01 LGBTQ+ journeys across Ecuador
Ven como eres.
Bespoke, small-group trips with a local friend who checks the welcome before you arrive, and travels at your side. Honeymoons, solo trips, friends' getaways, Pride weekends: Quito, Cuenca, Guayaquil, the coast, the Galápagos, the Amazon.
02 A welcome you can feel
Before your trip, your local friend looks into every hotel, restaurant, driver and experience on your route, so that every door you walk through is genuinely welcoming. Then we travel with you.
Who's travelling, what you're celebrating, how you like to travel. Pronouns, rooms, visibility: only what you want to share.
We only suggest places where we'd happily take our own friends. If something on your wish list doesn't feel right, we tell you, and find a better one.
With your OK, we brief hosts and drivers ahead: your names, your pronouns, one bed. No questions at check-in.
Someone who knows the country, speaks the language and reads the room, so you can stop planning and simply be on holiday.
Your local friend. Local Friend Tour was founded by Allyson Alemán, a licensed national tour guide from Manabí, based in Guayaquil, who guided travellers solo for more than 15 years. She and her team of local guides travel with you in English or Spanish. In the Galápagos, certified naturalist guides lead inside the national park, and your local friend comes along as tour leader and interpreter.
03 Every kind of trip
Ten ways people travel with us. Mix them freely: a proposal in the Galápagos after Pride in Quito is a perfectly good plan.
Galápagos sunsets, a hacienda in the Andes, a lookout over Quito as the city lights come on. You bring the question; we find the place and keep the secret.
Travel on your own without being on your own: a friend at your side when you want company, introductions where you want them, and space where you don't.
Rooftops in Quito, riverfront nights in Guayaquil, surf and sunsets on the coast. Small group, big plans, and a local friend who knows where to go next.
Ecuador's first Pride march set off in Quito in 1998 with about twenty people. Today tens of thousands march in the capital, and Guayaquil marches from its riverfront. Marches are usually in late June; Cuenca's is in early July. Come for the march, stay for the country.
For couples, friends or a whole group: sea lion beaches, hot springs, markets and long dinners. Your group, your definition: trans women and nonbinary friends are welcome.
Your name and pronouns, used everywhere, from the first email to the last transfer. Where a booking must match your passport, we handle it quietly and brief people only with your OK.
Two mums, two dads, one parent, grandparents too. Giant tortoises, canoes and a foot on each side of the equator, planned around nap times and the pace of the youngest.
Thermal pools at Papallacta, about an hour and a half from Quito and steaming in the cloud. Add Baños for waterfalls and spas, or slow mornings at a hacienda.
Sea lions that couldn't care less, boobies with blue feet, water the colour of a postcard. Certified naturalist guides lead inside the park; your local friend travels with you.
Lodges on the river, canoe mornings in the mist and nights loud with frogs. Remote, private and unhurried. We choose lodges and local guides we know, so a couple is simply a couple and a queer group is simply a group.
04 Where you'll feel at home
Mountains, markets, a river city, surf towns, islands and rainforest. Pick a light on the map: we stitch the route together and fly alongside.
The capital · 2,850 m
By day, the old town: one of the first places ever named a UNESCO World Heritage Site, all churches, plazas and balconies. By night, the cafés, bars and dance floors of La Floresta and La Mariscal, and the country's biggest Pride march in June.
Northern Andes · about two hours from Quito
Weaving, colour and one of South America's best-known markets, below volcanoes and lakes. Around the June solstice, Inti Raymi fills the region with music and dancing.
Cloud forest · west of Quito
Hummingbirds, waterfalls and chocolate made a few steps from where the cacao grows. Cabins for two, birdsong for breakfast.
Hot springs · around 3,300 m
Thermal pools high in the páramo, about an hour and a half east of Quito. Clouds roll through, the water stays warm. The easiest day of your trip, on purpose.
Waterfalls & thermal baths
A town of waterfalls, thermal baths and easy adventure at the foot of Tungurahua: the Pailón del Diablo in the morning, a massage in the afternoon.
River lodges · canoe mornings
Lodges on the river, nights loud with frogs, mornings on the water before the heat. Remote, private and unhurried: the most romantic kind of far away.
