Antisana Volcano Birding & Natural History Condor Tour PRIVATE, all included
» Quito » Quito » Quito
From $185.00
33 reviews (4.97)
Price varies by group size
Lowest Price GuaranteePricing Info: Per Person
Duration: 8 hours
Departs: Quito, Quito
Ticket Type: Mobile or paper ticket accepted
Free cancellation
Overview
● Make the most of your day in a unique ecosystem, away from crowded destinations, just 90 minutes away form Quito.
● Explore the Andean Highlands in the company of a specialized guide, while enjoying breathtaking landscapes, searching for unique flora and fauna, including the emblematic Andean Condor.
● Hike around La Mica Lake and discover the biodiversity that this place holds. Explore the reserve in search for species such as the Spectacled Bear, Andean Fox, and many avian high altitude species.
● Observe different hummingbird species such as the Giant Hummingbird and the stunning
Ecuadorian Hillstar
● Support local development and conservation with your visit.
● Let us know if your main interest is birdwatching, we will run the tour accordingly with the right guide for you
What's Included
All activities
Certified, bilingual naturalist & birding guide
Coffee and/or Tea
Hotel pick-up and drop-off
Lunch with soft drink
National Park fees
Private transportation
What's Not Included
Alcoholic drinks (available to purchase)
Gratuities
Traveler Information
- ADULT: Age: 8 - 75
Additional Info
- Child rate applies only when sharing with 2 paying adults
- Copy of passport of one of the group members is required for billing purposes (local tax exemption)
- Ecuador received the WTTC Safe Travels Stamp from the World Travel & Tourism Council. Private tours guarantee that you will share your time and space with your group only, making your experience safe while enyoing the unmatched biodiversity of our forests
- Face masks required for travellers in public areas
- Guides required to regularly wash hands
- Let us know if you are prone to altitude sickness
- Paid stay-at-home policy for staff with symptoms
- Regular temperature checks for staff
- Social distancing enforced throughout experience
- Transportation vehicles regularly sanitised
- Child rate applies only when sharing with 2 paying adults
- Copy of passport of one of the group members is required for billing purposes (local tax exemption)
- Ecuador received the WTTC Safe Travels Stamp from the World Travel & Tourism Council. Private tours guarantee that you will share your time and space with your group only, making your experience safe while enyoing the unmatched biodiversity of our forests
- Face masks required for travellers in public areas
- Guides required to regularly wash hands
- Let us know if you are prone to altitude sickness
- Paid stay-at-home policy for staff with symptoms
- Regular temperature checks for staff
- Social distancing enforced throughout experience
- Transportation vehicles regularly sanitised
Cancellation Policy
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
- For a full refund, you must cancel at least 24 hours before the experience’s start time.
- If you cancel less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time, the amount you paid will not be refunded.
What To Expect
Quito
We start early with a pick up from your hotel in Quito or the airport area.
5 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
As we drive towards the entrance to Antisana Reserve, our first stopis at Mirador del Isco, a lookoutthat is part of Chakana Reserve. This is one of the best places for Condor sightings
35 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
Antisana Ecological Reserve
Then we continue towards the western entrance of Antisana Ecological Reserve. As we start exploring, we search for high altitude and local wildlife specialties- fox, deer and with some luck the Spectacled Bear may be part of our experience, as well as the Ecuadorian Hillstar visiting the Chuquiragua bushes, Tawny Antpitta, Tufted tit-Tyrant, Carunculated Caracaras, among many others.
2 minutes • Admission Ticket Included
Reviews
The Antisana Reserve in Intimate Detail
769abelle, 25-05-2022
Our excellent guide Santiago of Neotropical Nature & Birding gave us a grand tour of the Antisana that included a stop for a good sighting of the Andean Condor, Andean Lapwings, Ibis and Caracaras. A Giant Hummingbird was a highlight at our lunch stop, which included Tyrian metaltail, Shining Sunbeams, Sapphirewings, Hillstars and Violetears. He knew exactly where to find the Red-crested Cotinga. His deep knowledge of the natural history of this beautiful country gave a rich dimension to our tour. I can’t recommend Neotropical and Santiago highly enough.
Wonderful birding experience!
