Celebrity Pre Galapagos tour of Quito

[radiationman]

Will be on Celebrity expedition this coming March for a Galapagos cruise. The package includes a full day tour of Quito on Saturday prior to flight to Baltra and cruise departure on Sunday. Can anyone with experience of this tour give an outline of its itinerary. Is this a big bus tour, with participants cattle carted through town? Is a significant amount of time wasted at tourist shops? We would also like to visit the Center of the Earth does this tour stop here?

[macaroni]

We went in an extra day earlier and did a private tour which included the center of the earth. The ships tour the day before departure was good and i don't feel like we were herded around...maybe 3 buses. We toured and then were brought to a restaurant for lunch. Don't think we went to any souvenir stops. There were people selling things outside some of our stops.

[ozark74]

Will be on Celebrity expedition this coming March for a Galapagos cruise. The package includes a full day tour of Quito on Saturday prior to flight to Baltra and cruise departure on Sunday. Can anyone with experience of this tour give an outline of its itinerary. Is this a big bus tour, with participants cattle carted through town? Is a significant amount of time wasted at tourist shops? We would also like to visit the Center of the Earth does this tour stop here?

There are three buses 96 passengers. It was ok saw the city. The presidents palace and look around the square. Nice lunch. We did go Equator museum. It was a busy day. No tourist shops except at the Equator museum there were shops.You are on your own to look around. They gave us tickets to go to the top of the monment. Nice overview of Quito.

[Canadianhey!]

We did the tour. It is very good. Not much shopping. Here is a hint for this tour as well as for the cruise itself. Always wait for the last boat, you just might find that there is only a few people on it.;p

You all go to the same place and see the same thing so my attitude is GO WITH THE LEAST AMOUNT OF PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE.

Enjoy

[b1rdwatcher]

I thought the City tour was excellent. The walking/bus tour included a mountain overlook with a large statue of the Virgin Mary, several churches, a monastery, the changing of the guards at the government building, a wonderful catered lunch at a beautiful restaurant with a view, and the Equator stop at preserved village. The best thing to buy would be the beautiful scarves which women sold outside the monastery. I bought 2 for 5 dollars, and I wish I would have bought more.

 

The equator village includes a full tour of the restored farm houses, a chocolate demonstration, a demonstration with shrunken heads, and a demonstration of the Coriolis phenomena. They tried hard to make it interesting. There are lots of photo opportunities with 0,0,0 degrees Latitude.

 

I thought the tour was very well organized and the guides spoke English beautifully. They had so much pride about their country and the city of Quito. I would not miss it!

[little britain]

I felt it was good to take the tour and attend the dinner as this is where you start to make friends for the upcoming cruise. Those who had not done the pre tour always looked like the new kids at school on the first day, as friendship groups had already been forged. The tenders take 12 people so they were often full with “groups” sticking together.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[ghstudio]

Keep in mind that even though it's exciting to be in Quito on the way to the Galapagos, you may feel awful due to the altitude. It's likely that you won't really want a long, strenuous day in Quito. When we landed on our flight from Miami, my wife didn't even want to get up to get off the plane...I was fine. Returning home through Quito, it was the reverse...I almost couldn't get up out of my seat on the plane from Baltra and my wife felt great. BTW...it was the best cruise of my life.