4, 5 or 8-day cruises, from £2,838 (8 days)Fly from Guayaquil or Quito to Baltra
Tuesdays and Fridays 3, 4 or 7 nights
Isabela II
The Isabela II is a top-of-the-range cruise liner designed for clients who wish to experience the exploratory spirit of a Galápagos Island cruise but in an atmosphere of exclusivity and relative luxury. She has capacity for just 40 passengers (there are 24 crew including three English-speaking naturalist guides) but the scale of the amenities and public areas is normally found only on larger ships. Accommodation is in 21 lower berth cabins in four room types, all of which have air-conditioning and an outside view. The décor is extremely smart: rooms are decorated in unfussy cream and blue enhanced with generous use of polished wood. All cabins have seats, dressing tables and cupboards, and four cabins have double beds for either single or double occupancy. There is a bar-saloon, dining room, spacious sun-deck and well-stocked library/video room. There is a Jacuzzi and solarium, and a glass-bottomed boat offers an alternative to snorkelling for enjoying the colourful underwater life.
The Tuesday itinerary of an 8 day cruise is as follows:
TUESDAY: Arrive at the airport on Baltra Island and embark. Cruise to North Seymour close by, a small, arid island enlivened nevertheless by large colonies of sealions, marine iguanas and swallow-tailed gulls. A trail leads through mangroves past one of the Galápagos' principal nesting sites for blue-footed boobies and frigate birds.
WEDNESDAY: Española Island: host to one of the biggest wildlife populations in the archipelago, with many species, such as waved albatross, settling on the cliffs and pebbles. At Gardner Bay there is a fine white-sand beach frequented by a colony of sealions, and turtles nest here. On the other side of the island at Punta Suarez you will see a spectacular blow-hole with spray shooting 30m in the air.
THURSDAY: Floreana Island: pirates and convicts have left their mark here, and you can still see the Post Office barrel whalers used to send and receive mail. At Punta Cormorant there is a lagoon favoured by pink flamingoes and a significant turtle nesting site.
FRIDAY: Santa Cruz: the most highly populated island where Puerto Ayora (restaurants, hotels and shops) is located. Here you will visit the Charles Darwin Research Station with its famous giant tortoises. In the afternoon there is a guided visit to the interior highlands, where there are five different vegetation zones contrasting with the arid coastline.
SATURDAY: Tower Island: a distant, low and flat island, formed by a volcano that barely cleared the surface of the ocean, and inhabited by a large number of nesting birds including tropicbirds and storm petrels. Snorkelling with hammerhead sharks is possible here.
SUNDAY: Fernandina: the youngest and most volcanically active island where you will follow a sandy trail through the nesting areas of vast colonies of marine iguanas; the reptiles congregate here in their thousands, an impressive sight. After a cruise along Bolívar Channel there is a wet landing at Urbina Bay on Isabela Island for a walk to seek out giant tortoises and land iguanas.
MONDAY: James Island: dotted with pinnacles and cliffs. The dark sands at Puerto Egas on James Bay are inhabited by sally lightfoot crabs. There is also a visit to Bartolomé Island with beautiful white-sand beaches where you can swim and spot penguins.
TUESDAY: Proceed to Baltra, disembark and return to the airport for flight to the mainland.
The itinerary is subject to change without notice due to operational or weather reasons |