Galapagos Entry Requirements: TCT, Fees & Documents (2026)

The most expensive mistake I see at Baltra has nothing to do with tours. It’s a family at the fee counter, sunburned already, holding a credit card at a window that only takes cash. There is no ATM on that side of the barrier. There is only a very long conversation.

The galapagos entry requirements come down to four checkpoints, and they happen in a fixed order: a passport valid at least six months, a $20 Transit Control Card bought on the mainland before you fly, a biosecurity declaration and luggage inspection at the mainland airport, and a $200 national park fee paid in cash when you land in the islands. Nothing is enforced at the last minute. Everything is enforced.

Galapagos Entry Requirements at a Glance: What You Pay, and Where

Four checkpoints, two airports, two separate payments. This is the table I wish someone had handed me the first time, because the order matters as much as the amounts — you cannot pay the park fee early, and you cannot buy the transit card once you have landed.

Checkpoint	Cost (2026)	Where	How you pay
Transit Control Card (TCT)	$20	Quito or Guayaquil airport, before check-in	Cash
Biosecurity declaration + bag inspection	Free	Online before your flight; inspection at the mainland airport	Nothing to pay — just time
National park entrance fee	$200 adults, $100 under 12	Baltra or San Cristobal airport, on arrival	Cash only
Passport and return ticket check	Free	Airline check-in on the mainland	Documents only

The full rate card — residents, CAN and Mercosur nationals, seniors, students — lives on my Galapagos National Park entrance fee page, which I keep aligned with the government resolution. And if you want those numbers folded into a whole trip budget instead, the Galapagos trip cost breakdown does that.

Local Reality Check: budget about $220 per adult in physical cash before you think about lunch. I have watched travelers assume the $200 fee was inside their tour price. As of 2026, no operator in the islands includes it — mine included. It is a government fee, collected by the Park, from you.

Documents Needed for Galapagos: The Short List

The documents needed for Galapagos are refreshingly few. There is no special permit, no invitation letter, no proof of vaccination as of 2026. What you actually need to have in hand:

• A passport valid at least six months beyond your arrival date. Not six months from booking — from arrival.
• Proof of a return or onward flight off the islands. Airlines check this at check-in, not immigration.
• Your Transit Control Card, collected at the mainland airport (more on that below).
• The biosecurity sworn declaration, completed online before you fly.
• Cash — $20 for the card, $200 for the park fee, in clean bills.
• Travel insurance that covers you offshore. Strongly advised rather than strictly checked.

That is it. If a website tells you that you need a printed itinerary stamped by an agency, or a “Galapagos permit” bought in advance, close the tab. It does not exist, and someone is trying to sell it to you.

Galapagos Visa Requirements: Who Actually Needs One

Here is the thing that confuses almost everyone: Galapagos is not a country. It is a province of Ecuador, so the galapagos visa requirements are simply Ecuador’s visa rules, and for most of my travelers that means no visa at all.

Citizens of the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, the EU, Australia and most of Latin America enter Ecuador as tourists without applying for anything in advance. As of 2026 the standard tourist admission runs to 90 days per calendar year. A minority of nationalities do need a visa arranged before travel, and that list changes — confirm yours with an Ecuadorian consulate rather than with a blog, mine included.

The limit that catches people out is a different one. The Galapagos transit card system caps a tourist stay in the islands at 60 days, separately from whatever Ecuador stamped in your passport. The official pre-registration form calculates it for you and warns you if your dates overrun.

The Galapagos Transit Control Card (TCT): $20 Before You Board

The galapagos transit control card is the one document nobody has heard of before they book, and the one that causes the most airport stress. It exists because the islands count every visitor: how many arrive, where they sleep, how long they stay. You cannot board a flight to the islands without it.

You buy it at a dedicated counter in the Quito or Guayaquil terminal, before you check in for the island flight, and it costs $20 in cash. Give yourself real time here — this counter is the reason the airlines ask you to arrive three hours early for a domestic flight, and the queue at 6am is nobody’s idea of a holiday. The order of those counters on departure day is in the Quito to Galapagos flights guide.

Since the government moved the process online you can pre-register at home, which shortens the counter stop to collecting the physical card. Do it on the official Galapagos government TCT page rather than through a third party. Two things will stall you: the form asks for your airline details and your accommodation on each island, chosen from a registered list, so you need your hotels booked before you can finish it.

You are given the card in two halves. Keep the stub. It is collected when you fly home, and replacing a lost one is a fee and an errand you do not want on your last morning.

Biosecurity: The Inspection That Actually Stops People

Before you reach the departure gate on the mainland, your checked bag goes through a biosecurity inspection, and you sign a sworn declaration online confirming what is inside it. This is the checkpoint that trips up the largest number of travelers, because it feels like theatre until it is not.

