There are tons of articles that show you how to do the Galapagos Islands on a budget and we all know that the sky’s the limit when it comes to luxurious vacations. On my first trip to the Galapagos in 2016, I did the cheap-as-chips island hopping route and decided to go back again in 2023 to see a different side of the island.
I didn’t know anyone who had combined island hopping and a cruise into the same trip so was a little unsure of how to best organize everything. Luckily, after a lot of searching, I was able to find a cruise that worked with our dates, and that made it possible to also visit all three major islands. Hopefully, this blog post will help you through some of the more challenging aspects of planning that I faced!
Our Galapagos Budget
Before I go any further, I am going to break down the costs of the trip. This way, you know in advance which parts are doable for you!
$1275 plus credit card fees – 4-day Galapagos Cruise on the Angelito booked via Galapagos Last Minutes
$110 – Tunnels tour
$160 – San Cristobal 360 tour
$90 – 3 ferry tickets between islands
$120 – park entry fee and entry tax
$35 – 100 – hotel costs per night*
What is accommodation like in the Galapagos?
Our hotel budget varied wildly simply due to the accessibility of the internet. As of April 1, 2023, the islands were supposed to have Starlink. Unfortunately, we only found one hotel (The Flamingo Hotel in Santa Cruz) that had it. I would normally never spend $100 per night on a hotel unless absolutely necessary and this was unfortunately one of those situations.
We also found that a lot of the budget accommodation options were in hotels that had open “courtyards” where the room windows would have into a common room or a hallway. This meant that light was constantly shining into your room and that it was very, very loud. These rooms were generally running around $40 per night. The upscale hotel rooms were around $500 and there was nothing really in between. This made working even more challenging due to the running battle with actually being able to get enough sleep.
Can you work remotely in the Galapagos?
That depends. The internet overall was pretty bad. I have been a full-time digital nomad for a few years and have been able to work remotely in some pretty far-flung places including Namibia, Sudan, Easter Island (kind of), and Uzbekistan. The Galapagos was one of the most frustrating experiences though which should give you some perspective!
In Isabella, it was barely functional during peak hours, even when using a SIM card. In Santa Cruz, it was much better because the place I stayed had Starlink. However, we searched high and low to find it and paid a premium for it. Overall, SIM data was also quite a bit stronger although that could even be patchy at times. I was able to get the fastest data speeds in a small harbor near the airport where my cruise boat dropped anchor for the night before dropping us off at the end of the cruise.
On San Cristobal, it was a bit of a mixed bag. At times, the internet was very fast and I was able to get a ton of writing work done. I was even able to join a few work calls. The connection wasn’t perfect but it was okay. At other times, my phone would barely work.
The good thing was that data in Ecuador is relatively cheap so even though I relied on my phone quite heavily as a hotspot, I used less than $8 in data for the entire 10 days that I was there. I bought my SIM card at a small phone shop in Isabela and didn’t need to top it up again while I was in the Galapagos.
Would I try it again?
Unless I was staying the entire time in a hotel that had Starlink, absolutely not. It is simply not worth the stress. It was also really difficult to enjoy the time that I had to spend there since I was constantly worrying about work and internet speeds.
Was the Galapagos cruise worth it?
Yes and no. I am happy that I did the cruise since everything has gotten a lot more crowded over the years and it was much more enjoyable than island hopping. The cruise was expensive but it felt like we got to experience the islands away from the hordes of people on day trips. We also got to land on some of the smaller islands that day trips aren’t able to visit. If I ever go back to the Galapagos, I would probably do another combined trip where you island hop and cruise.
Our 10 Day Itinerary
We flew into Santa Cruz from Guayaquil. When you arrive at the airport, you need to take the shuttle bus to a ferry that takes you across the channel to another bus that will take you all the way to downtown Santa Cruz. Altogether, it costs around $11 to get downtown. When we arrived, we immediately took a ferry to Isabella. The ferries only leave twice a day (7 am and 3 pm) and we had about an hour to kill so grabbed a quick lunch.
ISABELLA
Isabella is the biggest island in the Galapagos and is a popular spot on the island hopping trail. The main attraction here is the Tunnels tour which takes you around the corner of the island to a unique landscape of volcanic lava that hardened to form dramatic tunnels. This was an amazing experience where we got to swim amongst enormous sea turtles and through a short stretch of open water teeming with baby sharks. Although the water was a little bit murky, it only made the experience feel more magical as it almost felt like these amazing marine animals were popping up out of nowhere.
The other major attraction in Isabella is the Wall of Tears which you can reach via an hour-long bike ride. This was a nice ride without any really big hills. However, always double-check the bike that you are renting before you leave town. I thought mine was fine and it wasn’t until the first big hill that I realized that one of my brakes was stuck which was making it much harder to pedal!
The town of Isabela was a little more built up than I remember with a ton of accommodation options to suit pretty much every budget. There was also a local craft brewery there that had been set up a few years before. We headed over there one night to check it out. Although the beer wasn’t terrible, they may still need a bit more time to tweak it a bit!
Island Cruise Departing from Santa Cruz
After spending a few days exploring Isabela, we took a ferry back over to Santa Cruz. This is basically the central hub of the Galapagos so it is more than likely that everyone will find themselves passing through there at least once during their Galapagos vacation.
