Galapagos Islands Small Group Tours

Reviews of Small Group tours to Galapagos Islands

• KerryTraveled in April

  5

  Adventure Journeys is a great company to trust with your travel experience. We broke the seal on the lock down culture surrounding Covid, and were the first folks back on the trail in a year! Because Ecuador is just opening up, now is a great time to get the extra value of a personal bevvy of guides. We often had just my son and myself with a naturalist all to ourselves. I was most impressed by the care of the Adventure Journey team that was evident, yet unseen. For example, going to Kicker Rock to snorkel. They could have hired a cheaper boat for us that would have taken 1. 5 hours just to get there. However, they gladly hired a speedy boat that whizzed us out for more time snorkeling, less time riding. Another example of attention to detail, was when it was quite hot, and they didn't want us to walk back to the entrance of the Charles Darwin Center to meet our taxi without refreshment. So, they bought us some fruit slushies to "fortify" us for the walk. The details count, although you might not see them getting them ready. The guides really care about sharing the people, animals, culture, and geography with you. I had no idea of all the micro climates caused by various currents, underwater features and winds. It was fascinating. Each micro climate engendered its own adaptations of species. Meeting people while you travel is the best part, and we enjoyed sharing our stories of our lives in the United States, as well as getting to know about the families of the guides. I am the type that asks a lot of questions, from how is your car insurance here, to does your family enjoy scouting, to what are your favorite Christmas traditions, to what is your grandmother's favorite saying. I love the connections of people to people. That's what make the world grander. Here is another example of my guides extra care. When snorkeling at Kicker Rock, I was not comfortable just jumping into the ocean, so they gladly lowered a ladder, so I could immerse myself slowly. Then, they helped me on with my fins and mask, along with a little floaty, and I was good to go. We saw sharks, turtles, beautiful fish and a wall of rock just teaming with colorful life of the sea. I could have looked at that for hours. So cool. We stayed an extra day after Galapagos to tour Quito with a guide and visit the Equator line. It was so fun going up into the catwalk above the vaults in the church and doing gravity experiments on the line of the Equator. Amazing stuff, that science! I highly encourage you to go explore with Adventure Journeys. They will take excellent care of you. Ecuador if vaccinating the tour guides in Galapagos (after first responders), so that tourists will be welcomed safely back. I had no worries. I hope you will go and explore.

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  Galapagos Essentials
• LeeJoinerTraveled in May

  4.5

  Adventure Journeys is a very professional tour operator. All of our guides were excellent and did there best to please us. The hotel in Quito is definitely five star. Make sure that you ask to be placed in the second tower as the rooms are of nicer quality and they have air conditioning (on the chance that Quito is not cool). The accomodations on the islands are nice but your experiences can vary depending on the rooms you are assigned. They vary in size and views. Most are small hotels so there aren’t a lot of choices to go around if you are in a large group. We stayed on San Cristobal, Isabela, and Santa Cruz. Arianna was our tour guide on San Cristobal. Knowledgeable and very helpful. I especially enjoyed the Kicker Rock excursion. They take you to a beautiful beach that you get to explore for about an hour an a half and then you go snorkeling around Kicker Rock for a couple of times for a total of about 1 1/2 hr. The snorkeling was amazing as you see much wildlife (sharks, turtles, sea lions, rays, lots of fish and one side of the rock is beautiful). My favorite snorkeling experience on Galapagos. It was nice to take the inter island flight to Isabela and save us a 4 hr boat ride. Los Túneles was snorkeling was fun as we saw sharks, lots of turtles and sea horses. Definitely was enjoyable swimming with the turtles. Water could have been clearer. The highlight was walking on the islands and getting up close and personal with the blue footed boobies! Guess it should be mentioned that we went in mid April as conditions change as do the animals. Wetsuits were provided but nowhere was the water overly cool. We also saw some penguins on this excursion. The walk through the marsh was great for the flamingos and other birds. Also, enjoyed the bike ride on Isabela to the Wall of Tears. Nice little hike for a 360 view to a lookout point and later a short walk through the mangroves. It was cool running into the tortoises in the wild as well. We had a rainy and cloudy walk to the crater. It would have been cool to see it without the clouds, but this was the only weather problem we encountered. The kayaking at Las Tintoreras was more swimming with turtles and penguins. We literally were swimming with the penguins here. It is nice as all the animals on the Galapagos aren’t afraid of people, so you’re pics and experiences are all magnified. There is a two hour boat ride from Isabela to Santa Cruz. Sit up top with the captain and miss out on the vomit fest downstairs with everyone else. On Santa Cruz, the highlights were the Charles Darwin Center and the Tortoise Reserve. Once again at the reserve, you can see the giant tortoises up close in the wild. Very cool. Not to be left out was kudos for our guide on Isabela and Santa Cruz, Maritza. She was great the whole time and a treasure trove of information. AJ has great guides! Christian, one of the owners (I think) took us and picked us up at the airport in Quito. On the way back, we asked about street food and he asked us if we’d like to go to La Floresta and try the local street food. Great idea and great experience! Super experience and great tour company!

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  Galapagos Multisport
• PaulTraveled in November

  4

  A trip to The Galapagos is always going to be amazing because of the wonderful things you see! However, could this tour have been better? The answer is yes. The activities were great but a couple of the tour guides made the them less enjoyable. One of the tours had a guide called Billy, who didnt say much in English despite the fact he could speak English and it was an English speaking tour. We felt excludes from a lot om this particular tour and didnt really know where we were going or what we were doing! And one of our final guides was great at English but his style was to ask you questions that you didnt know the answer to, rather than actually inform you and share knowledge. Some of the guides in between were fantastic! In regards to the organisation from the hotel and the staff/drivers at Galapagos Dreams... The girls on the reception were great, always helpful and friendly. The guys organising it werent as good unfortunately. I think the general thing I would say is that for most people, a visit to the Galapagos is a once in a lifetime trip, and the organisers and staff could consider that more. They lack the customer service element and the enthusiasm that is generally expected in the tourism industry. That been said, this was one of the cheaper tours we saw so if we had paid more we may have got a higher level of service.

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  Magical Galapagos (5 Days)