From Manta: Coffee, Chocolate, and Panama Hat Day Trip

Discover the flavors of Manabí on a full-day trip from Manta. Visit a coffee farm, enjoy a traditional Tonga lunch, watch Panama hat weaving, and taste Ecuador's rare Nacional cacao.
Begin your journey with a convenient pickup from your hotel or the cruise terminal in Manta. Head into the Pacoche forest, a coastal cloud forest where howler monkeys call from the canopy. Arrive at Finca Agroturística Café de Pacoche, a working coffee farm, and follow the bean from plant to cup over two unhurried hours.

Walk the plantation to see how coffee is planted, pruned, and harvested. Watch the beans go through pulping, fermenting, drying, and roasting. Then, step behind the bar to taste the difference between a blonde, a medium-dark, and an Italian roast, brewed in front of you by siphon, Moka pot, French press, and Aeropress. Coffee is unlimited, and the tasting is yours to linger over.

From there, step out of your vehicle to the San Lorenzo Lighthouse, perched above the cliffs where the forest meets the Pacific. Enjoy the panoramic views and take some photos.

Next, head back into the Pacoche refuge for lunch. Enjoy Tonga, a dish that defines Manabí, slow-cooked in banana leaves over a traditional horno de leña (wood-fired oven). Your guide walks you through what makes Manabí cuisine its own culinary world: the peanut, the green plantain, the smoke, and the patience. It's not a lunch stop bolted onto a tour. It's the reason coastal Ecuador cooks the way it does, explained where it's actually made. (Vegetarian option available.)

In the afternoon, head to Montecristi, where master weavers work toquilla straw into the hats the world mistakenly calls Panama hats. Watch this UNESCO-recognized tradition up close, with the chance to take home one made to fit you.

The day closes at Samor, a small-batch chocolate maker in Manta, with a tasting, a traditional chocolate drink, and the story of Ecuador's rare Nacional cacao, a genotype traced back more than 5,000 years, and the reason this coast is on the map of the world's finest chocolate.

To guarantee availability book as soon as possible. Early booking is worth consideration especially if you planning the trip during high season like public holidays or weekends.

This excursion you can cancel with no cost up to 24 hours before the start of the trip. If you cancel it after 24 hours or not show up on the excursion you will still be charged the full price of the activity. Being late on pick-up or departure will be considered as not showing up.