The 22 Best Galapagos Islands Tours
Land-Based Guide
- Last Updated: September 22, 2024
Here is a complete list of 22 Galapagos Islands tours, a selection of the best land-based tours from San Cristobal, Santa Cruz, and Isabela islands. I’ve tried almost all of the tours myself and written detailed articles about them, which I will link together. While based in any of the three main islands, there are 7 land-based tours starting from San Cristobal, 10 from Santa Cruz, and 5 from Isabela.
Snorkeling and scuba diving tours are not part of this list, if you are interested in those specific tours check my full dedicated articles on snorkeling here and on scuba diving here.
Table of Contents
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The Best Galapagos Islands Tours
General Info
All the Galapagos islands are part of the Galapagos National Park, and therefore there are a number of things you should know:
- Most of the activities have to be done on a tour with a Naturalist guide.
- All the agencies have the same prices (although you can barter if you book more than one tour).
- Most beaches have opening and closing times (turtle nesting reasons).
- You should book your tour at least one day in advance (or you might risk not having a place on the best ones).
- Bring Seasickness Medication for the tours on the water.
- Always use a strong sunscreen (Sun in the Equator line burns more).
- Have mosquito repellant with you, especially at sunset. There are horseflies in the Galápagos.
- You can’t fly a drone here unless you have a special permit from the National Park.
- You can’t rent a motorcycle or a car, everything has to be done by taxi, bus, boat, bicycle, or on foot.
- You can’t and shouldn’t touch the animals on the island.
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The Best Galapagos Islands Tours
San Cristobal Island
1. Highlands Tour - Half Day
The Highlands Tour (or Tour Parte Alta in Spanish) is the best tour in San Cristobal if you want to explore its interior. You will literally cross the entire island and visit the Laguna El Junco, which is a volcanic crater lake, the Tortoise Reserve “La Galapaguera” and to conclude swim on the beautiful Puerto Chino beach.
View the full blog post here: HIGHLANDS TOUR IN SAN CRISTOBAL
2. 360 Tour - Full Day
This is without a doubt the most famous tour on the island. If you are an adventurous soul and you like the water this is the tour for you. Here you will go on a boat ride around the entire island – hence the 360 name.
The highlights are Bahia Rosa Blanca beach (on the photo underneath), a huge and gorgeous white sandy beach with turquoise water, snorkeling in Kicker Rock, birdwatching at Punta Pitt, inland exploration, and many other stops. For a land-based experience, this is definitely on my top 5 Galapagos Islands tours list.
View the full blog post here: 360 TOUR IN SAN CRISTOBAL
Also, if you’re interested in beaches: BEST 5 BEACHES IN SAN CRISTOBAL
Book your tour: Full Day Tour 360 San Cristobal – Best of the Island (great reviews)
3. Opuntias Garden Tour - Half Day
This is a garden of giant cacti, deep in the highlands of San Cristobal island. On this tour, you can see many other types of fauna and flora endemic to the Galapagos and on the last stop you end up swimming at the beach.
I found this tour operator “Agencia Turística Huellas de Darwin” that comes here on a mountain bike tour, with a naturalist guide and it even includes a lunch box. This is one of the few tours I, unfortunately, didn’t have time to do but noted on my map. If you do the tour with them I’d love to hear some feedback from you down in the comments, thanks!
To book this tour contact them at:
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4. Kayak Tour - Half Day
If you like water sports and adventure you might like this tour. It’s a 5-6 hours tour on the water. This tour is provided by the same company that does the Opuntias Garden tour “Agencia Turística Huellas de Darwin”. If you do the tour with them I’d love to hear some feedback from you down in the comments, thanks!
To book this tour contact them at:
5. Coffee Tour - Half Day
This is probably one of the coolest and tastier tours in San Cristobal. The name of the coffee farm is Hacienda El Cafetal. It’s not advertised anywhere and it’s a big surprise for many people.
Yes, there is coffee produced solely in San Cristobal, and it’s an amazing Arábica coffee. Once I drank my first coffee on this island, I was mind blown, and I usually love specialty and strong arabica coffee.
To book this tour contact them at:
6. Española Day - Full Day
Española Island is home to many endemic species in the Galapagos. They only exist on this island. It’s a day tour and it’s the only big island (not counting Santa Cruz island) you can visit on a day trip from San Cristobal. This tour is on the list of tours in San Cristobal only because it is the easiest and most common way to visit the island when you are land-based in the Galapagos.
