Day 1: QUITO

Arrive in Quito. Meet and greet your bilingual guide and tour escort before you transfer to your hotel.

Day 2: QUITO CITY AND THE EQUATOR

The city tour starts with a visit to the Itchimbia neighborhood, which offers a spectacular view of the old and new city. Then you will visit the old colonial Quito starting in Santo Domingo Plaza and continuing on to La Ronda Street, where you can glimpse how Quitenos lived in the 17th century. Other highlights of the tour include San Francisco Plaza, La Merced church, La Compania de Jesus church, and the main square, where you can see the presidential palace and the main cathedral.

Day 3: QUITO TO GALAPAGOS

Catch an early flight to the Baltra where your guide will take you to Puerto Ayora. Relax over lunch before you check into your hotel. Spend the afternoon visiting the highlands of Santa Cruz Island where you can see Galapagos’s famous tortoises in their natural habitat.

Day 4: GALAPAGOS

Take a 4-hour kayak tour of Academy Bay to reach Punta Estrada, where you can snorkel in the beautiful waters. You might see white tip sharks, Galapagos sharks, manta rays, and colorful tropical fish. You can also just relax at the beach. After a box lunch you will go back to Puerto Ayora and your hotel before visiting the Charles Darwin Research Station. Get a first-hand account of what the Station is doing to preserve and protect certain species of the Galapagos Islands.

Day 5: SANTA CRUZ TO ISABELA

Spend the morning touring the highlands of the island and view the fascinating and beautiful indigenous birds of the Galapagos, including finches, frigates, flycatchers, ducks, and egrets. You will also explore the island’s incredible lava caves, which include some of the longest tunnels in the world. On a clear day, you will be able to see Media Luna, a crater at the top of Santa Cruz Island.

Next, you will drive to Cerro Mesa and set off on a 20 kilometer mountain bike ride through the highland farms, and down to Bella Vista village. We’ll end at Puerto Ayora or at the Garrapatera to catch some beach time. In the early afternoon, we’ll catch a fast boat to Isabela Island – if we’re lucky, we’ll see dolphins swimming right next to the boat. Once we’ve docked and you’ve checked into your hotel, you can spend the afternoon at your leisure.

Day 6: ISABELA ISLAND

Spend the day exploring Isabela Island via horseback and hiking. We’ll begin with a ride to the highlands where we’ll saddle up for a 9 kilometer ride across rugged terrain up to the edge of Sierra Negra Volcano, the second-largest caldera on Earth. Enjoy an al fresco box lunch before the group hikes to Chico Volcano, the volcano responsible for some of the Galapagos’s remarkable formations. It’s an alien, lunar landscape that photographers will adore.

Day 7: ISABELA ISLAND

Spend the day touring Isabela Island on a mountain bike. Highlights of the tour include: the wetlands, the lagoon of flamingos, and Muro de los Lamentos, a WWII-era wall. You will return to Puerto Villamil for lunch and then spend the afternoon either relaxing or exploring the island at your own pace.

Day 8: ISABELA TO SANTA CRUZ

We’ll catch a fast boat to Puerto Ayora, where we will check into the hotel. Today you can hike to Tortuga Bay, a stunning and untouched bay in Puerto Ayora, before spending the day exploring the beautiful town.

Day 9: SANTA CRUZ TO QUITO

Our private driver will pick you up in the morning and take you to Baltra airport so you can fly back to Quito and check into your rooms before a spectacular farewell dinner at one of the city’s lovely restaurants.

Day 10: QUITO AND DEPARTURE

Our guide will pick you up at your hotel and drive you to the airport for your return flight.

The biggest problem affecting the biodiversity of the Archipelago is the introduction of non-native species of animals and plants which threaten the indigenous species of the islands. To this end, we work with island authorities to make sure that none of our tours bring in any living organisms.