The Best Trips for Exploring the World's Most Famous Rivers

Staking a controversial claim to be the world’s real longest river – sorry, Nile – the Amazon is arguably the world’s most famous. It originates in Peru, passing countries like Colombia en route to its final destination, Brazil. Many people forget that one of the Amazonian nations is the incredible Ecuador, home to far more natural beauty than its relatively small area. Our eight-day exploration of the country heads towards the Amazon basin, starting in the capital, Quito. After visiting Quilotoa Lake and the Banos Waterfall Route (the water from these falls eventually end up in the Amazon) we’ll wind our way down to the city of Tena, AKA the gateway to the Amazon rainforest. We’ll spend two nights at a beautiful Amazon tropical lodge, heading out to go white-water rafting down Jatunyacu – one of the Amazon’s main tributaries – and two jungle treks – one to stop animals, the other to discover the Amazon’s abundance of natural essential oils.