Moving Day – Our Airbnb in Baños de Agua Santa

Another moving day has come and gone. It seemed like just yesterday we were walking across the Colombia-Ecuador border with only a vague notion of how we were going to get to Quito, Ecuador! And it was crazy how quickly our time in Quito, Ecuador flew by. No doubt having so many interesting things to do and living in a really comfy Airbnb had something to do with it. But having our local friend Xime to spend time with made a huge difference too! But our time in Quito finally came to an end, and it was time for us to move to our new Airbnb in Baños de Agua Santa, Ecuador!

So how did we get to our Airbnb in Baños de Agua Santa? What is it like and how do we like it?

Let’s find out.

Why Go to Baños de Agua Santa?

Baños de Agua Santa is a quaint, touristic town that caters to people with a more adventurous mindset.

Nestled in a river valley between massive mountains and volcanoes, all sorts of outdoor activities are possible here. Just from our Airbnb alone, we were given a list of possible activities including mountain biking, whitewater rafting, bungee-jumping, paragliding, horseback riding, and therapeutic massages.

But most exciting of all, Baños de Agua Santa is at the edge of the Amazonia region of Ecuador. Meaning that affordable excursions into the Amazon rainforest are possible here. And we plan on making several!

And last, the name of the town is in reference to the geothermal baths that are available here. There are two that we know of in the town, and we are excited to explore both of them!

Getting from Quito to our Airbnb in Baños de Agua Santa

Honestly, this was the easiest moving day in recent memory.

No land border crossings. No domestic or international flights. No disruptive political protests to evade. The simple act of just going from one city to another within Ecuador was blissfully uneventful…and pretty cheap too.

We started our move with our Quito Airbnb host calling a trusted taxi driver to pick us up at 9:30 am and take us to the Terminal Terrestre Quitumbe bus station (Google Maps) in South Quito.

The taxi ride took about 30 minutes and cost $10 USD, including tip.

Once inside Terminal Terrestre Quitumbe, buying bus tickets to Baños de Agua Santa was easy, as there were representatives from multiple travel company offices shouting their destinations at prospective passengers.

We were hoping to get express tickets to Baños de Agua Santa, but unfortunately, the earliest express departure was at 2 pm. So instead we purchased tickets on an intercity bus that stopped at more pickup points along the way.

Bus tickets cost $5 USD each, and the next bus was leaving in 15 minutes!

So we made our way to our bus platform, checked our largest bags in the bus storage hold, and got our seats.

The bus was a normal Greyhound-style bus similar to the one we took to Quito, so comfort-wise it was fine.

When the bus departed, it was a little disconcerting when the bus attendant told us to be careful with our hand luggage during the ride. He suggested we keep our handbags in our laps during transit instead of placing them in the above-seat storage area, due to problems with theft.

Our bus made many stops along our journey and all sorts of people got on and off, including merchants selling food, and random panhandlers asking for money. There were many opportunities for a person to grab unsecured bags and run out of the bus, so we were thankful for the bus attendant’s security advice!

I’m sure he has seen crazy stuff happen over the years.

Our bus arrived at the Baños Bus Terminal (Google Maps) at around 2:30 pm, after a ride of about 4 hours. We departed the bus, collected our luggage, and then hailed a taxi to take us to our nearby Airbnb.

The taxi fare was $2 USD, including tip.

So the total cost for us to get to Baños de Agua Santa from Quito was $22 USD.

Sweet.

Welcome to our new Airbnb in Baños de Agua Santa!

As usual, we found our long-stay Airbnb following the detailed methods we describe in our post: A TTT Guide to Long-Term Airbnb Stays – How to Get a Cheap Apartment that Doesn’t Drive You Crazy.

Sadly, our Airbnb is not next to a fantastic empanada shop like our one in Quito, Ecuador. But it is part of a hostel/spa, which has perks of its own!

Make no mistake, we are not living communally with the other hostel travelers. Our place is in a separate building and is a separate self-contained apartment, so we have our privacy and solitude.

But having complete access to the hostel facilities means we have access to the 24-hour reception area and concierge, access to the common area (with bar, hammocks, and breakfast facilities), and full access to the local tour offerings and other paid services provided by the hostel.

One-stop tourist shopping at its finest!

But none of this matters if our Airbnb is terrible. Thankfully, it is one of the best we have ever rented!

Let’s go on a tour of the place.

Outside of the door to our place, we have our own hammock and view of the Andes mountains that shoot straight up from the boundaries of Baños de Agua Santa.

Entering the apartment we have a large living room area, with a comfy sectional couch for lounging (yay!), abundant storage, and TV with Netflix.

Our master bedroom is spacious, with a “King-sized” bed (really two twins pushed together), a massive wardrobe closet (yay!), nightstands with outlets and lamps (yay!), and tons of extra linens for the bed.

Our spare bedroom has a bunk bed and a large wardrobe as well. We won’t use this much, but if we have temporary visitors, it might come in useful (hint, hint Xime). In the meantime, we’ll use the room for extra storage and exercise space.

Our kitchen is very well-appointed. We have a full stove/oven, microwave (yay!), drinkable water tank, tons of counter space (yay!), tons of dishes and cookware (yay!), and a dining table area for work or eating (yay!).

Our bathroom is massive. Easily the largest we have had to date, being at least 5x the size of our last Airbnb. And it has tons of storage space and a huge shower!

And the apartment overall has been well decorated. Lots of little visual extras on the walls or counters that make this place feel very homey.

Last, because we are long-stay renters, we get weekly house cleaning and laundry service for FREE! We just need to supply laundry detergent for the hostel staff.

Sweet.

So for all of this including utilities and superfast 50 Mbps download internet speeds, we are paying $16.90 USD/night (with 72% long-stay discount). Although not the cheapest Airbnb we have stayed at, (but still cheap!) it is the most heavily discounted for long-stays.

It would have cost us over $1500 USD for 28 nights under normal circumstances.

So are we happy? Heck yes!

So far we have had a great run of fantastic Airbnbs in Ecuador!

And if you’d like to know our process for finding great long-term Airbnb stays, check out our post: A TTT Guide to Long-Term Airbnb Stays – How to Get a Cheap Apartment that Doesn’t Drive You Crazy.

Until next time…

Thanks for reading!

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