The historic centre and the two cathedrals
7 stops · 2 h · on foot · 7 stops
- Parque Calderón
- New Cathedral
- Old Cathedral
- El Carmen de la Asunción
- San Francisco
- Santo Domingo
- San Sebastián
143 places with verified coordinates · UNESCO, CIDAP and the markets of Cuenca · no Eater coverage
Tap a route and it gets drawn on the map, stop by stop.
Tap a pin to see photos, rating and by tram, bus or on foot. Turn on a route to follow the numbered path.
This interactive map of Cuenca (Ecuador) brings together 143 hand-picked places: 54 attractions, 35 restaurants, 28 cafés and 26 shops. It also includes 5 walking routes with their stops in order. For every place you get what it is, a practical tip and how to get there by public transport. It is free, works on your phone and needs no sign-up.
· Curated by the HOLASIM team · How we make the maps
Tap a route to see it drawn on the map, stop by stop.
7 stops · 2 h · on foot · 7 stops
7 stops · 2 h 30 · on foot · 7 stops
6 stops · 3 h · on foot · 6 stops
6 stops · 2 h 30 · on foot and tram · 6 stops
6 stops · half a day · bus and taxi · 6 stops
Parque Abdón Calderón · Historic Centre
Cuenca's heart: huge araucaria trees, marble benches and the two cathedrals facing each other.
Tip: Sit on the New Cathedral side around 6pm: the domes light up and the square fills with people.
🚇 Tram · Luis Cordero stop · 4 min walk
Featured in: UNESCO 1999 · Centro Histórico
Show on mapCatedral de la Inmaculada Concepción · Historic Centre
The three sky-blue tiled domes on every Cuenca postcard, with Carrara marble inside.
Tip: The climb is NOT into the domes: it's the Terraza Santa Ana, 165 steps, from the side street. Fixed hourly slots Monday to Saturday, closed Sunday.
🚇 Tram · Santo Domingo stop · 3 min walk
Featured in: UNESCO 1999 · Arquidiócesis de Cuenca
Show on mapEl Sagrario · Historic Centre
The 1557 cathedral is now a religious-art museum: a 1735 pipe organ, Sangurima's pulpit and a 1573 mural.
Tip: Careful: open Monday to Friday only, morning and afternoon with a midday break. You'll find it shut at the weekend.
🚇 Tram · Luis Cordero stop · 3 min walk
Featured in: UNESCO 1999 · Arquidiócesis de Cuenca
Show on mapCarmen church and monastery · Historic Centre
An 18th-century stone portal and, on the little square outside, the most photographed flower market in Ecuador.
Tip: The flower market belongs to the sellers, it isn't a set: ask before photographing and buy a bunch, they cost very little.
🚇 Tram · Santo Domingo stop · 4 min walk
Featured in: UNESCO 1999 · Centro Histórico
Show on mapSan Francisco · Historic Centre
A baroque altarpiece drowned in gold leaf and, outside, the square where Cuenca's craft fair sets up.
Tip: Plaza de San Francisco hosts the November festival fairs: most of the stalls go up right here.
🚇 Tram · Santo Domingo stop · 5 min walk
Featured in: UNESCO 1999 · Centro Histórico
Show on mapSantísimo Rosario · Historic Centre
Twin exposed-brick towers visible from half the city and a surprisingly luminous interior.
Tip: The tram stop is named after it, which makes it the easiest meeting point in town.
🚇 Tram · Santo Domingo stop · right outside
Featured in: UNESCO 1999 · Centro Histórico
Show on mapSan Sebastián Church · San Sebastián
It marks the western edge of the colonial centre, with a single lopsided tower unlike any other.
Tip: The square outside is the other end of the historic grid: walking from here to Todos Santos crosses the whole old town.
🚇 Tram · Coronel Tálbot stop · 2 min walk
Featured in: UNESCO 1999 · Centro Histórico
Show on mapPlaza de San Sebastián · San Sebastián
A quiet leafy square with the Modern Art Museum on one corner: downtown without the downtown noise.
Tip: This is where locals sit and read. For a crowd-free shot of the old town, come mid-morning.
🚇 Tram · Coronel Tálbot stop · 3 min walk
Featured in: UNESCO 1999 · Centro Histórico
Show on mapMMDAM · San Sebastián
A 19th-century temperance house turned museum: whitewashed courtyards, arches and contemporary art.
Tip: Admission is free and the courtyards are worth it even if the current show isn't your thing.
🚇 Tram · Coronel Tálbot stop · 4 min walk
Featured in: UNESCO 1999 · Centro Histórico
Show on mapPuente Roto · El Barranco
What a Tomebamba flood left of the bridge in 1950: now a lookout and open-air gallery.
Tip: On Sundays painters hang their work along the wall. It's the best single spot to grasp El Barranco.
🚇 Tram · Tomás Ordóñez stop · 11 min walk
Featured in: UNESCO 1999 · El Barranco
Show on mapEl Otorongo · El Barranco
A sunken plaza above the river, bars under the arches and steps down to the Tomebamba bank.
Tip: By day it's a quiet way down to the river; by night it's one of the few open-air scenes downtown.
🚇 Tram · Coronel Tálbot stop · 6 min walk
Featured in: UNESCO 1999 · El Barranco
Show on mapCruz del Vado · El Vado
The stone cross above El Vado's bluff, the artisan quarter with the best river sunset in town.
Tip: El Vado is a quarter of tinsmiths, hatters and guitar makers: peek into the open doorways as you walk down.
🚇 Tram · Coronel Tálbot stop · 6 min walk
Featured in: UNESCO 1999 · El Vado
Show on mapTodos Santos · El Barranco
The one place in Cuenca where all three layers show at once: Cañari wall, Inca stonework, colonial arch.
Tip: The block below holds Todos Santos' wood-fired bakeries: follow the smell, not the signs.
🚇 Tram · Luis Cordero stop · 10 min walk
Featured in: UNESCO 1999 · El Barranco
Show on mapTodos Santos Bridge · El Barranco
A stone crossing over the Tomebamba with the best head-on view of the hanging houses on Calle Larga.
Tip: Stop here for the classic El Barranco shot; from Puente Roto you get the opposite side.
🚇 Tram · Tomás Ordóñez stop · 13 min walk
Featured in: UNESCO 1999 · El Barranco
Show on mapLa Escalinata · El Barranco
The monumental stair linking Calle Larga to the Tomebamba bank, with murals on the landings.
Tip: It's a lot of steps at 2,560 m above sea level: take it slowly on day one, this is no place to rush.
