Has anyone visited the Galapagos Islands?

IamtheWalrus

Hi there,

I am currently traveling South America. I hope to travel to the Galapagos Islands for a week or so. I have heard it is pretty expensive and was wondering if any of you back backers have visited the islands.

Is the cheapest way of getting there via plane or boat? Should I enter via an organised tour? Is Ecuador the best place to depart from?

Any help would be very welcome.

Thanks,
Walrus

hugoline

I have been there for a week towards the end of 2008. We organized everything from Quito and took a tour boat. And yes it is VERY expensive (for what we paid for a week we could have lived for well over a month in Colombia)

IamtheWalrus wrote: »

Is the cheapest way of getting there via plane or boat? Should I enter via an organised tour? Is Ecuador the best place to depart from?

Not sure about boats (except cruise ships), but flights to the Galapagos is the usual thing.
As (almost) all of the islands is a national park you are required to have an official guide with you at all times when in the national park.

The two options basically are: Stay in Puerto Ayora and do day trips from there or get on a boat for 3, 4, 7, 10 days (or even longer) and tour around the island.

I would recommend the boat options, as you can't go as far and see the really diverse islands when staying in one place.

As for the length on the boat... depends on your budget... (In the 7 days we went we saw a good bit but not sure if I wanted to stay much longer as you just can't take in more...).
As to what boat to choose... invest a day or so in Quito, where there are dozens of travel agents (offering the same boat sometimes cheaper than others), just shop around. Experience from me: don't go for the cheapest (tourist) class but as high as your budget stretches, your experience WILL be better (got that from talking to a few fellow travelers we met on the way later on)

As mentioned before, it is expensive... $400 for flights and then the cheapest boats start from $600 IIRC. But check in Quito for last minute deals, as it depends on season as well.

If you go: don't expect too much (i.e. the whole hype around it)and you will be more than surprised

Cullen82

Hey, I had wanted to go here from South America too but was totally thrown off by a documentry I watched of a guy who had alllllllllllllways wanted to go but was totally let down by his experience there....He might have had too high expectations but from what I saw on this doc it's not quite the adventure it's made out to be.....For this reason I went to Easter Island instead.

Don't get me wrong - I've no doubt it would be a great place to go....but in terms of value for money (and a lot of it) I'm not so sure

Chickus

Hi, we stayed in secret garden hostle in quito and booked last minute deal through the agency beside it for $680. this was for 6nights on a decent boat..tourist superior.we then paid for flights, cost depends on season, we did it on first day of low season(Sept-fair bit cheaper approx $230)(also cheaper if you fly from guayaquil).we were lucky we had stong euro then. you pay $100 for park entry and thats it. it was really good value for us, excellent guide, food. the boat was a motorised yacht(the encantada) with compact quarters but clean and comfortable.
i reckon there will be great deals due to recession.definatly go, its amazing. the snorkeling is great also.
oh try et a boat that does the southern island route as we heard they were better than northern islands. BTW the expensive boats are full of pensioners.

IamtheWalrus

Thanks for the valuable input everyone. I'll try to digest this all and what my budget is like closer to the time.

Thanks again.