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This week’s dream: Ecuador’s pretty capital
Quito’s seedy side has given way to a revived old town full of cool clubs, cafes and galleries
Quito has enjoyed an amazing renaissance in the past few years, says Kapka Kassabova in the Guardian. The Ecuadorian city was always "the prettiest colonial capital in South America", but its old town used to be a "seedy backwater" where it wasn't safe to roam after dark. Today, pickpockets and prostitutes have given way to trendy nightlife in the cobbled district of La Ronda, and its fully restored main street is lined with the brightly painted façades of "workshops, galleries and craft shops". Nowhere is the work of restoration more impressive, however, than at the immense monastery of San Francisco, the city's "greatest marvel", built in the sixteenth century on the foundations of an Inca palace.
Journey Latin America (020 8747 3108); flights to Quito with Iberia via Madrid from £596 incl. taxes. ·
