Visiting the Galapagos Islands By Sea: Onboard the Celebrity Xpedition
When visiting the Galapagos Islands, you want to maximize your experience and the best way to do so is by boarding a cruise. While you can stay on the islands, most of Galapagos is national parkland and requires a naturalist to accompany you in order to visit. We chose to visit the Galapagos Islands in 2022 by booking a stay on the Celebrity Xpedition, and it definitely was the best choice we could have made. In this post, we’ll explain why we chose to visit the Galapagos Islands, why we booked the Celebrity Xpedition, and what to expect!
Visiting the Galapagos Islands should rank at the top of your bucket list! It is one of the world’s most famous destinations for viewing wildlife and the islands contain a variety of plant and wildlife species that cannot be found anywhere else.
Why Visit Galapagos
The Galapagos Islands are some of the only areas on the planet that have been largely untouched by humanity, leaving the islands in pristine natural condition. As humans largely haven’t been seen as predators on the island, the wildlife is generally not scared by people allowing you to get up close to the wildlife in their natural setting. By visiting the islands, you’ll have the opportunity to swim with sea lions, walk alongside giant tortoises, and see birds only found on the Galapagos Islands. You’ll definitely want to add this to your bucket list and see all the sites that inspired Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution.
Getting to Galapagos
The Galapagos Islands are located about 600 miles off the coast of mainland Ecuador. While you can get to Galapagos by boat, most travelers choose to fly to Galapagos from mainland Ecuador. Most Ecuador flights originate from Quito or Guayaquil and take about 2 hours to get to Galapagos.
The two main airports in the Galapagos Islands are on the islands of Baltra and San Cristobal. Most flights to Galapagos depart in the morning, so most travelers choose to spend at least one day in Ecuador before departing to Galapagos.
As Galapagos is a protected National Park a $100 fee is required to be paid to enter Galapagos once at the airport.
If you choose to book a Galapagos and Quito package through Celebrity cruises, Celebrity will typically book your flight between Quito and Galapagos and vice versa, and also will pre-pay the National Park fee for you.
When to Visit Galapagos
There is no bad time to visit the Galapagos Islands, but different times of year provide different opportunities. The Galapagos Islands and Ecuador mainly have two seasons: the “wet season” and the “dry season”. The wet season typically ranges from January to May and tends to have warmer weather ranging from the low 80°s to the low 90°s. The dry season typically ranges from June to December and tends to have slightly cooler temperatures ranging from the high 60°s to the low 80°s. Of these seasons, March and April tend to be the hottest and wettest months while August tends to be the coolest month to visit.
We visited in June of 2022, so on the edge between the wet and dry seasons. Most days tended to be slightly cloudy, with very moderate temperatures. We only got a few sprinkles of rain, so was a very pleasant time to visit the islands.
Benefits of traveling in the wet season is the water temperatures tend to be warmer. In the wet season, water temperatures generally range from the mid to high 70°s, while in the dry season, water temperatures generally range from the high 60°s to mid 70°s. Most cruise lines provide you with a “shorty” wetsuit to use during your vacation, but if traveling independently, it may be worthwhile bringing or renting a wetsuit to allow you to stay comfortable in the water longer. I absolutely hate the cold and was worried about snorkeling in the cooler waters, but the shorty wetsuits provided a lot of warmth, and I was comfortable being in the water for upwards of an hour without a problem. However, benefits of traveling in the cooler, dry season is that the cold current brings in an abundance of plankton which attracts more marine wildlife.
The question most visitors ask when visiting Galapagos is should I stay on one of the four inhabited islands, or travel aboard a cruise? While we would highly recommend booking a cruise tour, there are pros and cons to each.
There are four major factors most visitors consider when choosing between a land or sea-based trip:
Cost: Visiting the Galapagos Islands tends to be pricey however, choosing a land vacation can be cheaper than visiting onboard a cruise. There are hotels and restaurants travelers can visit on Santa Cruz, San Cristobal, Isabela, and Floreana islands, but options may be limited. There are a variety of cruise options ranging from a basic cruise to living aboard luxury yachts, however, even basic cruises can be more expensive than a land-based tour.
Access: Because only 4 of the Galapagos islands are inhabited, by doing a land-based tour you are limited to visiting islands that are able to be reached in a single day. Tours can generally only be arranged out of the main port towns in Santa Cruz, San Cristobal, or Isabela Island. If you visit by cruise, you will be able to explore a larger variety of the islands and see a wider range of plant and wildlife species, as you are not limited to making a roundtrip tour in a single day. As a certified naturalist is required to accompany you to any protected National Park land which makes up most of the islands, either a land-based trip or a sea-based trip will generally result in exploring the islands as a group.
