I explored the underwater world for the first time.
I watched someone win a Galápagos Islands cruise trip on Wheel of Fortune many years ago, and visiting the islands had become a dream of mine ever since.
Surprisingly, I had previously known of Charles Darwin’s research for his theory of evolution, but didn’t realize it was a destination that was still accessible!
I went on this adventurous trip with my fiancé and brother, and we got to spend time on Santa Cruz Island and Isabela Island.
If you consider going here, I recommend saving up for it where you can freely splurge. While I have frequently traveled on a budget, I wouldn’t do it for this trip. Having a tight budget for this destination will make you feel restrictive about the accommodations, mode of transport, and especially the tours to go on (most of the magic happens underwater!). Note that everything is priced in USD as it is their reserve currency.
Airports
There are no direct flights to the Galápagos Islands. You can connect via Quito (UIO) or Guayaquil (GYE) in. We flew out of SFO to GYE. Due to the flight times, we spent the night upon arriving and leaving Ecuador at the Holiday Inn GYE Airport Hotel. I had read about safety concerns online for Guayaquil, but from our experience, there was never any moment where we felt at risk. Our driver had met us at the airport exit terminal with a sign with my name on it, and the round-trip shuttle ride was quick and safe. You can arrange the pick up/drop off times with the hotel concierge via email beforehand.
I highly recommend allocating those two respective nights on the mainland since sometimes a flight can be delayed, and you wouldn’t want to miss your connecting flights.
We landed at Baltra Island and made our way to Santa Cruz Island.
From GPS airport, we took a 20-minute bus ride ($5 pp) to the dock, and rode a water taxi ($1 pp) to Santa Cruz. We caught a taxi ride ($30 total), and it took about 35 minutes to reach the town of Puerto Ayora where our lodging was at.
If you’ve visited a national park in USA, you probably paid $35 per vehicle to enter. The Galápagos National Park entrance fee is steeper at $200 per person (cash only).
Bartolomé Island Tour
We spent the first night just settling in, and the following morning, we went on a catamaran boat day tour to Bartolomé Island. I specifically chose this twin-hull design over a yacht since I’m prone to motion sickness. I’m happy to report that I didn’t experience any sea sickness round trip!
While this was the most expensive ($330 pp) and longest tour (11 hours) we went on, it wasn’t my favorite. The trek involved a wooden boardwalk and stairway up to the Bartolomé panoramic viewpoint, overlooking the turquoise water. I’m from the Bay Area where I’d gotten used to our murky brown waters. The vista point was certainly a beautiful sight to see on our first tour of the trip. After the hike, we went snorkeling nearby around Pinnacle Rock. In hindsight, the snorkeling is way more memorable, despite being a smaller portion of the entire tour. I don’t know how to swim and it was my first time snorkeling in the ocean so the short duration was actually perfect for me as a first-timer.
Because I was particular about booking a catamaran, I booked it online prior to our trip. If you don’t have a strong preference for the boat type, you can also book this tour once you’re on the islands. There is an overabundance of tour companies available—you can’t miss ’em while exploring the town!
I also got to see blue-footed boobies for the first time! Our tour guide informed us that their blue feet are a result of their sardine diet. Penguins were swimming around our boat as well, but it was hard to capture a clear photo of them.
Tortuga Bay
Upon scrolling through my camera roll, I sadly don’t have any photos of our time here.
We went to two different beaches at Tortuga Bay.
Playa Brava has strong currents and isn’t recommended for a swim, whereas Playa Mansa has the most calmest water I’d ever experienced. The entire stretch of the beaches is covered in beautiful white sand.
I only had a photo taken upon exiting the pathway that leads to the beach. The walk was about 40 minutes long, and I’d chosen to wear my flip flops instead of Keens. I thought “hey we’re going to the beach” and regretted it about 5 minutes in. Don’t be like me and stick to wearing your comfortable shoes!
Food & Drinks
If you’re a foodie and intend to visit other islands apart from Santa Cruz, make sure that you dine to your heart’s content on this one! The food selection on Isabela was highly limited.
We had dinner at Midori, and the Puerto Ayora Spicy sushi roll was my favorite. I don’t have a picture of their scallops appetizer, but that one came out flaming hot (literally), and was delicious! I recommend trying it!
Breakfast at 1835 Restaurant & Coffee reminded me of our brunch spots at home. We had egg benedicts and hash browns.
On our way to the Charles Darwin Research Station, we swung by Art Coffee Galápagos for a light lunch and coffee. I’m not much of a coffee drinker, but their iced coffee was on point! We all thoroughly enjoyed it. I would suggest skipping their pizzas (we ordered two, and weren’t a huge fan of either).
Chocolápagos sells the cutest sea creature-shaped chocolates. We bought quite a bit as souvenirs. Santa Cruz was the first leg of our trip, and considering it’s the only shop in all of the Galapágos, it was now or never. For the rest of our trip, I constantly set an alarm as a reminder to grab it from our fridge every time we checked out of our accommodations.
My favorite dining experience was at The Point! We ordered the lobster seafood paella and a burger with fries. Honestly, the food was okay because admittedly, you’re paying for the views. I wanted to eat here strictly for the experience. Just getting to the restaurant itself required a ferry ride that drops you off at a tiny dock right outside the entrance!
This was the view from our table, and we got to see sharks swimming around just below the deck. Through all of my travels, I definitely had never gotten to experience anything like that before. If you want to dine here, I suggest making a reservation and specifically requesting for a table by the water.
