Budget
What a trip costs
Fixed fees, flights, ferries, day tour bands per island, and a worked seven-day total.
Galapagos Planning Guides
These guides cover the practical side of a Galapagos trip: the national park entry fee, the Transit Control Card, and what a certified naturalist guide is required for at protected sites. You will also find help choosing between day tours from Santa Cruz, San Cristobal, and Isabela, plus comparisons of island-hopping itineraries from four to nine days. Read the one that matches your dates before booking.
Planning
Timing
Best time to go
Two seasons, two very different trips. Sea temperatures, wildlife by month, and when not to go.
Compare
Cruise vs land-based
The site's central question, argued honestly with the official 2025 split.
How many days
Half-days, ferry days and what four, five, seven or ten nights really buys you.
Where to stay
Which island to stay on
Santa Cruz, San Cristóbal and Isabela compared as bases, plus how to split a week.
Itinerary planning
Day-by-day 5, 7 and 10-day plans built on real tours, and the ferry maths behind them.
Sustainability
Galapagos eco tours
Why the eco label means less than you think here, and the four things that actually separate operators.
Wildlife
Galapagos wildlife tours
Every headline species paired with where it lives, the months it appears, and the day tour that realistically reaches it.
Logistics
Island hopping
The ferry network, the routes that do not exist, luggage on the lanchas, and how the cost stacks up against a cruise.
Questions
Packing
What to Pack
The full list, plus the items the biosecurity inspection will take off you at the airport.
Logistics
Entry Rules & Flights
Park fee, transit card, airports, airlines, the biosecurity check and the ferries between islands.
Families
Galapagos with kids
Fees, tour suitability by age, seasickness, the 2 metre rule, and what to do instead of a long boat day.
Accessibility
Galapagos for seniors
Wet landings, panga transfers, swell and trail difficulty, plus the tours that are genuinely gentle.
Accommodation
Where to stay
The three port towns compared on price, atmosphere, pier distance and the day tours each one puts within reach.
Diving
Galapagos diving
What is genuinely divable on a day trip, what needs a liveaboard, and the certification and temperature realities behind both.