Time Efficiency: If you travel by land, you have more flexibility to start and end your trip whenever you like. However, you will spend more time traveling on the island to get to the start of your tour and on a boat getting to and from the islands and less time exploring the various islands. Also, due to the time required to get to and from your destination, you will generally only be able to do one tour per day. If you travel by sea, your embarkment and disembarkment dates will be fixed based on the ship’s schedule. But your time tends to be more efficient as most of the travel to and from the islands occurs overnight. As you’re spending less time during the day getting between islands, cruises tend to offer 2-3 excursions per day so you can see more of the islands in a shorter amount of time.
Accommodations: Travelers who visit by land typically stay at hotels that have more spacious rooms and common spaces. By staying on solid land, you also have a lower chance of experiencing sea sickness. Accommodations onboard cruises tend to be smaller unless you pay a premium for the upgraded staterooms. And since you’re spending more time on a boat, you’re more prone to experiencing sea sickness.
As visiting the Galapagos Islands is typically a once-in-a-lifetime experience for most travelers, I believe the pros outweigh the cons for visiting by sea as you’ll spend more time exploring the islands and see a greater variety of plant and wildlife species across the various islands than you will if visiting by land.
There are several cruise lines that operate tours around the Galapagos Island that offer a range of options. Travelers can choose between more budget-friendly ships through lavish yachts. Ships are required to hold 100 passengers or less, so no matter what ship you take, you won’t be with 3,000+ of your closest friends.
Large vs Small Ship
There are a few pros and cons between the larger and smaller ships in the Galapagos. Smaller ships tend to be more personal, and you’ll get to meet your fellow travelers along with some of the crew on the ship, while the larger ships might be a bit more crowded. You’ll have fewer people joining you on excursions on the smaller ships, but the larger ships tend to limit group sizes and send multiple groups per excursion so you won’t be too crowded. Larger ships tend to have more onboard options, but as visiting the Galapagos is more of an adventure cruise, you’ll have to decide how much time you want to be spending on the ship and how much you value having these options.
Why Choose the Celebrity Xpedition
We chose to explore the Galapagos Island onboard Celebrities Xpedition. This ship was originally built in 2004 to hold 100 passengers but was renovated in 2020 to only hold 48 passengers. When we visited, there were 42 passengers aboard and 55 crew members, and the boat felt plenty spacious to hold everyone. However, with less than 50 passengers, we were able to meet all the other passengers we were traveling with along with a good handful of the crew. The crew knew almost everyone’s names by the second day on board and towards the end of the week, knew everyone’s drink preferences. Every member of the crew we interacted with was very pleasant and made sure we were having the best possible experience. Since the Xpedition was built as a larger ship, we also felt less of the rocking caused by the waves than we would have on a smaller ship. Overall, we really enjoyed our experience on board the Celebrity Xpedition and would highly recommend it to anyone considering a cruise in Galapagos.
Celebrity also offers the Xploration which holds 16 passengers and the Flora which holds 100 passengers. The size of the Xploration had us a little worried about seasickness, which led us to book the Xpedition instead. The Flora is Celebrity’s luxury yacht and is the most modern. However, since we were planning to spend most of our time exploring the islands and only being on the boat to eat and sleep, we decided not to pay the premium price tag that comes along with the vessel.
Celebrity Xpedition Inclusions
As with all Celebrity cruises, drinks, tips, and Wifi are included during your vacation. In addition, your bathroom toiletries, robes, slippers, and room service (from 6 am - 11 pm) are also included in all staterooms. If you choose to order room service between 11 pm and 6 am you’ll be charged a nominal fee of $4.95. Additionally, celebrity provides all guests with beach towels, binoculars, snorkeling mask, snorkeling fins, flotation devices, and wetsuits for you to use while exploring Galapagos. Celebrity also provides all their guests with a complimentary backpack, rain poncho, and sunscreen.
Onboard, there are two dining options to choose from, the Darwin Restaurant and the Beagle Grill. For breakfast, Darwin’s Restaurant offers a buffet breakfast that includes fresh fruit and vegetables, locally sourced fish, cereal, oatmeal, bread and rolls, and all your typical hot foods such as bacon, eggs, pancakes, and more. For lunch, both the Darwin Restaurant and the Beagle Grill are open. The Beagle Grill provides a casual lunch with options like pizza, burgers, and fries. Meanwhile, Darwin’s Restaurant has a rotating buffet lunch with different themes daily. Lunch themes we had included an Ecuadorian buffet, international buffet, Spanish buffet, Tex-Mex buffet, and an Italian buffet. For dinner, Darwin’s Restaurant provides a sit-down dinner with some standard options available each night and a rotating menu nightly. There were also two themed nights with a dinner under the stars and a Galapagos BBQ, each held outside on the main deck.
