6 Nights Expedition Cruise: Galapagos Islands - Travel Best Bets (2024)

With a range of handpicked itineraries, when you cruise the Galápagos Islands aboard Hurtigruten Expeditions ship MS Santa Cruz II, you’ll discover first-hand the unique nature of this Eden-like archipelago. Accompanied by an expert Expedition Team, you’ll see iconic Galápagos wildlife and have a life changing experience along the way.

Inclusions

• 2 nights pre-cruise hotel in Quito with daily breakfast and 1 dinner
• Full-day excursion: Historic Quito and Middle of the World, including lunch, before the expedition cruise
• Roundtrip airfare from Quito to Baltra
• 4 nights expedition cruise aboard MS Santa Cruz II (Hurtigruten Expeditions)
• Transfers from hotel to airport and airport to ship
• Onboard meals and beverages*
• Complimentary Wi-Fi on board**
• Complimentary reusable water bottle
• English-speaking Expedition Team who organize and guide activities, both on board and ashore
• Welcome and farewell co*cktails
• Reduced rates! (price reflects discount)

*House beer and wine, sodas, and mineral water
**Wi-Fi and phone reception are very limited in the remote areas where we travel, and streaming is not supported.

Day 1: Quito

Your journey begins on the Equator in the lush Andean foothills. At 9,350feet, Quito is the second-highest capital city in the world, and its main draw is the exquisite Old Town, which was founded on an ancient Inca settlement. This UNESCO World Heritage Site is packed with well-preserved colonial architecture, including colorful plazas, magnificent churches, and stately monuments. Settle into your hotel, then head out to explore.

Day 2: Quito

Today, enjoy a guided tour of Quito’s remarkable Old Town, one of the largest and best-preserved colonial-era quarters in South America. Wander through cobblestone streets as you admire the architecture and sample delicious chocolate made from the finest Ecuadorian cacao along the way.

Next, you’ll head to the iconic ‘Middle of the World City’, located around 16miles north of Quito. After lunch, you’ll visit the famous monument that delineates the imaginary line that is the Equator. Have your camera ready to capture the moment you stand with one foot in each hemisphere.

Day 3: Galápagos, Ecuador

As your South America land adventure draws to a close, it is time to embark on the next stage of your journey. After breakfast, a short flight will take you to Baltra Island, a part of the spectacular Galápagos Archipelago. A transfer will take you straight to the port, where your comfortable expedition ship MS Santa Cruz II awaits you.

We’ll begin our exploration of the Galápagos Islands in the afternoon by following the north shore of Santa Cruz to the fascinating landscapes of Cerro Dragón, or Dragon Hill, where we’ll land. On the first part of our walk, we’ll pass a brackish lagoon that is frequented by shorebirds and American flamingos. Further inland, the trail offers a beautiful view of the bay and the western islands of the archipelago, as well as your first chance to encounter some land iguanas.

Day 4: Isabela and Fernandina Islands

You’ll start your day at Punta Vicente Roca on the northwestern tip of Isabela Island. After breakfast, we’ll explore the coast on a panga boat and your naturalist guides will teach you about the dramatic geology of the area.

This site is a nesting place for several bird species, so look out for flightless cormorants, Galápagos penguins, and boobies. Weather permitting, you can snorkel beside the cliffs, where you might find green sea turtles, oceanic sunfish, and fur seals.

In the afternoon, we’ll explore Fernandina, an island with a unique ecology and a large population of marine iguanas. Watch the coastline for sea lions, Sally Lightfoot crabs, hawks, and penguins.

Day 5: Santa Cruz Island

Today, you’ll explore Santa Cruz Island. In the morning, we’ll disembark at Puerto Ayora to visit the Charles Darwin Research Station.

At this giant tortoise breeding center, you can see recently hatched tortoises and Darwin’s famous finches – the birds he used as a basis for his theory of evolution by natural selection. There’s also an impressive forest of prickly pear cacti that is home to many land birds.

Enjoy a cooler climate over lunch in the lush highlands, where giant tortoises shuffle about munching on grass and wallowing in pools.

You’ll also have time for another activity, including mountain biking or visiting a sugar plantation.

Day 6: Floreana Island

After breakfast, enjoy a panga boat ride through the channels on Floreana’s north shore before taking in the incredible views of the island from Baroness Cove. Later, we land at Post Office Bay to visit the historic barrel that has served as a post office in the archipelago for over two centuries.

After lunch, explore the wonders around Champion Islet in a panga boat or aboard our glass-bottom boat. This is one of the best snorkeling spots in the archipelago.

From there, we head to Cormorant Point, where we’ll walk from an olivine-crystal beach to a brackish lagoon. Along the way, common sights include American flamingos, pintail ducks, and more.