Since my first trip to the Galapagos was spent island hopping, I really want to do an island cruise during my second trip there. Although many of the cruises were painfully expensive, we managed to find one that “only” cost around $1400 for 4 days / 3 nights. In the end, it was around 72 hours in total but it gave us a really good taste of what the longer Galapagos island cruises would be like.
Day 1
Our boat was the 16-passenger Angelito, guided by Maja, a 67-year-old Swiss woman who had been guiding in the Galapagos for 35 years. Our cruise started from the main port town of Santa Cruz. From here, we headed overland to the Highlands to see land tortoises at a local farm. These tortoises were migrating through this open island and everywhere you looked, you could see their domed shells peaking up from the green grass.
We headed back to the boat for the evening. After dinner, we stood on the back of the boat watching a dozen baby black-tipped reef sharks prowling the harbor. It was an awe-inspiring experience seeing them swim so closely to not only our boat but all of the ones surrounding us, including the small dinghies that were zipping through the harbor.
That night, we left the shelter of Santa Cruz and started making our way to Espanola. To call it a rough night is definitely an understatement and I was awake most of the night worrying that our cabin was going to break off the side of the boat and send us floating off into the dark Pacific Ocean. To add insult to injury, something I ate didn’t agree with me and I had to make frequent trips back and forth to the bathroom. On rough seas. With the toilet water splashing back up at me. It was a pretty miserable way to finish off the first night and by the next morning, I was definitely feeling a bit worse for wear!
Day 2
The next day, we set off bright and early for a full day of activities. One of the best parts of the day was without a doubt swimming with seals while we were snorkeling in Espanola. We were making our way along an underwater cliff wall and down below us, we could see a seal continually pick up and drop a conch shell and then go chasing after it as it tumbled to the ocean floor. Seals are adorable pretty much all of the time but this really did take the cake!
In the afternoon, we did a short hike on the island itself to watch an enormous albatross take off and land. Although I knew of albatross before this, I had never seen them on land before and it was amazing watching these beautiful, powerful birds land so awkwardly! We also watched their mating dances which greatly resembled a drunk couple making out at a bar.
Another stop that day was Santa Fe. This small island is covered with land iguanas and fur seals and was basically exactly what you imagine when you think of the Galapagos Islands. As we made our way from island to island, frigate birds gilded above our boat. These uniquely shaped birds look like they belong in the background of a horror movie rather than the bright blue Galapagos sky.
The final stop that day was South Plaza Island. This tiny uplifted island is located off the coast of Santa Cruz and is famous for its red, yellow, and green vegetation that changes markedly as you walk uphill. You can see the Pacific Ocean in every direction and it is a strong reminder of just how small we all really are. This was one of my favorite stops on the cruise as it felt like we really got to explore the entire island, rather than just a tiny section of it like some of the larger islands.
Day 3
Our last stop on the tour was Black Turtle Cove, a mangrove area just off of Santa Cruz near the Baltra Airport. Here, we were able to watch sea turtles entering and leaving the mangroves as well as plenty of small sharks zooming through the waters below us. It was a lovely way to say goodbye to our cruise experience before we were transported back onto the mainland (and reality!)
We spent that night in Santa Cruz so that we could take advantage of the decent internet and spend a little more time exploring the island before taking off again the next morning.
San Cristobal
We finished off our trip to the Galapagos with a trip to San Cristobal. We weren’t quite sure what we wanted to do there and I wasn’t quite so keen on spending tons more money on activities. However, the one thing that we decided on doing was the 360 tour. As the name suggests, this one-day trip goes all the way around the edge of San Cristobal, making various stops along the way.
During the tour, we stopped for one hour snorkeling at Kicker Rock where we saw about a dozen sea turtles, a hammerhead shark, black tip sharks, and schools of fish with sea lions happily darting through them. We also got stung by a ton of jellyfish. Most of the people in the group were wearing wetsuits but I got to deal with the full force of it while wearing nothing but a bikini. While it certainly wasn’t pleasant, it was easy to swim through the discomfort of jellyfish stinging you while you were staring down at this whole world underneath you.
Next, we stopped at Sardine Beach where we were able to snorkel some more. There were tons of fish and some naughty sea lions who seemed to get a kick out of swimming as close to us as possible before careening in another direction and swimming away. We then had a quick lunch on the boat as sea lions barked and a massive pod of dolphins leaped out of the water in the distance. We made a few more quick stops for snorkeling before heading back to town where we were able to see a few more giant sea turtles and stingrays which was pretty amazing.
Closing Thoughts
While I really liked doing a combination of cruising and island hopping, I was a little disturbed by how crowded all of the day trips were and how built up and touristy the cities now seemed to be. When I was there in 2016, it felt like barely anyone knew that island hopping on a budget was possible. However, now, there were (what felt like) swarms of teenagers and college students roaming the streets. I really hope that the government is able to put some controls on the type of tourism that is allowed there before it causes some major issues on the habitats of these breathtaking animals.
If you want to read more about traveling through the Galapagos, make sure to check out an article I wrote for it on Let’s Roam, one of my freelance clients.