Lmporter1, 24-05-2022
This was a wonderful day-trip out of Quito! Santiago was our guide for the trip and we had an amazing day of birding. Santiago was very knowledgeable about the bird species we saw along the way and made sure we had plenty of opportunities to stop for photos. He also shared his knowledge of the various volcanos we saw during our journey and answered all of our questions about the area. The included lunch was tasty and provided an additional opportunity to try to spot more birds. We did the trip on a Tuesday and we saw hardly anyone else during the day. All-in-all it was an incredible day and I would definitely recommend this tour!
A Great Day Chasing Birds!
blairs821, 17-05-2022
Santiago Salazar of Neotropical Nature and Birding Trips opened our eyes to the beauty and biodiversity that Antisana national Park holds!
After two years of no travel due to COVID, my husband and I took the leap and embarked on our long-planned, bucket-list trip to mainland Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands in April. Our first stop took us to Quito and the Antisana National Park—in search of the Andean Condor.
Throughout our entire tour Santiago’s innate and extensive knowledge of the micro-Andean ecosystems allowed us to understand why certain birds flocked to specific areas, leading us to observe more than 35 species in a few short hours, including 7 distinct types of amazing hummingbirds!
On our very first stop at Chakana Reserve, Santiago explained that the white guano stains on the cliffs indicated where the Condors nested, we spotted our first adult and juvenile condor on the wing. Then, entirely unexpectedly, on our drive to the Mica Lagoon in Antisana, off to the side of the road a deer had died in a field. Bad for the deer, but good for us as we watched for quite a while as 15 or more Condors came to feed—about a third of the condor population in this region. And soon after, we were awed by the subtle beauty of half a dozen Andean Ibis and several other species we would never have seen without Santiago knowing their favorite flora.
Santiago’s lunch plan at was perfect. There we caught our breath, refueled, and saw/photographed several species of shimmering hummingbirds up close. We rounded out the day with a few stops where Santiago knew to stop and coax out a Paramo Pipit and a Red-crested Cotinga.
Santiago proved the perfect guide for us. He listened to understand what we hoped to see and did everything in his power to make sure we did, all the while keeping our tour on schedule. His in-depth knowledge of the unique ecosystems left none of our questions unanswered. Because neither my husband nor I speak Spanish, we really appreciated Santiago’s command of English. Even after the tour, he provided us the complete list of birds we’d seen, so we didn’t forget a single one and could look them up in greater detail at our leisure.
Santiago’s love for the Ecuadorian landscape was infectious—we would take another tour with him in a heartbeat!
After two years of no travel due to COVID, my husband and I took the leap and embarked on our long-planned, bucket-list trip to mainland Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands in April. Our first stop took us to Quito and the Antisana National Park—in search of the Andean Condor.
Throughout our entire tour Santiago’s innate and extensive knowledge of the micro-Andean ecosystems allowed us to understand why certain birds flocked to specific areas, leading us to observe more than 35 species in a few short hours, including 7 distinct types of amazing hummingbirds!
On our very first stop at Chakana Reserve, Santiago explained that the white guano stains on the cliffs indicated where the Condors nested, we spotted our first adult and juvenile condor on the wing. Then, entirely unexpectedly, on our drive to the Mica Lagoon in Antisana, off to the side of the road a deer had died in a field. Bad for the deer, but good for us as we watched for quite a while as 15 or more Condors came to feed—about a third of the condor population in this region. And soon after, we were awed by the subtle beauty of half a dozen Andean Ibis and several other species we would never have seen without Santiago knowing their favorite flora.
Santiago’s lunch plan at was perfect. There we caught our breath, refueled, and saw/photographed several species of shimmering hummingbirds up close. We rounded out the day with a few stops where Santiago knew to stop and coax out a Paramo Pipit and a Red-crested Cotinga.
Santiago proved the perfect guide for us. He listened to understand what we hoped to see and did everything in his power to make sure we did, all the while keeping our tour on schedule. His in-depth knowledge of the unique ecosystems left none of our questions unanswered. Because neither my husband nor I speak Spanish, we really appreciated Santiago’s command of English. Even after the tour, he provided us the complete list of birds we’d seen, so we didn’t forget a single one and could look them up in greater detail at our leisure.
Santiago’s love for the Ecuadorian landscape was infectious—we would take another tour with him in a heartbeat!
Great way to see condors
MMGAC, 24-04-2022
Great way to discover Andes. Saw about 25 condors, some very close by. Many deers too. Altitude is tough but the guides were wonderful!
Take this tour!
