Looking at heading to Montanita in Ecuador? Here’s my guide to this awesome surf town – including where to stay, places to eat and how to get there!
The bustling surf town of Montanita in Ecuador is one of my favourite backpacking destinations. In fact it’s the place I headed to for my first real long haul solo travel experience back in 2007 and I’ve currently juts finished my third stint there.
Considering I could literally be anywhere in the world right now I think that means it comes highly recommended?!
So I thought I’d give you the low down on the beach side mecca of Ecuadorian surf lifestyle – why you should come visit, what there is to do here, how to get there and of course what you can expect to spend once you finally turn up…
Why Visit Montanita?
For me Montanita is one of those perfect combination destinations (alongside Byron Bay in Australia, Raglan in New Zealand and Kuta in Bali) which provide me with heaps of surf, a good nightlife, excellent vibes and a reasonable price tag.
Like most surf towns Montanita becomes a bubble, and once you’ve entered that bubble it’s hard to stray away – and moving onto a city no longer becomes a viable option!
Barefoot living, board shorts, street food, buskers and sand in your bed are the order of the day here – it’s really a tale of waves, babes and bad decisions!
…not only that but one quick glance at my monthly budgets for Ecuador and you can see it won’t even smash your wallet!
What Is There To Do In Montanita?
So what is there to do? What keeps me coming back for more?!
For most the surf is the main draw of the town – but whether you’ve spent years trawling the globe for warm water waves or want to give it a go you’re covered. The main beach offers up some great beginner waves year round with a whole host of local surfers offering private and small group lessons and board hire is an easy option once you’ve got the basics.
For those with a bit more wave experience the bigger days hold true and you can find some solid waves across the beaches. For those looking for something a bit less crowded though (especially in high season between Jan-Apr) the neighbouring town of Olon offers empty beaches and uncrowded peaks.
The crown jewel in the surf through is the iconic point. A reeling right hander it can hold solid sizes of swell and is pretty forgiving with a mainly sandy bottom. Tubes, big open faces and long rides await you…but if it’s firing there will be plenty of competition in the water!
Even if you don’t surf yourself a big day of surf means grabbing a beer, heading to the rocks overlooking the point and enjoying the show!
But it’s not all surf – plenty of beach based activities are in abundance – be it games of football at sunset, volleyball, slack lining or simply kicking back and topping up the tan.
The days here are a slow pace of relaxed lifestyle – enjoy the time to unwind!
The other big draw is the world famous Spanish School in Montanita (disclaimer – this is who I was surf coaching for!) and they run a variety of courses including group lessons, privates, survival Spanish and medical Spanish alongside other activities like surf lessons and yoga.
They even run and epic travelling classroom programme in Ecuador which allows you to learn Spanish on an awesome 1 month trip through Ecuador covering Montanita, Manta, Quito and even the Amazon Jungle – check out the full course here.
The night time is when Montanita shows it’s other side and nightlife here is great fun – filled with Latino tunes, salsa dancing and mojitos.
The infamous cocktail alley is the starting point for any night out with a double shot cocktail setting you back around $3.
Go check out Eugenio for arguably the best mojito in town and he’ll happily top up your rum – “moy fuerte por pa four”!
The street is a bustling array of cocktail stands, music systems and dancing in the road – it’s a great communal atmosphere that runs well into the early hours of the morning.
If you fancy hitting the clubs there’s a few options. The main one being Cana Grill (mid way down cocktail too so it’s the easy option!) where reggae ton, salsa and pop music get you dancing under the stars with it’s half open roof and sandy floor.
Other options include Nativa Bambu (a bit more upmarket and usually with a $5 cover charge on the weekends), Hola Ola and the newly opened Alcatraz (which I personally think is a massive eye sore and totally out of place here!).
And of course there’s numerous beach bars and beach fires to hit up too.
Eating and Sleeping
Obviously you’ll need somewhere to crash and some good food in your belly once you arrive – and there’s plenty of choice for all budgets and tastes.
Accommodation runs from around $6 through to $20+ depending on what you want – here’s some of my favourite options and recommendations from fellow travellers;
- Montanita Cabanas – $15-19 per night (this is where I stay every time I come here!)
