This is a functional account of my experiences in the Galapagos Islands, written to give you a little insight into what you might expect and how you might prepare for your trip there.
How To Get There
First things first, the Galapagos Islands are a part of Ecuador and to get there you have to first travel to Ecuador. Your best bet is to fly into Ecuador’s capital, Quito, and spend at least a night there before you fly out the next day.
Arriving in the Galapagos, you can fly into one of two airports: either Seymour Airport (on Baltra/Santa Cruz Island) or San Cristobal Airport (on San Cristobal Island). Seymour Airport is the main airport in the Galapagos and serves Santa Cruz Island which is the most populated island in the Galapagos with the biggest city in the Galapagos, Puerto Ayora.
For my 2021 trip to the Galapagos, I flew into Seymour and flew out of San Cristobal.
For my 2024 trip, I flew in and out of Seymour Airport.
- Practical Tip:
When leaving Quito to fly to the Galapagos, arrive extra early. You will go to the domestic terminal. Just inside the door to the left is a small office where you need to fill out a registration form and pay a fee of $20. After registering and paying, you need to go to the other side of the doors (next to the bathrooms) where your bags will be scanned and/or searched to make sure you’re not bringing anything ecologically dangerous into the Galapagos. Once you’re cleared, your bags will be zip-tied shut so they can’t be opened without breaking the seal.
When you are registered and your bags are sealed, only then can you check in to your flight to the Galapagos.
Getting Your Head Around Your Galapagos Trip
Once you are in the Galapagos, you generally have two options to see what you want to see:
- A Package Tour/Cruise
- DIY Island Hopping
The package tours/cruises are generally booked well before you arrive in the Galapagos and tend to be quite expensive. These are where you book a room on varying sizes of ships and you live on them for several days while traveling around the Galapagos doing different activities. I have heard you can find good deals when you show up in the Galapagos and book last-minute tours where you’re filling empty spots in tours already going out. The plus side of these tours is that you can, in theory, get to more remote places on the islands and see things most others don’t. As I’ve already mentioned, the downside is they are pretty expensive.
I can’t speak with any real authority on Galapagos cruises as I’ve never done one.
Both times I’ve been to the Galapagos, I’ve done “island hopping.” This is where you stay on one of the three main populated islands of the Galapagos (Santa Cruz, Isabella, and San Cristobal). You stay in a regular hotel, eat at regular restaurants, and book day tours or activities based on what you want to do. The strength of this option is
- It’s more budget-friendly
- It’s allows you to do what you want to do and have the freedom to change your plans whenever you want
But to understand island-hopping, you have to understand a little bit about the three main islands in the Galapagos: Santa Cruz, San Cristobal, and Isabella.
Santa Cruz is the main populated island of the Galapagos with Puerto Ayora being the biggest and most developed city in the Galapagos.
San Cristobal is the second most populated island of the Galapagos with the second biggest city of Puerto Baquerizo Moreno.
Isabella is the third most populated island of the Galapagos with the third biggest city of Puerto Villamil.
- Just a side note, Puerto Villamil is my favorite city on the Galapagos! It’s a small city and can even be a bit more expensive since there are fewer options, but the city is much more integrated with the nature around it, it’s got a slower pace, and some of the best animal experiences I’ve had on the islands have been there!
In 2021, my island-hopping itinerary was flying into Santa Cruz, visiting Isabella, and then flying out of San Cristobal.
In 2024, my island-hopping itinerary was flying into Santa Cruz, visiting Isabella, and then flying out of Santa Cruz.
There’s nothing wrong with San Cristobal that we didn’t go in 2024, it’s just we had less time. Santa Cruz is the hub of all tourism in Galapagos so that was non-negotiable, and Isabella is my favorite island so I really wanted to go back there. We would’ve gone back to San Cristobal as well, we just didn’t have as much time and prioritized the other two islands over it. If you’ve got the time, definitely do go check it out!
But let’s look a little closer at each of these three islands. My original intention was to put all of this information in one article, but as I’ve been writing it, I’ve realized this is far too long for one article, so made the information about each island its own link with links coming back to this centralized article when you’re done.
Santa Cruz Overview/Lodging/Food/Activities
Ferries between islands
So the whole point of island hopping is to “hop” between the islands. The way you do this is with the twice-a-day ferries. There are ferries from Santa Cruz to Isabella, Isabella to Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz to San Cristobal, and San Cristobal to Santa Cruz. Please note: there are no ferries from Isabella to San Cristobal and vice versa.
The ferries cost $30 one way and have a slew of associated fees (fees to leave the island, water taxi fees to the ferry, fees to enter the island, etc.). I believe I calculated about $16 in fees for a one-way trip. Just to be safe, I would plan on $50 for a ferry.
The ferries fill up quickly and you should book them as soon as you get to the Galapagos. If all the ferries are full, they’re full and there’s no way for you to get where you need to go. In 2021, we booked our own ferries with the ferry office right next to the Proinsular Supermarket. In 2024, we booked our ticket, for no extra cost, as we booked all our other activities with the tour agent, Discovery Galapagos.
San Cristobal Overview/Lodging/Food/Activities
So that’s it. That’s all the advice I’ve got about the Galapagos! It’s by no means exhaustive, but hopefully, it gives you a good start as you start to plan your adventure.
I love the Galapagos and I hope you do too!
And now a quick footnote. Throughout these articles, we talked a little about price but didn’t get into super specifics. If you want to see the cost breakdown for our 2024 trip (as well as ways I think we could’ve saved money if we had wanted to), you can do that here.
Turkey Alwan Travels
This type of travel is anathema to consideration to all of those in past, present and future Southern hemisphere and third world countries that are and will be paying a large price for first world pollution of CO2 just to flit around the globe.