Majo was extremely responsive and provided excellent advice while planning our Mother-in-Law/ Daughters-in-Law trip for 4. She revised the itinerary until we had exactly what we wanted and to fit within our budget. A few highlights to note/share: El Barranco hotel was wonderful, couldn't recommend enough, will stay there when I return. Great location right by the pier near tons of shops and restaurants, wonderful staff, great food and drinks too! North Seymour Island on the Finch Bay...
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Majo was extremely responsive and provided excellent advice while planning our Mother-in-Law/ Daughters-in-Law trip for 4. She revised the itinerary until we had exactly what we wanted and to fit within our budget. A few highlights to note/share: El Barranco hotel was wonderful, couldn't recommend enough, will stay there when I return. Great location right by the pier near tons of shops and restaurants, wonderful staff, great food and drinks too! North Seymour Island on the Finch Bay yacht was probably my favorite day. The yacht was gorgeous, our guide was great, we saw so much wildlife and it welcomed us with a wow day for sure! The morning bay tour was pretty good, less fancy, but still a wonderful day, and it allowed us to splurge a few other days/times. The walk down to Las Grietas was on lava rocks so comfortable shoes are necessary. Trapiche and Garrapatero Beach with kayak was another awesome day. Our guide for the day, Erickita, was my favorite guide of the trip. She was extremely friendly and knowledgeable. Trapiche was a cool stop and the owner of the farm, Adriano, was kind and funny! Garrapatero Beach was beautiful and we kayaked a bit there. The snorkel experience in Punta Cormorant/ Champions Islet on Floreana was amazing. A sea lion was swimming in circles around and with us. This wasn't as fancy of a yacht but I was told only certain boats/yachts had permits for specific places. It was fine, just not as luxurious. It was a rough 2.5 hour ride there then also back. My party did fine with it but numerous others on the boat did get sea sick so while the destination was definitely worth it for our group, don't add it if someone in your group easily gets sea sick. The best place to sit is the middle of the boat so you can get some fresh air and don't smell the bathrooms or kitchen but also so you're not in the back baking in the sun getting sprayed by water. We spent our final day doing the Santa Cruz Highlands, an artisan woodworking visit, and a cooking class. Our family always adds some kind of art/craft and also some kind of cooking class on our trips so I'm glad they were added but the cooking class did go rather long (numerous hours) and the craft class wasn't really a full class and I don't think they're setup to accommodate that. Majo did deliver on all of our requests and planned a wonderful farewell dinner at Eloise, a cool waterfront restaurant you take a brief water taxi to and see lots of little white tip Galapagos sharks at the dock and along the journey. A few of my favorite restaurants were Bahia Mar, Midori, and Art Coffee. Darwin + Wolf was my favorite shop. We went to the Darwin Research Station on our own and I suggest doing the same because they have their own tour guides anyway. The wildlife was amazing and the animals get so close to you because they're protected so nobody bothers them and they aren't scared of us. It was beyond crazy how much we saw and how common it was. I'll definitely go back when my son is old enough to snorkel because he would love the wildlife. We also visited Siluet Derm Spa on our own and if you like massages, you should definitely fit that into your Santa Cruz visit! Our guides were all wonderful. The communication was immediate. Thoughtful extras were included like assistance in airports, etc. HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOU BOOK THIS!
Local specialist: Maria Jose Jaramillo