Puerto Ayora Tours & Trips

My friend and I made a last minute decision to head to the Galapagos and found Tour Radar to coordinate our trip. It was fantastic! It was certainly helpful to have insider knowledge since we had little time to do our own research. When we did have questions (and we did pretty much every day!) I have to give tremendous credit to Tour Radar’s local contact, Jeferson Paucar at Responsible Travel. I don’t think he is ever away from his work because he always immediately answered my DM’s no matter what time of day or night. He was outstanding. As for the trip itself, Galapagos is just magical. Isabela was our favorite island due to its smaller town size, beautiful beaches and friendly vibe. Snorkeling was incredibly amazing with the clearest water. We did the 6 hour Sierra Negra volcano hike. The hike up and back is a bit of a grind, but the enormity of the caldera and the hike down the other side into the lava flow area is amazing. Please bring LOTS of water and some bars. It is described as a 6 hour hike and it is just that. As an avid trail runner and hiker, I was expecting a lot of stopping along the way and thought I might feel slowed down. That was definitely not the case!

The guides were excellent and very knowledgeable. The hotel Gran Tortuga on Isabelle Island was good and they were very helpful about everything. The hotel Peregrina on Santa Cruz had very helpful staff however they lacked organization on our reservation and room. The maintenance of the hotel is not very good as there were numerous small problems with our first room and when we passed through on the return trip we ended up with a room that the AC didn't work this was due both to the lack of maintenance and the disorganization with our reservation and they didn't hold our original reservation and instead gave our room to somebody that just walked in without a reservation. Margo was great to communicate with and resolved any small issues we had.

Jeferson from Responsible Travel was an excellent communicator before travel and during travel. He could always be reached for any issues. I did the 5 day tour Galápagos. I was a solo Traveller. Everyday I was put with different guides and different groups. Some spoke very little English which was disappointing. However some were good in English and I could understand.