious-themed art in the late 19th century, and the country's artists have never looked back. Take an English-language guided tour—essential to understanding how the exhibits are laid out. Anthropology, the first "a" in the museum's name, gets equal treatment as Ecuador's Central Bank's extensive collection of artifacts—50,000 of them—from the past 10,000 years is displayed on the building's second level.

The Nahím Isaías Museum is one of the country's truly fabulous institutions. Each year about 500 pieces of the astounding permanent collection of religious art from the colonial period is parceled out and displayed. What you see on view this year differs from last year and next year. An informative guided tour—choose between English or Spanish—that provides the best background on what you see is included in your admission.

Just a block from the waterfront, the Pacific Bank Museum has rotating exhibits of archaeological discoveries, as well as a permanent collection of 19th-century South American art.

Yet another museum operated by Ecuador's Central Bank exhibits artifacts from the Pacific coast's pre-Inca indigenous Manta culture.