Quito has the best-preserved colonial center in the Americas and sits at 2,850 metres. Both facts matter: there is a lot to see, and you will tire sooner than you expect.
The morning
Start at Plaza Grande before nine, while it still belongs to Quiteños rather than to tour buses. La Compañía de Jesús is two blocks away and is the one stop you cannot skip: seven tonnes of gold leaf in a single nave.
The afternoon
Go up to El Panecillo for the whole city from above, then come down to San Marcos mid-afternoon, when the artisan workshops and galleries open. It is the quietest neighborhood in the old town and the one guidebooks mention least.
A note on altitude
Drink more water than you feel like drinking, and leave the alcohol for day two. Altitude sickness gives no warning: it arrives all at once mid-afternoon, right when you have been walking uphill for five hours.