418kitam, 20-04-2022
If you enjoy the natural world, Ecuador should be at the top of your “must see” list and Neotropical your tour guides. Communication with Maria Zambrano, Operations Manager, as we tried to decide what full day-tours to take was prompt, friendly, helpful and ever-courteous. We had intended to do a single day of touring, but after one day with Santiago Salazar, we quickly booked a second. Santiago, a guide with a great wealth of knowledge, is both a passionate nature enthusiast and patient teacher. He answered every question we had on birds (he knows them all!), the native vegetation, history and culture of the area. His attention to our needs and hopes in exploring the area never waned. We couldn’t have felt more fortunate and well taken care of!
Within several hours of Quito, a busy city of 2 million people, are a surprising number of nature reserves. Driving into the spectacular Andes mountains and these reserves is like moving onto another planet, or planets, the vegetation associated with the numerous microclimates providing an ever-shifting palette of texture and color. At the Antisana Ecological Reserve, we had the heart-stopping experience of seeing condors, the largest bird on the planet. We lingered at length watching not only the condors (both adults and a chick), but variable hawks and carunculated caracara, as they floated over the stunning cliffs of the reserve. It was absolutely magical and Santiago was very patient with our desire to stay and watch, pointing out various smaller birds as they flitted around our lookout point, as well as the movement of the raptors.
The condor, as most folks know, is an endangered species, and Neotropical is committed to working in tandem with locals to promote ecotourism as a livelihood that can be both financially profitable (indeed, more profitable than clearing ground to raise cattle) and valuable to the country and planet as a whole. Their goals include preserving the vital ecosystems that support not only condors, but over 1600 species of birds, many of them with the colorful plumage that makes this subtropical area a spectacular place to bird and/or photograph.
Our goal on this trip was to see birds, (although Ecuador boasts over 350 species of mammals as well as the illusive jaguar). And after 20 years of guiding, Santiago had IDed particular areas within each of the reserves and access roads where various bird species have been found. With Santiago’s guidance, we saw 45 species on our first day into the reserve including a red-crested continga, spectacled redstart, and the giant hummingbird, a miracle of avian engineering!
In every way, our two days with Neotropical was satisfying. Next time we head for Ecuador, we hope to take part in a ten-day tour in search of wildlife and into the Amazon. I highly recommend these folks. They are the whole package: competent, professional, knowledgeable, and with an excellent command of the English language. Tour with Neotropical Nature and Birding Trips and discover the beautiful and fascinating world of Ecuadorian nature. I promise you won’t be disappointed!
Within several hours of Quito, a busy city of 2 million people, are a surprising number of nature reserves. Driving into the spectacular Andes mountains and these reserves is like moving onto another planet, or planets, the vegetation associated with the numerous microclimates providing an ever-shifting palette of texture and color. At the Antisana Ecological Reserve, we had the heart-stopping experience of seeing condors, the largest bird on the planet. We lingered at length watching not only the condors (both adults and a chick), but variable hawks and carunculated caracara, as they floated over the stunning cliffs of the reserve. It was absolutely magical and Santiago was very patient with our desire to stay and watch, pointing out various smaller birds as they flitted around our lookout point, as well as the movement of the raptors.
The condor, as most folks know, is an endangered species, and Neotropical is committed to working in tandem with locals to promote ecotourism as a livelihood that can be both financially profitable (indeed, more profitable than clearing ground to raise cattle) and valuable to the country and planet as a whole. Their goals include preserving the vital ecosystems that support not only condors, but over 1600 species of birds, many of them with the colorful plumage that makes this subtropical area a spectacular place to bird and/or photograph.
Our goal on this trip was to see birds, (although Ecuador boasts over 350 species of mammals as well as the illusive jaguar). And after 20 years of guiding, Santiago had IDed particular areas within each of the reserves and access roads where various bird species have been found. With Santiago’s guidance, we saw 45 species on our first day into the reserve including a red-crested continga, spectacled redstart, and the giant hummingbird, a miracle of avian engineering!
In every way, our two days with Neotropical was satisfying. Next time we head for Ecuador, we hope to take part in a ten-day tour in search of wildlife and into the Amazon. I highly recommend these folks. They are the whole package: competent, professional, knowledgeable, and with an excellent command of the English language. Tour with Neotropical Nature and Birding Trips and discover the beautiful and fascinating world of Ecuadorian nature. I promise you won’t be disappointed!
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