Galápagos Islands

Galapagos is a lifetime experience. To get the most out of it, don't book a tour every day. Leave at least one day free to get to know the local beaches and people a little bit better. The tours consume a lot of energy and time and, although they are worth it, they prevent you from digging a little bit deeper into the local culture. Make sure to eat where the locals eat. The food will be tasty and not as expensive and you will get the experience of sharing a meal with people from the islands. When going from one Island to another, make sure that you take one of the sea sickness pills. The ride is very bumpy and the boat tilts and rolls quite a lot. If you are not used to this kind of motion, you will get nausea. If you have never snorkeled, I recommend you practice at your local pool before trying it for the first time during the tour. Don't underestimate the mechanics of breathing through the tube. Finally, since for most people this is a once in a lifetime experience, I recommend bringing good photographic equipment. You should have at least one good underwater camera and a relatively portable camera where you can exchange lenses. I do not recommend bringing large cameras. They will weigh you down on the long walks and they will be a constant source of worry given the sand and water. In short, just enjoy the wonderful experience of the Galapago Islands.

Incredible trip of a lifetime! We did a 8 day cruise then spent additional time in Santa Cruz, next more time in San Cristobal arriving by speed boat ferri, leaving by plane. The few thing we missed on our cruise we took guided day trips and nearly seen everything. Lots of options for self guided hikes, sites to see or plenty of beaches to lay at or snorkel playing with the sea lions and other wildlife. If have the opportunity this is a must destination.

The fascinating animals there are so awesome! There were so many marine life! there was birds of all types some that dive and some that fly! I love this place so much (＾▽＾)

I cannot put into words how amazing this place is. Everyone needs to see here before they can't anymore. Animal, amazing. People, amazing. Experiences, amazing

Trip of a lifetime!!! Spent seven days on a liveaboard dive ship with the Aggressor fleet, which was also highly recommended by serious dive friends (over 5k dives each). Some of the most incredible dives that I've done and would go back in a heartbeat!! However, you absolutely need to book very much in advance!

The folks complaining that it's expensive, or that there are too many rules & regulations are ridiculous. There is a very clear reason why they're put in place, and maybe that's a good thing to deter certain tourists that expect the island to be like an all-inclusive resort with endless entertainment.

Respect the sanctity of the islands and its people! This is a UNESCO World Heritage Site with one of the most protected, brilliant, and remote ecosystems in the world. If you come, do your research, and you'll find the nature unique and impressive. If not, well, that's all the better for us "nature freaks"!

This is a trip of a lifetime and I would not hesitate to come back.

Wow, the most beautiful place on earth, giant tortoises wandering the streets, visit the Charles Darwin sanctury, there are amazing guides, the one we had called the birds to us and sang to the tortoises so they raised their heads to us, just magical, the sea lions just hop out of the sea and hop on the street benches. Very beautiful

Galapagos turtle 🐢 are the best thing present here. This island create by volcanoes. This is a UNESCO's site. Nice beauty present. One day i will come here definitely.

I am impressed very much.
After reading an interview of
R Rosemary Grunt (Senior Research Biologist) I wanted to see the enchanting views of this Islands.
Google helped me
I am very much thankful and appreciate google for its noble work
JAI KRISHNA+GVN

Other than the travel to get there; I t’s a beautiful place, with wonderful people, amazing sites and experiences.

They them love here

The most exotic place I been there… amazing experience !

The Galápagos Islands is a majestic and mesmerizing natural wonder.

We traveled with Tauck Tours. We could not have made is finer choice.

Tauck is just fantastic at every element and every detail. And the people on this trip are just so kind and sweet and thoughtful and caring.

The Galápagos Islands Expedition was the most involving and fascinating trip of my life. So amazing in every way. And not one cathedral, castle, or chateau!

There are no words or photos or videos that could even provide a small dose of the actual experience. I do recommend the BBC documentary with Sir David Attenborough to get a sense of the beauty and diversity of the islands.

Now on to Costa Rica. We should arrive in San Jose around 4 then be driven to Gaia. Back home on 17 February.
💙❤

Beautiful lots of nice people and wildlife🤩😍🌸🌺🌵🪸🪻🦋🐬👵🏽👧🏾👩🏽👦🏾👨🏽‍🦳

One of the most beautiful and unique places on earth with diverse animals and terrain.

The Galápagos Islands  are an archipelago of volcanic islands. They are distributed on each side of the equator in the Pacific Ocean, surrounding the centre of the Western Hemisphere, and are part of the Republic of Ecuador. Located 906 km (563 mi) west of continental Ecuador, the islands are known for their large number of endemic species that were studied by Charles Darwin during the second voyage of HMS Beagle. His observations and collections contributed to the inception of Darwin's theory of evolution by means of natural selection.
The Galápagos Islands and their surrounding waters form the Galápagos Province of Ecuador, the Galápagos National Park, and the Galápagos Marine Reserve. The principal language on the islands is Spanish. The islands have a population of slightly over 25,000.

The first recorded visit to the islands happened by chance in 1535, when Fray Tomás de Berlanga, the Bishop of Panamá, was surprised to find this undiscovered land on a voyage to Peru to arbitrate in a dispute between Francisco Pizarro and Diego de Almagro.  Berlanga eventually returned to the Spanish Empire and described the conditions of the islands and the animals that inhabited them. The group of islands was shown and named "Insulae de los Galopegos" (Islands of the tortoises) in Abraham Ortelius's map "America Sive Novi Orbis" published in 1570.  The first crude map of the islands was made in 1684 by the buccaneer Ambrose Cowley, who named the individual islands after some of his fellow pirates or after English royalty and noblemen. These names were used in the authoritative navigation charts of the islands prepared during the Beagle survey under captain Robert FitzRoy, and in Darwin's popular book The Voyage of the Beagle. The newly independent Republic of Ecuador took the islands from Spanish ownership in 1832, and subsequently gave them new Spanish names. The older names remained in use in English-language publications, including Herman Melville's The Encantadas of 1854. Administratively, Galapagos constitutes one of the provinces of Ecuador, made up of three cantons that bear the names of its most populated islands, namely: San Cristóbal, Santa Cruz and Isabela.

One of the last nearly untouched places in the world to view nature at its finest. I wish I could have stayed for a much longer time. I hope to visit again someday.

I sincerely don't know what to say coz I am greatly interested in Historical information.👍 Reading something of long ago is my interest.

I was studying biology, had seen the species of finch bird of Charles Robert Darwin and analyzed it, even then it came to see the island.😊😊

This place is amazing, I went few years ago but I can't wait to go back the food is so fresh the people are very honest and frendly, the animals,😀 I love the experience to be to closed to then