Privat Mindo Cloud Forest Adventure

My guide Jose was the best. The ziplining was super fun, but just be warned there is a bit of walking to get to each line. Everything was super amazing 100% recommend.

Super cool tour! Our tour has been specially adapted for us by Rebecca Adventure Travel, as we had a short time. We stayed is a beautiful resort with a jacuzzi on our porch and a swimming pool. In addition, we have done many active things. We went ziplining in one morning, then went tubing on the wild river and finally we enjoyed a delicious local lunch! Loved Mindo! On the way to Quito I made a stop at the Equator Museum, I certainly didn't want to miss it, you can only experience this at that place!

Firstly, we substituted out the ziplining for extra hiking through the forest as I had a sore back that I didn't want to risk ziplining so my review is for everything else on the trip itinerary. Rebecca Adventure Travel were great with being flexible about changing the trip itinerary to suit what we wanted to do. I also found contacting them via WhatsApp and email to be easy leading up to the trip. Our guide Fausto picked us up on time in a clean and well maintained vehicle. He was very friendly, knowledgeable and very enthusiastic which made for a great day, and his English was fine. We firstly went to a garden to do some birdwatching - saw lots of tanagers and hummingbirds up close and got some great photos, I would highly recommend this if you are interested in wildlife. We then went to Mindo for a chocolate brownie and coffee - both excellent. Afterwards we went hiking in the cloud forest (normally this is when the ziplining would occur), saw some great scenery and waterfalls. The hiking was low intensity but had some hills and slippery sections so would best be enjoyed if you had good boots and a moderate level of fitness. Lunch back in Mindo followed at a local restaurant and was was the traditional 3-course style (soup, main and dessert). After lunch we went to the butterfly farm - plenty of nice butterflies however if there was anything on the tour that I would skip it would be this, only because lots of the butterflies could also be seen in the forest for free. Our final stop was the Equator Museum which was enjoyable for the short time we spent there, they do some demonstrations which are good fun. Overall I would highly recommend this tour if you enjoy wildlife and sightseeing, for us it was a great way to spend a free day in Ecuador.

Angel was our guide, and he is excellent. We were a group of 8, and they van we rode in was clean and in good working order. The 2-hour plus drive from Quito to Mindo passes quickly as the drive is interesting. Angel is a very safe driver, and he gave us plenty of opportunities for pit stops, if needed. The cup of hot chocolate we had at the small chocolate factory was delicious. We detoured to the butterfly farm at our request, and it was fun to see. The entry cost was extra, but that was expected since it was not part of the tour. Angel was very flexible about the request to add the butterflies. We then went to the zip line tour. It is a very well-run place, and we always felt very safe on the zip lines. After the zip lining, we had lunch at a local Mindo restaurant. The plated lunch was plentiful and good. We then drove back toward Quito and stopped at the Equator Museum. It was very interesting, and we enjoyed our time there. There were also some handicrafts available for sale there, and while they were not inexpensive, we are happy with our purchases. All in all it was a fantastic day, and Rebecca's Adventure Tours did a great job. I would definitely recommend anyone looking to plan a trip to this part of the world inquire as to whether this company has a tour to suit your needs.

My husband and I with our 23 year son spent a packed day with great guide ANGEL on a day trip from Quito. Seeing the change in topography and vegetation as you crossed over into the cloud forest was very interesting. The zipline activity was very good - 10 lines.....not as high up across ravines as we have done in Costa Rica but a great way to see the cloud forest....we even saw some Toucans feeding while at one of the zip line stations. Learned SO much about Ecuador - current issues and events, the dollarization, sustainability, tensions with neighboring populations as workers move across open borders etc etc....worth the whole trip to have 10+_ hours with such an exceptional guide. Lunch at a local eatery and stop at the equator museum.....highly recommend this!

