How to get to Canoa, Ecuador
Canoa, a beach town on Ecuador’s Pacific coast, has made its way onto many backpackers’ itineraries. On paper, it’s a great place to chill for a few days, with its surfing beach and relaxed attitude.
However, getting to Canoa can be tricky. It certainly caused havoc for me!
In this guide, I’ve compiled all that I learned about getting to Canoa. I hope it helps future travellers to figure out how to get to the town.
Where is Canoa?
Canoa is a little town in the Manabi region of Ecuador, found halfway between Bahia and Pedernales.
Canoa is a 7 to 8 hour journey from Quito, the capital of Ecuador. Being a small town with around 3000 inhabitants, it has local bus connections, but it’s not the most well-connected place ever.
A quick note on safety in Canoa
Before I begin, it’s important to note that the UK Foreign Office advises against all but essential travel to most of the coast of Ecuador, due to a surge in gang-related violence. This advisory covers Canoa.
I haven’t been to Ecuador since the Foreign Office put in place this warning, so I don’t know about the sentiment on the ground. However, travelling to a region with an advisory in place can invalidate your insurance (in the case of British nationals). If the British government has a warning in place, I don’t doubt other countries will too!
For the time being, I’d consider carefully whether it’s worth visiting Canoa.
Is it worth bothering to reach Canoa in the first place?
Before I dive into directions, I couldn’t write this guide without first talking about my honest thoughts on Canoa. The truth is, I didn’t take to the town – as a woman, I found it an uncomfortable place to be. I got a lot of catcalling and couldn’t warm to it.
However, I know other travellers have had more positive experiences. Canoa is great if you’re purely interested in surfing, and for many people (especially guys) it may be exactly what you’re looking for.
How to get to Canoa by public transport
The only option to get to Canoa via public transport is to take the bus.
In my opinion, Ecuador isn’t the most sensible country in terms of its public transport system. You can’t find any information regarding bus departures online, so you have to go to the terminal to get accurate departure information. In the case of Canoa, this presents two problems:
- There’s no terminal, or, indeed, bus station, in Canoa, so there’s nowhere to get transport information from.
- There are three terminals in Quito, all about half an hour’s drive by taxi from the centre, but as Canoa is pretty small there’s only a couple of direct departures every day. So, you run the risk of waiting a long time for the correct bus, or having to make connections as part of your journey.
Both these factors made it insanely difficult to plan for our trip to Canoa, and it was a source of anxiety for me in the days leading up to our visit. (Hence, why I’m writing this article in the first place!)
To help plan your bus journey, I have split up the various routes below.
Getting from Quito to Canoa
Most travellers will find themselves heading to Canoa from Quito, Ecuador’s capital. Buses depart to Canoa from the Quitumbe bus terminal, 30 minutes south of the city.
Direct buses from Quito to Canoa
You can travel direct from Quitumbe bus terminal to Canoa – there’s two departures a day in early morning and late evening, with the journey taking 7 to 8 hours. As I didn’t do this route in this direction, I’m not sure of the timetable. When I asked our hostel in Quito for help, they weren’t sure on the timetable either.
I get the impression that the times the buses depart frequently change. Your best bet is to turn up and see if there’s a bus departing soon. I’ve heard that buses run in the morning and overnight, so that’s when I would try the terminal.
Indirect routes from Quito to Canoa
What happens if you turn up at Quitumbe and no direct buses are available? If you don’t want to wait for the next departure (or there are no buses going that day), it’s possible to take an indirect route to Canoa, via one of the cities on the way.
The best option is to take a bus from Quito to Pedernales. There is a bus running from Quito to Pedernales (and vice versa) approximately every two hours, with the journey taking 5 to 6 hours; the bus we took cost $9 (£7) per person. From there, take a bus heading south, either to Tosagua or San Vincente. These local buses depart from Pedernales every half hour and pass through Canoa, with the journey taking 1.5 to 2 hours. It cost us $4 (£3.20) per person for this journey.