🚇 Tram · Santo Domingo stop · 7 min walk
Featured in: UNESCO 1999 · El Barranco
Show on mapParque de La Madre · El Ejido
The park where all Cuenca runs and trains, with a track, playgrounds and the planetarium at one end.
Tip: Cross the river on the footbridge and you're on Calle Larga in five minutes: the shortcut locals use.
🚇 Tram · Luis Cordero stop · 12 min walk
Featured in: Parques de Cuenca
Show on mapPlanetarium · Parque de la Madre
A municipal dome inside Parque de la Madre with shows on the Andean sky and Cañari astronomy.
Tip: There are few shows a day and school groups fill them: check times before walking over.
🚇 Tram · Luis Cordero stop · 13 min walk
Featured in: Parques de Cuenca
Show on mapEl Paraíso · Tomebamba-Yanuncay confluence
Cuenca's big park, right where the Tomebamba meets the Yanuncay: woods, ponds and bike paths.
Tip: It's the best place to actually see what 'city of four rivers' means.
🚇 City bus or taxi from the Tomás Ordóñez tram stop · 1.7 km
Featured in: Parques de Cuenca
Show on mapBotanical Garden · El Paraíso
Terraced Andean and páramo flora, orchids and a short, well-signed trail through highland plants.
Tip: It's the perfect warm-up for Cajas: in an hour you see the páramo plants that live at 4,000 m above sea level.
🚇 Lines 11 and 11B or taxi · detour via the 12 de Octubre roundabout
Featured in: Parques de Cuenca
Show on mapPumapungo Museum · Calle Larga & Huayna Cápac
Cuenca's national museum: Cañari and Inca archaeology plus the ethnographic hall with the Shuar tsantsas.
Tip: Closed Mondays, and weekend hours are shorter than weekdays. Museum, park and aviary are separate entrances.
🚇 Tram · Tomás Ordóñez stop · 12 min walk
Featured in: Ministerio de Cultura y Patrimonio
Show on mapPumapungo · Inca terraces
The foundations of Tomebamba, the Inca city Cieza de León compared to Cuzco, terraced above the river.
Tip: Walk right down to the bottom terraces: almost nobody does, and that's where the canals and Andean garden are.
🚇 Tram · Tomás Ordóñez stop · 15 min walk
Featured in: Ministerio de Cultura y Patrimonio
Show on mapAviary · Pumapungo Archaeological Park
A rescue centre inside the park with recovering Andean and Amazonian birds, among the terraces.
Tip: It's a separate entrance from the museum and shuts earlier: do it first, not last.
🚇 Tram · Tomás Ordóñez stop · 14 min walk
Featured in: Ministerio de Cultura y Patrimonio
Show on mapMuseum of Aboriginal Cultures · Calle Larga
A private collection of over five thousand pre-Columbian pieces ordered by culture, Valdivia to the Incas.
Tip: Paid entry and worth it: the chronology is so well laid out it works as a crash course in Andean archaeology.
🚇 Tram · Luis Cordero stop · 9 min walk
Featured in: Museos de la Calle Larga
Show on mapConvento de la Concepción · Historic Centre
A 1599 cloistered convent partly opened: colonial art, nuns' toys and utterly silent courtyards.
Tip: The nuns still live behind the wall and sell sweets through a revolving hatch: ask at the door.
🚇 Tram · Luis Cordero stop · 6 min walk
Featured in: UNESCO 1999 · Centro Histórico
Show on mapRemigio Crespo House Museum · Calle Larga
A republican mansion on Calle Larga reopened after a very long restoration: Cuenca history and art.
Tip: It was shut for years and old guidebooks still call it closed: today it opens all week, weekends included.
🚇 Tram · Luis Cordero stop · 9 min walk
Featured in: Museos de la Calle Larga
Show on mapInter-American Centre of Crafts and Folk Art · El Barranco
Museum and shop of the inter-American crafts body, with the best of Andean craft properly explained.
Tip: Closed Sundays and shuts earlier on Saturdays. Its craft fair is one of the November fixtures.
🚇 Tram · Luis Cordero stop · 9 min walk
Featured in: CIDAP · OEA
Show on mapHat Museum · Calle Larga & Padre Aguirre
A workshop-museum downtown where you watch the blocking and ironing of a hat, step by step.
Tip: A symbolic one-dollar entry and open seven days, Sunday included: the easiest museum to slot into your day.
🚇 Tram · Santo Domingo stop · 7 min walk
Featured in: UNESCO ICH 2012 · paja toquilla
Show on mapHomero Ortega · by the Terminal Terrestre
The historic exporting factory with its own museum: here you see industrial scale, not a shop-window workshop.
Tip: It's far from the centre, near the airport: pair it with your arrival or departure, not the old-town walk.
🚇 Tram · Terminal Terrestre stop · 3 min walk
Featured in: UNESCO ICH 2012 · paja toquilla
Show on mapFormer Escuela Central · Historic Centre
The restored Escuela Central tells how Cuenca went from Cañari Guapondélig to a heritage city.
Tip: Start here on day one: it sorts out the Cañari, Inca and colonial names all at once.
🚇 Tram · Antonio Borrero stop · 3 min walk
Featured in: UNESCO 1999 · Centro Histórico
Show on mapChaguarchimbana · Las Herrerías
A mansion in the blacksmiths' quarter, now a cultural centre beside the Museum of the Arts of Fire.
Tip: Las Herrerías is still a street of forges: pass in the afternoon and you'll hear hammers from the pavement.
🚇 City bus or taxi from the Tomás Ordóñez tram stop · 1.8 km
Featured in: UNESCO 1999 · Las Herrerías
Show on mapPlaza del Herrero · Las Herrerías
Eduardo Vega's iron sculptures planted in the forge quarter's square, out in the open.
Tip: It's the same Eduardo Vega as the Turi ceramics: here he's working metal instead of glaze.
🚇 City bus or taxi from the Tomás Ordóñez tram stop · 1.7 km
Featured in: UNESCO 1999 · Las Herrerías
Show on mapTeatro Pumapungo · Huayna Cápac
The big hall of the Pumapungo complex, where the city's festival concerts and shows land.
Tip: During November festival week the billing changes daily: check it from your phone.
🚇 Tram · Tomás Ordóñez stop · 13 min walk
Featured in: Ministerio de Cultura y Patrimonio
Show on mapCasa de la Cultura · Historic Centre
Theatre, cinema and the Salón del Pueblo: most of Cuenca's public cultural agenda comes out of here.
Tip: For Día de los Difuntos it stages the altars and offerings show in the Salón del Pueblo: free, and only a few days.
