Ecuador Galapagos Travels

Karlita did a fabulous job planning our unforgettable trip to Ecuador and the Galapagos. She accommodated all our family group's interests and abilities (ages 30- 65+). I appreciate that she advised us thoughtfully and raised the right questions to help us make the right choices. For example, she worked with the local guide Sebastian in Quito to provide suggestions like flipping the order of certain activities to make more sense and allow us to fit more things in a logical way. Another example was how she had hotel rooms conveniently arranged for us on the day we returned from the Amazon, so we didn't have to hang around the airport for 12 hours until our international flights home from Quito. She did not simply say yes to everything we asked for without thinking - she genuinely guided us, which is what we needed. No detail was left unthought of! Including special surprises for the special occasions on the trip.

Highlights: The GO Hotel in Quito was amazing! We especially loved our guide in Quito, Sebastian. He is extremely knowledgable and passionate about Ecuador, plus personable, friendly and fun! We also loved the staff and our local guide Cheyanne at the NAPO Cultural Center eco-lodge. Overall, Karlita was able to fit such a diverse mix of activities and parts of Ecuador into our 15-day trip without it feeling totally exhausting.

My only point of feedback: We were probably limited by our budget and availability by the time we booked (last-minute), but the only thing I would have appreciated is being offered more tiered options / operator choices for the cruise in Galapagos and eco-lodge in the Amazon, so that we could have understood the differences and chosen to upgrade to something higher-end if we wanted.

Our trip planner is Karlita
I have nothing but praises for the planning and attention to detail for this trip to Ecuador. I have such great memories. It was a fantastic vacation! Thank you Karlita. You listened and delivered. You also told us when we suggested something and you said it was too much. The trip was a great combination of history and nature. Our guide Sebastian (in Quito) was absolutely amazing. He was knowledgeable, fun and loved to share his country’s history as well as personal. He took good care of my sisters when hiking in Antisana. He bought some local snacks for us so we could enjoy them along the drives.
In Galapagos I have no complaints about the crew, the activities or the guides. The cabins on Coral 1 are a little old and definitely use updating. A big complaint is that when the boat sailed during the night the noise from the engines was very loud in the cabins. We could not sleep. I think the ship can do something to mitigate the noise. Or for future planning we would request higher level cabins.
In the Amazon the Napo Culture Lodge was an amazing experience. I loved being in the community and watching the people. Our community guide Cheyenne was excellent - he knew the animals and spotted so many things for us.
Overall - Karlita thank you for putting together this amazing trip for us. I have no hesitation in recommending your company to my friends and family.
Thank you!

Karlita was absolutely wonderful to work with! She did a fantastic job planning this and working with us to help create an unforgettable and truly magical trip! From the get go she did a great job asking questions and listening to what we wanted and really got to know what kind of activities we would like as a family. We loved our guide in Quito, Sebastian, he was very knowledgeable and easy to work with. In the Galapagos, we saw great wildlife. The boat was quite loud and hard to sleep in the bottom area so in the future would prefer the option to have the top floor rooms but otherwise was a good experience. We ended in the Amazon and appreciated being at a lodge which was started by the community. Our local guide, Cheyenne, was fantastic and great at spotting animals and we saw a lot of incredible wildlife. We appreciated the care taken when planning and all the helpful information given in advance, especially about appropriate tipping amount as the amounts given by Karla were reasonable compared to the somewhat outrageous suggested tips given by the Galapagos. Finally, Karla went above and beyond in arranging little surprises for a family member birthday and anniversary which absolutely made our day! We had a great time and would definitely use Karla and team again for any other planned trips in the future! And will definitely recommend Karla and team to all our friends and family who are planning to visit.

We had a very nice time and enjoyed the Galapagos very much. We were met at both airports Baltra And Villamil by welcoming guides that greeted us and facilitated our transition into the next legs of our trip. The Eco guides that led our excursions were very knowledgeable and spoke English very well. accommodations , the Albermarle in Villamil and the Solymar on PTO Ayora were very nice for the most part. Upon arrival at Albermarle we found our room upstairs which were overly steep and difficult for my wife to negotiate. The first night at the Albermarle there was a fiesta for Dia De Los Muertos that was very loud until 3-4 in the morning and made it hard to sleep. The day tour to Los Tunneles was ok except the short hike to the Booby nest was inaccessible for my wife as the trail over lava and the transition from boat to lava shore was too difficult for my wife to negotiate. She had to stay in the boat while the group went ashore. The same inaccessibility of the boat small boat landing on N Seymore to explore the nesting Frigate birds and the trail over lava rocks was inaccessible to my wife. Nicholas had informed me that these excursions would be accessible for her but they proved to not be accessible for her.
There was another excursion problem in PTO Ayora. The morning of the excursion to Tortuga Bay, when the guide arrived to pick us up he had about a dozen other tourists with him and he refused to wait 5 minutes for my wife who wasn’t quite ready at 730 am the, pick up time. So they left without us. He made no attempt to facilitate us a way to catch up to them. We ultimately walked ourselves to the 300 stairs staircase up to the Tortuga Bay entry station. We climbed the stairs with difficulty and walked the 3 Km to Tortuga Bay. We enjoyed the Walk to the beautiful Bay and park. We arranged our own water taxi passage back to Ayora.
It would seem reasonable for your company to refund the costs we paid in advance for that excursion that we did not recieve.
Apparently, Nicholas, who arranged our trip itinery, lodgings and excursions according to the criteria I had carefully explained to him regarding my wife’s physical disabilities, has not actually been to these Islands nor experienced the
excursions we were booked onto. If he had he might not have booked us onto the excursions with the very small boat transitions to the difficult shore landings and inaccessible lava rock trails.
The escorted taxi ride and escort on the Itabaca Ferry and bus to the airport was nice. As my wife was leaving the Baltra airport for home I was met by the Galapagos Aggressor dive boat staff for the rest of Galapagos adventure.
Now after spending two weeks in the Galápagos Islands and enjoying them fully I’ve returned safely home. It seems your firm overcharged us considerably for the trip you arranged for us. This may influence whether I can refer your services to anyone in the future.
Sincerely,
Jim Lipow
Riverside California

