Ecuador · Chimborazo
Where to Stay in Riobamba, Chimborazo
Riobamba is a highland city of central Ecuador at the foot of Chimborazo, the great volcano, an old colonial town called the Sultan of the Andes.
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Where to stay in Riobamba
Each area has its own feel; here's who each one suits.
Where you stay in Riobamba turns on the old centre or the market. The streets around the main square keep the churches, the plazas, and the shops within a walk, and staying downtown suits anyone here for the colonial city. The old churches face the squares.
Market crowds fill the streets. Out toward Chimborazo and the highland, the town gives way to pastures, villages, and the slopes of the volcano. A room out of town trades the streets for the mountain views, the high pastures, and the trails up Chimborazo.
Grassland climbs to the snow. Stay downtown for the churches, or out for the mountain. The centre lies a short way back.
About Riobamba
Riobamba is the highland city under Chimborazo.
What is Riobamba known for?
High on the central Andean plateau below the great snow-capped volcano, it was where Ecuador's first constitution was signed, and it keeps a grid of colonial streets and churches, a busy Saturday market of the highland peoples, the old railway that clings to the Devil's Nose in the gorges nearby, and the white cone of Chimborazo above it all. The volcano rises over the town. The high plain runs cold and clear.
What are the main landmarks in Riobamba?
Chimborazo towers over Riobamba. The great snow-capped volcano to the northwest, the highest peak in Ecuador and the point on earth nearest the stars, rises above the plain, the emblem of the city, over the town. A colonial church stands below.
The old Basílica and the grid of churches hold the heart of the town, while the Saturday market, the railway line, and the high pastures mark the country around Riobamba.
What is the history of Riobamba?
Riobamba stood among the oldest towns of the Andes. The Puruhá people held this highland long before the Inca came, and a Spanish town rose here early in the days of the conquest, on a site to the south. An earthquake destroyed it.
In 1797 a great quake and landslide wrecked old Riobamba, and the survivors moved to the present plain and laid out a new city on a careful grid. The new city made history young. When Ecuador broke from Spain and became a republic, its first constitution was signed at Riobamba, and the city took the proud name of the Sultan of the Andes.
It kept its highland ways. Through the years Riobamba stayed a market town of the Andes, gathering the indigenous peoples of the highland to its Saturday market and keeping its colonial churches under the volcano. The great cone still watches the town.
Riobamba keeps its churches and its market below Chimborazo.
Where is Riobamba?
Riobamba lies in the central highlands of Ecuador, in a high valley ringed by great volcanoes. The city sits on the Andean plateau at over two thousand metres, with the snows of Chimborazo rising to the northwest and other peaks around the basin, in a cold country of high pasture and grain. The volcanoes ring the plain.
High grassland runs to the peaks.
What is the climate of Riobamba?
Riobamba has a cool highland climate. Mild days and cold nights hold all year at this height on the equator, tempered by the altitude, with a rainy season and a drier spell rather than summer and winter. The nights turn cold and clear.
Thin air chills the highland.
How do you get to Riobamba?
Riobamba lies in the central highlands, on the road and rail between Quito and the south. Buses run to it down the Andean highway from Quito and Guayaquil, and the old railway climbs the mountains to it. Lanes cross the colonial grid.
Quito lies north up the range.
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Updated August 2026