Galapagos: We visited 10 years too late…

When I was a young boy I escaped into an amazing world of exploration and adventure by avidly reading National Geographic magazine whenever I could lay my hands on a copy. Fortunately a family friend Bobby Campbell subscribed to the venerable publication, and whenever we saw her she had a copy or two to give us – I could hardly wait to read about distant islands and jungles, and marvel at the incredible photographs expedition photographers had managed to capture of amazing animals and ancient cultures. The Galapagos islands were featured in several editions, and I would spend hours daydreaming about swimming with giant sea turtles and marine iguanas. Forty years later I have finally made my way to Galapagos by way of a flight from Quito to Basra island, a short boat ride from Santa Cruz, one of four populated islands in Galapagos.

When researching this trip, Akhona and I had several discussions about what would work best for us in terms of exploring the islands. The traditional method has always been to take a 5 – 8 day long boat trip which visits several of the islands, including some of the more remote, unpopulated islands. A trip on a decent boat is extremely expensive for South African travellers, and can run at $ 4000+ (R53000) per person, which we cannot afford. Budget boat trips are around $1000 (R14500) /person, but we felt that that would probably be a disappointing experience unless we got lucky, based on stories we read on the web. The other option was to take a land-based, island-hopping approach, and visit Sanra Cruz, Isabella and San Cristobal and take a few day trips in addition to exploring each island by ourselves. Neither of us really enjoy guided tours, and we like the freedom to shoot what we want to shoot in our own time, so we opted for the land-based option…It was also a far cheaper option of course.

Before I launch into the details of our two week trip, let me just say that while we did experience many negatives during our trip, we had some great experiences as well, and got a fair taste of the aquatic and land-based wildlife which are unique to the Galapagos islands. It was great to see the various species of giant tortoises on the various islands, and watch marine iguanas sleeping, walking, swimming and feeding on every island we visited, We saw many sea turtles during our time in the sea, as well as rare sea horses, cool-looking bat rays, golden rays, white-tip reef sharks, penguins, numerous endemic birds including the famous Blue Footed Booby, and of course literally hundreds of sea lions, which we could watch for hours. This article reflects the experiences we had during our two week visit from 9 April to 23 April 2019, with 5 days on each island, staying in two different accommodation options each time. I am sure that other travellers will have had far more positive experiences during their visit to Galapagos, while others will have had more negative experiences. We don’t regret visiting Galapagos, but we doubt we’ll ever return.

Akhona and I have had several discussions about whether it was actually worth the expense to visit Galapagos as long-term independent travellers trying to travel on a budget of around $ 80/day as a couple. Was there enough to see and do that is unique to the Galapagos to warrant the trip. It was a difficult and sometimes uncomfortable debate, especially for me, as visiting Galapagos has been a dream of mine for so long, so it was not easy for me to admit that maybe we had visited Galapagos ten years too late, and that it has already been negatively impacted by tourism to the extent that it is now just another overpriced destination, dominated by greedy, unscrupulous tour operators and accommodation owners. We spoke to people who have lived on the islands for over 15 years, and they said that there has been a massive development over the past 5 years which has changed the islands in a negative way in their opinion. was very sad to see the same mistakes being made in Galapagos that we have witnessed in other parts of the world….uncontrolled building, over-pricing driven by greed, and sometimes blatant attempts to rip off travellers. Sure we met lovely, friendly islanders during our stay…but we also saw the ugly side of the tourist industry, which usually only gets worse. If Galapagos ever was a paradise, in our experience that is no longer the case unless travellers venture far from the populated areas.

Flights to and from Galapagos are not cheap, considering that we’re talking about a 2 hr flight…We ended up paying around $450/person return, flying into Santa Cruz and out of San Cristobal. That almost equals what we paid for a 12hr return flight from Cape Town, South Africa, to Sao Paolo, Brazil. Accommodation booked through Booking.com ran at $45 – $60/night for a double room – few options included breakfast. Of course one could find rooms for $25/night on the ground, but we seldom run around looking for a place to stay on the day. Ferry trips between islands we bought for $25/person per trip in Santa Cruz…the normal price is $30/person.