The Discovery Lounge offers a full bar for you to enjoy. You can sit down and relax in the lounge or take your drink with you outside, to the restaurant, back to your room, or wherever you like. There are several documentaries shown daily in the lounge along with the daily naturalist briefing that will inform you of all options for the next day’s itinerary. Make sure to attend these briefings so you can see how challenging different options may be and what you can see on each option, and you’ll be provided an opportunity to sign up for which options you want directly following the briefing. In your free time, which likely isn’t much since this is an adventure cruise, you have options to hit the gym, soak in the hot tub, or relax in a lounge chair.
Celebrity Southern Loop cruise hits some of the biggest highlights of the Galapagos Islands. Onboard the Xpedition we saw red and blue-footed boobies, penguins, giant tortoises, flamingos, the flightless cormorant, albatross, and more! We did the optional pre and post extensions in Quito, Ecuador, and to find out more about that please check out our other blog post. Below is the itinerary we followed:
From celebritycruises.com
Saturday: Baltra and North Seymour Islands
Saturday morning, we departed our hotel in Quito for the airport around 10 am. From there we boarded a flight to Baltra to start our journey exploring the Galapagos Islands. Since we booked the pre and post-Quito tour with Celebrity, they arranged our flights on a charter to get to the islands. Celebrity picked up our large suitcases the night before, and since it was a chartered flight, there were no restrictions on the size of liquids that could be brought in your carry-on, so bringing all of our toiletries was easy. It took about 2 hours to fly from Quito to Baltra and lunch was provided on the plane.
Once we landed in Baltra, it was a short 5-minute drive to get to the dock. From there, Celebrity took all of our carry-on luggage for us to bring onto the ship. We boarded zodiac boats and did a short boat tour around the coast of Baltra to see the wildlife before getting on the Xpedition.
A second lunch was available as soon as we were on board, and our luggage was delivered to our room shortly after. From there, we had a mandatory safety briefing and then got ready for our first excursion!
There were two options for excursions on North Seymour Island: a short walk along the beach or a zodiac ride. The beach walk was very easy and most people, including us, decided on this option. This provided us with our first opportunity to get close to a sea lion colony! We also saw a lot of birds including several blue-footed boobies.
After the beach walk, it was time for the next day’s excursion briefing followed by dinner in Darwin’s Restaurant. After dinner, the boat set sail for our first destination at South Plaza Island.
Sunday: South Plaza and Santa Fe Islands
Sunday morning, breakfast was available at Darwin’s Restaurant starting at 7 am. At 8 am, we had the option of taking a long, rocky walk or a short, rocky walk. Both of these offered a dry landing on some rocks at South Plaza Island. We chose to do the longer walk, which was only a little over a mile. Here we saw more sea lions and blue-footed boobies, along with crabs, lava lizards, and various other birds.
After the morning’s excursion, we had a snorkeling safety briefing and then were outfitted with our snorkeling gear. This was followed by lunch, and then there was some downtime while the boat moved to Santa Fe Island.
In the afternoon, they offered deepwater snorkeling. Most people chose to wait until Monday when snorkeling was offered off of the beach to get comfortable snorkeling before doing a deepwater snorkel, but we decided to try the snorkel. This was one of the top two snorkels we did on this cruise. We had a short ride on the zodiacs to get to the snorkeling site, and then had about 45 minutes in the water. Here we saw some reef sharks, turtles, and lots of fish.
After snorkeling, we had a quick turnaround to make it to the day’s third excursion. A short, sandy, and rocky walk was offered as well as a zodiac ride. We decided to do the walk which had a wet landing on Santa Fe Island. We were greeted by more sea lions and blue-footed boobies and along the walk, we saw several iguanas, one of which was eating some cactus!
After returning from the last excursion of the day, we were welcomed back on board with the cocktail of the day. This was followed by the captain’s welcome toast and the next day’s excursion briefing. We then headed to dinner in Darwin’s Restaurant. And after dinner, the boat set sail for San Cristobal Island.
Monday: San Cristobal Island
Monday morning again started with breakfast at Darwin’s Restaurant starting at 7 am. At 8 am, there were two excursion options: a long, steep, difficult hike with an optional swim or snorkel off the beach afterward, or a zodiac ride with an optional swim or snorkel off the beach afterward.