Here you can find a special marine iguana with green and red coloration, a waved albatross colony (it’s their only breeding site in the world), the Española mockingbird, the Española lava lizard, sea lions, blue-footed boobies, and many other unique species. There is also a part of the tour where you snorkel or dive in Gardner Islet and find many underwater wonders.
To book this tour: Check the local company Wreck Bay’s website, or book it online on Viator with any of the tours underneath:
7. Lobos Island - Half Day
Isla Lobos island tour is a mixed tour, both on water and on land. You have a 1-hour stroll on the island where you can spot sea lions, frigate birds, and blue-footed boobies and also do some snorkeling and find rays and turtles. In the end, you will go to Playa Ochoa for some beach time.
I visited Isla Lobos island on the way to Kicker Rock for my first dive in San Cristóbal. Here is where you do the test dive to check your skills.
To book this tour: Check the local company Planet Ocean Galápagos website, or book it online on Viator here: Tour Lobos Island from San Cristobal
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San Cristobal, Galapagos
The Best Galapagos Islands Tours
Santa Cruz Island
8. Highlands Tour - Half Day
The Highlands Tour (or Tour Parte Alta in Spanish) is one of the best tours in Santa Cruz for inland exploration. You will venture to the middle of the island and visit “Los Gemelos”, which are ancient lava-made crater pits, followed by a visit deep inside some impressive lava tunnels and end up at the tortoise reserve “Las Primícias”.
View the full blog post here: HIGHLANDS TOUR IN SANTA CRUZ
To book this tour: Check the local company Galapagos Dreams’s website, or book it online on Viator here: The Giant Tortoise Experience | Lava Tubes + Los Gemelos
9. Bay Tour - Half Day
The Bay Tour or Tour de Bahía is another of the best land-based tours in Santa Cruz. It lets you see all the incredible water and lava-rock formations that exist on this island and a lot of its flora and fauna. All of this in just a half-day tour. You will snorkel with lots of tropical fish and hopefully, turtles and baby sharks, visit and swim at Las Grietas canyon, and watch the beautiful Love Channel, between other places.
View the full blog post here: BAY TOUR IN SANTA CRUZ
To book this tour: Check the local company Galapagos Dream’s website, or book it online on Viator here: Half Day Bay Tour in Santa Cruz Island
10. Dragon Hill Tour - Half Day
The Cerro Dragon or Dragon Hill tour is usually booked with a cruise for its remoteness on the northwestern point of Santa Cruz island. Its main attraction is the multitude of beautiful orange land iguanas and marine iguanas, from where the name Dragon comes from. You will also see many Opuntia giant cacti and probably a lot of flamingos and other birds. On some of the tours you can snorkel and you might see baby reef sharks and sea lions.
Here I’ll leave you some companies whose yachts pass there: Letty by Ecoventura, Celebrity Xpedition by Celebrity Cruises, Explorer II by EQ Touring, La Pinta and Isabela II by Metropolitan Touring.
To book this tour please check with the tour agencies on the island, I couldn’t find any online that I could honestly suggest to you apart from the cruises.
11. Coffee Tour - Half Day
The coffee farm is called El Trapiche Ecológico Galapagos and its coffee tour is probably one of the tastier tours in Santa Cruz. Yes, there is coffee produced solely in Santa Cruz. I’ll be honest, the coffee I tasted in San Cristobal was tastier than the one from Santa Cruz, but I’m not sure it was from this farm, so maybe their coffee is as amazing as San Cristobal’s one. Give it a try!
To book this tour contact them at:
12. Bartolomé Island - Full Day
The Bartolomé Island Tour is the most iconic tour you can do on the Galapagos islands. You will go on a gorgeous sailing ship starting at Santa Cruz island, passing through the Daphne islands, and arrive at the beautiful Bartolomé island, almost an islet from Santiago island. With luck, you might spot some penguins as we did and then you go snorkeling on one of the paradisiac beaches in the near.
The name of the island comes from Charles Darwin’s friend Bartholomew James Sullivan who was the principal surveyor and second lieutenant aboard the HMS Beagle. Bartolomé is a volcanic tuff islet on the east side of Santiago island. It is the most photographed place in the Galapagos archipelago. For a land-based experience, this is definitely on my top 5 Galapagos Islands tours list.
