Quito Photo Spots: Free and Scenic

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Quito’s best photo spots, ranked by what they cost

Quito’s Old Town is a UNESCO World Heritage site built directly on Inca foundations, and its best photo spots mostly cost nothing beyond showing up at the right time of day. Here are 8 spots ranked cheapest first, with what each one actually costs and the one where you need to budget for a taxi rather than a ticket.

  1. Plaza Grande, free. The Presidential Palace, the Cathedral, and colonial arcades in one frame, best in the soft light of early morning before the square fills up.
  2. La Compañía de Jesús facade, free (interior $6). The carved stone exterior photographs well from the plaza; the gold-leaf interior is the paid shot, no flash allowed.
  3. San Francisco Monastery courtyard, free. The cloistered courtyard and its plaza out front, one of the most photographed corners of the Old Town, cost nothing to shoot.
  4. Basílica del Voto Nacional towers, ~$2 plus a few dollars for the towers. Climb past the Galápagos-animal gargoyles for a rooftop view over the Old Town’s red roofs, one of the best-value elevated shots in the city.
  5. La Ronda at dusk, free. String lights and colonial facades along the restored colonial lane, safe to shoot on the street itself; stick to the main lane after dark rather than the side blocks.
  6. El Panecillo, free once you’re up there (taxi fare to get there). The 360-degree panorama from beneath the winged Virgen de Quito statue is Quito’s classic wide shot; the walk up has a real mugging history, so take a taxi or app ride both ways.
  7. TelefériQo, ~$8.50. The cable car climbs to roughly 4,050m at Cruz Loma, delivering a genuinely different angle on the city and its ring of volcanoes than anything at street level.
  8. Mitad del Mundo monument, small fee. The famous equator-line monument makes a fun, graphic shot, worth knowing it actually sits about 240m off the true GPS equator; the real line is next door at Museo Intiñan if accuracy matters to your caption.

Is the TelefériQo worth $8.50 for photos alone?

Yes, it’s the single best-value elevated view in the city given the altitude gain for the price, and mornings offer the clearest skies before afternoon cloud typically rolls in. Go early and check the weather first, the ride isn’t worth it under heavy cloud cover.

One safety note for night photography

La Mariscal and Plaza Foch light up well after dark and photograph nicely, but the same area sees real muggings and drink-spiking incidents at night; shoot early evening if you want the neon, and taxi home rather than walking back with a camera bag.

For the rest of the free and cheap sights this list draws from, see our full Quito budget guide .