🚇 Tram · Luis Cordero stop · 4 min walk
Featured in: Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana
Show on mapMuseo Prohibido · La Convención del 45
A museum of extreme countercultural art, gothic and fairly disturbing: the exact opposite of the colonial centre.
Tip: Not for kids and mostly open at night. It's Cuenca's oddball plan, which is exactly why it works.
🚇 Tram · Santo Domingo stop · 7 min walk
Featured in: Circuito cultural de Cuenca
Show on mapPlazoleta Santa Ana · Historic Centre
A hidden little square behind the New Cathedral, craft stalls and the slope up to Terraza Santa Ana.
Tip: This is the doorway to the cathedral terrace climb: if you can't find it, you're on the wrong façade.
🚇 Tram · Padre Aguirre stop · 2 min walk
Featured in: UNESCO 1999 · Centro Histórico
Show on mapSan Blas Church · San Blas
Andesite stone and a Latin-cross plan, unique in the city: the church closing the old town to the east.
Tip: Look at the stone: the same grey andesite as Pumapungo, reused from Inca construction.
🚇 Tram · Tomás Ordóñez stop · right outside
Featured in: UNESCO 1999 · Centro Histórico
Show on mapMercado 10 de Agosto · Historic Centre
The benchmark market: hornado and mote upstairs, fruit downstairs, energy cleansings at the back.
Tip: Go up to the second floor and pick the stall by the queue of locals, not the sign. Bring small bills.
🚇 Tram · Santo Domingo stop · 6 min walk
Featured in: Mercados de Cuenca
Show on mapMercado 9 de Octubre · Historic Centre
A neighbourhood market less touristy than 10 de Agosto, strong on grains, herbs and soupy food.
Tip: It's one of five markets selling colada morada and guaguas de pan during Difuntos week.
🚇 Tram · Gaspar Sangurima stop · 2 min walk
Featured in: Mercados de Cuenca
Show on mapMercado 3 de Noviembre · El Vado
A small market beside El Vado, named after the date of Cuenca's independence from Spain.
Tip: It has its own tram stop and hosts the Ruta Morada ceremony on 30 October, at midday.
🚇 Tram · Mercado 3 de Noviembre stop · right outside
Featured in: Mercados de Cuenca
Show on mapFeria Libre · El Arenal
The giant wholesale market of the south: chaotic, dirt cheap and the truest picture of Cuenca's economy.
Tip: Watch your bag and don't wave your phone in the aisles. Tuesdays and Fridays it's twice the size.
🚇 Tram · El Arenal stop · 2 min walk
Featured in: Mercados de Cuenca
Show on mapTuri Lookout · Turi parish
The whole of Cuenca from the south: the grid, the blue domes and Cajas behind on clear days.
Tip: Camino a Turi is shut after a sinkhole: go up via the 12 de Octubre roundabout, the CRS road or the Turi-Tarqui road. Check before you set off.
🚇 Lines 11 and 11B or taxi · detour via the 12 de Octubre roundabout
Featured in: Miradores de Cuenca
Show on mapAmphitheatre · Turi
The stone tiers beside the lookout, where everyone sits to watch night fall over Cuenca.
Tip: Bring a layer: at 2,700 m above sea level and after sundown, Turi is a lot colder than downtown.
🚇 Lines 11 and 11B or taxi · detour via the 12 de Octubre roundabout
Featured in: Miradores de Cuenca
Show on mapAdventure park · Turi
A swing over the void, zip line and hanging bridge on the Turi ridge, the whole city below.
Tip: The swing is the one in all the Turi photos, but it's a separate business from the lookout and charged apart.
🚇 Lines 11 and 11B or taxi · detour via the 12 de Octubre roundabout
Featured in: Miradores de Cuenca
Show on mapLoma de Cullca · El Vecino
The northern lookout, far closer to the centre than Turi and showing the city from the opposite side.
Tip: With Camino a Turi closed, this is the fallback lookout: half an hour's walk up from the centre.
🚇 Tram · Mercado 3 de Noviembre stop · 16 min walk
Featured in: Miradores de Cuenca
Show on mapE. Vega Ceramics Gallery & Workshops · Turi
The house-workshop of the ceramist who defined modern Cuenca aesthetics, on the Turi slope with a view terrace.
Tip: The gallery terrace has nearly the same view as the lookout with far fewer people. Entry is free.
🚇 Lines 11 and 11B or taxi · detour via the 12 de Octubre roundabout
Featured in: Artesanía de Azuay · CIDAP
Show on mapSanctuary of the Holy Spirit and Guadalupe · Baños
The two white towers visible from across the thermal parish, high above the village of Baños.
Tip: Baños de Cuenca has nothing to do with Baños near Ambato: two different Ecuadorian spa towns.
🚇 Line 12 to Baños or taxi from the Río Tarqui tram stop · 3.1 km
Featured in: Parroquia Baños de Cuenca
Show on mapPiedra de Agua Thermal Spa · Baños
Baños' best-known thermal spa: baths cut into the rock below ground, volcanic mud and box steam baths.
Tip: Circuits are priced per person with a fixed duration; book online because weekends fill up.
🚇 Line 12 to Baños or taxi from the Río Tarqui tram stop · 2.7 km
Featured in: Termas de Baños de Cuenca
Show on mapNovaqua Thermal Spa · Baños
A modern thermal complex with pools, steam room, sauna and mud cave, built for a full day rather than a quick dip.
Tip: Novaqua and Hostería Durán are two blocks apart but separate businesses, with separate tickets and prices.
🚇 Line 12 to Baños or taxi from the Río Tarqui tram stop · 2.6 km
Featured in: Termas de Baños de Cuenca
Show on mapHostería Durán · Baños
The classic Baños bathhouse, the one everyone grew up with: big thermal pools, sauna and restaurant.
Tip: A weekday ticket is considerably cheaper than a weekend one: go on a Tuesday if you can.
🚇 Line 12 to Baños or taxi from the Río Tarqui tram stop · 2.6 km
Featured in: Termas de Baños de Cuenca
Show on mapTerminal Terrestre · Av. España
The bus hub of the whole southern highlands: Guayaquil, Loja, Quito, Gualaceo and Chordeleg leave here.
Tip: It has its own tram stop a block away: the cheapest way in from the centre with luggage.
🚇 Tram · Terminal Terrestre stop · right outside
Featured in: Movilidad de Cuenca
Show on mapMariscal Lamar Airport · Av. España
An in-town airport fifteen minutes from Parque Calderón, flights to Quito and Guayaquil, short runway.
Tip: The tram stops at the door: the only airport in Ecuador you reach by tram for 35 cents.
