Spa hotels in Ecuador
1 destination
In Ecuador, thermal water is part of the geography. The Andes run through an active volcanic landscape, and hot springs appear in mountain towns across the country. Nowhere is the connection more obvious than in a place whose name literally begins with baths.
Baños de Agua Santa sits in a steep green valley below Tungurahua, one of Ecuador's active volcanoes. Geothermal heat feeds the town's thermal waters, including the public pools of La Virgen beside the waterfall at the edge of town. The connection between water and place is not a resort invention; Baños grew around these springs and the religious devotion associated with Our Lady of Holy Water. Yet the town rarely feels sleepy. It is also a launch point for the Ruta de las Cascadas, cycling, hiking, canyoning and journeys east toward the Amazon basin. That gives the hot pools a very practical role: they are where tired legs tend to end up after everything else.
Baños can be visited year-round. June through September is generally somewhat drier, but cloud and rain are possible in any month in this lush Andean setting. Quito is several hours away by road, usually via Ambato. Pack for changing mountain weather rather than assuming that Ecuador's latitude means constant heat.