Cotopaxi Volcano Tour From Quito – With Lunch & Entry

Pedro was an excellent guide and gave plenty of information on a wide variety of topics. He went above and beyond with the volcano hike!

It was a stunning hiking to Cotopaxi on a wonderful day! The guides Andrés and Jimmy were very professional, caring and informative. I learned a lot about Ecuadorian volcanoes, local language and customs as well as indigenous flora. We saw driving through the nature reserve wild horses, dear, coyotes, lizards, condors steering in the ski and other birds. Lunch was excellent, trip timing was perfect and the weather was gorgeous! Most important, I felt very safe. I warmly recommend this trip as well as the excellent guides who contributed making the hike and entire trip a memorable experience!

Unforgettable One-Day Trip to Cotopaxi — Pedro Made It Exceptional! My one-day trip to Cotopaxi National Park was absolutely unforgettable, and a huge part of that experience was thanks to Pedro, my outstanding guide. Even the booking process over WhatsApp was incredibly easy and straightforward, which gave me confidence from the very beginning. From the moment the tour began, Pedro demonstrated deep knowledge of the volcano, the park, the flora and fauna, and the cultural history of the region. He explained everything with clarity, passion, and genuine love for the mountain. What impressed me the most was his patience and calm attitude, especially during the hike up to the refuge. The ascent can be challenging at that altitude, but Pedro took the time to guide me at the right pace, making sure I felt safe, comfortable, and confident. His encouragement made a big difference. And then — the highlight: We reached the refuge with perfect weather! Clear skies, bright sunshine, and a spectacular view of the volcano. It felt like a reward from Cotopaxi itself. Pedro made the experience not just a hike, but a memorable journey. His professionalism, kindness, and expertise elevated the entire day. Highly recommended — if you visit Cotopaxi, ask for Pedro!

This was truly an incredible experience! Our tour guide, Irene, not only welcome us , but made it clear we were her priority for the day! She introduced Jimmy, our driver, gave us a rundown of the days events, and in general, gave us a ton of information, not only on Cotopaxi, but Quito and Ecuador as well. Jimmy was a bit more reserved, but very competent in getting us everywhere we needed to go safely and with no concerns! Cotopaxi volcano is the 2nd highest in Ecuador, and though it’s not an easy climb, it is extremely satisfying to reach 16,000 ft and your guide is with you for every step! If you like a bit of a challenge in your tours, consider this one and ask for Irene and Jimmy. You won’t regret it!!!

The Cotopaxi tour was an amazing experience. I learned so much about its history and got to admire the breathtaking volcano up close. Our guide was outstanding—very knowledgeable and always ready to answer our questions, which made the trip even more enriching

Pedro has excellent English skills and a deep knowledge of of Ecuador in almost every aspects, biology, geology, history, business, politics etc.

Pedro was so encouraging. We made it to the halfway point and he gently suggested that we keep going. If we felt good enough, he said, the views were worth it. He was so right!

Pedro was our guide for a great tour of Cotopaxi and the Middle of the World. We chose the private tour so we could adjust things on the fly. He was a great guide and alternated between explaining the culture and history of the places we say or letting us nap on the long drive. We went to Cotopaxi for a hike and it was cloudy and started to hail so we did just a short half hour hike and did see some of the volcano through the clouds. We saw wild horses, a condor, and a resigned looking fox waiting out the hail storm. We decided to check out the lagoon quickly and had a great lunch and then Pedro suggested going to Middle of the World, which we thought we would not have time to see because it's in the opposite direction from Quito. But we did get to see all of these things, as Pedro adapted to the weather and what we were interested in seeing. There are actually two Middles of the World, the original one and the newer GPS corrected one. The newer one has a museum with a tour of pre Columbian history of the area and demos of the odd physics that happen exactly at the equator. We were so glad to have Pedro as our guide on our adventures.

Pedro was a terrific guide. Very experienced and knowledgeable, but also, very wise and kind. These are equally important when bringing average Americans who live at sea level to Cotopaxi. I was not able to complete the full hike because I became short of breath. I happily sat on a rock and took time-lapse photos of the amazing cloud movements below me. My spouse carried on with Pedro and experienced the debilitating effects of altitude sickness for the first time in his life. Pedro picked us up right on time at the hotel and we were fortunate to be the only two people in his group on April 1st. No fooling, he said it was the end of the busy season (school holidays). Pedro's wise plan, from years of experience with newbies, was to take as up the mountain gradually with appropriately paced and interesting stop-overs. We spent about 15 minutes acclimating at each one: a view of the city of Quito from a park where I loved to see the dogs that hang out on residential rooftops, a cash-only artisan shopping visitor center where I could decide whether to buy some coca leaf to try later, a lagoon full of wild birds and so on. Weather changes fast. This will be said to you in Quito and in the Galapagos and you need to really imagine what that means. It's sunny and perfect and you cannot see a dark cloud in the sky, but you MUST bring a rain jacket. As I decided to stop hiking, Pedro suggested that I take the key to the car. I declined as I imagined the ease of great weather and a slow descent to retrace my steps back to the car. Sure enough I found myself photographing freezing rain in a warm but not waterproof jacket. That's on me! Despite a lot of light-headedness and a bit of disorientation, my Spouso™ took great photos. And Pedro kindly assisted him to get some more portraits in great spots. What was most important and skillful is that Pedro accepted our decisions, he gave us HONEST assessments of what lay ahead and he offered but did not force anything. He did not encourage either of us at anytime and this was indeed KIND and WISE. Each of us needed to know ourselves and not try to please him. His neutral, matter-of-fact, pleasant, accepting manner was the safest choice. You will be in good hands, trust this tour group, Real Dreams.