🚇 Tram · Aeropuerto stop · right outside
Featured in: Movilidad de Cuenca
Show on mapCentral Campus · El Ejido
A historic riverside campus with old gardens, murals and the University Museum inside.
Tip: You can walk in: the campus gardens are public and link the Escalinata with El Barranco.
🚇 Tram · Coronel Tálbot stop · 10 min walk
Featured in: UNESCO 1999 · El Barranco
Show on mapEstadio Banco del Austro · El Ejido
Deportivo Cuenca's ground, wedged between river and centre: football at 2,560 m above sea level.
Tip: It carries a bank's naming rights, so signs and apps call it Estadio Banco del Austro.
🚇 Tram · Luis Cordero stop · 16 min walk
Featured in: Deportivo Cuenca
Show on mapHistoric hydro plant · West El Barranco
The first plant that lit Cuenca, on the Tomebamba bank, now repurposed and protected.
Tip: A 2026 irony: the city electrified by this river depends again on how much water comes down.
🚇 Tram · Av. México stop · 12 min walk
Featured in: UNESCO 1999 · El Barranco
Show on mapTiestos Café Restaurante · Calle Larga
Cuenca's signature restaurant: everything arrives in clay tiestos and the table fills with house sauces.
Tip: Book ahead: it's small and full every night. The opening sauces are unlimited and will fill you up first.
🚇 Tram · Luis Cordero stop · 7 min walk
Featured in: World Food Travel Association · Capital Culinaria 2024
Show on mapGuajibamba · Historic Centre
Cuenca's house of roast cuy: order ahead, eat it with mote and potatoes, and let it take its time.
Tip: Cuy must be ordered hours ahead; turn up unannounced and you'll eat something else. Call first.
🚇 Tram · Antonio Borrero stop · 2 min walk
Featured in: Cocina tradicional azuaya
Show on mapRaymipampa · Parque Calderón
The Parque Calderón institution: a long Cuencan menu, window tables and the same service as always.
Tip: Ask for a window table over the park: the best downtown seat for lunch with a view of the square.
🚇 Tram · Santo Domingo stop · 3 min walk
Featured in: World Food Travel Association · Capital Culinaria 2024
Show on mapHomenaje · El Ejido
Southern Andean produce cooking on a small scale: short menu, lots of vegetables, contemporary technique.
Tip: The menu follows whatever came in at the Feria Libre that week: ask what arrived today before ordering.
🚇 Tram · Santo Domingo stop · 14 min walk
Featured in: World Food Travel Association · Capital Culinaria 2024
Show on mapMayu · El Ejido
Contemporary cooking from an Ecuadorian larder, built to share, in a small, carefully kept room.
Tip: Mayu means river in Quichua, and the menu follows: freshwater fish and produce from the four river basins.
🚇 Tram · Santo Domingo stop · 20 min walk
Featured in: World Food Travel Association · Capital Culinaria 2024
Show on mapSilvestra · El Ejido
A newer seasonal kitchen with house ferments and a menu that turns with what the highlands give.
Tip: One of the recent openings locals recommend ahead of the downtown classics.
🚇 Tram · El Arenal stop · 15 min walk
Featured in: World Food Travel Association · Capital Culinaria 2024
Show on mapLirondo · Historic Centre
A downtown bistro with market cooking, a daily blackboard and one of Cuenca's more decent wine lists.
Tip: The midday set menu is far cheaper than the evening card and carries the same blackboard dishes.
🚇 Tram · Santo Domingo stop · 3 min walk
Featured in: World Food Travel Association · Capital Culinaria 2024
Show on mapAmasijos · El Ejido
A bakery-restaurant that takes the Cuencan breakfast seriously: oven bread, humitas and eggs of the day.
Tip: Order humitas and quimbolitos together and compare: cousins, but one wraps in corn husk and the other in achira leaf.
🚇 Tram · Coronel Tálbot stop · 18 min walk
Featured in: Cocina tradicional azuaya
Show on mapLa Casona · Puente Roto
A dining room on the bluff by the Puente Roto, Cuencan cooking and the best river terrace downtown.
Tip: Ask for the terrace, not the inside room: the whole point is watching the Tomebamba while you eat.
🚇 Tram · Tomás Ordóñez stop · 13 min walk
Featured in: Cocina tradicional azuaya
Show on mapAkelarre · Historic Centre
Spanish cooking in a downtown mansion, hams hanging and a bar that keeps going late.
Tip: One of the few downtown that serves late: in Cuenca many kitchens close before 10pm.
🚇 Tram · Santo Domingo stop · 2 min walk
Featured in: World Food Travel Association · Capital Culinaria 2024
Show on mapRestaurant Mediterráneo · Historic Centre
A wood-oven thin-crust pizzeria, for years the easy downtown answer when you don't want cuy.
Tip: Perfect rainy-day plan: blocks from Parque Calderón and almost always a free table.
🚇 Tram · Luis Cordero stop · 7 min walk
Featured in: World Food Travel Association · Capital Culinaria 2024
Show on mapSVM Salumeria · Historic Centre
A real Italian salumeria in the middle of the Andes: house-cured meats, pasta and sharing boards.
Tip: Cuenca's Italian community is old and small: this is where it gathers, especially at weekends.
🚇 Tram · Tomás Ordóñez stop · 14 min walk
Featured in: World Food Travel Association · Capital Culinaria 2024
Show on mapLe Bistro Francais · Historic Centre
A small, unpretentious French bistro with a handwritten daily menu and house-made desserts.
Tip: Few tables and it doesn't open every day: if you pass and it's open, go in right then.
🚇 Tram · Santo Domingo stop · 3 min walk
Featured in: World Food Travel Association · Capital Culinaria 2024
Show on mapPROA · Historic Centre
Coastal fish and shellfish brought up to the highlands: ceviches, encocados and proper seafood rice.
Tip: Encocado is from Esmeraldas, not Azuay: order it to taste the coast without going down to the coast.
🚇 Tram · Coronel Tálbot stop · 13 min walk
Featured in: Cocina tradicional azuaya
Show on mapCeviches Huayna Cápac · San Blas
A neighbourhood ceviche joint that's a Cuencan Sunday tradition: big portions, plastic chairs, long queue.
Tip: Ecuadorian ceviche comes in its broth with plantain chips and popcorn; don't expect the dry Peruvian style.
🚇 Tram · Tomás Ordóñez stop · 9 min walk
Featured in: Cocina tradicional azuaya
Show on mapBuuchetos · Historic Centre
Everyday Ecuadorian food downtown: seco de chivo, llapingachos and a lunch at neighbourhood prices.
Tip: Llapingachos are from Tungurahua and Cotopaxi, not Azuay: here they're a guest, not a local dish.
