When planning our trip, we also paid attention to the time of year as the sea is rougher at certain points.
FWIW I wore a seasickness patch as a preventive measure (which I do for any cruise) and had no issues.
Is it still the case that the government assigns itineraries (islands and date/time) to ensure wildlife isn’t overwhelmed and disturbed? I recall that when we went - literally ages ago, so this may have changed –, our itinerary was presented as “proposed” or “sample”. Every island ended up having something special about it, so we were happy with how it turned out, but it mighthavebeena tad differentfromwhat was in the literature.. But if you are picking your trip with something specific in mind, read the fine print to be sure you’ll see it or that your expectations are aligned.
Not sure exactly how they deal with cruises but there are definitely still limits on the number of people allowed in parks etc at any time, and you can only enter parks with an official guide. As a small family group we never had issues with those restrictions.
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According to ChapGPT, cruises can settle their itineraries in advance now. There are still caps, but it sounds like they no longer set them each week.
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I believe there is still some level of oversight. On our recent trip the timing of a few stops was changed a bit because the time assigned by the Galapagos Tourist Agency changed. We were on a large boat and we seemed to be the only group at each of our stops. We toured the islands in small groups (around 12 people) with an official Galapagos guide (who were born/raised on one of the islands). I think they are wise to do that.
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Revisiting this as we are thinking of a trip like this. Prefer a small boat, probably a catamaran, with a naturalist on board. Anyone have a company/tour group they like?
And how small are the boats??
@happy1 please message me info about the trip you took. It sounds like it was in a cruise ship (how large), and that at the stops, there were options for taking smaller boats to do whatever, or hike. Is that correct?
Largest ships allowed are 100 passengers.
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Yes..will PM you.
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We were on a large (100 guests max.) boat and did not research small boat/catamaran options. Sorry.
Has anyone done the catamarans that hold 16-24 or so? Please share
please message me too
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Did you get the PM? I may have messed up?
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Those of you who’ve done this, did you combine your Galapagos trip with Machu PIcchu?
We did not (for various reasons) but I have a couple of friends who did the extension and were happy.
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I have not done it, but if/when we do we will combine the 2
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I know of some who have combined while others didn’t. My sister said Galapagos involved snorkeling, which she was unfamiliar with but enjoyed once she got used to it.
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We snorkeled every day we were there. I had never had actual guided snorkeling before - more just dropping you at a spot and waiting in the boat. In Galapagos, our guide came snorkeling with us, routed us around in the water and pointed out things we would totally have missed - tiny seahorses, camouflaged octopus etc. of course, the giant turtles are pretty hard to miss!
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We were on a relatively small ship (20 cabins, 40 people) on a cruise with Tauck. The ocean can be somewhat rough, and I’m not sure I’d want to go island hopping in a catamaran.
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