View the full blog post here: BARTOLOMÉ ISLAND TOUR
To book this tour: Check the local company Galapagos Dreams’s website, or book it online on Viator with any of the tours underneath:
14. Isabela Island - Full Day
Isabela island is the third main island of the archipelago and it happens to be the biggest one of the three. If you have time I do recommend you to actually go and sleep there and start your tours from there, Isabela island’s landscape is wonderful. Two-thirds of the island is unoccupied and you can’t visit it unless you go on a National Geographic expedition or some scientific research trip of a sort.
Most of the Isabela day tours include the Tintoreras islets activity, there you will snorkel next to Puerto Villamil town (Isabela’s “capital”) and you will probably see some penguins and reef sharks. Personally, I would suggest you speak to the Galapagos Dreams travel agency and tell them you’d prefer to go to Los Túneles instead of Tintoreras Islets, for there you can see amazing underwater lava structures and wildlife.
They can probably organize it and you pay a little more (the Los Tuneles tour is more expensive and far away than Tintoreras, but is so worth it). If you don’t have the time or don’t want to bother here are a couple of Isabela days tours you can book from Santa Cruz.
To book this tour: Check the local company Galapagos Dreams’s website, or book it online on Viator with any of the tours underneath:
15. Floreana Island - Full Day
The Floreana Island Tour is the most mysterious and at the same time beautiful tour, you can do on the Galapagos Islands. From tales of piracy, an Austrian baroness and her love trio, a peculiar German toothless doctor, and murder this island has it all.
This tour has to be done with an agency or you can alternatively take a boat to Floreana island and spend multiple days there, as there is some infrastructure on the island (not like in Bartolomé Island where you can only visit it on a tour).
The name of the island comes from Ecuador’s first president Juan José Flores, whose administration officially recognized the Galapagos islands as part of Ecuador’s territory. Previously the island was called Charles island (after King Charles II of England) and Santa Maria island (one of Columbus’s caravels). Floreana is the 4th and last island with human settlements in the Galapagos archipelago.
View the full blog post here: FLOREANA ISLAND TOUR
To book this tour: Check the local company Galapagos Dreams’s website, or book it online on Viator with any of the tours underneath:
16. Plazas Islets - Full Day
These are two of the many uninhabited islets in the Galapagos. They were formed by an uplift of the seabed giving it its flat but very unique shape. They are located on the northeastern side of Santa Cruz island.
The visit is in the channel between the North and South Plaza islets, in the part where the islet slopes a little towards the water. There are many opuntia cacti and very beautiful red low-ground vegetation. On this tour, you will see many iguanas, swallow-tailed gulls, and blue-footed boobies. You end up on the tour snorkeling at Punta Carrion where you will see a plenitude of marine life.
To book this tour: Check the local company Galapagos Dreams’s website, or book it online on Viator here: Day Trip to South Plaza Island from Puerto Ayora
17. Santa Fé Island - Full Day
Santa Fé is one of the biggest islands in the Galapagos and it’s located just 20 km away from Santa Cruz. For that reason, it’s usually part of the daily tours in Santa Cruz. The island is known for its large colony of sea lions that live on the two beaches and its giant opuntia cacti.
You will probably find the endemic Santa Fé island land iguanas (yellow colored), blue-footed boobies, frigatebirds, and other seabirds. After the walk, you can snorkel from the boat and spot amazing marine life. If you’re interested there are also pure snorkeling and scuba diving tours to Santa Fé.
To book this tour: Check the local company Macarron Scuba Diver’s website, or book it online on Viator with any of the tours underneath:
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The Best Galapagos Islands Tours
Isabela Island
18. Sierra Negra Volcano Tour - Full Day
The Sierra Negra Volcano Tour is the best volcano hike you can do in the Galápagos and one of the best tours in Isabela island. For a land-based experience, this is definitely on my top 5 Galapagos Islands tours list.
You will walk on the rim of the massive Sierra Negra volcano’s caldera, whose last eruption happened just in 2018, and visit the Chico Volcano, a little offspring of Sierra Negra with a view to the Northwestern part of Isabela Island.
This tour has to be done with a Naturalist guide from the Galápagos National Park. You can book a tour with an agency and they hire the guide. You can’t simply hike your way up, unfortunately.