🚇 Tram · Luis Cordero stop · 21 min walk
Featured in: Cocina tradicional azuaya
Show on mapCafetería Pumapungo · Huayna Cápac
A typical dining room by the Pumapungo complex, home-style Azuay cooking and a very cheap set lunch.
Tip: It's right by the museum exit: the obvious stop if you chain Pumapungo with the aviary and park.
🚇 Tram · Tomás Ordóñez stop · 11 min walk
Featured in: Cocina tradicional azuaya
Show on mapEl Mercado · Calle Larga, El Barranco
A design-led dining room over the bluff, market cooking, a long bar and windows onto the Tomebamba.
Tip: The back terrace overlooks the river and almost nobody asks for it: request it on arrival, not after sitting.
🚇 Tram · Santo Domingo stop · 11 min walk
Featured in: World Food Travel Association · Capital Culinaria 2024
Show on mapTerrazas del Barranco · El Barranco
A bar with stepped terraces above the Tomebamba, the classic spot for a beer with a river view.
Tip: Sunset over the bluff is quick because we're almost on the equator: by 6:30pm it's dark.
🚇 Tram · Santo Domingo stop · 8 min walk
Featured in: Cocina tradicional azuaya
Show on mapCuenca Beer Company · Historic Centre
A local craft brewery with its own taps and food to match, in an old-town house.
Tip: Careful with that first beer at 2,560 m above sea level: alcohol hits a lot harder than at sea level.
🚇 Tram · Luis Cordero stop · 8 min walk
Featured in: World Food Travel Association · Capital Culinaria 2024
Show on mapGolden Prague · Historic Centre
A Czech pub with draught beer and Central European food, an absolute rarity in the southern Ecuadorian Andes.
Tip: Cuenca has a large settled foreign community: bars like this exist because of them, not for tourists.
🚇 Tram · Luis Cordero stop · 16 min walk
Featured in: World Food Travel Association · Capital Culinaria 2024
Show on mapOsaka Ramen · San Sebastián
Ramen and Japanese food in a small room, the cold-night plan for when the páramo drops the temperature.
Tip: Cuenca gets dark early and cools fast all year: a hot broth at 7pm is very welcome.
🚇 Tram · Coronel Tálbot stop · 2 min walk
Featured in: World Food Travel Association · Capital Culinaria 2024
Show on mapTaj Mahal Indian Resto · Historic Centre
Curry and tandoor in the old town, with a broad vegetarian menu, uncommon in local cooking.
Tip: Travelling with a vegetarian? One of the safest menus downtown: Azuay cooking is very meat-heavy.
🚇 Tram · Santo Domingo stop · 8 min walk
Featured in: World Food Travel Association · Capital Culinaria 2024
Show on mapLaredo's · Historic Centre
A downtown Mexican with tacos and margaritas, one of the places that doesn't close early in a city that does.
Tip: Cuenca's nightlife sits in a few old-town blocks: from here you can walk to nearly all of it.
🚇 Tram · Coronel Tálbot stop · 5 min walk
Featured in: World Food Travel Association · Capital Culinaria 2024
Show on mapD'Galia · Historic Centre
Peruvian cooking with a long card: ceviches, lomo saltado and the inevitable comparison with the local ceviche.
Tip: Order a ceviche here and another at an Ecuadorian cevichería on the same trip: two different dishes, one name.
🚇 Tram · Tomás Ordóñez stop · 19 min walk
Featured in: World Food Travel Association · Capital Culinaria 2024
Show on mapMorlacos Tacos · Historic Centre
A small taquería with a Cuencan name: morlaco is what people from Cuenca have always called themselves.
Tip: Want to win over locals fast? Call them morlacos: it's their own nickname and they use it with pride.
🚇 Tram · Tomás Ordóñez stop · 3 min walk
Featured in: Cocina tradicional azuaya
Show on mapEl Monito · Historic Centre
An encebollado stand: the tuna-and-cassava soup the whole of Ecuador eats to kill a hangover.
Tip: Encebollado is a national dish but coastal in origin: in Cuenca it's eaten in the morning, not at night.
🚇 Tram · Tomás Ordóñez stop · 15 min walk
Featured in: Cocina tradicional azuaya
Show on mapCome en Casa · Historic Centre
Grill and café in a downtown house, charcoal meats and tables in the inner courtyard.
Tip: Inner courtyards are the charm of Cuencan houses: ask for a table in the patio, not the dining room.
🚇 Tram · Santo Domingo stop · 17 min walk
Featured in: World Food Travel Association · Capital Culinaria 2024
Show on mapEl Carbonazo · El Vergel
A popular neighbourhood grill with charcoal chicken and beef, generous plates and everyday prices.
Tip: The kind of place Cuencan families eat on Sunday: loud, packed and entirely untouristy.
🚇 Tram · Tomás Ordóñez stop · 15 min walk
Featured in: Cocina tradicional azuaya
Show on mapEncebollados y algo más · Historic Centre
A small soup-and-daily-plate room, the cheapest and most honest way to eat in central Cuenca.
Tip: Ask for motepata if they have it: the mote-and-pork-rind soup that really is from Azuay, not borrowed.
🚇 Tram · Santo Domingo stop · 7 min walk
Featured in: Cocina tradicional azuaya
Show on mapDos Sucres · El Ejido
An eating house named after a currency that no longer exists: plain Cuencan cooking and homemade puddings.
Tip: The sucre died in 2000: Ecuador has used the US dollar since, and the name here is a pure local joke.
🚇 Tram · Luis Cordero stop · 20 min walk
Featured in: Cocina tradicional azuaya
Show on mapGoza · Calle Larga, El Barranco
A restaurant-café on Calle Larga, a long daytime menu and a terrace looking over the bluff.
Tip: Don't confuse it with Goza Espresso Bar, a different place further south focused only on coffee.
🚇 Tram · Luis Cordero stop · 8 min walk
Featured in: World Food Travel Association · Capital Culinaria 2024
Show on mapBapu India · Historic Centre
Home-style Indian in a small room, thalis and breads made to order at a very contained price.
Tip: Cuenca has far more world cooking than its size suggests: that's the foreign community at work.
🚇 Tram · Luis Cordero stop · 8 min walk
Featured in: World Food Travel Association · Capital Culinaria 2024
Show on mapEl Tequila · Historic Centre
A regional kitchen in the old town, the sort that serves mote pillo at any hour without asking.
Tip: Mote pillo really is from Azuay and it's THE Cuenca dish: hominy scrambled with egg, onion and milk.