Before you check-in for the flight to Galapagos at the airport in Quito, you begin to experience the cost of visiting Galapagos first-hand…You need to pay $20/person for a special ‘visa’ to visit the islands. We flew with Tame Air, which uses tatty old aircraft and ran 90mins behind schedule. Not as much as a snack was served during the 4 hrs we spent on the aircraft, which flies from Quito to Guayaquil first, disembarking some passengers and embarking new passengers while leaving onward bound passengers on the plane. Once in the air we were served a half a paper cup of warm juice…we were not impressed.

On arrival at Baltra airport one has to go through a ‘faux’ immigration counter where $100/person national park fee is charged – only payable in cash dollars. Then bizarrely travellers are made to stand and watch two sniffer dogs walk all over their luggage for 20mins before being allowed to pick up their bags. Why this can’t be done out of sight as it is done in every other airport on earth is a mystery. Also payable is $5 for the 7 min bus ride to the small port. This used to be free, but then the authorities realized that they could score another 5 dollars from each tourist, so now you pay. You also pay $1 for the 5min boat ride to Santa Cruz, and another $5 for the 15min bus ride to Puerto Ayora, where most people will stay for a few days. My research had the first bus ride for free, and the second bus ride costing $1.80, but that has now changed.

Probably the most annoying experience for travellers using the speedboat ferry service is having to use the water taxi to get from the pier to the speedboat moored 10 – 20m away at a charge of 50c – $1on each side of the trip, when it is obvious that the speedboats can actually dock quite easily at the quay. We saw this in San Cristobal, when after going through the whole process of clambering on and off the small water taxi with our luggage, another ferry also coming from Santa Cruz just docked at the pier. This is an unnecessary inconvenience for travellers which should be eliminated. We were also horrified to watch a sea turtle swim through a big patch of garbage and plastic right in the harbour while waiting for a ferry…That $100 national park fee should be better spent removing plastic from the Galapagos environment…

Great effort seems to go into extracting as much money as possible from each tourist who visits Galapagos….So accommodation is double or triple of what you would pay for a simple room on islands in Indonesia, Thailand or Philippines. Food is also triple the price, as is bottled water. Food quality in tourist restaurants is sometimes appalling in the $6 – $10 range for a hamburger or set menu….For $15 – $20 per meal quality was better, but just unaffordable for the long-term traveller. We had better meals at places frequented by locals, and so we ended up avoiding tourist spots and ate in the side streets and back streets.

As much as it is possible to travel to Galapagos on a ‘budget’ – it can’t be fun for real backpackers used to spending $50/day on average on a bed, meals and transport. For a couple one needs at least $ 100/day for accommodation and meals. When it comes to day tours, the inflated prices continue…$45 for a 2 hr simple tour to a nearby snorkeling spot, $100 for the famous Los Tunneles on Isabela (1/2 day), and so on. Similar day trips at other island destinations around the world run at half that cost, and include seafood lunches, compared to the roll and packet of biscuits we were given. In Galapagos we always had the feeling that we got the bare minimum for the maximum cost. We spoke to several travellers who were divers, and they complained about the high cost per dive as well. One couple were also charged an additional fee for fuel used on their live aboard diving trip, which left them incredulous.

To be honest I was shocked at how commercialized and developed the three main islands of Galapagos are…This was not the remote, beautiful destination I had naively thought it to be. Construction is everywhere, and ongoing, and we only stayed in two ‘hostals’ which did not have noisy construction starting from 07h00 either next door or on the premises. The streets are lined with tour operators selling pricey day trips and 5 – 8 days boat trips…We stopped counting at 20 on each island. Then of course there are many restaurants, mostly offering near-identical menu’s, and numerous hotels, ‘hostals’ and the odd actual hostel. Small, overpriced ‘supermarkets’ with air-con aimed at tourists dot the main strips near the port or beach. We could have been anywhere in the world…only the high prices reminded us that we were in Galapagos. To save money we bought from the local municipal market and supermarkets geared towards locals, but as few items are marked with a price, I am sure we still paid the ‘foreigner’ price in many cases.

