Machalilla National Park Holidays
Right in the middle of Ecuador's Pacific Coast lies one of Ecuador's best-kept secrets, the Machalilla National Park. Holidays in this quiet area offer you some of Ecuador's most beautiful beaches and coastal scenery but it's wonderfully quiet and the perfect place to really get away from it all...
This area of Ecuador, known as Manabi, is a little harder to reach than some of Ecuador's other beach holiday destinations, which perhaps accounts for why there are so few visitors. It's strange given that the weather is perfect practically all year and that the palm-tree lined beaches offer all the golden sands you could wish for.
Wildlife and Whale-watching Tours
The relative isolation also helps make Manabi - and the Machalilla National Park in particular - a real haven for wildlife, from the smallest tropical birds to the enormous humpback whales that breed off the coast. The Machalilla National park is home to over 300 varieties of birds, several species of monkeys, jaguars, anteaters, armadillos, and dozens of other mammal species as well. A particular highlight of any trip to the area is a visit to the Cantalapiedra (Singing stone) wildlife sanctuary, where guided tours and walks in the forest offer an incredible opporunity to get up close to some of the area's wildlife.
Getting to the Machalilla National Park
The nearest town to the Machalilla National Park is Puerto Lopez (which has some decent hotel options, although we prefer some of the eco-lodge options in and around the National Park itself) but the nearest airport is a 2-hour drive away in Manta, from where there are regular flights to Quito.