🚇 Tram · Corazón de Jesús stop · right outside
Featured in: Cocina tradicional azuaya
Show on mapPicantería · Mercado 10 de Agosto
A picantería and juice stand by the market, with hornado, mote and juices squeezed in front of you.
Tip: Order a tree-tomato or taxo juice: Andean fruits you almost never find outside Ecuador.
🚇 Tram · Tomás Ordóñez stop · 3 min walk
Featured in: Mercados de Cuenca
Show on mapTodos Santos bakery · El Barranco
A wood-fired oven on the Todos Santos block, baking Cuenca bread for generations.
Tip: Todos Santos bakeries draw bread in batches: come mid-morning and you'll get it warm from the oven.
🚇 Tram · Luis Cordero stop · 8 min walk
Featured in: Panaderías tradicionales de Cuenca
Show on mapPan de Cuenca bakery · Historic Centre
A neighbourhood bakery with the full Cuencan repertoire: mestizo bread, corn tortillas, empanadas de viento.
Tip: Ask for an empanada de viento: cheese-filled, it puffs up as it fries and is eaten dusted with sugar.
🚇 Tram · Gaspar Sangurima stop · right outside
Featured in: Panaderías tradicionales de Cuenca
Show on mapNueva California · Historic Centre
A classic downtown bakery, the sort that fills its window with guaguas de pan in late October.
Tip: A guagua de pan is a sweet bread shaped like a swaddled baby: eat it dipped in colada morada, not alone.
🚇 Tram · Luis Cordero stop · 3 min walk
Featured in: Panaderías tradicionales de Cuenca
Show on mapTaita · El Vergel
A sourdough and Andean-grain craft bakery, the bridge between the old oven and the new bakery.
Tip: Taita means father in Quichua: half of Cuenca mixes Spanish and Quichua without noticing.
🚇 Tram · Tomás Ordóñez stop · 11 min walk
Featured in: Panaderías tradicionales de Cuenca
Show on mapCorpus · Historic Centre
A sweet shop named for the dulces de Corpus, the most Cuencan convent confectionery there is.
Tip: Dulces de Corpus are Cuenca's own and appear mainly in June; the rest of the year, shops like this keep them.
🚇 Tram · Luis Cordero stop · right outside
Featured in: Dulcería tradicional azuaya
Show on mapCorpus Cristis pastry · Historic Centre
A traditional sweet shop: cocadas, huevos de faltriquera, alfajores and nuns' suspiros.
Tip: Nearly all these sweets were born in the cloistered convents downtown: literally nuns' recipes.
🚇 Tram · Luis Cordero stop · right outside
Featured in: Dulcería tradicional azuaya
Show on mapMonte Bianco Ice Cream & Pastry · San Blas
Cuenca's lifelong ice cream and pastry house, Andean fruit flavours and a cake counter.
Tip: Try mora, guanábana or tree tomato before the international flavours: those are the local fruits.
🚇 Tram · Tomás Ordóñez stop · 3 min walk
Featured in: World Food Travel Association · Capital Culinaria 2024
Show on mapHelados San Sebas · San Sebastián
An ice cream shop on San Sebastián square, paila ice cream churned by hand out on the pavement.
Tip: Paila ice cream is churned in a bronze bowl over ice and salt: if you see it made, it's the real thing.
🚇 Tram · Coronel Tálbot stop · 3 min walk
Featured in: World Food Travel Association · Capital Culinaria 2024
Show on mapSan Sebas Café ice cream · San Sebastián
San Sebas' ice cream arm, on the same square: craft scoops and tables in the morning sun.
Tip: San Sebastián square gets morning sun and afternoon shade: come early to sit outside.
🚇 Tram · Coronel Tálbot stop · 3 min walk
Featured in: World Food Travel Association · Capital Culinaria 2024
Show on mapHacienda Suiza · Historic Centre
A popular downtown ice cream counter, cheap cones and a queue of schoolkids at home time.
Tip: Salcedo's layered colour ice lollies are from Cotopaxi, not Azuay: here they're imported from another province.
🚇 Tram · Aeropuerto stop · 3 min walk
Featured in: World Food Travel Association · Capital Culinaria 2024
Show on mapNucallacta Coffee Roasters · Historic Centre
A Cuencan roaster of high-altitude Ecuadorian coffee, a brew bar and beans from southern farms.
Tip: Ecuador grows coffee and almost nobody knows: order a filter from Loja or Zaruma before an espresso.
🚇 Tram · Luis Cordero stop · 7 min walk
Featured in: Café de origen ecuatoriano
Show on mapGoza Espresso Bar · El Ejido
An espresso bar focused purely on coffee, no food menu to distract: own roast and brew methods.
Tip: A different place from the Goza restaurant on Calle Larga: same name, different address and kitchen.
🚇 Tram · Luis Cordero stop · 19 min walk
Featured in: Café de origen ecuatoriano
Show on mapSan Sebas Café · San Sebastián
The breakfast house on San Sebastián square, a meeting point for locals and expats alike.
Tip: The best place to find out what's on this week: the noticeboard by the door is always full.
🚇 Tram · Coronel Tálbot stop · 3 min walk
Featured in: World Food Travel Association · Capital Culinaria 2024
Show on mapCafé Austria · Historic Centre
A historic Central European café downtown, with strudel, cakes and wooden tables from another century.
Tip: Open for decades and one of the few downtown spots where you can sit for hours unhurried.
🚇 Tram · Luis Cordero stop · right outside
Featured in: World Food Travel Association · Capital Culinaria 2024
Show on mapZaruma Café y cacao · Historic Centre
Ecuadorian-origin coffee and chocolate at one counter: Zaruma beans and fine aroma cacao.
Tip: Ecuador's Cacao Arriba holds its own denomination of origin: one of the country's few real seals.
🚇 Tram · Santo Domingo stop · 4 min walk
Featured in: Café de origen ecuatoriano
Show on mapCafé Lojano · Historic Centre
Loja coffee roasted and brewed the old way, the cloth-strained cup drunk in southern homes.
Tip: Pasado coffee comes concentrated in a jug and you cut it with hot water: ask for the essence separately.
🚇 Tram · Luis Cordero stop · 3 min walk
Featured in: Café de origen ecuatoriano
Show on mapEl Tostador · Historic Centre
A neighbourhood roastery selling beans by the pound, where the smell arrives half a block before the sign.
Tip: Buying whole beans here to take home beats any souvenir on Calle Larga on price.
🚇 Tram · Santo Domingo stop · 3 min walk
Featured in: Café de origen ecuatoriano
Show on mapCafé del Parque · Parque Calderón
A café on Parque Calderón, tables facing the araucarias and the New Cathedral head-on.
