Montañita is town on Ecuador’s coast known primarily for two things:
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Decent surf
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Insane nightlife
The town itself is a small collection of streets packed with tourist shops, eclectic street food stands, and young dreadlocked men selling “happy” brownies. Reggae music blasts at all hours of the day, and at night the streets are packed with gringos and vacationing Ecuadorians looking for a good time.
If the clubs aren’t your thing, you can grab a cocktail to go from a street vendor, and bring your dance moves to the beach, which is even more crowded in the early hours of the morning than during the day.
The beach was nothing compared to those we visited in the Galapagos – crowded and littered with cigarette butts and bottle caps (remnants of the previous night’s party). Let’s just say that people don’t come to Montañita for the beautiful beach – but rather the epic party that is promised each night.
BEST street food – RastaPan – i.e. doughy pizza goodness.
Hi Katie and Ben… I am sad you could not experience the other part of Montañita. Yes, I will accept that it has a reputation of party town but is much more than that. 10 minutes walking from the center there is the neighborhood called "La Punta", here people will find only nature, relax and nice people, not crowd groups or laud music. You can do yoga, sit at the bars to watch the sunset, learn spanish or just relax, check Hostal Casa del Sol and Mar Azul Spanish School. Also I will recommend to grab a taxi to go next town "Olon" which is very beautiful and have plenty options in accommodation, food and the beach is really nice too only 5 minutes by taxi.
Hi Gabriela. We went to Montañita back in 2014, about a month after we quit our career jobs to travel. We have good memories of Montañita, but you’re right, it is a big party town. La Punta and Olon sound lovely and that would definitely be more our travel style now. Thanks for the extra tips!
Hi There,
I am trying to plan a trip to include Banos & Montanita and was wondering what route you took to include these places. We will be starting out journey in Quito.
Any tips are appreciated
G
Hi Georgia, You’ll have so much fun visiting Ecuador! We also began in Quito, then took a bus to Baños. From there, we took a bus to Guayaquil (where we only spent the night – I wouldn’t recommend spending time there). From Guayaquil, there are many buses in the direction of Montañita.
The nice thing is that Ecuador is relatively small and transportation is super cheap. Our general rule of thumb was that for every hour of travel, the bus ticket should be $1 USD (so a 5-hour journey should cost around $5 USD). Hope this helps! Happy travels!