- Iguana Hostel – $8-12 per night
- Hostel Sumpa
- Tierra Y Mar – $7 per night
- Pop Hostel
- Chill House – $8 per night
When it comes to eating out Montanita has a mix of local and international cuisine – again suiting every tastes and budget – so here’s my personal favourites;
- Diablos – amazing mexican restaurant, their Tortilla Salad is AMAZING!
- Kaffetina – a great little veggie restaurant which also caters for gluten free, lactose free and other dietary requirements.
- Rocios – the menu looks a bit pricey – but trust me split a pizza here, it’s more than enough!
- Wipeout – serves up some amazing local food, the Tacu Tacu veggie is my personal recommendation.
- Papillon – possibly the quickest service in town and with a varied menu and epic portion sizes!
- Tiki Limbo – a good mixed menu with great portion sizes and awesome taste. Bit more high end price wise though.
- Hola Ola – a good bar and restaurant with some amazing hummus and falaffels amongst other dishes! Also has the best ice coffee and free wifi in town!
…and of course there are numerous street food stalls throughout the town serving everything from home made burgers and ceviche through to smoothies, pancakes and pizza.
Many hostels here also have cooking facilities and there’s plenty of stores to grab fruit, veg and supplies to cook yourself and it’s easy to smash together an amazing meal for under $2.
How to Get To Montanita
Getting to Montanita itself is a pretty easy affair.
Basically you need to head to the city of Guayaquil – either by bus or flying into it from either internally or internationally – and then the major bus terminal offers a direct service right through to Montanita itself which takes around 3 hours and will set you back $6 one way.
- You’ll need to head to window 83 and buses run at 5am, 6am, 9am, 1pm, 3pm and 4:30pm. Arrive around an hour early if you can as the buses can fill up quickly.
After your stay in Montanita you can either head back to Guayaquil and bounce onwards around Ecuador to places such as Banos, Cuenca, the jungle or Quito or you can head up the coast to explore spots like Manta, Ayampe, Las Tunas, Mompiche and Canoa.
…so there you have it – how to get there, where to stay, where to eat and of course what to do when you’re there! Hopefully I’ve more than enticed you to head that way – I promise you won’t regret it!
If you keep writing such detailed, glowing, epic reviews like that, I’ll keep travelling wherever you tell us to!
hahahaha – that’s the idea Sarah! I take it Montanita is now on your to do list!?
Psh yea! You’re going to have to start writing some ridiculously detailed guides to other places nearby so it can be a real trek. Just gotta brush up on the surfing skills now.
Thanks for the detailed post including the prices of your stay in Montanita. I am now considering to have a vacation there. What would be the best month to go there?
no worries Jeanette! Peak season for weather – and surf – is Jan to May
I love the way you wrote this. It has everything I needed to know but in a different and fun way.
cheers Suki! I like to write how’d I’d chat to my friends about places!
Great article! I’m actually in Montañita now at the Spanish school and can highly recommend it!
Yeeewwwww – have fun Robin! Say hi to Gijs in the office from me and tell Eugenio I’ll be back for a mojito asap!
Radness! Am doing a seven month solo trip in SA starting in December and was planning on chilling in Ecuador for a month or so – thanks for the heads up as to the perfect place to do it! :D
You’ll love it Sarah! If you’re wanting to do some Spanish Lessons or stay at the Cabanas let me know and I sort you out a discount!
Thank you so much for this guide!!! I am thinking of going down in a few weeks! Is the spanish school from epicgapyear.com? I would like to do some spanish lessons
Thank you so much :)
No worries Jamie – I love it there! Indeed you can book Spanish lesson, home stay experiences and accommodation for Montanita through Epic Gap Year – here’s the link;
http://www.epicgapyear.com/portfolio_page/learn-spanish-in-ecuador/
If you need any other lengths of time let me know via email and I can build you a custom package!
It’s a really great story about your experience in Montañita, thanks for share it.
I’m a photographer from Ecuador and every weekend, when I can, I go to this magical place!
With your permission! I will post the link on a Backpackers group where I like share some tips to travelers who are visiting my country and who want to learn about our culture and places. I leave the link. Cheers and good luck! https://www.couchsurfing.org/group.html?gid=93327
Hey Mario – no worries feel free to share a link to the article if you thin it’ll help other people plan their trip!