Riverside old town · UNESCO World Heritage
A flower market beside the blue domes of the New Cathedral and a walkable old town along the river. History here too: a 1997 police raid on a Cuenca bar sparked the movement that decriminalised same-sex relations that same year. Today the city holds its own Pride march.
Our home city
Warm evenings on the Malecón, the painted steps of Las Peñas, nights that start late and end later, and a Pride march that sets off from the riverfront.
Montañita · Olón
Montañita's surf-town energy and, a few minutes up the road, Olón's long, quiet beach. Surf lessons, sunsets, seafood, repeat.
About 1,000 km offshore
White sand, sea lions and sunsets made for a question. Inside the national park, certified Galápagos naturalist guides lead; your local friend travels with you as tour leader and interpreter.
05 When to come
Ecuador sits on the equator, so there's no bad month: just different weather by region, and a calendar full of fiestas. June is the month the bird circles.
06 Your comfort settings
Privacy and discretion are yours to set. Try the settings: they become a short brief for your local friend, and nothing is shared with a host unless you say so. All optional.
07 The honest part
The Constitutional Tribunal strikes down the law that criminalised same-sex relations.
About twenty people walk Ecuador's first Pride march, in Quito.
The Constitution bans discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and recognises unions between two people regardless of sex.
Civil unions are written into the Civil Code, after a registry opened in 2014.
An identity law lets adults have their ID card show their gender instead of the sex recorded at birth.
The Constitutional Court rules for same-sex marriage. Couples can marry in Ecuador.
Quito, Guayaquil and Cuenca have visible LGBTQ+ communities, Pride marches and nights out. In the hotels and restaurants we choose, a couple is simply a couple.
Attitudes can be more conservative in small towns and rural areas, where affection in public may draw looks or comments. Official travel advice notes that trans travellers in particular could face unwanted attention.
Also true
Equality isn't finished here. The Constitution reserves adoption for different-sex couples, and a 2026 adoption law went further. It won't change your holiday, but you deserve the full picture from a friend.
General information for travellers, checked October 2026; not legal advice. Read your own government's travel advice too, for example GOV.UK on Ecuador.08 Questions
These are the questions people ask first. Anything else, ask us directly: there's no such thing as an awkward question here.
Ecuador's Constitution protects you from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, same-sex marriage has been legal since 2019, and Quito, Guayaquil and Cuenca have visible communities and Pride marches. Attitudes can be more conservative in small towns and rural areas.
That gap is exactly where a local friend helps: we check every place on your route, use pre-booked private transfers and stay with you where it matters. As anywhere, the usual city sense applies too.
In the places we choose for you, yes. In the welcoming neighbourhoods of the big cities it's unremarkable; in small towns it can draw looks. Your guide will read the room with you, and the choice is always yours.
No. Every setting on this page is optional. Share what helps us plan, keep the rest to yourself, and change your mind whenever you like.
Flights and some official checks need the name on your passport, so we use it only where we must, and quietly. Everywhere else, from our emails to the name board at the airport, we use your name and pronouns. With your permission, we let hosts and drivers know in advance, so nobody has to ask.
If you travel with medication, tell us and we'll plan around it together.
Yes. It's your group and your definition of a women's trip. Tell us who's coming and we plan rooms, pace and places around all of you.
Yes, since the Constitutional Court's 2019 ruling. If you're dreaming of a wedding here, see our destination weddings page. For the paperwork, check the current requirements with Ecuador's Civil Registry or a local lawyer: we plan the celebration, not the legal side.
No fixed dates and no set tours. Every journey is private and built around your group, from one traveller to a group of friends. Tell us your dates and we start from there.
Yes. Quito's and Guayaquil's marches are usually on a Saturday in late June, and Cuenca's in early July. Local organisers set the dates each year, so we hold your plans loosely until they're announced, then book your stay near the route.
Quito sits at 2,850 metres and Papallacta at around 3,300. We start gently, keep the first day easy and build up from there. If you have health concerns, check with your doctor before you travel.
We don't publish prices, because there are no packages: every trip is bespoke. After a first conversation we send a sketch of your route and a clear quote.
Come as you are. Leave as friends.
09 Talk to us
No packages and no price lists: every journey starts with a conversation. Allyson reads every message and replies personally.
Read what travellers say