At first glance, it would seem that Loja ticks just about all the popular travel destination boxes: a pleasant climate, some charming colonial architecture, and close to some spectacular nature. In fact, nearby Podocarpus National Park is stunning and one of the most biologically diverse places on earth. Yet, for some odd reason, Loja doesn’t seem to get a lot of visitors, aside from the occasional expat.
Maybe Loja and Podocarpus fly under the tourist radar because of the long bus ride from Quito. Or maybe the world’s just been waiting for some unknown travel blogger to write a guide like this to spark a tourist boom.
What to Know about Loja
Loja is a small city of about 200,000 people, nestled in the southern foothills of Ecuador’s Andean highlands. The climate rests in that fantastic middle ground where it’s not too hot or too cold. Just very sunny. Don’t forget a hat and sunscreen.
The Spanish founded the city way back in 1548, where it became an important stopping point between Quito and Cuzco. Spanish conquistadors used Loja as a starting point for expeditions into the Amazon jungle.
Loja also gets credit for being Ecuador’s first city to have electric lighting.
The city doesn’t really draw as many tourists as it maybe should. However, there is a small, but growing, group of North American expats and retirees who’ve settled there. You may not run into them at all. We didn’t spot a single gringo during the few days we spent in Loja.
Finally, for those gringos who don’t habla español, the “j” in Loja is actually pronounced more like an “h” rather than an English “j”. This is important to know if, for example, you’re buying a bus ticket to get to Loja.
How to Get to and Around Loja
Loja actually has its own airport. You can fly into Camilo Ponce Enriquez Airport and then take a 45-minute taxi into town. However, flying is expensive and bad for the environment. It’s much better to take the bus if you have the time. In our experience, buses in Ecuador are cheap, reliable and safe.
Buses from Quito to Loja take a whopping 16 hours, so if you’re coming directly from the capital, try and find an overnight option. If you’re traveling through Ecuador, like we did, and stopping along the way, you’ll likely be coming from Cuenca, which is only 4 or 5 hours away.
Loja is also about an hour away from the disturbing gringo haven of Vilcabamba.
The city of Loja itself is compact and walkable. If you’re heading out beyond walking distance, to Podocarpus National Park for example, you can hire a cab for cheap. Loja also has a network of public buses which we didn’t take because cabs were cheap and the city is really easy to get around on foot.
Where to Stay in Loja
You really only have one option when staying in Loja: that’s the El Cardenal Hotel.
Okay, so there are actually a bunch more options, but we had a fantastic experience at El Cardenal, so I’d really recommend it.
The hotel itself isn’t particularly fancy, in fact the outside looks a bit intimidating, but the rooms are perfectly comfortable. The real draw, however, are the owners and the staff who were absolutely lovely. It’s a family-owned place, and everyone really makes you feel welcome. One of the guys who works there seemed really interested in North American sandwiches.
Click here to book your stay at El Cardenal Hotel. You won’t regret it. As a bonus, by booking through this site, you’ll help support independent travel blogging at no extra cost to you.
On one of the most fun, but also most stressful, aspects of travel is finding and booking places to stay. These days you have options ranging from dirt cheap hostel dorms to luxurious White Lotus style resorts. Thankfully, the internet is here to make finding accommodation easier.
Hostelworld is the go to app for finding hostels. For everything else, there’s Booking.com. If you book through either of the previous links, I’ll gain a small commission at no extra cost to you.
What to Do in Loja
Even though Loja is a reasonably sized city, it has a small-town feel. It also doesn’t have a ton of tourist activities. It’s the kind of place that’s excellent for low key exploring and chatting with the friendly locals rather than booking tours and action-packed adventures.
I usually like to travel and do activities independently, but sometimes you want to relax and let someone else take over. For those times, I suggest using Get Your Guide. Prices are reasonable and they have numerous tours available. Click here to explore options in Ecuador. Tours booked through these links help support this blog at no extra cost to you.
Podocarpus National Park
Podocarpus National Park is an amazing place and one of Ecuador’s most astounding natural areas. And this is in the country whose territory includes the freaking Galapagos. This park was pretty much the whole reason we wanted to visit Loja in the first place.
The park is named after the Podocarpus tree, an endemic conifer found mainly in Ecuador but also in the Andean slopes of Bolivia and Peru. Podocarpus National Park is considered “megadiverse.” The park protects more than 4,000 different species of vegetation. Animals include jaguars, tapirs, bears and nearly 600 species of birds. Those 600 species amount to about 6% of all the bird species in the world.
That level of biodiversity makes Podocarpus National Park hands down the number one thing to do in Loja. It should also put it high on the list for nature lovers traveling to Ecuador.
The thick vegetation means that you probably won’t see many of those animals without a guide. The park’s lush cloud forests, however, are still very beautiful in their own right. We couldn’t turn a corner without coming across some blooming flowers or interesting mushrooms.
