Destination
Galapagos Islands
Islands 620 miles off Ecuador where the wildlife has no fear of people, and a small ship's route decides which of them a single week actually reaches.
Destination
Islands 620 miles off Ecuador where the wildlife has no fear of people, and a small ship's route decides which of them a single week actually reaches.
The case for the Galapagos Islands
The Galapagos lie 620 miles off the coast, 97 percent national park, and the animals never learned to fear people: sea lions swim up to the snorkelers, blue-footed boobies dance on the trail, marine iguanas pile on the lava a step away, and giant tortoises take their century at their own pace.
Every landing stays small, sixteen people per guide, and the ship's route decides what a week holds, which is exactly what our trips are built around.
Timing
Our trips
Cruises
5 daysfrom $4,650
5 daysfrom $4,650
5 daysfrom $5,995
5 daysfrom $5,995
7 daysfrom $6,150
7 daysfrom $7,950
Land trips
A cruise moves while you sleep, so most mornings open on an island you could not have reached any other way: the far western volcanoes, the seabird cliffs of the outer islands, landings hours from any hotel. Days follow the ship's rhythm, a walk ashore, a snorkel, lunch aboard, a new anchorage by evening.
The hotel-based trips work from one comfortable base on Santa Cruz, across the water from the main town, and go out by yacht each day to the islands within reach, with evenings on land. Same licensed naturalist guiding on both. We run five and seven day versions of each, and either one pairs naturally with mainland Ecuador or Peru.
There is no wrong month. The animals live there year-round, and the seasons trade one advantage for another. December to May is the warm season: air in the 80s, seas at their calmest and clearest, short afternoon showers that keep the islands green. June to November is the cool season, when the Humboldt Current arrives: air in the 70s, cooler and richer water, and the liveliest feeding you will ever watch from a beach.
What actually decides most bookings is demand, not weather. June through September and the Christmas and New Year weeks sell out furthest ahead, so those dates reward booking early. Tell us the month you have in mind and we will tell you honestly what it is like.
You fly, about two hours from Quito or Guayaquil on the Ecuadorian mainland, and your trip begins the moment you land at the island airport, where your guide or crew meets you. Because the island flights leave in the morning, plan on sleeping on the mainland the night before.
Those flights are not in the package price, since the fare depends on your dates; we arrange them with your trip and quote them with everything else. If you want the mainland nights, or a few days in Quito's old town, built into the trip, ask us and we will price it with your itinerary.
Less fit than the word expedition suggests. Everything happens at sea level, walks run one to three miles on sand, boardwalk and bare lava, and the pace is set by the wildlife, which is to say you stop constantly. The steepest thing most itineraries ask of you is a boardwalk stair of a few hundred steps to a summit viewpoint, taken slowly.
Every trip in our Galapagos catalog carries a physical rating of 2 out of 5. The one skill worth having is a wet landing: stepping from a small boat into ankle-deep water on a beach, with a crew member holding your arm. If you can manage stairs and a beach, you can manage the Galapagos.
No experience needed. Guides start in calm, waist-deep coves, the gear is aboard for the whole voyage on our cruises, and wetsuits can be hired on the ship. Most people are comfortable within one session, because the reward arrives immediately: sea lions come to you, turtles graze below you, and in the cooler months penguins fly past underwater.
Snorkeling is always optional. Sit any session out on the beach or on deck and you will still have wildlife in front of you, since much of what the Galapagos shows happens above the waterline.
Most people are fine, and the itineraries help: the longer crossings mostly happen at night while you sleep, and daytime hours are spent ashore or in sheltered water. Seas are at their calmest from December to May and livelier from August to October, when the trade winds peak.
If you know you are prone to motion sickness, bring the remedy that works for you, lean toward the warm season, or look at the hotel-based trips, where every night is spent on land and the boats only carry you by day.
Closer than anywhere else on earth. The animals never learned to fear people, so sea lions doze on the landing steps, boobies nest at the edge of the trail, and iguanas simply do not move. The park asks you to keep six feet back; the animals break that rule far more often than you will.
Every landing is led by a naturalist licensed by the national park, and the park caps groups at sixteen people per guide, so nothing about it feels like a crowd. Bring whatever camera you own; a phone is genuinely enough at these distances.
Our hotel-based trips run from about US$2,940 for five days to US$4,180 for seven; cruises run from US$4,650 to US$7,950 for five to seven days. Prices are per person at double occupancy and cover your cabin or room, every excursion with licensed naturalist guides, and meals as each itinerary names them.
On top of that, budget your international flights to Ecuador, the round-trip island flights we arrange and quote with your dates, the US$200 national park entrance fee paid in cash on arrival, the US$20 transit control card, travel insurance, and tips. The price we agree with you is per person and it is fixed, so a group that grows later pays the same rate for more people.
