5-Day Luxury Galapagos

Day-by-Day Itinerary

• DAY 1 BALTRA – SANTA CRUZ
  

  This is the first day of your luxury Galapagos tour. At the Baltra Airport (GPS), you meet up with our English-speaking guide who will take you to the highlands of Santa Cruz. If you arrive before 02:00 PM, you have lunch in the highlands. If you arrive later, you will only visit the highlands. In the highlands, you visit a privately owned farm where you will find the giant tortoises. The Galapagos giant tortoise (Chelonoidis nigra) is the largest living tortoise species, weighing up to 250 kg (550 lb). After this visit, you will be dropped off at your hotel, where you can rest.

  • Activity:Exploring. Hiking. Wildlife Watching.
  • Transport:Boat, Bus, Car.
  • Meal:Lunch.
  • Accommodation:Finch Bay Hotel or similar.
• DAY 2 DAY TOUR TO UNINHABITED ISLAND (BARTOLOME, NORTH SEYMOUR, SOUTH PLAZA OR SANTA FE)
  

  Today you will go by boat to one of the islands around Santa Cruz. Depending on the availability, you go to either North Seymour, Bartolome, South Plazas, or Santa Fe. After breakfast, you leave the island on a beautiful small yacht. Depending on the islands, it is 20 minutes – 2 hours to navigate to get there. Lunch is served on board.

  North Seymour was lifted from the ocean floor by a seismic event, and its origins as a seabed give the island its low, flat profile. Cliffs are only a few meters high from the shoreline, where swallow-tailed gulls sit among the ledges and rocks. Usually, you find the frigate birds. Sometimes you are even lucky to find a frigate bird with their beautifully colored, inflated red sack.

  Bartolome is famous for Pinnacle Rock, a towering spearheaded obelisk that rises from the ocean’s edge and is the best-known landmark in the islands. Galapagos penguins—the only species of penguin found north of the equator—walk precariously along narrow volcanic ledges at its base. There is a chance that you will see white-tip and black-tip sharks resting in the shallow waters around the beaches of Bartolome. Upon arrival at the island, you will climb up the stairs to go to the viewpoint where you have the best views of Bartolome.

  South Plaza is a small island full of fascinating wildlife, both along its shore and along its dramatic, wind-swept cliffs: sea lions, land iguanas, swallow-tailed gulls, Opuntia cacti, and vegetation that changes colors according to the season. South Plaza is one of the Galapagos’ most impressive visiting sites.

  Santa Fe offers one of the most beautiful and sheltered coves on the islands. Its turquoise lagoon is protected by a peninsula of tiny islets forming an ideal anchorage. The island lies to the southeast of Santa Cruz within sight of Puerto Ayora. Like North Seymour, Santa Fe has been uplifted seismically, and you can see underwater lava formations.

  • Activity:Exploring. Wildlife Watching.
  • Transport:Boat.
  • Meal:Breakfast. Box-Lunch.
  • Accommodation:Finch Bay Hotel or similar.
• DAY 3 TORTUGA BAY – ISABELA
  

  Today you visit one of the most beautiful beaches of the Galapagos Islands. The walk from Puerto Ayora village takes about 25 minutes. This white sand and turquoise water beach is ideal for having a quiet beach day, renting some kayaks, and seeing groups of marine iguanas that regulate their temperature on the rocks and sand. Take enough water and some snacks, since there is no place to buy food or water. In the afternoon, you take a plane to Isabela.

  • Activity:Exploring. Hiking. Snorkeling. Wildlife Watching.
  • Transport:Plane.
  • Meal:Breakfast.
  • Accommodation:Iguana Crossing or similar.
• DAY 4 LOS TÚNELES
  

  At 11:00 AM you will go by boat to Los Túneles. Los Túneles is considered the most beautiful place to do snorkeling activities in Isabela. Here you will find various marine species and beautiful flora and vegetation. You will go on an exciting snorkeling activity inside an area with an extension of 800 meters and an average temperature of 20 °C. There are large quantities of seabirds such as flamingos, blue-footed boobies, and the magnificent frigatebird. Also, you can find species such as tortoises, sea lions, manta rays, Galapagos penguins, sea snakes, and white-tipped sharks.

  • Activity:Exploring. Snorkeling. Wildlife Watching.
  • Transport:Boat.
  • Meal:Breakfast. Snack.
  • Accommodation:Iguana Crossing or similar.
• DAY 5 TRANSFER OUT TO BALTRA AIRPORT
  

  This is the last day of your 5-Day Luxury Galapagos Tour. After breakfast, you take a short transfer to Isabela Airport (5 min), from where you take a small airplane (capacity of 9 people) to Baltra Airport. The flight time is about 40 minutes. The tour will end upon arrival at Baltra Airport.

  • Transport:Airplane, Car.
  • Meal:Breakfast.