Tip: The best observation post downtown: you see the whole square without standing in it.
🚇 Tram · Santo Domingo stop · 3 min walk
Featured in: World Food Travel Association · Capital Culinaria 2024
Show on mapEl Zaguán · Historic Centre
A café hidden in the hallway of a republican house, inner courtyard and very few people who find it.
Tip: A zaguán is the entrance hall of Cuencan mansions: nearly all hide a courtyard with orange trees.
🚇 Tram · Santo Domingo stop · 3 min walk
Featured in: World Food Travel Association · Capital Culinaria 2024
Show on mapPalier Café Libro · Historic Centre
A bookshop and café at once, shelves of Ecuadorian authors and a long table to settle in and read.
Tip: Good rain plan: Cuenca rains in the afternoon most of the year and nobody minds if you stay two hours.
🚇 Tram · Luis Cordero stop · 5 min walk
Featured in: World Food Travel Association · Capital Culinaria 2024
Show on mapChocoa · El Barranco
An Ecuadorian cacao chocolate house with single-origin bars, bonbons and properly thick hot chocolate.
Tip: Ecuador is the land of fine aroma cacao: most premium chocolate in the world carries some of it.
🚇 Tram · Tomás Ordóñez stop · 11 min walk
Featured in: Café de origen ecuatoriano
Show on mapDos Chorreras · Historic Centre
A Cajas estate's shop window downtown: hot chocolate, smoked trout and highland sweets.
Tip: Dos Chorreras is also the classic Cajas inn, above 3,800 m above sea level and off this map.
🚇 Tram · Santo Domingo stop · 2 min walk
Featured in: Café de origen ecuatoriano
Show on mapMoritas · Historic Centre
A neighbourhood café with homemade cakes and the hot-drink list locals use in the afternoon.
Tip: Order a morocho: the thick corn, milk and cinnamon drink taken here as an afternoon meal, not dessert.
🚇 Tram · Luis Cordero stop · 8 min walk
Featured in: World Food Travel Association · Capital Culinaria 2024
Show on mapMary tamales, chumales & tortillas · Historic Centre
A stand of homemade tamales, chumales and corn tortillas, the Cuencan afternoon snack of always.
Tip: Chumal is the Cuencan name for humita: ask for humita and they'll get it, but chumal is the local word.
🚇 City bus or taxi from the Coronel Tálbot tram stop · 1.8 km
Featured in: World Food Travel Association · Capital Culinaria 2024
Show on mapOtorongo · Plaza del Otorongo
A café on the sunken Otorongo plaza, outdoor tables and the river steps right beside it.
Tip: Otorongo means jaguar in Quichua: the name comes from myth, not the animal, which doesn't live up here.
🚇 Tram · Coronel Tálbot stop · 6 min walk
Featured in: World Food Travel Association · Capital Culinaria 2024
Show on mapMelatte · Historic Centre
A counter café with latte art and its own pastry, one of the new wave openings downtown.
Tip: At 2,560 m above sea level water boils below 92 °C: that's why Cuencan espresso tastes different.
🚇 Tram · Luis Cordero stop · 4 min walk
Featured in: Café de origen ecuatoriano
Show on mapBotánico · El Ejido
A plant-filled, sunlit café in El Ejido, with Andean herb infusions alongside the coffee list.
Tip: Ask for agua de frescos: the herb infusion sold in Cuenca's markets, served here in a cup.
🚇 Tram · Mercado 3 de Noviembre stop · 6 min walk
Featured in: World Food Travel Association · Capital Culinaria 2024
Show on mapCorpus Café · Historic Centre
A downtown café with traditional Cuencan pastry and small tables on a quiet pedestrian street.
Tip: In late October nearly every downtown café adds colada morada: ask even if it isn't on the board.
🚇 Tram · Santo Domingo stop · 3 min walk
Featured in: World Food Travel Association · Capital Culinaria 2024
Show on mapHomero Ortega and Hijos · Historic Centre
Cuenca's historic hat house, with its downtown shop and the full scale of fineness on display.
Tip: Price rises with weaves per inch: hold the hat to the light and count the rings to understand the jump.
🚇 Tram · Luis Cordero stop · 5 min walk
Featured in: UNESCO ICH 2012 · paja toquilla
Show on mapJoselo · Calle Larga
A hat workshop-shop on Calle Larga, where blocking and ironing happen in front of the customer.
Tip: A good hat rolls up and springs back. Ask them to roll it: if it creases, it wasn't fine.
🚇 Tram · Luis Cordero stop · 5 min walk
Featured in: UNESCO ICH 2012 · paja toquilla
Show on mapLa paja toquilla · Calle Larga
A toquilla hat and weave shop with a wide price range, from cheap souvenir to a genuinely fine piece.
Tip: The name 'Panama hat' is a historical buyers' error: the weave has always been Ecuadorian.
🚇 Tram · Luis Cordero stop · 6 min walk
Featured in: UNESCO ICH 2012 · paja toquilla
Show on mapPAMAR · El Vecino
A neighbourhood hat factory off the tourist circuit, where you buy at near-wholesale prices.
Tip: Ecuador's denomination of origin is 'Sombrero de Montecristi', from Manabí: a Cuenca hat is a different product, not a fake.
🚇 Tram · Sector La Cuadra stop · 20 min walk
Featured in: UNESCO ICH 2012 · paja toquilla
Show on mapPlaza Rotary · Historic Centre
The big craft market downtown: tinwork, leather, ceramics, baskets and trade tools.
Tip: This is where you buy real clay pots and tiestos, not the decorative versions on Calle Larga.
🚇 Tram · Gaspar Sangurima stop · right outside
Featured in: Mercados de Cuenca
Show on mapMunicipal Craft Centre · Historic Centre
A municipal centre where Cuenca's artisans sell direct, no middleman and at a fair price.
Tip: Buying here means buying from the maker: most stalls are run by the artisan themselves.
🚇 Tram · Santo Domingo stop · 4 min walk
Featured in: Artesanía de Azuay · CIDAP
Show on mapPortal Artesanal · Av. Gil Ramírez Dávalos
A big covered craft gallery with dozens of stalls: the place to shop in the rain and without rushing.
Tip: Fully roofed, so it's the shopping plan when the afternoon downpour arrives.
🚇 Tram · Tomás Ordóñez stop · right outside
Featured in: Artesanía de Azuay · CIDAP
Show on mapArtesanías Atahualpa · Gran Colombia
A classic Andean craft shop on Gran Colombia: weavings, carvings, instruments and ceramics.
Tip: Gran Colombia is the shopping street downtown: walk it end to end, San Sebastián to San Blas.