We took Los Miradores Trail which, as the name implies, wound up through the cloud forest to some very excellent views of the surrounding green mountains. The hike was about 3 miles (5 kilometers) and if I remember right moderately difficult, with a couple of scrambling bits. The park also has some milder options, as well as a two-day trek for the very ambitious.
Podocarpus National Park is located only about 45-60 minutes from Loja. You can catch any bus bound to Vilcabamba and ask to be dropped off at the entrance. From there, it’s about 5 miles (8km) to the park entrance, which is a hike in itself. The other option (which we did) is to catch a taxi from town, which will take you right to the entrance. You can always take a taxi there and bus back. This way you’ll be returning downhill instead of blowing all your energy on the road leading to the park.
Wander Loja and Check Out the Unique Architecture
If you aren’t too tired after walking in Podocarpus Natioanl Park, you’ll find that the city of Loja is also quite walkable. The downtown, like many Latin American cities, has a charming colonial center. It won’t compare to places like Cuenca or Quito, but it’s still nice enough. Parque Central and Parque Simón Bolívar are the two main central squares. Keep an eye out for some of Loja’s elegant churches.
You can also walk along the river, which is quite lovely. El Cardenal hotel sits a little far from the town center, but the tree lined trail along the river made the distance enjoyable. You can also do some birdwatching from this little riverside path.
The main architectural attraction of Loja is the Puerta de la Ciudad, or Gate of the City. This medieval looking town gate looks almost like some kind of fairy tale castle and definitely feels out of place in South America. Apparently, the king of Spain gave it to the city back in the 16th century as a gift.
You can climb up the walls and there’s a small museum inside. The Puerta de la Ciudad is located in the north of town, where the two rivers and most of the streets converge.
Loja is also known for its music. The town has a number of bars and nightclubs that could be fun. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find any concerts or anything going on while we were there. Maybe next time.
Visit Jipiro Recreational Park
If you follow the river north of the gate, past the municipal market, you’ll find Jipiro Recreational Park. This is a city park, in many ways not too dissimilar to parks you’d find in North America. Locals come to picnic, walk or make out on the benches. Unlike most North American parks, though, Jipiro is filled with miniature replicas of all kinds of various global landmarks or unique buildings.
You’ll see a cement reconstruction of London’s Big Ben, a Chinese style pagoda, a princess castle with a slide, and even a version of the Kremlin for some reason. It’s all very cheesy in the absolute best of ways.
Deeper in the park, we stumbled upon an under-construction “Cretaceous Park.” This was similar to, but legally distinct from, the more famous Jurassic Park. Don’t worry, the dinosaurs weren’t real.
Jipiro Recreational Park is a fun place to wander around, especially if you’re interested in some of the world’s more quirkier attractions. Follow the river north of the city gate and you can’t miss it.
Final Thoughts on Loja and Podocarpus National Park
Loja feels a bit like an undiscovered hidden gem. Even in this modern day and age when nothing is truly undiscovered. Still, for whatever reason, the city doesn’t tend to draw the tourists of other Ecuadorian towns like Cuenca or nearby Vilcabamba.
I’m not sure why, because Loja really has a lot going for it. The local people are friendly and willing to chat (if you’re Spanish is up for it). The nearby Podocarpus National Park is amazing and easily Ecuador’s most underrated natural area. The biodiversity protected by the park is almost overwhelming.
In the end, though, Loja’s lack of tourism is part of what makes it special. You can spend your days soaking up a more authentic side of Ecuador, without feeling overwhelmed by retired North American hippies and drunken Israeli influencers. Loja might not have the A-list attractions, but it really is a pleasant place to spend a few days. It’s probably an even nicer place to settle down for a while.
Let’s hope it stays that way long enough for you to have a chance to visit and see it for yourself.
Want to discover more hidden gems in Ecuador? Or at least some gems? Click here for our Ecuador travel guide: Expeditions in Ecuador: A Travel Guide to the Country in the Middle of the World
Useful Websites for Traveling Ecuador
As much as we might long for the days when you could show up to a town with nothing more than a beat-up guidebook and a sense of adventure, today much of traveling involves being glued to our phones making bookings. I’ve compiled some helpful apps and websites below that at least help make those bookings more convenient so you can spend less time staring at your phone and more time exploring at your surroundings. Some of these sites are affiliate links that give me a small commission at no cost to you if you chose to book through them. All of them are sites I’ve used personally and have no problem recommending.
Just be sure to do your due diligence as much as possible. Only hire local guides and try as much as possible to stay in locally owned hotels and hostels so that your hard earned travel dollars actually go to support the local economies of the places you visit.
Booking.com is basically the world’s only hotel booking website. They have hotels, guesthouses and vacation rentals all over Ecuador.
Hostelworld is the go-to site for booking hostels. If dorm rooms and shared bathrooms are your thing, you’ll find hostels all over Ecuador.
Get Your Guide offers tours and activities all around the world. Unlike some other sites and apps that do the same thing, you can actually find some reasonably priced deals here.
