Galápagos & Ecuador

The Galápagos has two seasons and the warm one suits most trips. From December to May the seas calm, the water warms, and the snorkelling with sea lions and turtles is at its easiest; the cooler, misty garúa months from June to November bring rougher water but busier seabird colonies. Either works, and the choice comes down to whether you would rather be in the water or watching the cliffs.

Thirteen nights, mainland and islands. Quito and the Ecuadorian mainland to begin, the colonial city and, for those who want it, the cloud forest or the Amazon headwaters, then a week in the Galápagos aboard a small chartered yacht. The mainland gives the trip its depth; the islands are the reason you came.

Quito's old town is the best-preserved colonial core in the Americas and worth a slow day; Mashpi, in the cloud forest to the north-west, adds a different Ecuador of hummingbirds and mist. In the islands it is the naturalist-led landings the park allows, giant tortoises in the highlands, marine iguanas and blue-footed boobies at arm's length, and swimming off the panga with sea lions that have no reason to fear you.

The aviation here is unusual and worth understanding. Private jets do not land in the Galápagos; the islands are reached only by scheduled flight from Quito or Guayaquil into Baltra or San Cristóbal, and every visitor passes a biosecurity inspection and carries the park transit card. No fresh produce, no seeds. Landings are quota-controlled and guided, and the small yacht is what turns those rules into a private experience rather than a queue.

Among our preferred partners we use Casa Gangotena on the main square in Quito and Mashpi Lodge in the cloud forest, and in the islands a chartered small yacht, the Aqua Mare among them, rather than a fixed hotel.

Ask your advisor about a chartered yacht rather than an island hotel, the warm-water months for swimming with sea lions, and adding Mashpi or the Napo for the cloud forest and the Amazon.