Travelling in Ecuador with a baby

Travelling by bus

Traveling in Ecuador with a baby isn’t really complicated, if you take few things into consideration when planning your trip. Ecuador is relatively safe country and in my opinion child friendly too.

First time we traveled with our baby when she was three months. My mom was visiting us from Finland, and we wanted to show her some places here in Ecuador. It was the first time for her to visit us and also South America.

We made a two weeks tour with a local buses. I was a bit nervous to travel with a small baby, but everything actually went much better that I expected. We did all the travelling during a day time, as we thought at night it’s much harder to travel with a baby. I would recommend travelling during daytime for others too, because you really have to pay attention to the baby all the time. The roads are sometimes quite bad and the bus might do sudden movements. While we were in a bus, the baby was mostly sleeping, so my worry for her crying all the way was unnecessary.

Enjoying the beautiful view

Of course we did quite a lot of sightseeing. The baby really enjoyed visiting and seeing different places, which surprised me a bit. I could really see the happiness on her face when we visited the places. Especially she liked the waterfall Pailón del diablo in Baños. I have to say that Pailón del diablo is a spectacular place to visit, and I was happily surprised that it was a great experience for a small baby too.

One of the important things to think on the road is the baby food. Our baby was breast-fed so we didn’t have to worry about carrying and preparing food for her. Ecuadorian woman’s feed their babies on public and it’s not a taboo here like in many other countries. I always carry a scarf to cover the baby when she is feeding, but many local women don’t bother to do even that. If your baby is on a milk formula diet, you can find it widely available in Ecuador.

If you normally like to use baby carriage, I would recommend you to leave it at home, especially if you are travelling with small baby. Travelling with a baby carriage in Ecuador might be a bit challenging. The sidewalks aren’t always in the best condition and many interesting place are within easier access if you carry your baby in the arms. We always carry the baby in the lap or in a kangaroo bag and travelling like this is the easiest way. Just keep a lot of brakes so you won’t get tired, go sit in a park or in a cafeteria and change the turns to carry the baby with your couple. Travelling with a baby shouldn’t be running from a one sightseeing to another, but more relaxing nice time together as a family. Our baby is now almost seven months, and with the kangaroo bag it’s still really easy to carry her around.

Baby in the kangaroo bag

When booking a hostel or hotel, check that the place is child friendly and not on a really noisy location. After all the sightseeing baby was really tired and slept good at nights, without causing any harassment to other hotel guests. In one of the hotel rooms we had two king-sized beds, so we were able to put the baby into the other bed. In another places, the baby slept in the same bed between me and my husband.

Buying diapers and other necessities like wet towels on the way is easy so don’t carry too much stuff with you. Also you can buy really nice baby’s and children’s clothes.

Remember that travelling in high altitudes with a small baby isn’t recommended, because the high altitude can be dangerous for baby’s undeveloped lungs. For example, Teleferico in Quito don’t allow babies to enter.

We visited also the jungle in Cuyabeno Reserve, but it’s not recommended place to visit with a small baby. I stayed at the lodge with the baby, while the others went to do the activities.

Here is a list of the long distance journeys we travelled