Our guide Pedro was fantastic! He provided historical information about the region as we were driving to Cotopaxi as well as pointing out natural features of the area. He also prepared us for the hike to the base camp due to varying weather conditions. The whole tour was such a great experience!

Our tour guide was amazing and full of information about the region. She was clearly very excited to share her beautiful country with us. The tour group was very easy to work with and set us up on a great tour given our desire for a day trip from Quito. Highly recommend!

Great short hike until the refuge at 4'864m. Our guide Pedro even offered us to continue until 5'000m which my partner did! Pedro was an exceptional and flexible guide that we highly recommend 😊

Breathtaking experience, spectacular views and my guide and driver were lovely - thank you! Everything was included which made for an easy day also.

We had a wonderful day hiking the Cotopaxi with our very nice and attentive guide Ximena. She explained us many things about the volcanoes in Ecuador and the country in general. It was very interesting to listen to her and talk with her. The hiking was a great challenge because of a very windy day. She also took great care of my wife who is not used to such an altitude. My son my wife and myself had a wonderful day on the Cotopaxi and around thanks to Ximena !

Visiting Cotopaxi is a great choice only 90 minutes from Quito and you’re in one of the highest volcanoes of the world. Our guide Pedro was very informative not only on the volcano but on its flora and fauna. The bad news was that conditions were so harsh the wind so strong that we could not hike to the base camp. But this is life on a volcano and nothing anyone can predict. The mountain makes its own weather so you never know and you respect it. The scenery was lovely though and we enjoyed the terrain driving in the national park and of this beautiful mountain. We returned to the visitor center for lunch and good company and learned a lot about Quito a city of 17 volcanoes. It was worth going and we joyed it. Plus being a private tour we called the shots giving us great flexibility. The car was an suv and very comfortable also. Highly recommend!!!

Amazing day with top notch guide Pedro! Pickup from the hotel and straight off to the Cotopaxi volcano. Nice hike to the visitor center. Continued by a stop at the nearby lake. Concluded with a good lunch and back to Quito!

Pedro was great he was very patient with us and took his time going up the volcano. I would highly advise using him again if I ever come back to Ecuador.

Our trip was great! Our guide, Pedro and our driver Jimmy were both very professional and really lovely. They even opened up the car door every time we got in and out. The hike it self was amazing. We had really good weather, I felt like we went at the perfect pace and Pedro was constantly making sure we were okay with the altitude, we didn’t feel rushed at all. We were given the option to hike all the way to the glaciers instead of just the base camp which I highly recommend. It’s definitely worth the extra 45 mins to an hour. Then they took us out for a really nice lunch and we were even able to feed some llamas! Such a perfect day. Thank you!

We had a fantastic time with our guild Pedro, very nice person who really cares about the environment and conservation of land. Knowledgeable about many of the local birds and flowers that you will see in Cotopaxi. We headed up to the glacier even in the poor weather we had (Windy, cold and cloudy) and he gave my girlfriend the keys to wait in the car as she didn't want to go up any further, a very thoughtful and trusting gesture.

Pedro was fantastic! He is extremely capable and wise, sharing his appreciation of the land, flora and fauna. And a great conversationalist in english. Our trip plan had to change because of poor conditions on Cotopaxi (harsh winds beyond our skill level at that altitude). Pedro took us on a shorter, easier hike at the lagoon. Lunch we delicious! The view from the lunch location was unbelievable. And Cotopaxi began erupting gasses while we ate which was neat and scary.

Had a great time with Pedro on this trip! The pick up from the hotel was easy and we were on the road quickly. Pedro was very informative as we made the drive to Cotopaxi. We had great views of the volcano along the way! Unfortunately, it was too windy to do our originally planned hike at the top of Cotopaxi, but Pedro took us on a wonderful walk at the lagoon, Limpiopungo. Great trip, just recommend trying the hike at Cotopaxi as another time of year when the weather is better.

The very special, trained Andres guide, accompanied us at every moment sharing his knowledge and being present for each of us and our needs, a great boy and the driver Jorge equally excellent.