Galapagos live aboard and land adventures

[Homunculus]

hi all,

investigating an option of doing a live aboard in Galapagos in April 2024 with land stops and excursions. Does anyone have any suggestions of an operator that combines both? Has anyone does a trip that was split ~50/50 between diving and land explorations? Thank you

 

[Dan]

I have been on Galapagos Master, twice in October and once in December. They include a land tour in Baltra and Charles Darwin Research Center in Santa Cruz.

I was planning to go back for the 4th time in December (next month), but due to Avian Flu, they close Cabo Douglas (where you would see Equatorial Penguin, Red-lipped Batfish and Marine Iguana) and Punta Vincente Roca (where you would see Mola Mola and Bullhead Sharks). So, I made a last minute decision to reschedule the trip to later time when they re-open those sites and booked a trip to Maldives, instead.

If I were you, I would check when those dive sites are open back, before going there, otherwise, you'll be disappointed if you still couldn't go to Cabo Douglas and Punta Vincente Roca.

 

[Scared Silly]

My suggestion is to book week long a dive live-a-board and go diving. You will get a couple of land excursions. Then book another week on a naturalist live-a-board and have daily land excursions along with snorkeling.

That is what we did as well as some others (we were on the same boats for both weeks). We all had a blast, all agree it was money well spent. Plus the extra week we had on our own. Three weeks total.

We did two land excursions twice which was absolutely okay and one water excursion where the snorkeling was better than the diving.

 

[Still Kicking]

Whatever your itinerary, I would you make sure you spend time at Wolf and Darwin islands. The land-based tours were interesting but those two places were mind-blowing for me.

 

[gwklein]

Liveaboards in the Galapagos are strictly controlled. They must follow the routes directed by the government. Additionally, a diving liveaboard is limited to two land excursions per trip. All land excursions must be accompanied by a local guide. So you wont find any traditional liveaboard itineraries that offer a 50/50 split between diving and land. The government allows nature liveaboards that offer mainly land excursions but some diving as well. The diving on these cruises used to be limited to two days. Not sure if this is still true. Then third option for diving is land based hotels with daily dive or land excursions. No limitation on the number of days between land and diving, but the diving is limited to nearby sites.

This was a site a used awhile ago to try and make my decision was type of Galapagos trip I wanted to do:

Galapagos Diving - 3 Best Ways by Liveaboard, Land or Cruise

Galapagos diving by liveaboard, land or cruise. Compare Galapagos dive trips, scuba tours & cruises. Learn when to go & what you will see.

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