Alternatively, take a direct bus to Bahia, San Vicente or Tosagua. Canoa is half an hour to an hour away from each of these towns by local bus.
In total, the journey took 8 hours and cost $14.50 (£12) per person, including a shared taxi to Quitumbe.
Getting from Canoa to Quito
When you want to leave Canoa, expect a similar level of chaos. In our experience, confirming the timetable for buses back to Quito can be challenging…
Our hostel told us buses to Quito left at 10 am and 10 pm from the bus stop on the main road through Canoa (the E15), at the corner next to the pharmacy. Great, we thought as we turned up at the bus stop at 9:45 am – just to be told by a taxi driver the bus doesn’t come until 11 am.
We resigned ourselves to waiting and schlepped to a cafe overlooking the bus stop for breakfast. There, the server told us buses leave at 7 am, 11 am and 10 pm but that the 11 am bus was cancelled today, which he kindly confirmed with a phone call to the bus company.
Anyway, the staff at the cafe helped us to flag down a bus heading to Pedernales, where we changed to go to Quito. We got on that first bus around 10:30 am and arrived in Quito around 7:30 pm.
In short: the buses from Canoa to Quito are unreliable, and you might need to take a local bus to a nearby city. I’d suggest being flexible with your travel arrangements for this journey. I wouldn’t want to have to rely on taking the night bus if you’re flying out the next morning!
Getting from Mindo to Canoa
When in Ecuador, I ended up travelling to Canoa from Mindo, a touristic town in the cloud forest, around two hours’ drive south of Quito. Travelling from Mindo added a new dimension of stress as I knew nothing about taking this route! I couldn’t find any information about it online and was reliant on what the hostel could tell me about getting there.
However, as I’ve done this route, I figured I’d share a bit about it.
Step 1: getting to Los Bancos
First, you’ll need to get to Los Bancos, a town around 30 minutes’ drive away from Mindo. To do this, we took a colectivo (shared taxi) from the bridge on the main road heading out of Mindo; it cost $2 (£1.60) per person, or $6 (£4.80) for the whole car.
This drive was possibly the shadiest taxi ride I took when in Ecuador. The colectivo looked like a regular car, and there were no signs or certification; with Lou and I in the back, and a driver and another passenger in the front, I had a constant fear they were going to pull over and mug us. On a positive note, I can now say we weren’t robbed. The driver dropped us off at the bus station, ready for our onward journey.
If you want a private (or more legitimate) journey, you can take a yellow taxi from the main square in Mindo, which should also cost $6 (£4.80).
Step 2: taking the bus to Canoa
At Los Bancos, take a bus to Santo Domingo; the journey takes 2 hours and cost us $3 (£2.40) per person. I’m not sure when these leave, but I think they’re very regular as we were told to just turn up. We were on a bus within 5 minutes of arriving in the colectivo.
At Santo Domingo, you’ll need to change buses. It’s worth asking if there’s a bus that goes directly through Canoa as our hostel told us this does exist; however, realistically, it’s likely that you’ll need to make a stop. In our case, we took a bus to Tosagua, which took 3 to 4 hours and cost $6.50 (£5.20) per person. Just turn up and the bus station staff should be able to confirm what connection to make.
Buses pass through Canoa from Tosagua every half hour, so you shouldn’t have to wait too long on the other end. The bus from Tosagua to Canoa took around 1.5 hours and cost us $3 (£2.40) per person.
In total, the journey from Mindo to Canoa cost us $14.50 (£12) each and took us 9 hours, including stopovers.
Conclusion
There are many routes between Canoa and other destinations, but I wouldn’t say that any of them are easy or predictable. Fortunately, as long as you plan your journey along major towns and cities, there should be plenty of buses, and if you need to take an indirect route, it shouldn’t be a problem.
Are you planning a trip to Canoa, and if so, how are you getting there? Have you taken any inconvenient bus journeys? Let me know in the comments.
