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The full Otavalo region in one private day: two towns, a lake, and the market.
A private sightseeing day trip covering the largest indigenous market in South America at Otavalo, plus Lake San Pablo, the leather-goods town of Cotacachi, and Cayambe.
A private sightseeing tour with the undivided attention of your guide throughout — no waiting on a larger group.
A popular starting point — every Voyzo itinerary is fully customizable, so we'll shape the order and stops around your group.
Private hotel pickup in Quito.
Visit the largest indigenous market in South America, famous for handwoven textiles.
Enjoy views of Lake San Pablo, framed by the Andes.
Explore the town of Cotacachi, known for its leather goods workshops.
Pass through Cayambe, a town known for its dairy and baked goods.
Back to your hotel, home, or the airport — whenever your day wraps up.
A private sightseeing day trip covering the largest indigenous market in South America at Otavalo, plus Lake San Pablo, the leather-goods town of Cotacachi, and Cayambe. A private sightseeing tour with the undivided attention of your guide throughout — no waiting on a larger group.
Otavalo's market earns its "largest in South America" reputation honestly — its roots go back to pre-Columbian trade networks, and the weaving tradition behind its textiles is even older than that: the Indigenous Caranqui people who lived in this valley were growing cotton and weaving cloth here before the Inca Empire ever reached the region in the late 1400s. Under Spanish colonial rule, those weaving skills were forced into obrajes, brutal textile workshops, and the market in something close to its present form has operated since at least the 1870s — a long, often hard history behind the handwoven goods on sale today.
Cotacachi, the leather town on this route, has its own distinct origin story. Leatherworking here is usually traced back to Jesuit missionaries who arrived in 1738, with Spanish families of Sephardic Jewish background later introducing the saddlery trade in the 17th century. The craft has been passed down for generations since, and the town's main street, Calle 10 de Agosto, is still lined with leather workshops and storefronts. Cotacachi has since been recognized as a UNESCO City of Crafts and Folk Art and, in 2019, was named one of Ecuador's first official Pueblos Mágicos ("Magic Towns").
Cayambe, meanwhile, is known locally for two very specific foods: bizcochos, buttery, aniseed-flavored biscuits baked in wood-fired ovens (the San Pedro bakery is the best-known name for them), and queso de hoja, a salty white cheese traditionally wrapped in achira leaves. The bizcochos reportedly grew popular once the railway reached Cayambe nearly a century ago, giving passengers something to eat on the platform — though the recipe itself is said to trace back further, to bread monks once baked for local farm workers. Cayambe sits in the shadow of the volcano that shares its name, whose southern slope — at about 4,690 meters — is the only point on the entire Equator with permanent snow cover.
The drive between these stops also passes Lake San Pablo, framed by the slopes of Imbabura volcano, giving the day a real sense of moving through the Otavalo valley's different towns and landscapes rather than just shuttling between a market and a single viewpoint.
Every Voyzo tour is a starting point — tell us what you have in mind and we'll build it.