<p>DAY 3 Mindo, Amazon Rainforest Canopy Tour, Ciudad Mitad del Mundo </p> <p>We were met by our drver Guillermo for our private tour at our hotel at 7:00 am. We started on our 2 hour journey to Mindo and had to go over Pichincha an active volcano that last erupted in October of 1999 which started activity in the ring of vocanos that cross Equador. Looking out the widow in the hotel room you can see the western side which is opposte where caldera exploded. It is over 15,000 ft high and we had to go over it to get to Mindal on a two lane road. When we arrived at Mindo we found a quaint little village with with a cobblestone mine street bordered by wooden colonnades reminicent of an old wester town however the architecture is one of mid 19th century. The standout in the middle of the main street was the beautiful church that was just letting out a Palm Sunday service. We followed the main street colonnades to a central square that had a colorful lanscaping with exoitic plants from the rainforest and a sculpture of a hummingbird feeding it's baby. We had time to visit a small cafe up a dirt side road and had some coffee fried plantains and brownies made from the chocolate they produce. The town of Mindo is known in the region for producing chocolate. </p> <p>After breakfast we headed up a dirt road into the Mindo Valley. The Mindo Valley is a mountainous watershed in the western slopes of the Andes, where two of the most biologically diverse ecoregions in the world meet: the Chocoan lowlands and the Tropical Andes. We were told it is set in beautiful cloud-forest, and it is surrounded by the Mindo-Nambillo Cloud Forest the forest is home to hundreds of species of birds, many of which are in danger of extinction. After a ten minute drive over the Mindo river where we could see river rafters washing down the choppy waters we arrived at the Canopy Tours of Mindo where we were in a group of 10 people who were going into the rainforest to take 10 zip lines that would traverse the canyons and ravines. This Canopy tour is supposed to be one of the top ten tours in the world. We were at the 10,400 foot elevation at the start of our Canopy tour according to one of our two tour guides. We hiked another 500 ft. The forest was alive with butterflies, and sounds of hundreds of species of birds. We were able even to see a Tucan.</p> <p>Let the fun begin! Freedom, excitement, exhilaration, thrills, adrenaline rush, it lets the average person feel the closest thing to flying without wings. The exhilarating feeling of soaring through the air can take your breath away. Ziplining is more than being attached to a cable and allowing gravity to pull you to the other side. Its about letting your inner child free, letting yourself laugh and cry and feel the adrenaline coursing through your veins. Its about getting an unforgettable view and in this case it was a view of inexplicable greens of the lush canopy that blanked the rainforest along with the reds and browns of the folage set against the rich blue of the late morning sky. As you fly down the cable you almost bush against the trees as you dive down to the ending platform. Half the fun is to watch and listen to the other members of your tour as they squeal and sometimes scream as they soar over the abyss with increasingly longer, faster and steeper lines. Two hours later we ended our tour with the last line landing where we started. Everyone in the tour group felt a special kinship with each other that comes from being on a unique and exciting adventure.</p> <p>We said farewell to our guides and left to go back to Mindo to have a lunch. Ziplining can work up an appetite. We found ourselves back in the square and went to a local family run restaurant called El Cheffsito where we had a seasoned broth soup with chicken, plantains, carrots, potatos, peas and yucca heart along with a plate of chicken that was so very flavorful and cookedso it fell of the bone, rice, potatos, and a small salad, which we washed down with refreshing passion fruit juice. The family worked the restaurant ant the three daughters that looked to be ages 8 - 13. served us and we enjoyed watching them teasing, giggling and playing around, but still paying attention to our needs. We were the only ones in the tiny restaurant.</p>

<p>The ziplining was great, the museum fine but i expected more from the chocolate tasting - it was just a coffee and brownie in a cafe. Andres our guide was excelent.</p>

Pros: We didn't have to plan anything to do this day other than the trip. The chocolate was extremely delicious! The zip lines had incredible views. Our tour guide was excellent and spoke English very well! Our guides for the ziplines didn't know a lot of English, but not much is needed once you get going! There are 10 zip lines and hiking in between each one. Cons: There's a decent bit of hiking! Don't do this if you're not in for a little bit of cardio. I'm a 24 y/o male who hardly ever works out and I made it just fine, but I was certainly tired. 2-3 of the hikes in between the ziplines were pretty steep and fairly long, too. Some of the others are much shorter. This trip includes 10 ziplines for us, and one person in our group decided to only do 5 of them so they could rest in between which was much needed. That part worked out perfectly because everyone was able to enjoy themselves.

<p>This what a great day! The activities were really awesome and our guide was knowledgeable. At times, our guide seemed a little disengaged and more like a driver than a guide, but overall an exceptional day and very recommendable.</p>