Recommend May 2018 - 50

Carla Hunt

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Dining car aboard the elegant
Tren Crucero in Ecuador.

Off-train Experiences

Aboard Tren Crucero
Carla Hunt

Tren Crucero, The Luxury Experience has
been on track since 2014, yet along its 280mile route between Quito and Guayaquil, the
turnout to meet and greet this award-winning
train still remains a heads-up event. And
like Queen Elizabeth, passengers on board
learn to keep waving back: at farmers in the
fields, women hanging out laundry, children
in school yards, families in cars or picnicking
by the crossings, herders on horses keeping
pace with the train, and photographers set up
for the perfect shot.
Tren Crucero is also becoming a mustdo with international travelers who are
discovering that, in Ecuador, travel by
train-especially on this spiffy train, carrying
50 passengers in the luxury of two handsome,
Colonial- and Republican-styled passenger
cars, two comfy observation lounges with
bar and open observation deck, pulled by
restored steam locomotives-is not just
transportation. It's an extra-special way to
get to the heart of the country, while riding
the rails: beneath snowcapped volcanoes and
over Andean mountain passes, across the
sweeping parano, scaling and descending a
mountainside of rail switchbacks that link
the highlands to the Pacific's tropical coast
delta. To this galaxy of geographic splendor,
Tren Crucero adds what amounts to a 4-day
cornucopia of culturally rich experiences
50 may 2018

combined with 4-night stays at historic luxury
lodgings along the way.
If you book this rail experience from Quito
to Guayaquil (Duran station), you're on the
4-night Train of Wonders itinerary; traveling
from Guayaquil to Quito, it's the Train to the
Clouds program. Both run along the historic
rail line first completed in 1908.
New this year is the introduction of Gold
Class accommodations-hotels-with-a-history
housed in signature buildings and distinguished
by superior guest service. In Quito, a choice,
both centered on San Francisco Plaza in the
Old City: Hotel Plaza Grande and Casa
Gangotena; near Riobamba, the historic ranch
house of 16th century Hosteria La Andaluza;
in the coastal delta, Hacienda La Danesa,
and in Guayaquil, elegant Hotel del Parque.
Luxury Class passengers stay at the five-star
Swissotel in Quito, the classy Hacienda
Abraspungo in Riobamba, rural and charming
Hosteria D'Franco in the delta, and the luxury
Hotel Oro Verde in Guayaquil.
"Already, the Gold Class properties are
the first to sell out," reports Supinder Singh,
president and CEO of Palace Tours, Tren
Crucero's U.S. representative. "Americans
always respond positively to boutique, heritage
hotels; however, all the hotels and haciendas
on this rail-cruise program are top category."

n Day One in the highland valley of Otavalo,
a marathon of informal meet-the- people
visits: textile weavers and musicians in
San Roque, a wood-carvers' studio in San
Antonio, a fascinating textile museum in
Imbabura, and a rose plantation tour and
luncheon in Cayambe.
n Day Two along the Avenue of the
Volcanoes. On our outing to Hacienda la
Alegria, a working dairy and horse-breeding/
horseback riding adventure farm, owner
Gabriel Espinosa joins his Andean cowboys
in displaying the skills of cattle roundups,
introduces his friendly llama herd, and invites
guests to lunch in his beautiful family home.
At the end of day two, mighty Chimborazo
Volcano-Ecuador's tallest-begins to fill the
horizon. Passengers spend time at the sky-high
Urbina station with Baltazar Ushca telling
(translated) tales of his 50 years of harvesting
ice-pick in hand, donkey for transport-
from the Chimborazo heights.
n Day Three, our steam engine is exchanged
for a diesel locomotive to navigate the
legendary Nariz del Diablo (Devil's Nose): a
vertical drop of 2,000 ft. in only seven miles.
n Day Four in the company of Niels Olsen,
a member of the founding family of beautiful
and sustainably operated Hacienda la Danesa.
He introduces us to a cacao experience,
observes our progress in milking cows, leads
an estate tour on foot/by bike, and hosts a
luncheon of typical Ecuadorian cuisine.
And every day, the superstars of Tren
Crucero are the crew, including two guides
who provide both expert knowledge and
home-country passion, and the bartenders
and waitstaff who maintain a constant flow of
fresh juice, imaginative snacks and cocktails,
and beautifully presented lunches, prepared by
the communities along the way.
Four-night, all-inclusive Tren Crucero
journeys are priced from $1,735 pp dbl. n
Contact Information
Palace Tours: palacetours.com
Tren Crucero: trenecuador.com

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http://www.palacetours.com http://www.trenecuador.com http://www.recommend.com
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recommend May 2018