Loving the sound of Montañita. We’re heading to Ecuador in July/August as part of our 7 month trip to S America. Was going to sign up for Spanish lessons in Quito, but this place sounds like a nice alternative. As someone who’s never surfed before, do you think it could work combining surf and Spanish lessons for a week?
Hey Will, yeah you’ll love it there – so much fun! You can actually book a surf and spanish course through my other site, Epic Gap Year, which is suitable for all levels of spanish and surfers (even complete beginners) – check out the following link for more details.
http://www.epicgapyear.com/portfolio_page/learn-spanish-in-ecuador/
If you only want to go for a week let me know and I can put together a week long package for you (at the moment the min is 2 weeks) and if you have any questions drop me an email anytime!
Hi Chris
I’m keen to just do a week of Spanish and beginner surfing. How much would that be?
Hey Olivia – epic choice!
Check out my other site for more details and I can certainly help you get it sorted :)
http://www.epicgapyear.com/tours/learn-spanish-in-ecuador/
Hi doing a lot of looking around about trips in central and south america and came across your blog, the spanish school and cabanas are featured in a brochure from statravel (dont know if youve heard of them) and was just wondering if it would be cheaper to go directly through the spanish school? Sounds like a great place, really well written blog!!
Hey Abbie – I actually used to work for STA Travel! MSS and the Cabanas are awesome and you’ll have a blast there! You can actually book direct through my other site – Epic Gap Year – and you can choose to stay in the hostel or go all out and do a homestay too! There’s also a travelling classroom option too which bounces around Quito, Manta, Montanita and even the Amazon which is a greta way to see some more of the country and brush up your spanish skills at the same time.
You can check out everything on the following link;
http://www.epicgapyear.com/destinations/ecuador/
If you have any questions let me know and I’ll be happy to help!
I’ve also just chucked you an email with some more info too
Hi Chris,
Cheers for that sweet sweet article! I am planning on doing a Spanish course far far away and the Montanita Spanish School looks like the best plan to me (I’ve looked into other places such as Costa Rica but it’s awfully expensive and Spain itself is too close to my current country :) )
Here’s the tricky part: I had a look into weather reports regarding the month of July (only time when I’m available) and so far most of the sites wrote that it’s not very sunny albeit hot compared to European standards. Can you relate to this?
Also, is it cheaper to go through school service websites such as ESL or STA or directly through the school’s website?
Thanks in advance for your help, I am so thrilled to join this adventure!
Phil
Hey Phil,
Stoked to hear you’re heading to Montanita, I love that place heaps! Hmmm July isn’t their best weather but it’s still nice, the town itself is a bit quieter so it depends what you’re after and there’s plenty of day trips and weekends away that you can do year round.
Booking wise you can actually book all the courses direct through my other site – Epic Gap Year – check out the following link for all the info and to book;
http://www.epicgapyear.com/destinations/ecuador/
Also – ping me an email before you book and I’ll sort you out with a discount ;)
Hey! Thanks for the tips! I’m in Cali, Colombia now, heading to Quito and then traveling throughout Ecuador for a few weeks. I’m interested in learning to surf (only had one lesson a few years ago!) and possibly checking out this Spanish school. Is it possible to just do 1 week?
Hey Nicole – jealous you’re over there at the moment! Yeah a week is no worries – you can book it direct on my other site (Epic Gap Year) via the following link;
http://www.epicgapyear.com/portfolio_page/learn-spanish-in-ecuador/
If you have any questions or want to customise anything just drop me an email anytime!
Hey Chris, great article… loving your site. i’m heading to Montanita in September for a few months… or as long as possible really. Any tips on finding backpacker jobs? I heard it’s common enough for backpackers to work in the bars etc there
will do a few spanish lessons as well… will have a look at booking through epicgapyear!
Stoked to hear you’re heading to Montanita Stephen – I’m pretty jealous! To be honest I’m not too sure on the job front, I surf coached for the Montanita Spanish School and I know they take interns though so maybe drop them an email (say I sent you!)
If you need any help with booking let me know!
Will do Chris, thanks for the info
So many good articles. This is already a few years old, but still inspiring to me to go there next on my journey. I want to learn how to surf!
Currently, I’m in Playa Santa Marianita (near Manta) for kitesurfing and to relax. The wind is blowing here every day and it is perfect to relax. But I think it is time for some surf and party :)
Yewwwww stoked to hear it’s convinced you to head that way Tom – you’ll love it!