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  • hake-tfc 21 posts

    Flying into Quito next year and planning flying on to Baltra Airport on Galapogus.

    Anyone who has been to either of these destinations any tips would be greatly appreciated.

    We’re flying with 3 children ages 8,6 and an infant. Planning 2 full days in Quito and 9 days in Galapogus. Doing it DIY to save money staying on Islands and doing day trips. Looking for hotel reccomendations and day trip ideas given basing ourselves at hotels on Santa cruz and San Cristobal.

    How easy is it to get about on the islands? Taxis, boats etc.

    Similarly and must do things in Quito what part of town is best place to base yourself?

    Thanks

    Cat 159 posts

    Book a boat tour around the Galapagos – the day trips will cost more per day than a cruise, will be closer to the population centres, and will see less incredible wildlife as a result. Also, getting about with 3 kids is a consideration, as it’s likely to be a pain!

    I highly recommend you book a multi-day tour. If you want to keep costs down, book something last minute.

    freckles 290 posts

    I did galapagos on an organised tour staying on land with day boat trips and.boat transfers from airport and between islands. What I remember is that getting on boats is (dis)organised chaos – even though tour company had booked we still just all lined up and were put on first available boat! Bit of a free for all.
    Also, do take care getting on and off – a few people ended up in the water at one arrival point.

    LD27 424 posts

    @hake-tfc. Have you booked anything? Would be interested to know what your research has found. Are you aware the entry fee to the Galapagos has recently doubled to $200?

    We have just used a 241 to book flights for later this year with IB from Madrid to Panama and then plan to go via Colombia to Ecuador and the Galapagos. My cousin has just returned from a Hurtigruten tour on Santa Cruz II and it sounds amazing. She seemed to get a better deal from Australia than we get here in UK!

    Have been doing a lot of research and will probably do land and cruise. But there is so much choice, I don’t really know where to start. The flights are very expensive. Have you found a suitable package? A lot of the ships I’ve looked at are much smaller than the Santa Cruz II. I’ve just come back from Tromso and was a bit disappointed with Hurtigruten.

    Thanks for any info you have.

    davefl 2,006 posts

    I’ll be there in less than 2 weeks time. $200 + $20 for the TCT card, all due in cash only.

    A lot of the ships won’t take you unless you book a flight package with them, or if they will they’ll add a penalty charge to your cruise fee.

    As I booked so close to the sail date my options were very limited and especially finding one that didn’t want 100% single suppliment. Ultimately booked it with the Happy Gringo agency (google them) based out of Quito, there will be a rep at the airport in Quito to assist and a rep at Baltra airport also. Flight package on all of them is $500. HG had a slightly lower price than the others but the service has been good over email and whatsapp.

    The only thing that worried me was having to do direct bank transfer in USD rather than CC – the CC surcharge was 5%, but all went ok.

    LD27 424 posts

    I’ll be there in less than 2 weeks time. $200 + $20 for the TCT card, all due in cash only.

    A lot of the ships won’t take you unless you book a flight package with them, or if they will they’ll add a penalty charge to your cruise fee.

    As I booked so close to the sail date my options were very limited and especially finding one that didn’t want 100% single suppliment. Ultimately booked it with the Happy Gringo agency (google them) based out of Quito, there will be a rep at the airport in Quito to assist and a rep at Baltra airport also. Flight package on all of them is $500. HG had a slightly lower price than the others but the service has been good over email and whatsapp.

    The only thing that worried me was having to do direct bank transfer in USD rather than CC – the CC surcharge was 5%, but all went ok.

    Thanks for that. Are you on a relatively small boat? I was looking at under 50 passengers and some as low as 16/20. Also need single cabin as OH wants to go to the wineries of Argentina whilst I’m visiting the Galapagos. We changed our itinerary last year at short notice (well OH changed his) so instead of going to the wineries then he joined me in Rapa Nui!

    Most of the packages I’ve looked at include flights. Can’t work out why they use both Quito and Baltra (ie circular). It’s too late now, but I’ll look at Happy Gringo tomorrow. I think you said you were also going to Panama. There seems to be a lot more than I thought there. Will be interested to know you find things.