Day 7: Baltra Island to Quito

As your expedition cruise comes to a close, it’s time to bid farewell to the wildlife and scenery of one of the world’s most incredible nature destinations. We’ll also say farewell to our wonderful crew and naturalist guides as we disembark at Baltra Island.

A transfer will take you to the airport in Baltra for your flight to Quito to connect to your international flight, or if you prefer, continue to Guayaquil for another adventure.

Hurtigruten Group is the leader in the travel industry towards a greener future.
Committed to taking care of our guests, wildlife, nature, and the communities we visit, we’re setting a new standard of sustainability for the travel industry.
Exploring our blue planet for more than a century has taught us the importance of being green.

We are now supporting 41 environmental, cultural and social projects in 11 different countries. These range from helping endangered orcas in the Pacific Northwest and protecting Galápagos seabirds, to securing safe spaces for vulnerable Greenlandic children and enabling community storytelling for the Itquamavit elders in Canada’s frozen north. We hope that the ripples we create today will one day turn into the waves of the future. With the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals as our compass, our cruises to the planet’s most stunning corners are where explorers can truly feel at home. After all, it’s not about us, it’s about all of us.

Saying Goodbye to Plastic

We announced our war on plastics in 2018 when we were the first expedition company to ban non-essential single-use plastic throughout our entire operation. That means you won’t find items like plastic cups, plastic straws or plastic cutlery on board our ships. You also won’t see our shops selling microplastic-made fleeces but stocking natural wool clothing instead. Absent too are plastic water bottles. We provide all our guests on an expedition cruise with a complimentary high-quality reusable bottle for use at water refill stations dotted around the ship. This simple act saves at least 1,000 plastic bottles a day on some of our larger ships.

Inspiring Environmental Ambassadors

Witnessing the beauty of our planet is sure to leave a lasting impression on you, and you’ll talk enthusiastically about these stunning destinations with friends and family for decades to come. To make sure you can speak informatively when you return home, every one of our expedition cruises has a focus on the environment.

The Expedition Team give lectures that raise awareness of climate change, ocean plastic, and the measures we can all take to help ease these issues. It is our hope that engaging with nature on our expedition cruises will inspire you to do all you can to cherish and protect the precious world we all share.

Connecting With Communities

We are dedicated to supporting the local communities we visit, and to creating beneficial ripple effects that continue long after we’ve left. By trading locally and sourcing services such as food produce and excursions from local suppliers, we contribute to the livelihood and welfare of people.

We strive not only to connect with these communities, but to share genuine friendship with them while always respecting their values and customs. As guests in their home, our emphasis is on appreciating their unique culture and ensuring our interactions are positive and upbuilding for all. You can therefore enjoy authentic experiences knowing your visit is doing good, both for you and for them.

A Footprint We’re Proud Of

You’ll likely encounter a range of wildlife during your expedition, doing so from a safe distance. We’ll be sure to never get too close to them, out of respect for their welfare as much as yours. By not disturbing wildlife with our presence, you’ll be able to observe their natural behavior, in their natural habitat. We want to leave nothing but footprints and take nothing but pictures! In fact, in many of the areas we visit in Antarctica, we even specifically wipe out our footprints so as to prevent penguins tripping and falling into them.

Working Together As One

Sustainability isn’t something we can do alone. Everyone in our industry needs to work together for a greener future. We are therefore founding members of the Association of Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators (AECO) and members of the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO). These trade member organisations work to establish sustainable tourism in polar regions, fighting mass tourism by limiting ships and shore visits, and creating guidelines that protect fragile environments and rare wildlife.

We’ve also committed ourselves to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. These guiding principles will take us steps ahead of current regulations to offer you greener and more sustainable expedition cruises on and for the planet.

Serving Planet-Friendly Plant-Based Food

We offer full menus of delicious plant-based dishes that will impress even those yet to be convinced by this way of eating. These meals not only have low or even zero CO2 footprints, they also promote healthier living and prove conclusively that vegan and vegetarian cuisine can still taste great. We’ve also put in place food management waste programmes on all our ships, aiming to reduce food waste by at least 30%.

Investing in Green Tech

Building our two new hybrid-powered expedition ships, MS Roald Amundsen and MS Fridtjof Nansen, represents the biggest investment in our almost 130 years of history. They are packed with ground-breaking green technology, such as battery packs, heat recovery systems, and a cutting-edge hull design. These innovations combined reduce carbon emissions by more than 20 %, compared to other cruise ships of the same size.

Hurtigruten stopped using heavy fuel oil more than a decade ago and campaign for its worldwide ban. To set a new standard, we are also considering a range of new, green fuel options, including biofuels made from organic waste.