A kind request for advice on organising a holiday to the Galapagos Islands

Dawn7890

Hello All,

I wondered if anyone could please help me.

We are thinking about going to the Galapagos Islands in the next couple of years (have to save!), but we do not know anyone that has been. As we have not travelled a lot, we are weary of organising all the trip ourselves and I have been scouring the internet for package holidays but even these don't seem to make it clear.

I wondered if anyone has any advice if they have been, or know of a company that organises the whole trip. I would very much appreciate any advice you have to give.

Thanks

Dawn

dzug1

Someone like Journey Latin America perhaps - or Exodus.

alanrowell

You could go to aito and look for UK companies there like Exodus, Explore & Journey Latin America - but most, if not all of them, will use Quito based companies. You could also go to the Ecuador forum of Tripadvisor and look round there.

I wouldn't recommend a cruise in a large cruise ship as that will seriously limit you to what can be done - go for a smaller (under 30 berth) ship. Also don't fly via the US as it's a PITA, when we went we flew KLM via Amsterdam which for us north based people is the simplest option. You could also fly via Madrid.

As to companies, we booked through a UK company on Cachelote which is a 12 berth motor cruiser. Great time had by all except for one long overnight run under sail & engine which was a bit bouncy. Take lots of film / memory cards and have at least one camera that is waterproof. Also check the voltage requirements for your chargers - most boats only offer 110V. You generally don't need big lenses as most of the wildlife will be a few feet from you. I do recommend spending time in mainland Ecuador itself as it's an interesting country - we spent time in the Amazon where bug spray and big lenses are needed, but you could go up and down the Avenue of the Volcanoes.

littlestar1981

Definitely try the trip advisor forums, lonely planet thorn tree forums, and maybe companies like Explore, The Adventure Company, Kuoni for ideas. If you can borrow the Lonely Planet for Ecuador book from a library it's a really good book to have (some countries are better than others... this one is really good!)

I haven't been to Galapagos but have been to Ecuador and there are some excellent tour companies in Quito, I used Gulliver (https://www.gulliver.com.ec) who do offer Galapagos but I just used them for daytrips (but I highly recommend squeezing some of that in if you can, I went to Otavalo market, rode horses by Cotopaxi volcano, went to Ecuadorian Folk Ballet, city tour, allsorts... really nice country)

Someone mentioned flights, I did go via the US on Continental, had to change in NYC and Houston but not too aggravating (I suppose it depends on whether you're likely to encounter any ESTA issues). I went with loads of people from all over Europe and the UK, people who used Continental and KLM were happy, people who used American Airlines weren't very impressed with the long haul quality and people who flew direct from Madrid had nightmares from start to finish with luggage, service, delays etc etc the airlines that fly out of Spain to Latin America (Iberia!!!) are famed for being horrendous.