We chose to do the optional hike to see the red-footed boobies nesting. At the beginning of the hike, there is one spot where you needed to use your hands a bit to climb up the rocks, but after that, the trail flattened out a bit more. Because of that early section, you should only do the hike if you’re in good condition to climb up some boulders. Along the trail, we saw more blue-footed boobies, and because of the season we visited, we saw lots of baby birds as well. At the top we had good views overlooking the island and out to sea.
After finishing the hike, snorkeling was offered off the beach. More people snorkeled than the previous day to get comfortable with the snorkeling gear. We chose not to snorkel though and instead wait for the afternoon’s deep water snorkel. From what we heard, there wasn’t too much to see, but there was one sea lion swimming in the water. We instead chose to relax on the beach instead of taking one of the earlier zodiacs back to the ship. We returned to the boat for lunch and again had some downtime before the next excursion while the ship moved to Tijeretas Cove.
Deepwater snorkeling was offered at Tijeretas Cove where we saw a bunch of fish. While we were glad we chose to do the snorkel, if you’re only wanting to do a couple of the deepwater snorkels, we would recommend choosing other ones instead.
After returning to the ship we had time to shower and get changed before going to enjoy wine and cheese at the Beagle Grill. While relaxing outside, we circumnavigated Kicker Rock where we enjoyed the photo opportunities and saw many birds nesting.
Dinner was to be under the stars at the Beagle Grill, with stargazing following, but it started to rain, so dinner was moved inside to Darwin’s Restaurant. Once again, after dinner, the ship started moving towards our next destination of Floreana Island.
Tuesday: Floreana Island
By Tuesday morning, we started getting into the routine of enjoying breakfast at Darwin’s Restaurant at 7 am. This morning’s excursion was a zodiac ride around Post Office Bay followed by a beach walk to the Post Office and then optional time to swim or snorkel off the beach.
On the zodiac ride around the way, we saw tons of various wildlife. This included more blue-footed boobies, along with crabs, sea lions, and sea turtles. We also saw several flamingos and even a couple of penguins, which aren’t often spotted here. After the zodiac ride we had a wet landing on the beach and made our way to the Post Office. Here it is tradition to look for postcards that have been left at the Post Office and see if any are near you where you can hand-deliver the mail. You can also leave a postcard to be hand-delivered by another traveler in the future. Celebrity provided one postcard per stateroom, so if you’d like to leave more, plan on packing postcards with you. Then you had time to relax on the beach or swim or snorkel off of the beach. There is an abundance of wasps on this island, so it was noted not to wear yellows, orange, or red colors to avoid looking like a flower to avoid the wasps.
We returned to the ship for a Spanish lunch buffet followed by some downtime before the afternoon’s excursions. During lunch, the boat moved to Champion Islet and for the next excursion, we were offered the options of a deep water snorkel which was for experienced snorkelers only, a more moderate snorkel, or a zodiac ride. We chose to do the advanced snorkel where we saw more fish, turtles, and starfish.
The final excursion offerings of the day were a long, easy walk or a short, easy walk at Cormorant Point, both with a wet landing. Upon landing, we noticed that the sand had an olive-green color, due to the concentration of olivine crystals in the sand. We were able to pickup handfuls of sand and spot the various crystals. From here, we did the longer walk which took us to a beach on the other side of the island. There we saw several large sting rays just off the beach along with more sea lions. On our way back, we saw several flamingos hanging out in the water.
We were welcomed back onto the ship with another cocktail of the day before heading to the next excursion briefing. This was followed by dinner and a long navigation overnight to get to Isabela Island.
Wednesday: Isabela Island
Wednesday morning started in the same fashion, with breakfast being served at 7 am. After breakfast, we took a zodiac ride through the mangroves of Elizabeth Bay. This was our favorite of the zodiac rides as we saw a wide variety of wildlife. The penguins had fun swimming about our boats and checking out the activity. We also saw several sea turtles that would swim by when we turned off the boat’s engine. This is the best place to see the flightless cormorant, and we saw several of them swimming and others drying off on the rocks. We also saw pelicans and even golden rays.
Back on board, we enjoyed a Tex-Mex lunch and again had time to relax before the afternoon’s excursions. There was a deep water snorkel offered at Punta Point where you can see penguins snorkeling with you in the water. The water was the coldest here, and unfortunately fairly murky due to an abundance of plankton.
