Expert Galapagos Vacation Trip Report

I've gone on a lot of boats, but the most common for me is the Santa Cruz Galapagos vacation ship and the Isabella II yacht, a small luxury boat. The service is really, really excellent, the food, and the naturalist guides are very knowledgeable people about the Galapagos environment. That's why I pick those two when I go with a group.

Here are Galapagos vacation cruise yacht reviews by people who have sailed with them in the past.

When I go by myself, it's very easy to move around the islands. The towns are small - you can walk to your hotel or a restaurant. There is information all around the islands, especially at Santa Cruz… I would say that is one of the most touristy and the most important island in Galapagos besides San Christobal it's also a very nice place.

How big is the Santa Cruz Galapagos vacation yacht?

Do you ever get seasick?

I've seen people bring their own pills on a Galapagos vacation. Sometimes if they didn't bring anything - there are doctors on the boats also - they will give them some pills.

Here's how to prevent sea sickness.

It is a lot better to book a Galapagos vacation beforehand on the internet. I've seen a lot of people that arrive here in Quito and they go all over the city to try and look for a way to get to the islands and it's almost always sold out. The good companies' tours are sold out.

The only option for the people who haven't booked is to look around for the cheapest travel companies/tours which don't offer a good service. The small companies have small boats… they offer tours "we have a great boat, good food, good service" but when they arrive in the islands for their Galapagos vacation and they go to the small boats they discover the big difference: the service is not good, the food is not good.

Your room in the boat is really small, there's no air conditioning sometimes, so the experience is really bad for them because they didn't reserve a tour beforehand. It's a lot better to arrange it through the internet.

Is it better to go on Galapagos island vacations by boat, or in a land-based way?

It depends on the person, what he's looking for. If it's the first time you're going on a Galapagos vacation, it's advisable that you take a tour on a cruise yacht and if it's your second or third time and you know the islands, you can just drop by in a hotel.

There are flights to Galapagos every day, three times a day. For example if a person is coming from any other country outside Ecuador, he must arrive first in Quito or Guayaquil, because it's only these two cities that fly to Galapagos.

So for example what I recommend is that he buys his south america vacation flight ticket through the internet. TAME is the most important I would say and there is also Aerogal. These are the only two airlines that fly there. But first the person should reserve the ticket on the internet and then he will know when his Galapagos vacation flight is leaving. People should arrive to Quito or Guayaquil 1 or 2 days before flying to the islands.

Good advice if you are arranging your own galapagos flights.

It's San Christobal Galapagos where Puerto Baquerizo Moreno is the capital city. It's a very very lovely place, especially for hiking. There are a lot of places/sites that you can visit. There's a big lagoon, in fact it's the biggest lake of sweet water in the Galapagos. It's really spectacular, I mean the wildlife - giant tortoises, birds like red and blue footed boobies - it's amazing. It's for people that like to hike or walk.

The other choice is Santa Cruz Galapagos. It's more for people that would like to have some fun in the towns during the night in a discotheque or restaurants.

One thing that's really nice - the animals on the islands are not afraid of humans like in other places in the world. They walk around you, with you, you can take pictures of them without them flying away or running away from you. Fur sea lions would be 1 or 3 metres away from you. They are not afraid of you; that's really fantastic.

They are all around the islands and all around you, so there's no particular place where you have to go to watch the wildlife, they're all around you, on the beaches, near the towns, all the islands, everywhere.

A Galapagos vacation is one of the number one spots in the world for diving. There are a couple of bays for diving. What makes it interesting here is the opportunity you have to be surrounded by a lot of marine animals, like sea lions, penguins, sea turtles … that's why divers like the island waters because of all these animals. And fishes, tropical fishes - it's amazing the kind of marine life that you will experience on a Galapagos vacation.

Snorkelling is also very fascinating. Especially in for example Tortuga Bay - you can swim and snorkel. There are hundreds of different marine animals that you can see and that you can dive and snorkel around. It's fantastic.

You have to be a bit careful - the water is very cold so you have to wear a wet suit. Most people think the water is hot like in the Caribbean but it's not like that, it's a bit cold. People can rent diving equipment in any tour they choose - it's always available.

You wake up around 7am, have breakfast - you can ask for vegetarian or specific foods on the most important boats in Galapagos.

Then you arrive at a certain island on your Galapagos vacation, for example Fernandina Island which has the most volcanic activity of all the islands. You always have the company of a naturalist guide. It's not an option, by law you must have a naturalist guide with you around the islands - you can not walk around the islands by yourself, except in the towns. You walk or hike around the volcanoes, the lava rocks. The naturalist guide will explain how the islands were formed, the kind of wildlife that's on that specific island.

Around 11 o'clock you have the option to swim or just to wait along the beach, take pictures, snorkel or dive. Then you have lunch around 1 or 2 o'clock in the afternoon and then you have spare time until about 6, 6:30pm. After dinner you always have a review guided by the naturalist about the day and what they have seen, what kind of wildlife they have seen, explaining like that.

It's always different. For example you can go to Fernandina Island, the next morning you can go to Floreana Island where they have different kind of beaches, different kind of wildlife, vegetation… so it's not boring. It's always moving from here to there, walking. It's always advisable that people should be able to walk quite long distances. Be in kind of a good shape for walking.

A Galapagos vacation is for the kind of people that love true nature, that love peace, love to walk, like to see different kind of animals. It's different from the Caribbean - that is people who want to have fun, dance, meet girls… in Galapagos you will never see big buildings, big houses and that. It's very natural. The towns are small, nice, they have everything you need but the nature is what makes them different from the rest of touristy spots in the world.

There are a couple of items… insect repellent, towel, the shoes is important. You must wear tennis shoes or soft shoes because of the walking, you walk a lot on the islands so they must be very comfortable for walking.

Shorts, t-shirts for the days and during the nights you must have a light jacket - at night it's a little bit cold. A small cap or hat, sunglasses, sunblock. If you're taking medicines bring them… nothing else. Oh - a lot of film for pictures.

Take a look at this comprehensive Galapagos packing list to make sure you leave nothing behind...

Can people charge their digital camera batteries on the yacht?

And connect to the internet?

Now is the best time to visit for a Galapagos vacation, in January. From December to June, during these 6 months is the best time because it's the "hot season". It's beautiful sunny days, beautiful sunsets. From July to November is the "dry season" - the Galapagos Islands never really get cold - during the dry season some days could be a little bit rainy. It's also very nice weather except for the little rains some days and a little bit of fog in the morning.

See what the Galapagos weather is like right now with this realtime readout and the average monthly temperatures and rainfall.

I had an experience the first time I went about 18 or 20 years ago, in some places the water has a lot of algae. It looks kind of dirty. It's not really dirty - it's algae, but it's something the first time I saw it I thought it was dirty. The naturalist explained that it was algae and that's what the fish feed on etc. That was the worst thing I experienced on a Galapagos vacation. It's for nature lovers.

Get ready to have a lot of fun with nature. That's all I can say. As you can see I'm really fanatic about these islands. There's nothing else to say to a new visitor that expects a lot of nature around them and who likes nature. If you don't really like nature or being between rare animals then you might not like a Galapagos vacation much.

As I said before it's for people that really love nature. When you visit the towns, they are like it was 50 or 60 years ago, it's not really modern - you also have to expect something moderate, kind of poor. People in Galapagos are not really rich. But they are very nice, warm people.

Find out why Zuri rates Metropolitan Touring at his Galapagos Islands Tourguide including details of the cruise boats they use Isabella II and Santa Cruz.