Galápagos Vacation Packages: 10-Day Complete Tour

Day 1: Arrival in San Cristobal

Your ten-day Galápagos adventure begins gently on San Cristóbal, where sea lions doze on the pier and even the airport benches. We get you settled, then spend an easy afternoon meeting the wildlife and getting your bearings — no rush, because with ten days ahead there's time to savour every island.

• Galápagos Interpretation Center — a beautiful introduction to the islands' geology, wildlife and human story
• Cerro Tijeretas — a short walk to a clifftop lookout with frigatebirds and a snorkel cove below

Guide tip: with a longer trip, take today slowly — let the jet lag fade and the island rhythm take over.

Day 2: Kicker Rock

A full day on the water at San Cristóbal's best marine sites, anchored by the unforgettable Kicker Rock. This sheer tower of rock splits into a channel you snorkel straight through, with big animals moving in the blue all around you — one of the most thrilling things you'll do all trip.

• Kicker Rock (León Dormido) — snorkel the channel with turtles, rays and reef and Galápagos sharks

Guide tip: watch the deep water of the channel for hammerheads, most common in the cooler season.

Day 3: To Santa Cruz - Darwin Station

We cross to Santa Cruz by speedboat, often with dolphins on the bow, then climb into the cool, green highlands. This is where giant tortoises roam wild across open pasture  meeting one in its own habitat is a quiet highlight of any Galápagos trip.

• Charles Darwin Research Station  the tortoise breeding program and the islands' conservation work

Guide tip: the highlands are cooler and damp  a light layer and closed shoes make all the difference.

Day 4: Santa Cruz - Tortuga Bay & Las Grietas

A relaxed Santa Cruz day mixing the island's best beach with a hidden swimming hole. There's no need to hurry — wander Tortuga Bay, cool off in the turquoise crevice of Las Grietas, and enjoy the easygoing buzz of Puerto Ayora at your own pace.

• Tortuga Bay — wild Playa Brava and the calm Playa Mansa lagoon with marine iguanas and white-tip sharks
• Las Grietas — a stunning swim between towering lava walls
• Free time in Puerto Ayora, from the fish market to the waterfront cafés

Guide tip: combine Las Grietas with a water-taxi hop across the bay — it's a fun, cheap local ride.

Day 5: Floreana - History & Devil's Crown

Today we sail to Floreana, the island with the wildest backstory in Galápagos: pirates, mysterious vanished settlers, and a postal tradition kept alive for over two centuries. It also hides one of the archipelago's finest snorkels. Few visitors make it here, which is exactly why it's special.

• Floreana highlands and pirate caves, with the island's own giant tortoises

Day 6: Santa Cruz — Giant Tortoise Ranch

After breakfast we head up into the highlands of Santa Cruz, where the landscape changes completely: the dry coastal scrub gives way to green pasture, mist and scalesia forest. Here we visit a tortoise ranch, one of the few places in the world where you can walk among giant tortoises living entirely in the wild — they move freely between the ranch and the national park, grazing in the ponds and open fields, and some of the older ones weigh over 200 kilos and are more than a century old. Rubber boots are provided and the walking is easy. We also explore a lava tunnel on the property, an underground passage formed when the outer crust of a lava flow cooled while the molten rock kept running inside.

Lunch is served in the highlands, and in the afternoon we return to Puerto Ayora, with the rest of the day free to walk the waterfront or visit the fish market, where pelicans and sea lions queue up alongside the customers.

Day 7: To Isabela - Flamingos, Tintoreras

We transfer by speedboat to Isabela, the largest and wildest inhabited island — sand streets, barely any cars, and wildlife everywhere you look. The afternoon eases you straight into its laid-back charm.

• Flamingo Lagoon — pink flamingos in the largest coastal lagoon in Galápagos, steps from town
• Las Tintoreras — white-tip sharks resting in lava channels, penguins and marine iguanas in numbers

Guide tip: grab a bike — Isabela is made for slow, flat rides between beaches and lookouts.

Day 8: Sierra Negra Volcano

One of the great hikes in the islands. The trail up Sierra Negra opens onto a caldera ten kilometres wide — among the largest active craters on Earth — with raw, steaming lava fields stretching beyond. It's a moderate walk with a genuinely jaw-dropping payoff.

• Sierra Negra — a hike to the rim of a 10-km-wide active crater
• Volcán Chico — surreal red-and-black lava fields dotted with steam vents
• Optional stop at a highland coffee farm on the way back

Guide tip: closed shoes and water are essential — the trail can be muddy and there's little shade up top.

Day 9: Los Tuneles & Wetlands and transfer to Santa Cruz

After breakfast we take the morning speedboat back to Santa Cruz, a crossing of about two hours. On arrival we head straight up into the highlands, where the landscape changes completely: the dry coastal scrub gives way to green pasture, mist and scalesia forest. Here we visit a tortoise ranch, one of the few places in the world where you can walk among giant tortoises living entirely in the wild  they move freely between the ranch and the national park, grazing in the ponds and open fields, and some of the older ones weigh over 200 kilos and are more than a century old. Rubber boots are provided and the walking is easy. We also explore a lava tunnel on the property, an underground passage formed when the outer crust of a lava flow cooled while the molten rock kept running inside.

Lunch is served in the highlands, and in the afternoon we return to Puerto Ayora, with the rest of the day free to walk the waterfront or visit the fish market, where pelicans and sea lions queue up alongside the customers.

Guide tip: Los Túneles is calm and shallow — the perfect place to end the trip, even for nervous snorkelers.

Day 10: Departure from Santa Cruz + Gemelos Crater

On your last morning we leave Puerto Ayora early and drive up through the highlands toward the airport, stopping at Los Gemelos. These are two enormous sinkholes, each more than 300 metres across, formed when the roof of an underground magma chamber collapsed. They sit on either side of the road, surrounded by scalesia forest draped in moss and lichen a strange, cool, almost cloud-forest world only twenty minutes from the dry coast. It's a good place to look for the vermilion flycatcher and several of Darwin's finches, and a quiet last walk before the journey home.

We then continue to Baltra, crossing the Itabaca Channel by ferry, and leave you at the airport in good time for your flight back to the mainland.

Meals: breakfast. End of our services.