Galapagos 2024 - Excellent Trip!
Galapagos Islands
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Dec 21 - Dec 29, 2024
Galapagos 2024 - Excellent Trip!
My husband and I just completed a 9 day trip to Quito and the Galapagos Islands. We want to recognize the highlights of our trip with a few special commendations.
Angie Maldonado - Did an excellent job booking all the drivers, local transportation, excursions, hotels, and even dining for Christmas eve, and Christmas Day! We wanted to feel entrenched in the local culture, and we did!
Quito - Outstanding guide: Cristobal! We thoroughly enjoyed his tireless attention from the time of our arrival at the airport to our departure. He was a wealth of knowledge, attentive, shared so much with us, including recommendations for local foods. Exceptional experience! We stayed in Casona de la Ronda and loved the accommodations and the staff as well!
Santa Cruz - We stayed at the Acacia Boutique Hotel. Perfect location, lovely people, spacious accommodations. Excellent choice for us! We loved our excursion to the highlands to see the Tortoises and our excursion to Bartolome island where we snorkeled, and saw sharks, penguins, and the famous blue footed boobies along the way as well. The scenery was exceptional! We also spent time visiting N. Seymour Island. Busy schedule, but wouldn't change any of it.
Isabela Island - A welcome quiet experience on this island. Less commercialized, at this time... hope it stays that way. Very much enjoyed all of our day excursions, but our favorite was Los Tunneles, and our hike on the Sierra Negra Volcano. We were here for 3 nights, and wish we had had another day or 2 to explore and relax more.
Some helpful tips or things new South American Travelers should know:
1. No toilet paper disposal (you can't flush it!) in the toilets anywhere. If you want to bring sanitary bags to dispose, that might feel better to you.
2. Bring small denominations (not just $20's) for tipping money. This will be a big part of your expenses while on the islands.
3. Be prepared for some minor inconveniences, and handle them with grace. We were totally embarassed by some of the tourists we witnessed misbehaving toward the dedicated, gracious natives we encountered.
4. Angie and guides did a great job helping us navigate the travel requirements including paying for Transit Control Card, and admission fee to Galapagos National Park upon arrival/departure.
5. You will be moving around a lot on this trip. Try NOT to overpack. (We did bring a wetsuit and our own snorkel and mask and we were glad we did).
6. Final recommendation: The trip back to Colorado was quite long to do without an overnight stay on the mainland on the way back. If you have enough time, I would recommend booking an overnight stay after leaving Baltra airport, on the mainland, rather than hanging out at the airport for several hours in Quito and having to travel for such an extended period of time.
We loved our trip to Ecuador! We appreciate all the drivers, guides, boat captains, restaurant and hotel workers who were so kind, and always helpful. The food was delicious everywhere!
We love the model for KimKim - with local agents planning the trip! They are also a great contact if you have any hiccups/issues/concerns during your trip, and Angie was very responsive, and did "check on us" to make sure all was going well.
Thank you for the surprise of covering our Christmas Dinner!
Happy New Year to all!
Hotel Reviews
Lovely, clean beachside accommodations within steps of amazing oceanview sunsets! Room size was adequate, bed was comfortable. WIFI was reliable and quite good! Staff was excellent! Food for breakfast was excellent! Only inconvenience - ran out of water around 6 p.m. (which did not affect us too much, but did for some other guests. I think this is an island problem, not an isolated problem to this accommodation). Would be nice to have a few hooks outside the rooms to hang up swimsuits, etc, to let them dry.
Excellent location! Easy walk to restaurants, shops, pier, Charles Darwin center. Hotel clean, with pool and hot tub, comfortable mattress, TV; designed with safety and security in mind as a bonus. Quiet in our room and away for the busy town streets. Wifi available but somewhat unreliable. Spacious room and accommodations. Staff very attentive and always on top of our needs/schedules. Very good breakfast, and packed us box breakfasts when needed.
We arrived in the early morning (2:00 a.m.?). There was a city wide power outage when we arrived, and the back up generator was working beautifully, and the staff was expecting us. Although the street we were on was busy at night, we did not hear a peep in our rooms! (YAY) The staff was diligent with walking us to/from our driver's car and making sure we were well attended to. Breakfast was good; Wifi was good. Mattresses were comfortable; room was spacious. Loved the atmosphere here! Felt very authentic!
Activity Reviews
Our transfer did not go smoothly. There was no one there waiting for us with a sign and our name on it, as expected. We had the name of the person who was supposed to greet us but they did not show up. The manager of the tour company eventually showed up after I contacted the agent from KimKim and smoothed everything out. The visit to the highlands was a 5 star experience, along with the expertise and friendliness of our guide.
Wish we had been able to spend more quiet time here. It was beautiful. We were unable to snorkel here due to a laceration I had on my knee, and kayaking had not been planned here. Wish we could have done either. It is beautiful, and quiet. Our guide was Diego. He was friendly and accommodating.
It seemed we got off to a late start due to the size of the group. Although we loved the hike, I felt the guides were rushing us. This is not to be missed, but be prepared for a faster hiking pace. As we were near the back of the large group, we did not get any attention on this hike, nor did we get to hear much from the guides. We did, however, prefer to be away from the "crowd".