Ecuador · Provincia de Esmeraldas
Where to Stay in Esmeraldas, Provincia de Esmeraldas
Esmeraldas is a city of northwest Ecuador on the Pacific, the green province by the sea, the heart of Afro-Ecuadorian culture and its marimba music.
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Where to stay in Esmeraldas
Each area has its own feel; here's who each one suits.
Where you stay in Esmeraldas turns on the town or the beaches. The centre near the river keeps the market, the port, and the plaza within a walk, and staying downtown suits anyone here for the town. The river runs just west.
Marimbas play in the bars. Out along the coast, the town gives way to the beach resorts of Atacames, the fishing villages, and the road down the warm shore. A room by the sea trades the streets for the open sand, the palm shade, and the long line of the Pacific.
Palms shade the long shore. Stay downtown for the town, or out for the beaches. The marimba and the warm coast hold the green province.
About Esmeraldas
Esmeraldas is the Pacific city of the green province.
What is Esmeraldas known for?
On the coast of northwest Ecuador where the Esmeraldas river reaches the sea, it grew as a port and a river town, and it keeps the marimba music of the coast, the beaches of Atacames and Súa down the shore, the tall mangroves of the river mouth, and the busy oil port on the ocean. The warm sea rolls up the sand. Marimbas ring through the streets.
What are the main landmarks in Esmeraldas?
The marimba is the pride of Esmeraldas. The music of the coast, played on wooden keys with drums and song, is the emblem of the province, downtown. Tall mangroves ring the river.
The great mangrove forests of the river mouth, the tallest in the world, stand near the town nearby, while the ocean beaches, the oil port, and the green forests mark the country around Esmeraldas.
What is the history of Esmeraldas?
The coast was won by free people. In the fifteen-hundreds a ship of captive Africans wrecked on this shore, and the survivors won their freedom and built free communities in the forest. They held the green coast.
For generations these people ruled the rivers and the coast of Esmeraldas, keeping their freedom and their African ways in the deep forest. A port grew at the river mouth. In time the town of Esmeraldas rose where the river reached the sea, and it lived on timber, gold, and the trade of the coast.
The music carried the culture. Down the years the people kept the marimba and its dances, a heritage of Africa on the Pacific shore, and Esmeraldas grew as the port of the green province, keeping its river, its beaches, and its music. The marimbas still sound at night.
Esmeraldas keeps its Pacific city by the sea.
Where is Esmeraldas?
Esmeraldas lies in the far northwest of Ecuador, on the Pacific at the mouth of its river. The city sits where the Esmeraldas river runs down to the sea, on a green tropical coast of forest and mangrove, with the ocean and its beaches to the west and the wet forests of the coast rising inland to the east. The river runs brown to the sea.
Green forest walls the coast.
What is the climate of Esmeraldas?
Esmeraldas has a hot, humid coastal climate. Warm wet weather holds all year on the coast, with heavy rains through much of the year and warm sea air the year round. The rains soak the forest.
Sea surf breaks on the beach.
How do you get to Esmeraldas?
Esmeraldas lies on the Pacific coast of northwest Ecuador, north of the main ports. A highway runs down from Quito over the mountains, and ships call at its oil port. Small craft work the river below the town.
Quito lies southeast over the Andes.
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Updated August 2026