A Galápagos Expedition Cruise
In the Galápagos the boat is the itinerary. Every vessel holds a fixed licence for specific visitor sites, so the question is never which islands your client would like, but which licence you can get them onto. Genovesa, Fernandina and Española are the three worth holding out for.
Sixteen passengers and two naturalist guides is the format we book. It keeps landing parties at eight, gets clients ashore in the first panga rather than the third, and means the snorkelling briefing is a conversation rather than an announcement.
The wildlife does not move away, which is the whole point and also the discipline: two metres, no touching, stay on the marked trail. Guides enforce it, and clients who understand why tend to come back.
A night at 2,850 metres in the colonial centre, with the church of the Compañía before it closes.
The morning flight to Baltra, boarding by midday, and a first landing among the frigatebirds of North Seymour.
The overnight crossing north to the drowned caldera, Prince Philip’s Steps, and red-footed boobies at arm’s length.
Lava fields at Sullivan Bay in the morning, the red sand beach of Rábida and its sea lion colony in the afternoon.
Snorkelling at Punta Vicente Roca with turtles and cormorants, then the marine iguana colonies at Punta Espinosa.
Giant tortoises in the wild on a farm above Puerto Ayora, and the breeding centre with a station scientist.
Punta Suárez for the waved albatross colony and the blowhole, then Gardner Bay for an afternoon in the water.
A last landing at dawn, disembarkation at Baltra, and the flight to Guayaquil for the connection home.
Related itineraries
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