From Quito's Quitumbe bus station, Express Sucre Cooperativa de Transportes runs buses several times a day on a six-and-a-half-hour route through the Avenue of the Volcanoes. From Cuenca, the same cooperative and Patria provide departures every one to two hours during daylight; expect a three-hour trip and about six dollars. From Riobamba, two hours and five dollars. The highway approach is dramatic - the bus climbs into páramo before descending into the Alausí valley. If driving from Quito, you can overnight in Riobamba to break the journey into manageable segments. The last stretch into Alausí follows the Chanchán River canyon; the road is paved but narrow, with the kind of curves that leave motion-sensitive passengers reaching for windows.

The Nariz del Diablo is the steepest descent of any railway track in the world - or rather, it was, and remains the steepest still operating as a tourist attraction. The track zigzags down using two switchbacks, meaning the train reverses direction twice as it descends. Views of the Andean terrain from the windows are what the tickets pay for. Service has been disrupted since a major March 2023 landslide buried stretches of the Alausí-Sibambe track, and operations have only intermittently resumed since; recent schedules show departures Thursday through Sunday and holidays, typically at 08:00, 11:00, and 14:00. Each trip goes down to Sibambe and back; a typical journey includes the descent, a stop at the Puñuna Condor Museum, and a folk dance presentation at Sibambe Station. Tickets in recent years have hovered around $33 and include the guide and cultural program. The railway asks you to arrive 30 minutes before departure. You can buy tickets by phone, online, or at the station. A café in Sibambe sells coffee, snacks, and breakfasts - proceeds help support the community. Riding on the roof is no longer permitted; there was a fatality in 2006 that ended that tradition. Seats are labeled A (abyss side, preferred) or M (mountain side); people tend to share the window, so either works.

Walking is the way to get around Alausí - it is small enough that almost nowhere is more than fifteen minutes from anywhere else. The bus station sits on 5 de Junio, the main street, three blocks down from the train station. On a hill above town rises a 21-meter-tall monument to Saint Peter, the city's patron, built in 2001 by Ecuadorian artist Eddie Crespo. The statue is visible from everywhere in town and makes a decent short hike if you want a view of the valley. At the bottom of the same hill, on the opposite end of town from the railway, a small open market sells practical daily-use items to locals - a place to stock up on water, fruit, and anything you forgot to pack. A modest shopping center and food market sits one block up toward the highway from the main street. The architecture is a mix of Ecuadorian highland and coastal styles, with balconies flowering and facades that have earned the historical center national heritage status.

The altitude in Alausí is about 2,340 meters. The train descends to around 1,400 meters at the bottom of the Devil's Nose. Temperature ranges from 15 to 25 degrees Celsius depending on elevation and time of day, which means layers - bring a jacket for the cold mountain mornings and sunscreen for the strong equatorial light at altitude. SPF 30 or higher is the local recommendation. Walking shoes, hat, sunglasses, a camera, cash, and insect repellent complete the packing list for a day around town and on the train. For food, the train station has a café and the main street has a few simple restaurants serving Ecuadorian highland fare - potato soups, llapingachos, grilled chicken. A few simple bars round out the evening options. Shops near the railway station sell alpaca wool products and regional handicrafts, much of which comes from nearby communities where weaving traditions predate the railway by centuries.

From the bus station on the main street, or from the highway bus stop, buses to Riobamba and Cuenca depart regularly. If one destination does not have an immediate connection, the other usually does - worth checking both schedules before waiting. For travelers with more time, Guamote lies north on the Pan-American route, a smaller town with a busy Thursday market that draws Indigenous communities from the surrounding mountains. Further east, Sangay National Park offers some of Ecuador's most remote trekking terrain, centered on active volcanoes and high-altitude lakes. Alausí is the kind of place that works best as a pause rather than a final destination - the train ride in the morning, a slow afternoon in the historic center, an early bus onward the next day. The town knows this and accommodates it gracefully.