Hotel Reviews

Albemarle

Puerto Villamil

On the beach, near beachfront restaurants. Breakfast basic.

Authenticity & Character

Excellent room very comfortable

Location

On the beach and close to everything in town

Staff

The office was staffed except late at night to 630 in the morning.

Cleanliness & Comfort

Hotel Solymar

Galápagos

Waterfront. good breakfast poolside, harborside. One of the best in town except for maybe 2 ultra posh other hotels. Central location. We had to change to a second room upon arrival because the door knob on our original room was so loose it was about to fall off. The staff was very responsive to this issue and move us immediately.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Wildlife Encounter at Los Tuneles (Cabo Rosa)

Galapagos Islands

With a little effort the Galapagos park authorities could make the shore landing accessible for individuals with disabilities

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Snorkeling at Tortuga Bay

Puerto Ayora

The guide would wait 5 minutes and left us behind. What a jerk

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Experience the Pristine Beauty of Galápagos Islands: Discovering an Uninhabited Island

Puerto Ayora

The walking trail proved to be inaccessible to walkers with disabilities. Too bad because a hand crew could make it accessible in short order .

Quality of Experience

Food

The walking trail

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Free Morning Until Departure

Galapagos Islands

Ther was time for nothing before our departure to the airport

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Welcome to Santa Cruz Island: Highlands (Plant a Tree) & Charles Darwin Research Station

Puerto Ayora

There was no tree planting and no evidence of any tree planting before our visit. But the Darwin Center is a MUST VISIT part of a visit to Santa Cruz and PTO Ayora.

It was a tailored / customised trip without budget. Few points about the planning and service with Responsible Travel.
1. Itinerary inaccurate information compared with actual program. We had a few days with less hour in the program mainly hiking compared to actual and Restaurant was too far, which we had our lunch only after 4PM. Due to poor planning from Alvaro.
2. Timing planned by Alvaro was not accurate, failed to check and/or update the latest information since the plan was almost a year ago. He should update and inform us as we paid 30% and in full prior to trip.
3. We had reminded him 1 month and 2 weeks prior to the trip if he checked all program and requirement are in order. Obviously, he did not as it was not well planned on some days.
4. Dietary concern was also not properly managed and/or arranged. Portion of lunch was insufficent especially the protein since I was not able to eat many other items due to my health - Informed a year ago.
5. Alvaro has not provided accurate information and/or the equired information to the local guides about our requirements - according to the local guides that informed us.
6. We requested price to be ALL-IN as we do not want hassle during the trip with too much phyiscal cash on hand and wrote Alvaro to make of that, which includes the Domestic Flight to Galapagos island. We were not informed at all of the limited luggage for domestic flight. We had to last minute pay for the over weight luggage. Unnecessary inconveniences if Alvaro had provided clear information - we would request for him to include any extra weight for domestic flight.
7. I had obviously provided my displeased on the program and Alvaro did not take the construtive criticisim well. The arrogant attitude handling a displeased customer was what put us off. He stop addressing me by name and addressed only to my husband which was disrespectful considering I was the one a year ago decided and planned this with Alvaro.
8. There were unsincere apologies from Alvaro and his boss. We have arranged all our customised trips with many other agencies all over the world including other South America countries - Every agencies would provide some form of compensation due to the poor planning, lack of information, bad hotels, food etc and poor arrangement with local guides. But Responsible Travel gave only excuses for their mistakes and nothing more.

Last point, tourist travel always take time to take photographs, especially one with a proper camera. However, we were always in the rush with the local guide cum driver and/or driver, with no consideration whatsoever to slow down or check if we needed to take a proper photos. Either thats the people in Ecuador or just the guide selected by Responsible travel, which was not good.

This is not the travel agency we were recommend and certainly we will not use them again.