Tips for Visiting the Teleférico in Quito, Ecuador

Quito’s Teleférico (also spelled TeleferiQo) is a gondola that takes you to the top of Pichincha, an extinct volcano whose summit sits at over 15,000 feet above sea level, next to the city of Quito. The TeleferiQo is the number one attraction in Quito, and sought after by locals and international visitors alike. It was the #1 thing on my Quito wishlist, and I’m so glad we had the chance to experience these incredible and epic views.

The Teleferico chairlift drops you off at just over 13,000 feet above sea level, so you ascend a few thousand feet in elevation during the 20-minute ride to the top. At the top, you’ll find beautiful lookouts, a cafe, and trails that take you to some other exciting things to do on the top of Pichincha, and lots of lookouts.

You could just relax and the top and take it easy, or if you’re feeling ambitious, you could hike to the summit. The Teleferico was built in 2005 to help hikers reach a point where they could hike to the summit of this long extinct volcano for epic views over Quito. Since we were travelling through Ecuador with our kids, we mostly took it easy at the top of Pichincha; did the swing, café, and hikes to many stunning lookouts. Below, you’ll find everything you need to know about visiting.

At a Glance: What a Visit to the Teleferico in Quito Looks Like

From wherever you’re staying in Quito, you’ll need to first make your way over to the bottom of the Teleferico. It’s located in northern Quito, in the outskirts of the city, so we decided the easiest thing to do would be by car. We took an Uber to the Teleferico from Centro Historico, where we were staying, which was about a 20 minute drive. There’s a drop-off area at the Teleferico that Uber and cab drivers of Quito seem to be familiar with. It’s right at the entrance so you don’t have to walk far at all.

Simply select ‘Teleferico Quito’ as your destination if you order an Uber, and they should know where to go – its all the way at the top of a hill. (If there are any issues getting here, a different destination to try would be Vulqano Park – its a little amusement park right at the bottom of the Teleferico, so if you select that as your destination, it would work just as well.)

You buy tickets in person at the ticket counter (it was $9 per adult and $7 per child in summer 20206, but you can check current prices here) hop into a 6-person gondola that will take you on a 20 minute ride to the top of the volcano. There is a visitor centre with free washrooms that you can use (carry tissue paper as most washrooms don’t provide it for free.)

It wasn’t busy at all when we arrived at the Teleferico. They open at 7am, but we arrived around 9:30am and were able to hop into a gondola immediately after buying our ticket. This was in July, one of the busiest months for tourism in Ecuador. We were only four people, so we shared with one other solo traveller to the top. The ride went quicker than 20 minutes.

Your ears also may pop during the ascend, so chewing gum or trying to equalize with your ears may help. Once youre at the top, there is a lookout area immediately to your left. Here we also saw a vendor stand selling some crafts, and plenty of benches and lookouts. I

If you go right from where the gondola lets you off then there is a dirt path that leads you higher up the volcano. As you walk this path, youll be continuing to ascend to higher elevations and we really noticed that difference: the air is thinner up there. We specifically wanted to walk to the famous swing (the swing at the edge of the clouds) I had my heart set on it while researching our trip to Quito.

I’d read online before that getting to the swing was challenging, but we had no trouble at all – even my 5 year old walked most of the way on her own. I recommend simply going for a leisurely hike and see how far it takes you. Anyone with a medium level of fitness should be able to make it to the swing just fine. Along the way,ther was a woman, a local farmer, with two of her alpacas. she charged $1 per person to get photos with them.

Things to do at the top at the Teleférico

The Swing at the Edge of the Clouds (El columpio de las nubes) There is a large swing located about 1km from where the Teleferico brings you. It shouldn’t be confused with the swing in Baños that has a similar name (Swing at the End of the World.) This one, being right over the city of Quito, is a completely different view. Having said that, a lot of the photos of it circulating of this swing look like they might be edited and not realistic to how it actually looks. Still, it looks really cool. There’s no staff at the swing, at least not when we went there, so you can just hop on and off when you feel like it, but there may be people waiting, so just be courteous to give others a chance.