We grabbed dessert at The Rock afterwards, and came to find that they serve Asian-fusion cuisine! I wish we had known sooner so that we could’ve tried their food (I tend to crave Asian food on my travels). It was our last night on this island, and there was only room left for dessert. Both the pecan and banana pies were so yummy!
Spotted this cutie the morning we left Santa Cruz!
Isabela Island
To go from island to island, you can either take a speed boat or catch a flight. Considering the extent to which I’m prone to motion sickness, I booked the latter for our group and it was worth every penny. A single flight per person is about 4x the cost of a speed boat that requires about 2.5 hours travel time. On the other hand, the airplane carries 10 people max, and was about a 25 minute flight each way. If you can afford the airfare, I strongly recommend it!
From Baltra to Isabela, we boarded last and were seated in the very back row. For a moment, I felt extremely claustrophobic since the windows are tiny and not much lighting shone in the back. The dim atmosphere along with the enclosed space tripped me out a bit. Then I reminded myself of how I overcame claustrophobia inside the Great Pyramid of Giza, and all was well again.
Did we ensure early boarding for front row seats on the flight back? You betcha! The difference was night and day, and I was seated right behind the pilot this time.
Isabela is a total beach island, and if you come here, you gotta book a beachfront resort! This was the biggest splurge of the trip, and made our time there that much better with the incredible views and quick access to the water. We had walked and biked around the center of the island, and I felt glad that we were situated where we were along the beach. It just provided a different vibe to our island experience.
Behind me was our house! And it was a fun surprise stumbling upon a swing on the beach.
Los Túneles Tour
Los Túneles was my favorite tour! It was $120 pp and lasted about 5 hours. We got to see and swim with multiple sea creatures: whitetip and blacktip reef sharks, turtles, penguins, a manta ray, and a seahorse. Towards the end of the snorkeling session, I was tired of swimming — or should I say floating? Peep my handy dandy buoy:
This video captured our whole group swimming alongside a sea turtle! Undoubtedly one for the books.
We booked this tour in-person at Pahoehoe and they were great to work with! They answered any question we had and were highly informative. Our tour guide had captured content on his GoPro, and they sent us the files afterwards via Whatsapp.
The boat for this tour was a small speed boat. I had forgotten to take my motion sickness pill the night before, and will never forget the bright pink watermelon juice I’d consumed just before boarding contrasted with the emerald ocean water. . .
Again, don’t be like me making these mistakes. Be better than me and remember to take your nausea meds!
Land Animals
Every time we were near marine iguanas, it always tripped me out. They’re not the prettiest to look at and freaked me out every time they began crawling.
There’s a flamingo sanctuary where you can spot them just chilling. On our bike ride, we saw tortoises.
We rented bicycles and road the path to the Wall of Tears. It’s a historical landmark that was built by prisoners as a form of punishment in the mid 1900’s. The bike ride begins along the coastline with ocean views and eventually onto a dirt path. There are some uphill parts that turned my thighs into jello after we completed the trek. The ride back down was fun though since it was mostly downhill!
Just some more island cuties! It put a smile on my face every time we encountered one.
Food on Isabela Island was nothing to write home about. The dining experience was so different from our time on Santa Cruz Island. On Isabela, it felt like we were simply just trying to find food to eat to nourish our bodies to make it through our days there.
On our last night, however, we discovered the best empanadas! It was from this unassuming little food truck that’s parked right on the beach called Yummy Yummy. At $2 each, we bought 10 total with beef and chicken filling (only 6 pictured since we ate 4 of them at the truck). They have tables and chairs set up as well and I gotta say, this was the cheapest meal we had with a sit-down ocean view. 10/10 highly recommend!
Tips
- The Galápagos is highly cash-centric. Bring enough cash with you that will last you the entire trip. We booked and prepaid for some stuff online via credit card, and brought $2,300 in cash to pay for our entrance fees, lodging, tours, and food. Most places cannot break a $50 or $100 bill, so bring plenty of small bills. If you bring a credit card, a Visa would be best.
- We specifically requested $2 bills from the bank to pay some of our taxis and food vendors. They loved it since it isn’t common despite being a cash-centered location. It was always nice to see their faces light up at the sight of it (coincidentally, I was pleasantly surprised every time we were given change in 50 cent and $1 coins!).
- Wear a wetsuit in low temperature water! There were times I still got cold despite having one on.
- Bring your own reef-safe sunscreen sticks. Remember to reapply!
- Buy a pair of waterproof closed-toe sandals! I wore my Keens and they were perfect for the wet landings and sharp lava chips on the tours.
- Pack some Imodium.
- Combat seasickness by taking Meclizine. When I remembered to take a 25mg pill the night before and half of another one the morning of, it worked like magic.
- Buy a hat that has chin straps! Mine kept flying off my head on the boats.
- Bring your own waterproof camera or rent a GoPro on the island to capture your wonderful moments!
Post-trip Thoughts
I’ve visited numerous national parks in North America, and this was my first one outside of the continent. I still feel so blown away by the experiences I got to enjoy on this trip. My first snorkel allowed me to view life on the ocean floor and it was magical; a deep feeling of serenity as I got to see life within the depths of the water. I loved getting to swim among colorful fish and watching them peacefully go about their lives.
If you’re a fan of the outdoors, a trip to the Galápagos will give you incredible memories. There are activities to partake in on land and in the water. As someone who doesn’t know how to swim, I had no fear jumping off the boats into the water. I was so excited getting to witness life below!
Please be respectful to all wildlife as the islands are their home, and we are merely visitors to their habitat.
Enjoy!