Galapagos cruise options, tailor made

country:	Ecuador, Galapagos Islands
location:	Galapagos Islands
departures:	This tailor made trip has a variety of options and can be arranged on a budget and at a time to suit you and adapted to your requirements as necessary.
price:	From £920 (8 days) excluding flights, based on sharing a twin cabin. We can arrange flights from the UK. In order for us to put together a detailed response it would be very helpful if you could provide full details in your enquiry

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Cruises to the Galapagos

the amazing things you'll be doing

A visit to the Galapagos is one of the world's greatest wildlife experiences. It is a unique environment, an archipelago right on the equator, 600 miles west of the Ecuadorian coast, where a remarkable range of life exists with absolutely no fear of man.

Some of the famed inhabitants of the islands include the blue-footed boobies, frigate birds, flightless cormorants, the Galapagos Waved Albatross, sea lions and fur seals, land iguanas and marine iguanas (the only sea-going lizard in the world), and of course the giant Galapagos tortoise. The islands are all very different and they each have specific landing sites and visitor sites. The nature trails are carefully marked out to avoid disrupting the wildlife, and we follow these accompanied by our expert on-board naturalist guide. Exact itineraries depend on the yacht you choose (see below), but as well as the land trails, you will also have an opportunity to go swimming and snorkelling, perhaps even being joined by sea lions!

Diving is available on some yachts. Much of the longer distances are covered at night, ensuring that your time visiting the islands is put to the best use.

tailormade options

Day to day itineraries vary from yacht to yacht and can be tailormade according to your requirements. Yachts available include:

Tourist

Samba (14-passenger motor yacht)

Guantanamera (16-passenger motor yacht)

Floreana (16-passenger motor yacht)

Superior Tourist

Cachalote (16-passenger motor sailer)

Nemo I and II (12 and 14 passenger catamarans)

Prestige

Eric/Flamingo/Letty (20 passenger motor yacht)

Beluga (16-passenger motor yacht)

Diamante (12-passenger motor sailer)

Mary Anne (16-passenger motor sailer)

Sea Man II (16-passenger catamaran)

Luxury

Alta (16-passenger motor sailer)

Parranda (16-passenger motor yacht)

Lammer Law (16-passenger tri-maran)

Evolution (32-passenger expedition ship)

A sample itinerary for a Galapagos cruise on Cachalote is listed below.

day-by-day itinerary

Day 1:	Fly from Quito into Baltra. Visit North Seymour.
Day 2:	Santa Cruz: Darwin Station and Highlands.
Day 3:	Espanola: Punta Suarez and Gardner Bay
Day 4:	Floreana: Post Office Bay and Punta Cormorant.
Day 5:	Isabela: Punta Moreno and Urbina Bay
Day 6:	Fernandina: Punta Espinoza. Isabela: Urbina Bay
Day 7:	Santiago: Puerto Egas and Bartolome
Day 8:	Santa Cruz: Turtle Cove and Baltra. Fly back to Quito in the afternoon.

travellers' tales

It was a privilege to be in this unique place, and so close to its wildlife, which was both beautiful and bizarre. Among the highlights would have to be: swimming with sealions diving and twirling around us; watching the stately cross-eyed dance of the blue-footed boobies; avoiding the salty sneezes of the marine iguanas... (more)

tailor made holidays

This trip can be tailormade to create a unique holiday for your individual requirements by travel experts with intimate knowledge of the destination. It is a more luxurious trip that will suit those who enjoy immersing themselves in new cultures and environments before relaxing in comfort. As this trip can be tailormade it would be helpful if you could you provide the following information: rough budget per person (stating with or without flights), your address and postcode, contact phone number, preferred date of travel, length of trip, number of passengers, preferred countries and areas within those countries, specific interests & type of accommodation.

highly commended

This tourism business was Highly Commended in our 2007 Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Awards - the largest awards of their kind in the world, and organised by responsibletravel.com in association with The Times, World Travel Market and Geographical Magazine, of the Royal Geographical Society.

Since 2004, the Awards has recognised individuals, companies and organisations in travel making a big commitment to the culture and economies of local communities and helping to conserve biodiversity.

how this holiday makes a difference

The Galapagos Islands are a very fragile and unique environment. It is a strange concept but were it not for the value of tourism in this area the islands would undoubtedly have been allowed to be plundered and destroyed decades ago.

By supporting responsible tourism in this sensitive area we are actively contributing to the massive conservation task. There is a National Parks tax of $100 per person which goes directly to the islands conservation initiatives. But most importantly, we work with a number of boats that are Ecuadorian owned and whose owners can demonstrate a positive ecological and social responsibility policy. This encompasses the broader issues of the human population on the islands as well as the more obvious wildlife conservation.

We were voted most responsible tour operator by UK NGO Tourism Concern. On average 75% of the cost of your trip with us - excluding flights - remains in the destination.

Flights are automatically carbon offset through The Travel Forest, which plants 10 indigenous trees on your behalf (currently in northern Tanzania). Whilst the primary motivation for planting the trees is to offset carbon emissions, the project also works as a poverty alleviation and environmental improvement scheme.

Tourism can be good and bad for destinations & local people.

We carefully screen every holiday against our criteria for responsible travel.

'Look behind the brochure' to find how each holiday makes a difference (see left).

We don't claim to be perfect - there is no global accreditation - but we've led the way since 2001 and screened 1000's of holidays.

We invite every traveller to write a review about their experiences and responsible tourism.

This valuable feedback is sent to the people who run the holidays. We keep a very close eye on it and take off holidays that don't live up to our standards.