The islands have no natural defence against introduced species. A single seed in a boot tread, a fruit fly in a mango, an ant in a bag of coffee — that is how invasive species arrive, and it is why the inspection is genuine rather than symbolic. Leave behind:

• Fresh fruit and vegetables of any kind
• Seeds, plants, cuttings, soil, flowers
• Live animals, feathers, shells, wood products
• Unprocessed meat, dairy or fish
• Anything organic you cannot explain quickly — when in doubt, eat it or bin it before the counter

Sealed, processed snacks are fine. Hiking boots are fine if they are clean; scrub the soles at home. My Galapagos packing list goes through the rest of the bag in detail, including the reef-safe sunscreen rule that surprises people at the other end.

The $200 Park Fee: Cash, on Arrival, No Exceptions

You land at Baltra or San Cristobal airport, walk down the stairs into that first wall of heat, and the queue in front of you is the park fee. Adults from outside Ecuador pay $200. Children under 12 pay $100. Ecuadorian residents, and citizens of CAN and Mercosur countries, pay considerably less on a fixed government scale.

Cash only, in US dollars, and the bills need to be clean — no tears, no tape, no ink. Ecuador uses the US dollar, so nothing needs converting, but damaged notes are routinely refused across the country and this counter is no exception. If you want the whole cash question answered before you fly, my note on money and currency in Galapagos covers what the islands take and where the ATMs actually are.

The rate has been $200 since the 2024 government resolution doubled it, and the full category-by-category table is on its own page. I keep the fee detail there deliberately so there is one place to correct when it changes.

Local Reality Check: “Can I pay by card?” is the question I answer most, and the answer has been no for as long as I have been guiding. Take the cash out in Quito or Guayaquil, before your domestic flight. The airport ATMs in the islands run dry more often than anyone admits, and they are on the wrong side of the counter anyway.

Vaccines, Insurance and the Health Questions

No vaccination is required to enter Ecuador or the Galapagos as of 2026. Yellow fever certification is asked for only if you are arriving from a country where it is endemic, which for most visitors coming through Quito or Guayaquil from North America or Europe does not apply. Routine vaccinations up to date is the sensible baseline, and your own doctor beats any website on this.

Insurance is the one I push harder on, because the islands are 1,000 km offshore. A medical evacuation from a live-aboard or an outer island is not a taxi ride, and standard policies often exclude exactly the activities you came for. I have written up what to look for in Galapagos travel insurance, and the wider picture of risks worth planning around in my honest take on safety in the Galapagos.

Children, Residents and the Exceptions Worth Knowing

The galapagos travel requirements bend in a few predictable places, and it is worth knowing which apply to you before you queue:

• Children under 12 pay $100 for the park fee. Under 2s are exempt. Everyone needs their own transit card, at full price, whatever their age.
• Ecuadorian citizens and residents pay a resident rate on a published government scale, with proof of residency.
• CAN and Mercosur nationals pay a reduced rate — bring the passport that proves it.
• Seniors over 65 and travelers with a disability card qualify for a reduced fee.
• Transitory residents — people working or studying in the islands — sit on a different track entirely, with a longer permitted stay.

Your Final Galapagos Entry Requirements Checklist

Print this, or screenshot it. In order, from the month before you fly to the moment you walk out of the island airport:

• A month out: check your passport expiry date is at least six months past your arrival, and confirm whether your nationality needs an Ecuador visa.
• Once your hotels are booked: pre-register the Transit Control Card online, and complete the biosecurity declaration.
• A week out: buy travel insurance that covers snorkelling and offshore evacuation.
• The day before: withdraw $220 per adult in clean US bills. Check your bag for fruit, seeds and soil.
• At Quito or Guayaquil: arrive three hours early. Biosecurity inspection first, then the $20 TCT counter, then check-in.
• On arrival in the islands: $200 per adult in cash at the park counter, then keep both halves of the transit card safe until you fly home.

Where to Go Next

Entry is the paperwork. The trip is everything after it. These are the guides that pick up where this one stops:

Getting There

• How to get to the Galapagos Islands — the mainland connection, step by step
• Flights to Galapagos — which airlines fly, and what a fair fare looks like
• Galapagos Islands airport guide — Baltra vs San Cristobal, and why the choice shapes your week

What It Costs

• Galapagos National Park entrance fee — the full rate card, category by category
• Galapagos trip cost — what a real week adds up to, at three budgets
• Money and currency in Galapagos — cash, cards and where the ATMs are

Once You Land

• Galapagos itinerary ideas — how to shape your days across the islands
• Galapagos packing list — including what biosecurity will take off you
• Galapagos safety and travel insurance — the honest version

And if you are still at the stage of working out whether this trip is even for you, start further back with my full guide to Galapagos Islands travel.

Planning a Multi-Day Galapagos Trip? Paperwork is the easy part to get right on your own. The week itself is where a local plan pays for itself. Have a look at our land-based multi-day Galapagos tours, or tell us your dates and we will build the route around them.

Questions I Get All the Time

Final Thoughts from the Islands

None of this is hard. That is genuinely the point I want to leave you with. The galapagos entry requirements are a passport, a $20 card, a form, and $220 in cash — and the only travelers I see struggle are the ones who found out about the cash at the counter.

The rules exist because 1,000 km of ocean is the only thing that kept this place intact, and the paperwork is what keeps the ocean doing its job. Pay it, sign it, leave the mango at home, and go and see the islands. They are worth every step of the queue.