Along the hike, the landscape changes at least three times. From foggy and green, to dry and orange, and then to red and black. At the last stage, everything around you looks like an apocalypse. It’s an impressive and desolate place created by the destructive force of nature.
View the full blog post here: SIERRA NEGRA VOLCANO TOUR
To book this tour: Check the local company Coral Blanco Tour Operator (click on the icons), or book it online on Viator with any of the tours underneath:
19. Los Tuneles Tour - Full Day
The Los Tuneles or Cabo Rosa tour is the coolest snorkeling tour you can do in the archipelago and one of the best tours in Isabela island. You will see so much wildlife you won’t believe it.
We saw on the surface blue-footed boobies, penguins, sea lions, marine iguanas and orange crabs and underwater reef sharks, turtles, a sea horse, a sea lion, an eagle ray, a stingray, an octopus, a lobster, and beautiful schools of fish.
Apart from the wildlife, the lava structures underwater are mind-blowing, you can dive through infinite tunnels and caves, and to top it we saw like in Angelita’s cenote in Mexico, an hydrogen sulfide cloud. What an experience! For a land-based experience, this is definitely on my top 5 Galápagos Islands tours list.
View the full blog post here: LOS TUNELES TOUR IN ISABELA
To book this tour: Check the local company Coral Blanco Tour Operator (click on the icons), or book it online on Viator with any of the tours underneath:
20. Trillizos Volcano Tour - Half Day
The Trillizos Volcano Tour is the most adventurous and probably one of the most secret tours of Isabela island. You will literally enter inside an artery of the main Sierra Negra volcano. Once inside you will encounter the hole from where the lava was expelled many years ago and a room full of Quartz stone, among other surprising things.
If you want to have the feeling you’re in a Pirates of the Caribbean, Indiana Jones, or Tomb Raider movie, this is definitely the tour for you.
According to Jhan the son of Ulise, our guide, previously they didn’t know the hole was there, so their cows used to fall inside once the vegetation was too thick and then they would go down and collect the meat leaving the bones behind (you can still find them there).
The entire cave is not completely explored. Only a couple of rooms are. If you look in Google Maps and follow the lines of the Trillizos volcano until the Sierra Negra one you can actually see there might be other caves all the way through, completely unexplored. For a land-based experience, this is definitely on my top 5 Galápagos Islands tours list.
View the full blog post here: TRILLIZOS VOLCANO TOUR
To book this tour: Contact the owners, Ulise and Jhan directly (click on the icons).
21. Las Tintoreras Tour - Half Day
Las Tintoreras islet is one of the most famous tours in Isabela island and it’s usually the only one you get if you come from Santa Cruz on a daily trip.
It is an area on the water, 10 minutes by boat from Puerto Villamil’s town that was formed when the lava of Sierra Negra’s volcano got in contact with the oxygen forming a solid outer shell, like a lava tunnel’s carcass, and because it is on the water it formed some canals where daily hundreds of baby reef sharks (tintoreras) tend to go to. Here you will also see blue-footed boobies, marine iguanas, and with luck some penguins.
After the land tour, there is some time for snorkeling where you might find turtles, rays, and sea lions.
To book this tour: Check the local company Coral Blanco Tour Operator (click on the icons), or book it online on Viator with any of the tours underneath:
22. Sierra Negra Sulfur Mines Tour - Full Day
This one is among the most epic tours in Isabela I, unfortunately, didn’t have time to do but it looks absolutely stunning. Instead of seeing the volcano from a viewpoint with its red and black surfaces of lava, you get to see and smell a vivid yellow sulfur mine with constant smoke coming out of it.
It is an amazing alternative to do if you’ve already seen the volcano from the top. When I go back to Isabela this is for sure the first tour I will do. It must be incredible. And very smelly Ahah.
If you want to do the Sierra Negra Volcano tour I’ll leave you the link down below.
View the full blog post here: SIERRA NEGRA VOLCANO TOUR
To book this tour: Check the local company Coral Blanco Tour Operator (click on the icons)
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Isabela, Galapagos
All The Articles About The Galapagos
San Cristobal Island – The easternmost island of the Galapagos, the “Isla Bonita”
Santa Cruz Island – The island with the best tourism infrastructure.
Isabela Island – The most adventurous and less explored island of the main three.
