Manta's highlights & Montecristi Hats
Description
Best prices, high quality! This tour will give you a sense of what locals experience everyday, you will learn about our education system, history, customs, culture, & cuisine. You will learn how we build our fishing boats, fishermen may approach asking to take them with you on a picture posing and holding a big tuna while you visit the fish market; We will take you to one of the factories where we process "tagua" buttons, tons of these buttons get exported, so you might be wearing one right now, to complement this tour we will visit a chocolate bars factory, we will also show you how the Montecristi hats are woven, and how much work a weaver put into it, through a demonstration, in one of the artisan's shops, we will explain the process, right after, we will take you to the museum Ciudad Alfaro, which is full of art and history that you will be introduced to. On the way back, do not miss taking a picture of the weaving woman statue on the roundabout.
Tour Options
Itinerary
Firstly we will visit the fish market fish market, at this point we will learn how our fishermen bring the fish in to our cost and table, then we will visit the boat factory, were you will see some of the fishing boats being built.
Boatyard, where you will have the opportunity to see how the fishing boats are being built.
We will visit a Tagua Factory, where we will learn how the tagua nuts or the vegetable ivory is processed into pieces that will be carved into nice buttons or figures.
Hat weaving demonstration: We will witness an artisan weaving, ironing, shaping, and pressing a hat, we will tell you how a hat is made from the very beginning of the process.
We will visit, Ciudad Alfaro, a complex that was built in order to honor our ex president Eloy Alfaro, who regardless of being a wealthy man, he fought agains the inequality in 1895, and where we singned our last constitution in 2008. Then we will visit a shop, where we will be shown how we weave the Montecristi hats, and you will have time to shop and look around downtown.
Chocolate factory. In this visit we will learn a little bit of high quality chocolate bars, an opportunity to taste the different products and bring some souvenirs with you.
Highlights
What's included
Pickup Locations & Times
We accommodate our start time to match your arrival, take the free "Shuttle" to the ship terminal, our representatives will be wearing uniforms with MANTA SOS'S logo, We will meet you at the waiting area, inside the terminal, next to the exit door as you see on the pictures on the tour description. You can recognize our team by their uniform, that will have our logo on the shirt, Our representatives will meet you at the waiting area next to the exit.
Traveller Ratings
Important Information
- Wheelchair accessible
- Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
- Public transportation options are available nearby
- Specialized infant seats are available
- Transportation options are wheelchair accessible
- Not recommended for pregnant travelers
- Not recommended for travelers with poor cardiovascular health
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
- In case you are bringing a wheelchair, you need to notify this to us, otherwise we won't be responsible of not being able to take you on the tour.
- If you require a guide that speaks another language other than English or Spanish, you will have to choose the option "Other languages"
- Not recommended for travelers with mobility issues, unless they bring their own assistance.
Reviews(71)
We enjoyed our tour. Our guide was very engaging and accommodating to those in the group who needed additional assistance.
Thanks so much for your nice review.
A lot of time was spent walking through a fish market along the shore. Everything was caught that morning, very fresh. But we were all from a cruise ship. There was no point in any of us buying a caught fish and bringining it on-board the ship. They brought up to a factory making jewelry from a large dried seed. The material was surprisingly hard. Machine tools were required to cut the seeds to shape. It was interesting, never seen anything like this. Next, we visited a panama hat making shop. This is now an extremely rare skill. The hats were of a remarkably fine quality. But hardly anyone in our group wanted to spend the money to buy one.
Thanks a lot for your nice review, we really hope you can come back soon. The warmest regards
Very well organised tour. Everything went like clock work with an amazing enthusiastic guide Juan Carlos who took us through the different venues efficiently despite the amount of tourist in the areas. I highly recommend this tour
Thanks so much for such a nice review, Juan Carlos will be happy to hear that you enjoyed the tour very much. The warmest regards
We had a lot of fun while learning all about Manta and the love everyone emits. Great demonstrations that were above our expectations and very appreciated. We ended with some yummy food with a great view of our ship and the harbour/port. Everyone was professional, helpful and even helped with language translation. We were very happy with everything.
These kind of reviews encourage us to do better every day. Thanks a lot. The warmest regards
We arrived on an NCL cruise and wanted to customize our tour. I reached out to Fernando and we bonded as we worked thru a modified agenda. We wanted to focus on 3 activities: the chocolate factory, hat making in Montecristi, and ending with a nice lunch. And they delivered on all 3. Our guide (whose name I unfortunately can’t remember) was a real professional, knowledgeable and fun. We spent ample time at each location with rave reviews from our entire group. I was given “star” status for putting this tour together but all the credit goes to Fernando. We all stocked up on the delicious and inexpensive chocolates. Half of us bought“Panama” hats and everyone enjoyed a delicious meal with a view. Job well done!
Thanks so much for your words Mr. Doolittle, without you I would not had designed the route and chosen the activities that well, so the credits are not just mine. My family and I are happy to hear you all enjoyed this tour. Thanks so much and we hope you come back again. Hasta pronto !
Be aware of the amount of time you spend shopping. Others are sometimes waiting to move on. We enjoyed the opportunity to learn how chocolate, vegetable ivory, and Panama hats are made. The fish market was wonderful and NOT smelly! A little bit of the ship building was interesting. The museum was unremarkable, but the view from on top of the mountain was nice.
Thanks so much for such a nice review, we are really pleased to hear you had a great time with us, we hope you come back and learn more about our country. Greetings
It was interesting to see such a variety of things on one tour. Our guide Jorge Elias was excellent. We really enjoyed the fish market and the hat making demonstration.
Thanks so much for such a nice review, we really hope you return in the future, so we show more of the surroundings in Manta. Thanks so much for your support Kind regards
Excellent experience in l to the beautiful city of manra
Muchas gracias por el comentario. Esperamos que regresen pronto. Saludos cordiales !
This tour was amazing, especially the hats. We watched the end making of the hat and it actually fit my husband perfectly, so we bought it. Totally amazing tour.
Our guide communicated with us before the tour and met us right on time at the port with a sign. He was very knowledgeable and kind and did an excellent job explaining everything we saw. We loved the variety of stops, the fishing boats, vegetable nut factory, hat presentation and chocolate stops were all very educational and informative.
