Galapagos Islands

Anyone done a Galapagos Islands tour? I'd be interested to hear of your experience, which company you used, tips, etc.

No one?

I think that my mother went to the Galapagos with Lindblad.  She thought it was a very good trip.  https://www.expeditions.com/

I think the idea is that she should get on a trip on the smallest (numbers-wise, not necessarily boatsize-wise) boat that she can afford. 

This group is fantastic: http://www.inca1.com/galapagos/. 

Also, everything depends on your guide, so she should be sure to go with a company known for having good guides. 

Finally, it also has to do with her interests. You can SCUBA there, but the SCUBA trips are separate trips from the regular trips, I believe. You can snorkel on the regular trips, but not SCUBA. Though that may have just been the companies I checked, or that may have changed.

     I went about 10 years ago, but as it was with an Australian group, that part of my experience is not relevant to you.

     That said, Zucca's comment on going with the smallest group is valid.  We had 14 people with us, including our two Australian Tour guides, who came with us from Australia.  They had organised all the tours, transport and accomodation, meals... even told us what sort of clothing to bring.  In short, the works!

     Be prepared for warm to hot days, and cool to cold nights - layered clothing is probably the best.  Make sure you have sunglasses, sunscreen and a sun hat.

     Sturdy footwear is also a must:  you'll be clambering over a variety of surfaces, from soft sand to volcanic rock and everything in between. If you like to use a walking pole when you're hiking, bring that as well.

     Some of the islands you'll visit will involve a 'wet' landing, where you'll be expected to jump from your boat, or landing craft - usually a 'Zodiac' - into about 18 inches of water. The aim of this is to reduce the chances of cross-contamination from one island to another. So expect to either get your footwear wet, or have a means to get your boots on and off relatively easily.

    Getting back into the boat is easy. The crew will beach it on the shore, and you'll just jump in, although you might be puddling around in a couple of inches of water as you get in.

    Don't forget a camera - may I suggest a proper camera, not a 'phone - and plenty of storage, whether it's spare cards or many extra rolls of film.  Internet access may (probably should) have improved since I was there.  At that stage, their internet was extremely slow (I think it was dialup via satellite), and you'd hate to be uploading your photos over a slow connection because you'd forgotten to bring extra memory cards.

marksierra said:

          Be prepared for warm to hot days, and cool to cold nights - layered clothing is probably the best.  Make sure you have sunglasses, sunscreen and a sun hat.

 

 The sun in the Galapagos is intense because you are on the Equator and the suns rays are pretty direct.

Thanks, all, for the information!

tjohn said:

marksierra said:

          Be prepared for warm to hot days, and cool to cold nights - layered clothing is probably the best.  Make sure you have sunglasses, sunscreen and a sun hat.

 

 The sun in the Galapagos is intense because you are on the Equator and the suns rays are pretty direct.

 The Humboldt Current runs past the Galapagos Islands.  This is a cold current, so even though they are on the Equator, the coastal areas can be cool.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humboldt_Current

marksierra said:

tjohn said:

marksierra said:

          Be prepared for warm to hot days, and cool to cold nights - layered clothing is probably the best.  Make sure you have sunglasses, sunscreen and a sun hat.

 

 The sun in the Galapagos is intense because you are on the Equator and the suns rays are pretty direct.

 The Humboldt Current runs past the Galapagos Islands.  This is a cold current, so even though they are on the Equator, the coastal areas can be cool.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humboldt_Current

 I have noticed, however, that UV rays don't really care about the air temperature.  The UV Index on the Galapagos Islands is the strongest I have ever seen.

(Rather than quote great masses of text) ... yes, it's true about the UV not having an effect on the temperature, my comment was directed at how cool the place can be, so make sure you take some cool weather clothing.

This is one of my bucket list trips. Have such a great time, whenever you end up going (and report back!).

afa said:

This is one of my bucket list trips. Have such a great time, whenever you end up going (and report back!).

 Yes, it's been on my list for years and hopefully we'll do it within the next 9 months or so. I'm looking into the various companies that run the trip and also considering a Galapagos-Macchu Picchu combo.

I used this company and had a great guide:

http://www.southernexplorations.com/

Re footwear - Wet/dry sandals with covered toes (Keens or similar) are great because they give you protection but also go just fine in the water.  

We went on a tour organized through Blue Planet Expeditions: 

http://blueplanetexpeditions.net/ 

This company is (or was at the time) run by a tourism professional who was born and raised in the Galapagos.  I'm trying to reach him to confirm that is still his company but I'm pretty sure that it is. Highly recommend!

Try to include some time on the mainland also.  We especially enjoyed our city tours of Quito and Guayaquil and an excursion from Quito to the Otavalo area (great market and lakeside restaurant as well as visit to the Equator monument along the way.) There was also a very cool park with botanical garden, zoo and historical museum in Guayaquil.  The two cities are markedly different.  Much of Quito is very old and historic while Guayaquil is very modern.  (At least that was our impression during our brief stays in those places.)  We did 1-2 days in each of the cities on each end of our trip and a week in the islands.

I would LOVE to go back again!

We went in December 2013, over Christmas vacation.  The waters are colder then, if you're planning to do any snorkeling - you'll need a wetsuit (our boat provided them, although we had our own.)  The water is also more rough at that time, although the heat is much less than it would be in March.

I strongly recommend doing a combo trip with days on land and days on water.  The Galapagos are super cool, and are definitely a bucket list trip, but I personally am not a fan of being on a boat for more than a few days in a row.  I also was a bit tired of seeing rocky islands, iguanas, boobies, and sea lions after three days.  My personal favorite days of that vacation were the days we spent in the Highlands of Ecuador.

We used Thomson Family Adventures with zero regrets.  Excellent guides, who made the trip.

http://www.familyadventures.com/destinations/Galapagos 

I see they no longer offer the exact same trip, but I'm sure they are all excellent.  Ours was the last trip with them that used the Silver Seas luxury boats for the Galapagos portion, and those are THE boats to take.  The food and rooms were unbelievable. (Say hello to Wilson if you use them!  Excellent guide and a really nice guy.)

Land based trips are less costly and also keep you from being too "boat bound". Boat-based trips can get you to more distant islands since most of the islands do not have any lodgings. A combo would probably be ideal. (Ours was land-based, with daily excursions by boat to different islands.)

sac said:

Re footwear - Wet/dry sandals with covered toes (Keens or similar) are great because they give you protection but also go just fine in the water.

We went on a tour organized through Blue Planet Expeditions:

http://blueplanetexpeditions.net/

This company is (or was at the time) run by a tourism professional who was born and raised in the Galapagos. I'm trying to reach him to confirm that is still his company but I'm pretty sure that it is. Highly recommend!

Try to include some time on the mainland also. We especially enjoyed our city tours of Quito and Guayaquil and an excursion from Quito to the Otavalo area (great market and lakeside restaurant as well as visit to the Equator monument along the way.) There was also a very cool park with botanical garden, zoo and historical museum in Guayaquil. The two cities are markedly different. Much of Quito is very old and historic while Guayaquil is very modern. (At least that was our impression during our brief stays in those places.) We did 1-2 days in each of the cities on each end of our trip and a week in the islands.

I would LOVE to go back again!

I just heard back from our guide from that trip and that is the correct web address and it is still his company.

Read "Galápagos" by Kurt Vonnegut

Can't believe that volcano erupted! We previously had a trip to Costa Rica planned, which got cancelled because of the eruption there. The volcano gods have it in for me.

@rhw: Not familiar with that one. (And I can't remember how long it's been since I read Vonnegut.)