    Changing continents slightly. Have just booked flights to Sofia as both Sofia and Vienna seem to be the only options for reasonably timed flight arrivals into Yerevan. Wizz unfortunately. Hope they’ll be ok. Only used them before for Cluj and Riga. For this trip I’ll be travelling alone!

    davefl 2,006 posts

    @LD27 Yes, Treasure, 16 pax Catamaran and all cabins have balconies. Only a 10% surcharge for single.
    Panama from GYE on the way back from San Cristobal.

    The outbound is a pain, UIO-GYE-GPS, there’s an hour layover at GYE. If I got on the direct flights the pickups at Baltra would be more complex for the boat captains.

    The reason they do loops is that as I understand it each boat is limited to one stop in each place over a set number of days by the authorities. So they will pick up up at Baltra, and drop you at San Cristobal, or the reverse. If you’re on a longer than 4-5 day cruise you may be able to get in an out of Baltra. There’s also a max passenger per guide/naturalist ratio of 16:1.

    The flights the boat captains choose to book you on sync up with the itinerary, so my outbound syncs so that they take you on a morning excursion on the island, then to the boat, and then when I land at SC there’s a morning trip to the nature centre and then on to the airport.

    For Yerevan I went MAN-BRU-YER on Brussels, got in just before midnight. Didn’t fancy Wiz and there are really no other options unless you want to arrive at 3am.

    davefl 2,006 posts

    P.S. Most of the flights to international onward destinations go from GYE not UIO. Guyaquil is listed on gov.uk as a no go area, with dire warnings not to leave the airport and only transit airside.

    I’ve managed this by taking the last flight out to Panama, but I honestly don’t think there’s an issue if you were to go landside, take a shuttle bus to the sheraton/hilton etc, and return the following day – however it would invalidate your travel insurance.

    You can request that the flight package is to/from whichever of UIO/GYE you need it to be, the price won’t change as they pad package price to take it into account. Mine is UIO-GPS, SCY-GYE.

    LD27 424 posts

    @davefl. Thank you so much for such helpful information. Lots to digest. Saw the info about GYE on Gov.uk website so aimed to steer clear and use UIO. Seems a bit OTT to me. Avianca Ecuador seem to fly to BOG and MDE from UIO so hopefully will be ok.

    After seeing the inauguration this pm and reading through the long list of Executive Orders, OH is now getting worried about Panama. He’s even suggesting I take him off my 241 and I travel on my own from Panama to Argentina and meet him there! Think he just wants to spend more time taking it easy and enjoying the wine!

    Enjoy your trip and safe travels.

    davefl 2,006 posts

    @davefl. Thank you so much for such helpful information. Lots to digest. Saw the info about GYE on Gov.uk website so aimed to steer clear and use UIO. Seems a bit OTT to me. Avianca Ecuador seem to fly to BOG and MDE from UIO so hopefully will be ok.

    I have an app from Zurich called Crisis24 that alerts to all environmnetal and security situations and it’s pretty bad in Ecuador. Alerts almost every day. There were 80 people killed yesterday and 32 kidnapped but the issues are north of Quitoa near the borders. I spoke to my rep in Quito and she said Guyaquil is pretty dangerous but not as bad as painted and she was the one who reassured me that a hotel shuttle from the airport for 3 mins would be fine 🙂

    After seeing the inauguration this pm and reading through the long list of Executive Orders, OH is now getting worried about Panama. He’s even suggesting I take him off my 241 and I travel on my own from Panama to Argentina and meet him there! Think he just wants to spend more time taking it easy and enjoying the wine!
    Enjoy your trip and safe travels.

    I didn’t watch any of it but I added Panama to the plan because of his comments a couple of weeks ago. Decided to tick it off the list before he invades that and Greenland.
    Can’t blame him for wanting more great wine, I’m sorry I’m missing out Mendoza but there will be plenty to be had on my travels in Chile, Argentina and Uruguay.

    Thanks and enjoy Yerevan. It’s a suprisingly interesting and beautiful city.

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