During my research for the trip I had read many travel blogs and Trip Advisor reviews where the writers raved on about how beautiful Galapagos is and how amazing their trip was. Of course, some of the bloggers were ‘collaborating’ with tour operators and fancy hotels, so one knew that what was being presented was not an honest review. Carefully selected photographs accompany such stories, often not even taken by the writer, but sourced on the web. We travelled to 27 islands during our year-long ‘island adventure’ in 2017/2018, so we know what a beautiful island with stunning beaches looks like – Fiji, Vanuatu, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines and Maldives all have beautiful beaches. Some islands also have impressive interiors, with jungles, coconut trees and volcanoes.

By comparison Galapagos is far more barren, dry and volcanic. I suppose at a push I can say that there were areas which were so different and unusual that they could be described as strangely beautiful, but I would not rate Galapagos up there with the best of the best…In many instances it is ugly and uninspiring to say the least…and has an unkempt appearance in populated areas. Sure it has some great little bays with crystal clear water for snorkeling, but if you have ever snorkeled in Fiji or Vanuatu where the waters team with aquatic wildlife and beautiful coral, then Galapagos will disappoint. Maybe we have been spoilt by our extensive travels to islands around the world. So my advice would be to not be mislead by what you read in glossy blogs – you are better off looking at reviews on Trip Advisor including both good and bad reviews.

What was very cool to see were the marine iguanas, the giant tortoises and those Blue Footed Booby’s 🙂 As we are both keen photographers and filmmakers we look for stunning visuals when we travel, and we found them in these species specifically. We were impressed by the massive sea turtles in Isabela, but the water visibility was poor where we were taken for snorkeling, because of the mangroves. We saw equally impressive sea turtles at Apo island in Philippines, but in crystal clear water and at a fraction of the cost.

In retrospect I would say that to have a more memorable, authentic Galapagos experience you probably have to spend the money and do a 5 – 8 day boat trip to the more outlying islands which are unpopulated and more natural. Of course, by doing that you open yourself up to other forms of disappointment, as many travellers who have done the more budget trips complain of poor quality food, cramped conditions on the boat, a lack of English from guides, missed stops promised in the itinerary, etc.

Our experience of the service and hospitality sector in Galapagos is that the people running most of the sub-$80/night accommodation understand very little about the expectations travellers have when they book a room for the night. We never had a bed stand on both sides of a double bed in Galapagos. There was seldom any place to even put soap in the shower – a shower which usually had poor water pressure and irregular hot water. It as if one person with no hospitality training opened a ‘hostal’ ten years ago and everybody just copied him :). Staffing was at its bare minimum…often the front desk was unattended for hours. It’s almost as if we were paying $50/night to be accommodated in a place run on a part-time basis. Some owners were very active, but only in selling day trips and tours for extra income. Once they realized we were finding our own, better-priced tours their interest in us dissipated.

As I mentioned earlier in this article, I can only reflect what we experienced on our trip. Based on that, and on what about 15 other travellers we spoke to had to say, if you travel to Galapagos on a limited travel budget expect the possibility that you will be disappointed, as there is no value for money in accommodation and meals, and in many cases when it comes to day tours as well. For us Galapagos just wasn’t magical, and fell short of my personal expectations, which had been built up over many years. I fear that it will take more time and money to find the magic Galapagos than the average independent traveller has at their disposal. As long-term travellers we are realistic about experiences like this – sometimes you have an amazing time, and sometimes you are disappointed. We find nothing wrong with admitting to our disappointment…too often we meet travellers who seem to feel obliged to have a ‘stunning, wonderful, mind-blowing’ experience all the time. If only that were true… 🙂 We had some great days, but the overall travel experience barely warranted the trip…