🚇 Tram · Luis Cordero stop · right outside
Featured in: Artesanía de Azuay · CIDAP
Show on mapArtesanías Álvarez · Gran Colombia
A Gran Colombia craft house with ponchos, ikat macanas and southern Andean textiles.
Tip: The macana is Gualaceo's ikat shawl, not Cuenca's: woven 40 minutes away and sold in the centre.
🚇 Tram · Luis Cordero stop · right outside
Featured in: Artesanía de Azuay · CIDAP
Show on mapArtesanías sudamericanas · Historic Centre
A regional craft shop with weavings, bags and pieces from several highland provinces.
Tip: Always ask which province a piece is from: much of what sells in Cuenca comes from Otavalo or Gualaceo.
🚇 Tram · Santo Domingo stop · 4 min walk
Featured in: Artesanía de Azuay · CIDAP
Show on mapBalcón de Turi · Turi
A craft stall beside the Turi lookout, ceramics and souvenirs made in the neighbourhood itself.
Tip: Turi was a pottery quarter long before the lookout: the ceramics sold here are fired blocks away.
🚇 Lines 11 and 11B or taxi · detour via the 12 de Octubre roundabout
Featured in: Artesanía de Azuay · CIDAP
Show on mapJoyería León · Gran Colombia
A jeweller on the goldsmiths' block, silver filigree worked in the Chordeleg manner.
Tip: Filigree is from Chordeleg, an hour away: you can buy it here without the trip, but ask where it was made.
🚇 Tram · Santo Domingo stop · right outside
Featured in: Artesanía de Azuay · CIDAP
Show on mapGeorgia Joyería · Gran Colombia
A downtown jewellery workshop in southern silver and gold, each piece worked by hand.
Tip: Check for the hallmark: sterling 925 is stamped, and in good houses you can see it at a glance.
🚇 Tram · Antonio Borrero stop · right outside
Featured in: Artesanía de Azuay · CIDAP
Show on mapCordero Platería · Gran Colombia
A working silversmith on the jewellers' street, silver pieces in the Azuay style.
Tip: There are over fifteen jewellers in a row on this block: comparing prices takes ten minutes.
🚇 Tram · Padre Aguirre stop · 2 min walk
Featured in: Artesanía de Azuay · CIDAP
Show on mapSilver Platería Fina · Historic Centre
A fine silver shop downtown, with filigree, chola cuencana earrings and commissioned pieces.
Tip: The chola cuencana's candonga hoops are the real local souvenir: heavy, filigree and not touristy at all.
🚇 Lines 11 and 11B or taxi · detour via the 12 de Octubre roundabout
Featured in: Artesanía de Azuay · CIDAP
Show on mapMartha Cerámica · El Vado
A ceramics workshop in El Vado, author pieces and the wheel turning at the back of the shop.
Tip: El Vado is full of small workshops: go in even if the door looks shut, they're usually inside working.
🚇 Tram · Santo Domingo stop · 7 min walk
Featured in: Artesanía de Azuay · CIDAP
Show on mapAlta Joyería · Gran Colombia
A Gran Colombia jeweller working gold in the southern style, one of the oldest shops on the block.
Tip: In Ecuador gold is priced in dollars and shifts daily: ask the price per gram before choosing a piece.
🚇 Tram · Santo Domingo stop · right outside
Featured in: Artesanía de Azuay · CIDAP
Show on mapLa Caja de Amaya · Historic Centre
A design and gift shop with contemporary Ecuadorian product: stationery, textiles and small objects.
Tip: The alternative to the usual souvenir: Ecuadorian designers' work and far easier to pack.
🚇 City bus or taxi from the Tomás Ordóñez tram stop · 1.9 km
Featured in: Artesanía de Azuay · CIDAP
Show on mapIsabel Arte y Costura · Historic Centre
An embroidery and sewing workshop done by hand, one of the trades still holding up central Cuenca.
Tip: The chola cuencana's embroidered pollera comes from workshops like this: Azuay's identity garment.
🚇 Tram · Coronel Tálbot stop · 3 min walk
Featured in: Artesanía de Azuay · CIDAP
Show on mapCarlotita libros · Historic Centre
An independent downtown bookshop with Ecuadorian fiction and poetry, hard to find outside the country.
Tip: Cuenca is a city of poets: ask for Efraín Jara Idrovo, who gives his name to the Casa de la Cultura hall.
🚇 Tram · Luis Cordero stop · right outside
Featured in: Artesanía de Azuay · CIDAP
Show on mapMall del Río · Av. Felipe II
Cuenca's big shopping mall, on the Yanuncay, with national brands, cinema and a food court.
Tip: There's a tram stop nearby and air conditioning: the obvious refuge if the afternoon downpour catches you.
🚇 Lines 11 and 11B or taxi · detour via the 12 de Octubre roundabout
Featured in: Centros comerciales de Cuenca
Show on mapMonay Shopping Center · Monay
The east-side mall, more of a neighbourhood affair than Mall del Río, with a big supermarket.
Tip: The big supermarket is the practical place to break a twenty: market stalls rarely have change.
🚇 Tram · Milchichig stop · 20 min walk
Featured in: Centros comerciales de Cuenca
Show on mapCC El Arenal · Feria Libre
The shopping gallery attached to the Feria Libre, a mix of stalls, shops and wholesale chaos next door.
Tip: It has a tram stop at the door and is where the Ruta Morada starts on 30 October.
🚇 Tram · El Arenal stop · 2 min walk
Featured in: Mercados de Cuenca
Show on mapCrocantitos · Historic Centre
A bakery-shop of dry Cuencan sweets: rosquillas, bizcochuelos and biscuits to take home as gifts.
Tip: Dry sweets survive the trip and clear any customs: a better edible souvenir than colada morada.
🚇 Tram · Tomás Ordóñez stop · 7 min walk
Featured in: Dulcería tradicional azuaya
Show on mapChoco Corazon · Historic Centre
A chocolate shop using Ecuadorian cacao, Andean fruit bonbons and single-origin bars to take away.
Tip: Cacao Arriba holds an Ecuadorian denomination of origin: check the label says so, not just the shop sign.
🚇 Tram · El Salado stop · 11 min walk
Featured in: Café de origen ecuatoriano
Show on mapFolklor Latino · Historic Centre
An Andean clothing and textile shop with ponchos, scarves and wool from several highland provinces.
Tip: Cuenca cools sharply the moment the sun drops: a wool scarf here is a useful buy, not a souvenir.
🚇 Tram · Santo Domingo stop · right outside
Featured in: Artesanía de Azuay · CIDAP
Show on map