The options for the last excursion of the day were a short walk on a very uneven and rocky trail followed by a short zodiac ride, or an extended zodiac ride. We chose to go on the walk where we walked across the lava fields. Here we saw some unique cacti and more flightless cormorants. We hiked to a small pool which sometimes has sharks in it. We didn’t see any sharks but saw a sea turtle swimming. On the short zodiac ride, we saw more penguins and tons and tons of iguanas.
Once again we were welcomed back with another drink of the day before the excursion briefing. This was followed by dinner and then Galapagos Trivia. There was another long cruise overnight to get to our next destination of Santa Cruz Island.
Thursday: Santa Cruz Island
Thursday morning had a later start to breakfast, with breakfast being served at 7:30 am. After breakfast, there was some time to relax before we departed for a journey to Santa Cruz island. We had a dry landing on Santa Cruz, and then boarded buses for a 45-minute ride to the Highlands to visit a tortoise sanctuary.
Upon arriving at the tortoise sanctuary we got some rubber boots to wear to keep our feet dry as we were to walk through some muddy areas. We were able to walk around the property and saw numerous giant tortoises, seeing some that were even over 100 years old! We also got to see a couple of tortoises drinking water from a small lake. After seeing the tortoises in their natural habitat and taking lots of photos, we had a large buffet lunch and watched a dance performance of the local culture. This was the only place we visited that had a gift shop, so we had time to explore the crafts made by the local people.
We then returned back to the boat, and once again were offered the drink of the day. This was followed by a future cruise presentation and then a Q&A session with the captain. We then attended the next day’s excursion briefing and did a Galapagos Crossword challenge that we happened to win!
Dinner tonight was a Galapagos BBQ under the stars. As we were in lobster season, in addition to BBQ we also could get large locally sourced lobster tails. Then it was time for bed with another cruise overnight to get to Española Island.
Friday: Española Island
On Friday we were back to having breakfast at 7 am. After breakfast we had a wet landing at Gardner Bay and had a nice walk on the beach. Along our walk, we saw more sea lions and saw the nesting grounds for sea turtles. We saw the tracks of baby turtles who were born the previous evening and made their way out to see. We then saw a bunch of iguanas laying on the rocks and soaking up the sun. Following the walk, there was time for a swim or snorkel off of the beach, but we decided to wait until the deep water snorkel that was to follow.
We went straight from the beach into the zodiacs to go to the deep water snorkel site. This snorkel was definitely one of the top snorkeling experiences we had as we saw tons of sea life. There were several sea lions that wanted to play with us the entire time we were in the water which was so much fun! We also saw hundreds and hundreds of fish swimming all around us and even several starfish. We swam around the corner of the bay and into a small sea cave. We spent about an hour in the water here before returning to the boat.
Back on the ship, we had a delicious Italian lunch buffet and then had time to rest before our last excursion. Options for the afternoon’s excursion were a long, difficult walk on a very rocky trail or a short walk on a very rocky trail. We decided to do the longer walk which took us to albatross nesting grounds. The walk was the rockiest of the excursions we did, so many people brought walking sticks to help navigate the trail. We hiked to a cliff that had hundreds of birds resting until they wanted to use the wind to take flight. We also saw a large blowhole and tide pools below. On the hike back we saw an albatross mating ritual and then saw a sea lion give birth.
We were welcomed back on board with our final drink of the day and then went to the captain’s farewell toast. We then had a departure briefing and then a farewell dinner. Overnight we set sail back to Baltra Island to return back to the airport.
Saturday: Baltra Island
Saturday morning we had a later breakfast starting at 7:30 am. We had to have our suitcases outside of our room by 8 am and we brought our carry-on baggage to the discovery lounge. By 9 am we were asked to have everything out of the staterooms so they could start cleaning for the next guests. In the discovery lounge, the staff played a slideshow of pictures from the week and we were given a complimentary flash drive of all of the pictures to take home with us. While we were given back our passports and given our boarding passes for our flight, we watched a documentary on Charles Darwin.
Then it was time to head to the airport and back to Quito. We had access to the VIP lounge in the airport which had a few little snacks and some complimentary soft drinks. On the plane, we were served lunch and then shortly after touched back down in Quito. Back in Quito, we continued on to our post-cruise extension, which we can read about more in our Quito guide.
Deciding to book your adventure to Galapagos is a once-in-a-lifetime experience! To get the most out of your vacation, you’ll want to book a cruise so you can explore the remote islands. While there are multiple cruise lines to choose from, we loved our time onboard the Celebrity Xpedition and are sure you will too.
If you’re ready to go, make sure to check out our blog post (coming soon) on what to pack to make sure you have everything you need to have the best trip ever! Enjoy!