4.5Las Tintoreras(885 reviews) - Up Close and Personal with some cool creatures Islands
Great walk around the lava rocks. See huge groups of marine iguanas and sally light-foot crabs. Saw some Galapagos penguins and white-tip sharks in the inlet and surrounding waters. The snorkeling was great too, swimming over all those sleeping sharks below is quite the rush, and we were lucky to have some playful sea lions in the water with us. Also saw turtles, stingrays, and starfish. Amazing experience!See more..
My visit of North Seymour Island was one of the highlights of Galapagos tour. Not cheap, 180$, but worth of it. After 35 minutes drive to the port and about 75 minutes on the boat we reach the Island and started guided tour on the trail around and through out the island with close encounter with nestling birds or iguanas and they seemed not concerned about us. They did not pay attention. We even saw male blue footed boobies dancing to draw attention of females. Male frigates inflated their neck pouch just in front of us. There were a lot of sea lions lazying on the rocks.See more..
4.5My Galápagos Tour(226 reviews) - The iconic postcard view of Galapagos Islands
This is probably the most popular day tour from Santa Cruz. You first take a 45 min bus from Puerto Ayora to Ithabaca Canal, then followed by a 2h+ navigation. Along the way, you may want to pray for a fantastic clear skies at Bartolome. Thankfully that was the case for me. Otherwise I would be grouchy. It was the absolute perfect weather. The views are stunning. This day trip is not wildlife focused unlike others. But we still saw penguins, turtles, and sea lions. The afternoon of the day trip is usually spent snorkeling at Sullivan Bay or Chinese Hat, depending on your itinerary.See more..
4.5Santa Cruz Island(141 reviews) - Nice, Modest Nightlife Spent More than 3 hours Islands
Santa Cruz is the most lively island of the three I visited (the others being San Cristóbal and Isabela Island). This isn't the one to visit if you solely come for exotic animals, though. Sure, there are sealions, crabs and big turtles (the latter at a 30 minute drive from Puerto Ayora), but I mostly liked it for its modest nightlife.See more..
4.5Santa Fe Island(93 reviews) - Amazingly Cordial Sea Lions Spent 2-3 hours Islands • Nature & Wildlife Areas
A great island to interact with sea lions on the beach. You are not permitted to touch them or approach them closer than six feet, but sit calmly and watch how closely they approach you! It is an incredible interactive experience. The adult sea lions may give you nothing more than a casual glance and you want to keep a distance from territorial bulls, but the juveniles and pups will delight in your presence and welcome you with open flippers. You too will delight as they gambol toward you as fast as there undulating bodies permit. We also spotted a hammerhead shark hunting in the bay fronted by the sea lion beach. Snorkeling is so so.See more..
5.0Isabela Island(92 reviews) - No where else like it on earth! Spent More than 3 hours Islands
We came here through Lindblad Expeditions and it was an incredible experience! To see the sea lions on the beach, the unique birds in the trees and in the air, and the land and sea iguanas, really makes you realize that this is one of the few places that man has not destroyed. These animals rule this place and WE are the visitors. I'm glad the islands are a national park and there are limits as to how many people can visit in a day and how long they can stay. Nothing in my life compared to this experience, and I have traveled the world!See more..
4.5Isla Lobos(86 reviews) - A great way to start your trip! Islands
This was the first place I toured while in the Galapagos. This was a great way to start after two days of travel. The hike is easy (though uneven in many spots) and there is a large variety of wildlife. The island isn't very large, so most tours have you hop into the water at the far end of the island and then snorkel back. There was some really cool marine life to see there, and there were some boobies diving for fish near us.See more..
Wolf and Darwin Islands, sometimes called Wenman and Culpepper, are two eroded volcanos located on a volcanic ridge.See more..
5.0Punta Suarez(43 reviews) - definitely one of my favorite places in the Galapagos! Spent 2-3 hours Islands • Nature & Wildlife Areas • Geologic Formations
Came here October 2017 with Guiding Galapagos and Espanola may just be my favorite place in the Galapagos. It is so interesting and all the unique wildlife, specifically the albatross, is just amazing to see. We took about a one hour speed boat ride from San Cristobal after wiping our feet before even getting on our boat to not contaminate Espanola. Our naturalist guide walked with us for about 2 hours and talked to us about the island and the animals. We saw sea lions pretty close to us and tons of marine iguanas, lava lizards, mockingbird, galapagos dove, nazca boobies, red bill tropicbird, albatross, galapagos hawk. We walked within feet of Nazca boobies because of where they were standing on the path. Saw albatross dance, baby albatross, some albatross out in the water, and one albatross even run and take off like a plane! There is also a neat blow hole here, but the landscape here is just amazing!See more..
4.5Elizabeth Bay(25 reviews) - A very pleasant panga ride Bodies of Water • Islands • Beaches
A slow trip in and out of the mangrove swamps of Isabela Island. Several different endemic bird species, green sea turtles and penguins. Two turtles were seen clinging to the mangrove roots taking a break, while others swam by. The water is murky, but the sea life that stays near the surface is visible. Marine iguanas dot the rocky areas. No matter where you go in the Galapagos, you will be amazed and enlightened. This only one of the unique areas.See more..
5.0Santiago Island(21 reviews) - Caleta Bucanero Santiago Island Islands
We did a zodiac tour along the coastline and the cove. We also saw the monk. Plenty of birds, sea lions ao. Beautifull placeSee more..
This area is not especially pretty but there is wildlife to be seen, most notably you may be lucky-enough to see wild tortoisesSee more..
5.0Rabida Island(17 reviews) - Red beach is the star not the snorkeling Spent 1-2 hours Islands
The red beach is an interesting feature to this island and I was looking forward to the snorkeling but didn't see as much. There were a couple of sea lions that seemed to want to "play" though, which was nice but they got bored of us very quickly. Other islands have more "wild life" also.See more..
The Pahoehoe Dive Shop recommended we snorkel there for best chances to see hammerheads and let me assure you that this island does not disappoint! Upon arrival we could see frigates, bookies, penguins, sea lions, paradise birds and wishing 3 minutes of jumping into the water with out snorkelling gear, we saw 5 hammerheads, 6+ manta rays, schools of yellow tail surgeonfishes, schools of eagle rays... So much to see there!! While I do not recommend going there as a beginner snorkeler, I definitely do recommend it for all intermediate to advanced ones! A MUST SEE with PAHOEHOE!!See more..