Café Cruz Loma. After our hike, meeting alpacas and swining on the swing, we had lunch at the café which is in the building right next to where the Teleferico drops you off. It was pricey compared to average prices in Ecuador, but we found the food to be good! They had lots of Ecuadorian traditional dishes, like bolones and empanadas. We also split a maracuya cheesecake, coca teas and another one of our Ecuadorian favourites – fresh guanabána juice.

Hiking to the summit of Pichincha. The hike to the summit of Pichincha is one of the reasons that the Teleferico was built in the first place, to give people a gateway for the hike. We weren’t going to attempt a summit hike with such a young with kid with us, but we bumped into other travellers who were planning to summit. They were well prepared with warm clothing, hiking gear and lots of water.

Key Tips for Visiting Quito’s Teleférico

1. Bring cash with you. This goes for anywhere in Ecuador, as cash is usually the preferred payment method. Credit and debit are used in Ecuador, but there is no way to say for certain which places accept them. When we arrived, they were only accepting cash to pay for the Teleferico tickets. There were also some vendors at the top of Pinchincha that were only able to take cash, so its useful in case you want to buy souvenirs

2. Stay hydrated! Bring water bottles with lots of water in them. Even though we waited until our 4th day in Quito to go up the Teleférico (as I was struggling with altitude in the early days) we still felt the altitude difference. Drinking lots of water helps with altitude changes too.

3. Wear lots of sunscreen and bring caps and sunglasses. You’re closer to the sun at the top of Pinchincha than you would be on the ground, so you can burn a lot more easily. This actually goes for anywhere in Quito, as its a high-elevation city – but especially for going up the Teleférico, as you are thousands of feet closer to the sun than you would be on the ground

4. Bring an extra layer of clothing. Whatever you would wear in the city, bring another layer. You’re ascending over 4,000 feet and it you can definitely feel the temperature difference. We wore hoodies, thin jackets, and caps. I wore a thin zip up hoodie with a tank top underneath. I was still a bit chilly at times with the wind but with the hiking workout, it was perfect.

5. Try to go in the morning. The clouds tend to roll in in the afternoon, which makes it a bit harder to see the city views from the top. Having said that, we were at the top of Pichincha until around 2pm, and there were still people coming up the gondola; although a little less than in the morning. We arrived around 9:30 am on a day that was predicted to be cloudy, and it turned out to be a perfect day!

6. Don’t go during day 1 in Quito. Since the Teleferico is so much higher than ground level in Quito, its not a good idea to go up on your first or second day in the city. The city of Quito sits at over 9,000 feet above sea level, so if you’re coming from a place that is much lower than that, then you should spend at least a day or two seeing how your body adjusts before going up the Teleferico. I struggled with altitude sickness (for reference we come from Toronto) and while we were so excited for the Teleferico, I’m glad that we saved it for last on our 4-day Quito itinerary. Even on day 4, it wasn’t perfect. I felt fine in the morning, but started to feel sick again after being at the top for a couple hours.

How to Get to the Teleférico

We used Uber to take us to the Teleferico, and then ordered another Uber to pick us up at the end. We found Uber to be a really good way to get around Quito in general. It’s very common and used, and there were never any issues finding good drivers.

Our other option would have been to use our private driver, which we hired for most of our drives around Ecuador. He would have driven us there, waited for us at the bottom and then driven us back. The only downside to hiring someone to do this (rather than take Uber) is that you would need to pay them by the hour to wait at the bottom, so it makes your trip to the Teleferico a little bit more expensive.

Since the Teleferico is on the outskirts of Quito, there isn’t really a straightforward say to take public transit. In general, the public transit around Quito seemed very efficient, so if you can find a bus, then it might be a much cheaper option than Uber or a driver. We took the Quito metro and found it to be very clean and well run.

How long to spend at the top of Pinchincha

You could spend anywhere from 30 minutes to several hours at the top of the Teleferico. How long you spend at the top depends on what you feel like doing. You could easily just enjoy some of the lookouts for just 30 minutes and head back down, or you can do a bit of walking to some of the activities, like the swing, or more lookouts.

I hope that this has given you the insight you need to plan an amazing day at the Teleferico in Quito. It’s an amazing thing to do.