Galapagos Islands

We did a Celebrity Cruise. We flew to Quito 3 days prior to the tour and then spent 4 days after and flew to Cuenca.
If I remember right, Celebrity does a 2 day Quito tour prior to flying to Baltra and a 1 day after returning to Quito. It was wonderful. The Xpediton servers 99 passengers which I liked. I wanted to do a 16 passenger boat tour but was afraid I would get seasick on such a small craft! We went the end of October due to work schedules It was hot, some bushes were brown but that allowed us to see what was hiding in the brush. Not to worry though as the animals are under foot and can't be missed. I loved the entire trip!

We booked an 11 night Galapagos cruise a couple of years ago with an agency in Quito called Happy Gringo. They have an informative website and were very easy to work with.

Neil

I went on a specialist wildlife holiday when I went a few years ago and had 7 nights on board.

One thing that I learned was that you get to visit a far wider variety of islands if you stay for a week rather than just a couple of nights, some of which have fewer tourists and different wildlife.

The larger boats cover the distances between islands much quicker, but some are so large that it takes ages for everybody to get off and onto the islands, so time on land is limited on some boats. I went on a boat that only took 12 guests and we had plenty of time on each island. Look at the guide to passenger ratio on each tour.

REI has a reputable travel business and we used it when visiting the Galapagos Islands. A wonderful time.

You must have a guide to visit the national park areas but you do not have to take a cruise our tour to get there. You can fly yourself and book a hotel on the main island, and then engage lodcal guides for day tours. That may or may not be the best way to go, but it is an option.

Lots of good information on this Galapagos Conservancy website:

http://www.galapagos.org/travel/travel/planning-a-trip/

Although we ended up not going, Lola is quite right about going alone, and seeing the Galapagos by cruise is becoming the minority choice. There are Airbnb and vrbo.com private rentals in the Galapagos.

There are a lot of pros and cons to taking a cruise, see Tripadvisor for exhaustive discussions on this topic. We decided to absolutely not take a cruise, but that was primarily because of the cost of taking the whole family on a cruise ($16,000 for a week on a budget boat). We decided to go back to Europe in the end as it would be so much cheaper than visiting the Galapagos--about half the cost.

You can get a lot of information on the TripAdvisor Galapagos Forum. There are articles explaining different times of the year has more flora or more fauna, when the water is calmer, when the water is clearer, more rainy, etc.
The first basic question is whether you want to be land based or be on a ship. Most argue for ship. Then, next question is how large of a ship. For land base, there is Galakiwi. I think that's the name, a company run by a couple of New Zealanders.
How mobile are you? If you go to Road Scholar, there is a video showing people getting in and out of small boats and hiking up rocky trails. There is also a list of recommended books, from which I bought Paul Stewart's Galapagos, The Islands That Changed The World used on Amazon for about $16.
How much adventure do you want? Do you want to dive/snorkel?
How much education do you want? Do you want nature lectures on your cruise? Then, consider National Geographic.
Or do you want to just enjoy the scenery and chill? Then, any local tour guide would probably do.
For the basics, there is Lonely Planet, Ecuador & the Galapagos Islands.

Suggest solid due diligence as to boats/ships/yachts to make sure you will be happy to share available space with others for the duration of the trip. The reviews I read before our trip, were an important factor in deciding which tour to book.

Hello there,
here's the company we used.
http://www.ecoventura.com/
We had a fabulous trip with our teenager, age 15.

We stayed in Quayaquil, Ecuador at the
http://www.sonesta.com/Guayaquil/
prior to going to the islands.

After the islands we went to Peru (Cusco and Machu Picchu)
If you'd like more detailed information, please send me a personal message (PM).

Have a terrific Adventure!