Has anyone visited the Galapagos Islands? Just beginning to explore the idea and I’m a little overwhelmed! Everything I see is crazy-expensive, but this place is definitely on my bucket list and don’t want to wait until I’m too old to go!
Sounds like basically you have to do a cruise - but there’s a large variety of cruise “types”. We’re veteran cruises, but wouldn’t mind trying a small ship this time!
There would be 4 of us - early to mid 50s. All reasonably fit. Appreciate any tips.
Are you fluent in Spanish? It can be considerably less expensive to book through an Ecuadoran-based tour provider than a US-based one.
Disney Vacations used to ( and possibly still do) have trips to Galapogos Islands.
My sister and her family are going with Lindblad/National Geographic next February. Expensive, yes, but the trip looks amazing.
We did the Galapogos with Lindblad several years ago. It was a wonderful experience. Lindblad does have “deals”, once in a while on some of their cruises. They might throw in the airfare, or let a child go for free with a paying adult.
We went on Nemo 2 three years ago. IIRC, there are essentially two itineraries (controlled by the government) and 4 classes of boats/luxury. Once you pick an itinerary, look at the different boats that offer that itinerary during the time period you’re available. The prices do vary significantly between the four levels so it may be fairly easy to narrow down your options. Once you’re down to a few, you can search for reviews on those particular boats/cruises. That’s the process we went through. I think we had about 6 options. The Galapagos are amazing–go for it!
We went on a medium sized boat through Metropolitan Tours, the Pinta It was fabulous!
There are large, medium, and small sized boats, for groups of 100plus, fiftyish, and twenty-six. Pluses and minuses to all. Big boats have better food and you are less likely to be seasick and more likely to find people to hang out with between tours. Small boats you feel less like an invading force, spend less time on logistics getting on and off the boats, but are more likely to have meh food and be seasick. Medium is in between.
There are also different price points. We chose a luxury boat because we are spoiled. If you have the nerves to wait until you get to Ecuador to book, you can pick up some great deals at the last minute.
I agree with collage1; pick your itinerary and price, then start reading reviews.