It would take a year to scratch the surface of Ecuador’s incredible biological diversity, but in three weeks you can experience everything from spotting saki monkeys in the rainforest to snorkeling with miniature penguins around the Galápagos Islands.

DAYS 1–2
Start slow in Quito to give yourself time to adjust to the altitude and to the idea of a country with 1,500 species of birds. Visit the Museo de las Ciencias Naturales, the Vivarium, and the Quito Zoo in Guallabamba for a warm-up. Spend two nights in New Town, or else at the Hostería San Jorge in the Pichincha foothills, to get an early start on your birding. Book any tours to the Amazon or Galápagos now, if you haven’t already.

DAYS 3–5
Head up to the Mindo-Nono area in the cloudforest for some world-class bird-watching astoundingly close to the capital. Comfortable lodges such as Tandayapa and Bellavista cater to birders, and reserves like Maquipucuna and Yanacocha are packed with life. Spend two nights up here and return to Quito the third.

DAY 6
Rent a car or book a day tour up into the foothills of the Antisana Ecological Reserve, where the South American condor—the largest flying bird in the world—still soars. Alternatively, visit Cotopaxi National Park for another chance to spot this magnificent creature.

DAYS 7–11
By now you should be prepared to take the next step to the Amazon, where the sheer abundance of life can at times be almost overwhelming. A five-day tour to a lodge such as the Napo Wildlife Center or Kapawi Ecolodge will bring you in intimate contact with everything the Oriente has to offer—the whole vine-draped, gorgeous green mess of it. Birders will be in nirvana, and plant people will get the shakes.

DAYS 12–18
Then it gets even better. During a week in the Galápagos Islands you’ll practically trip over animals you can’t see anywhere else in the world. Giant tortoises, boobies, marine iguanas, and sealife galore: This is the kind of place that turns adults into kids and kids into naturalists. No natural-history tour is complete without a stop here.

DAYS 19–21
Spend your final three days in Ecuador on the coast, either among the mangroves at Manglares Churute near Guayaquil, hiking the coastal dry forests of Machalilla, spotting whales off of Puerto López, or ticking a few more birds off your life list in the coastal lowlands at a place like Tinalandia near Santa Domingo.