The best way to visit the Galapagos Islands is on a cruise, allowing you to visit different islands, including more remote ones, as well as visiting the islands early in the morning, one of the best times for observing the wildlife. For this reason, Llama Travel offers two cruise options. The Galapagos Voyager is a first class 16-berth yacht and the Galapagos Explorer II is a 100-berth cruise ship.
On both boats, you have land and sea excursions in small groups of a maximum of 16 people, and the opportunity to go snorkelling. Both the Galapagos Explorer II and the Galapagos Voyager have experienced naturalist guides, allowing you to make the most of your visits to the islands. You will have a briefing the previous evening about the next day’s excursions. There is usually a morning excursion and an afternoon excursion every day, with lunch on the boat. On some days, you will visit two different islands in a day, and on other days, you will visit different visitor sites on the same island.
The Galapagos Voyager is a first class yacht, with comfortable social areas, covered and open sun decks and bright cabins with air conditioning, en-suite bathrooms with powerful hot showers. The larger Galapagos Explorer II is a more comfortable ship, with better on board facilities and larger cabins. The Galapagos Explorer II is more stable, helpful if you are prone to sea sickness. The excursions are carried out in small groups, but it does take longer to disembark and embark for the excursions. Expected tips are higher. The Galapagos Voyager is more intimate, so you will generally get to know your guide and shipmates better, which can mean that you get more out of the excursions. Smaller boats are also able to anchor at some of the smaller visitor sites which the cruise ships cannot visit. However, the cabins are smaller and sea movement is felt more and there may be some engine noise when sailing at night.