Is Cuenca Really as Affordable as its Reputation?

We’re always on the hunt for value when we travel. We don’t mind spending a bit more — maybe for a nicer Airbnb, maybe for a really memorable excursion — but we always want to know that we’re going to get great value for our dollar.

When we arrived in Cuenca, we were excited to test just how much value we could get from a month here. This is a city that we hear a lot of buzz about in blogs and vlogs; visitors rave about Cuenca’s historic charm, mild weather and, not least of all, the very affordable lifestyle that it offers to expats and retirees. 

We’ve spent the month enjoying the best of Cuenca; we’ve seen the sights, we’ve had great meals out, we’ve stayed in a truly amazing apartment. Now it’s time to tally our spending and see if Cuenca really does offer the great value that it’s famous for.

Fortunately much of what we wanted to experience in the city was free or very inexpensive. We hit up many of the city’s key sights – Parque Calderon, Catedral de la Inmaculada Concepción, Plaza de San Francisco, the Flower Market, Mercado 10 de Agosto – through a free walking tour, although of course we generously tipped the guide. 

While at the Mercado, we couldn’t resist trying the limpia or spiritual cleansing on offer by the local healers for just a few dollars. This consisted of Gillian being whacked all over with a bundle of fresh herbs, followed by a whole egg rolled across her body and then a reading of its yolk followed by a diagnosis. The video is a must-see. The diagnosis was in Spanish so it was a little hard to know exactly what ailed Gillian but she certainly ended the experience looking more refreshed and revived than when she started. 

I also dropped by the Pumapungo Museum to take in its overview of Ecuador’s different cultural groups (all in Spanish) followed by a walk through the Inca ruins on the museum’s grounds. It’s quite unusual to have access to Inca ruins right in the middle of the city. While there were only foundation stones left, the view was spectacular. And all of this had free admission.

Cuenca has limited sights within the city so our next stop was Cajas National Park, a superb area for a relaxed hike just an hour out of the city. We followed this up with a visit to Piedra de Agua, a luxurious thermal water spa on the outskirts of Cuenca. We chose the basic package expecting a couple pools and a steam bath. We were quite surprised to be led through an entire circuit of activities including two types of mud baths, hot and cold dips in underground pools and encountering our first-ever drawer baths (an individual wood cabinet with a seat and steam being pumped in — again, the video is a must see). 

We ate most of our meals in inns during the previous month of traveling through the highlands so we were happy to be finally cooking our own meals again. Our experience of the gastronomic scene in Cuenca was fairly simple: a few go-to restaurants for an almuerzo (set menu lunch), some snacks in the Mercado and a regular table at our local international brunch restaurant. The culinary highlight of our time was a private tasting menu experience in the home of a chef.

While everything described so far was very affordable (including the tasting menu at a very reasonable $35 USD per person), there’s always one category of spending that stands out: our accommodations.

We typically get a lot of feedback from locals and residents about how much we pay, or rather overpay, for our Airbnbs. 

Of course if you’re staying in a city on a long term basis, you can absolutely get a great place for much cheaper. In our case, we’re staying short term — just a month — and we need a fully furnished apartment. And not just fully furnished; we also want it to be nicely furnished, a place where we can feel really comfortable. Most times that means we end up overpaying versus the local rates. 

In the case of our Cuenca apartment, yes, we paid much more than the going rate for a long-term rental. But we feel we got a whole lot of value for our spend. In fact, our apartment in Cuenca is the best one we’ve ever stayed in: two bedrooms, two bathrooms, three balconies and high quality appliances and finishes. Obviously it’s way more space than we actually need but we were more than happy to take it. If you want to see the full in depth tour with all the details, you can check out our first day in Cuenca video.

That covers our month. And we’d have to agree with long-term residents: this city holds a lot of appeal. For expats or a digital nomads or someone looking to settle for a while, Cuenca offers a very nice, relaxed lifestyle at a very good price. However, for slow travelers like us, the city runs a little short on significant tourist attractions. Similar to a city like San Miguel de Allende in Mexico, the magic of Cuenca lies in the community-based activities.

That said, we spent a whole month here and really enjoyed ourselves, although much of our enjoyment came from recharging after an intensive period of fast travel. Now let’s find out how much our recharging added up to. 

Our entertainment came in at a very reasonable $48 USD. So much of what we did was free like the museum and Cajas National Park. We just spent a little on the walking tour and Gillian’s unforgettable cleansing at the market. The biggest ticket item was the spa but it was still a good deal because we went for the weekly two for one promotion. 

We did have to get around to a few places and ended up spending $52 USD on transportation. Some of this was for the cab to the spa and the rest was for our drive to Cajas National Park, although you can take a bus there for just a few dollars.

Generally Cuenca is a very walkable city; really everywhere we wanted to go, we could get to on foot.

Moving onto dining out, we usually ate one meal out every single day, whether it was a snack or a $3 USD aluerzo or a leisurely brunch at Kolo. Our total spend was just over $314 USD, which is very inexpensive compared to what we usually spend. We also did a lot of cooking at home with a total spend on groceries at $393 USD. 

Next up is a category that we don’t often talk about but is an important one for the long-term traveler: medical and dental. I got an xray of my teeth for just $20 USD and a full dental cleaning for just $30 USD. This is a fraction of the cost that I would normally pay at home in Toronto.

Now for our luxurious Airbnb. It’s a spacious apartment in a modern building right in the centre of the city and we paid just $1217 USD. We know that this is exorbitantly high for Cuneca and that we’re paying totally inflated Airbnb pricing but we still found it to be incredible value. 

That brings our total spend for a month in the city of Cuenca to $2,074 USD. We haven’t paid this little for a month since we were in Albania. And our Cuenca apartment is much bigger and better furnished than our little apartment in Tirana. That truly answers the question of whether Cuenca is an affordable city. By our standard, absolutely.