Travel From West Coast

[MELVIN WON]

Want to visit southern coast of Ecuador. Is there a reasonable way to travel from California to Ecuador?

[COUNTRY EXPERT – WENDY DECHAMBEAU]

Hi Melvin,

If your goal is to explore Ecuador’s south coast it will probably make the most sense to fly into Guayaquil. Researching flights from Los Angeles it seems that there are no direct flights into Ecuador, though a popular option is to fly straight to Lima in Peru and from there catch a connecting flight to Guayaquil.

Flight prices can vary greatly depending on what time of year you want to go. If you’re up to researching flights on your own you can use the online travel services such as Orbitz, Kayak, or Expedia and play around with different travel dates and options. Or you can contact a travel agent who can do the footwork for you and potentially find options not available on the internet.

[LINDA LINDSEY]

Hi. Go to http://www.kayak.com and put in your request. Flights are cheapest from LAX, but you can fly out of any CA city.
Copa and LAN both have flights. Sometimes you can get great deals on American if you check
their site between midnight and 1 am.

You might want to fly into Quito and spend a few days in the highlands, then fly to Guyayaquil
on an Ecuadorean airline, for less than $50. No need to fly into Lima.

Please note that it can rain and flood during the rainy season on the southern coast.

Have you got an Ecuador guidebook?

Guayaquil is not a place where you want to spend any time, and avoid going out at night.

[WENDY MARTIN]

After considerable research on various flight options from CA to Ecuador, I concur that flying out of LA to Quito is likely the least expensive and offers the shortest flight times for economy fares. Kayak.com came up with the best prices over multiple trials of various search engines on the net…didn’t explore travel agents however. Just booked a 3 week flight commencing end of May via LAN for $869 return. Found flying into the other major cities more expensive so will try local airlines or car to explore the rest of the country.

[MELVIN WON]

Thank you very much for all your help. You were all very helpful and much appreciated.

[MELANIE CLARK]

We are flying out of Tucson in mid-May. We will also be exploring the Pacific Coast (mostly Salinas and Manta) before heading to Cuenca and Quito. (We fly out of Quito) I found that the layovers are so many hours, that I didn’t want to get to Ecuador and be really tired. So we are flying to Miami, staying overnight. Then I got a direct flight from Miami to Guayaquil on American (in Business Class) for around $800 each (was $600 in coach). The flight is 4 hours 15 minutes. I had to get that price on Orbitz, though. It took me six hours on one day a couple of weeks ago, to get everything figured out, review at all the sites, prices, look at all the times and that is what I came up with. The flight from Tucson to Miami costs about $200 each (United or Delta). Tucson is difficult to get out of, and there are very few direct flights to anywhere from Tucson (except Vegas and LA and Seattle)

[SUZAN HASKINS]

Thanks, Melanie. One other option for those flying from the west coast is to overnight in Las Vegas and then fly from there on a 6 am flight the next morning on a Copa Airlines direct flight to Panama and on to Quito. We’ve done this route when visiting our kids in Phoenix. Not optimal but saves some time and, occasionally, money.

[BERNARD JONES]

Hi there,

I recently travelled from Vancouver to Guayaquil.

My flight went to Los Angeles,then San Salvador and Guayaquil.
The carrier is Avianca and they are a a good airline, with good service.
LAX to San Salvador is about 4.5 hours and then San Salvador to Guayaquil is 3 hours on a smaller plane
(Embraer) flights were pretty full.

Rgds
Bernie

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