Private Quito City Tour with Panecillo Hill and Main Churches

Overview

A private tour through the heart of Quito's UNESCO-listed Old District, taking in the San Francisco and La Compañía de Jesús churches, the Basilica of the National Vow, Independence Plaza, and the government palace, finishing at the Panecillo Hill viewpoint.

A private walking tour of Quito's historic core with your own guide, ending at the Panecillo Hill observation deck for sweeping views over the city.

Highlights

• San Francisco Church Visit one of the oldest and most important colonial churches in the Americas.
• La Compañía de Jesús Church See the ornately gilded interior of Quito's most famous Jesuit church.
• Basilica of the National Vow Admire the largest neo-Gothic basilica in the Americas.
• Independence Plaza & Government Palace Explore the political and historic heart of the city, including the Archbishop's Palace.
• Panecillo Hill Finish at the hilltop viewpoint overlooking Quito's historic center and the surrounding volcanoes.

What Stops Does This Tour Make?

A popular starting point — every Voyzo itinerary is fully customizable, so we'll shape the order and stops around your group.

Important Information

Frequently Asked Questions

About This Tour

A private tour through the heart of Quito's UNESCO-listed Old District, taking in the San Francisco and La Compañía de Jesús churches, the Basilica of the National Vow, Independence Plaza, and the government palace, finishing at the Panecillo Hill viewpoint. A private walking tour of Quito's historic core with your own guide, ending at the Panecillo Hill observation deck for sweeping views over the city.

The tour's final stop, the Virgin of El Panecillo, has one of the more interesting construction stories of any landmark in Quito. The 45-meter aluminum statue was designed by Spanish sculptor Agustín de la Herrán Matorras, built from roughly 7,400 individually numbered aluminum pieces, shipped to Ecuador, and reassembled on-site atop the hill — it was inaugurated in March 1975. The design scales up a much older and much smaller original: the 48-inch wooden Virgin of Quito carved by Bernardo de Legarda in 1734, which still exists today and inspired the statue's distinctive wings, a detail that's unusual enough among Marian statues that locals often claim it's the only winged Virgin of its kind anywhere.

Inside the Old Town itself, San Francisco Church is the oldest in the city by a wide margin — construction began in 1535, barely a year after the Spanish founded Quito, and the complex grew for more than 150 years before the present church was substantially finished around 1680 (it wasn't formally inaugurated until 1705). It was built directly on the remains of a former Inca temple, and the surrounding monastery complex — three churches, thirteen cloisters, and a museum holding over 3,500 pieces of religious art — is generally considered the largest colonial architectural complex anywhere in the Americas.

La Compañía de Jesús took even longer to finish: ground broke in 1605 and the Jesuit architects didn't complete it until 1765, 160 years later. What makes the wait worth it is the interior, where elaborately carved surfaces are covered in 23-karat gold leaf set against red backgrounds — a design directly modeled on the Jesuits' own flagship churches in Rome, Il Gesù and San Ignacio. The Basilica of the National Vow adds a very different note: construction ran from 1883 to 1924 and produced the largest neo-Gothic basilica in the Americas, its facade lined not with the usual European gargoyles but with carved versions of Ecuador's own wildlife — iguanas, armadillos, Galápagos tortoises, and condors in place of the traditional grotesques.