Five Incredible Day Trips from Quito!

We’re back! Now that we’re weeks into our year-long adventure abroad, we’ve decided it’s a good time to check-in!

Before we get going, we want to explain our title, “The Daily Wax.” Many of you have asked: WTF is The Daily Wax?!?! The short answer is: way back in college, Mike and his friend Buck started a music blog under the same name. We’ve brought it back to life! 

Another thing – the word “Daily” is slightly misleading as we don’t want to publish content daily. We want to make sure to enjoy our trip to the fullest extent, so we don't want to spend most of our evenings working on blog posts!

That brings us to today’s post, “The Weekly Wax.” We like this idea for two reasons; it has a catchy ring to it, and a week feels like a feasible update cadence. So, our goal is to put up a new blog post every weekend. Just don’t hold it against us if we miss one here or there!

Now, the fun part!

We stayed busy for the last two weeks in Ecuador, so we broke down the highlights into a series of posts below.

Each of these destinations could serve as separate day trips from Quito, as they’re all driveable in under three hours! We decided to tackle Otovalo and the Cloud Forest as individual day trips, but we made the rest of the destinations into a 4-day road trip. Heading south from Quito, we were able to visit Cotopaxi, Quilotoa, and Baños in one fell swoop.  

We *highly recommend* renting a car (as long as you’re comfortable driving stick-shift). You can’t beat the thrill of navigating the beautiful countryside on your own.

Here are the 5 incredible day trips from Quito, in no particular order:

1.) Shop in Otovalo – an indigenous community with epic landscapes and host to the region’s most popular animal and cultural markets, which take place every Saturday. We also loved the Condor Park! (PHOTOS)

2.) Visit the Cloud Forest – the world-renowned Cloud Forest perched high in the Andes Mountains, and famous for its birdwatching. (PHOTOS)

3.) Hike or bike Cotopaxi – one of a handful of active, snow-capped volcanoes high in the Andes Mountains. (PHOTOS)

4.) See the Quilotoa Crater Lake – called Laguna Quilotoa, often visited during a 3-day hike through the surrounding area.  The view of the massive crater lake formed by a collapsed volcano about 600 years ago is unreal. (PHOTOS)

5.) Bathe in Baños – a quaint town surrounded by lush, mountainous landscapes and known for its multitude of natural thermal baths. (PHOTOS)

Thanks for reading. Shoot us a note at hello@thedailywax.com anytime!

P.S. We are heading to Marrakech, Morocco in a few weeks. If you have recommendations, hook us up!

Top 10 FAQs about our year-long trip around the world!

#10

How did you decide to leave for a year?

The idea of traveling the world for a year has been around since we first started dating.  After venting about a bad day at work, one of us would always say, "let's just quit and travel the world."  For a long time, we just laughed, but at some point, we decided this didn't have to be a joke.  

One book, in particular, was a major catalyst for the trip: "Essentialism" by Greg McKeown.  We listened to this book on a long drive to a friend’s wedding; by the time we arrived, we had both decided we needed to leave our jobs and spend more time doing what we deem to be "essential."  

#9

Why one month in each country?

The goal is to experience our destinations as much as possible. Airports, security lines, and long flights are the worst parts of travel; the best part is feeling like a local in a foreign place. Staying a month in each country and opting for shorter, domestic flights or train rides will help us make the most of our year. This concept, like a lot of our itinerary, is still subject to change. We're enjoying a trial run in Quito!

#8

Have you booked everything ahead of time?

No, definitely not! We're booking as we go. We'll probably end up booking a max of 1-2 months out. This gives us more flexibility and is more economical.

#7

Who does most of the planning? Do you have a travel agent or someone helping you?

We've done all of the planning on our own!  We make a pretty good team and tend to divide and conquer.  Elizabeth is probably better at the big picture booking, such as looking at what time of year to go where, making the overall itinerary, and booking long flights. Mike is better at finding #deals, using Chase travel points, and booking local experiences.  We work together on finding the right Airbnb (no one wants to take the blame for a month-long, bad Airbnb! haha).

#6

What if you hate somewhere and you’re there for a month?

We think this is unlikely, but if we really, really hate somewhere we would just leave and go to the next stop.  We would most likely lose the money that we spent on an Airbnb, but it would be worth a couple hundred bucks to start over somewhere else. 

#5

What place are you most excited about? Why?

This is a tough one.  Since we made our own itinerary for the year, we’re looking forward to every stop.  However, if we have to pick one to be the most excited about, we would say...

Elizabeth: “Definitely, India.  Mainly because I’ve found India to be a very polarizing topic.  When I tell people that we are going to India for a month, I get one of two responses: the first response is something along the lines of,  ‘I love India. You can’t possibly see all of such a beautiful, massive country in just one month,’ and the second is, ‘You don’t want to spend a month in India, you’ll get very sick and you will feel extremely overwhelmed.’ So, I am excited to find out for myself!”

Mike: “New Zealand, for sure. While visiting Australia for our honeymoon, the Aussies couldn't fathom the fact that we'd come all that way and ended up in their country versus opting for NZ. Every photo I've seen looks incredible; I'm ready to get outside and see some of these breathtaking landscapes for myself!”

#4

Will you be back at all and will you see any family/friends during the year?

We’re deviating from our “one-month-in-each-country” plan a few times to see family and friends. After Morocco, we’ll spend time with Elizabeth’s parents on a safari in Uganda and Tanzania.  Then we’ll spend a week with Elizabeth’s sister’s family in Amsterdam. Finally, we’ll make a pitstop to spend time with friends in London before heading to India.  

Mike’s parents and brother plan on visiting us during our time in Southeast Asia, most likely around the holidays! And then we have a couple of friends possibly coming to visit in Vietnam!?

Besides that, we are hoping for visitors all along the way!

#3

Why did you structure your overall itinerary the way you did?

Our main concern when deciding where we wanted to go, and when, was the weather. We basically wanted to chase the sun, and avoid any cold or winter climates throughout the trip. 

We knew we wanted to start in South America, and figured we’d make our way East from there. As a starting off point, Ecuador grabbed our attention for a bunch of reasons: it’s home to the Amazon rainforest, the Galapagos Islands and the Andes Mountains. Also, Elizabeth loves practicing her Spanish and Mike has plenty to learn!

#2

No Europe?

Nope! While we absolutely love Europe – we’ve both spent a decent amount of time there – it will always be relatively accessible as a travel destination for us. We’ll inevitably spend plenty of time there in the future, but our main theme for this round-the-world trip was to go discover new places that are a little tougher to reach. 

And the #1 most frequently asked question…

How do you pack for a year?

People are kind of obsessed with packing, and it’s easy to get carried away with researching the perfect gear for a trip.  Our answer immediately prompts more questions because we each only packed one large, carry-on backpack and one smaller day pack apiece.

Mike chose the 45L Tortuga Setout pack and Elizabeth opted for Patagonia’s 60L Black Hole Duffel.  To make everything fit, we use compression cubes religiously, but we also only brought the essentials (important note: compression cubes actually compress your clothing once packed, whereas “packing cubes” typically don’t take that extra step).  

We packed mostly casual, versatile clothing and since it is just the two of us, we will probably wear everything many, many times.  Luckily, neither of us care too much about that and we will always have access to a laundromat or washer/dryer! We are also looking forward to shopping in every country that we visit and can easily swap out an old item for something new.

We will write a blog post on what exactly is inside of our bags, but we haven’t gotten to that yet!

Thanks for reading... Shoot us a note at hello@thedailywax.com anytime!