Galapagos - Dive only cruise

[Wiggy]

I am travelling to Galapagos with a group of friends (non-divers) around Thanksgiving. We have a 5 day cruise that will include land stops and snorkeling, but no diving.
I am looking for a good dive only trip that I could do prior to that. I am thinking something along the lines of 3 or 4 days.

Also, I am new to diving and just got my NAUI certification. I have heard conditions can be a bit rough in Galapagos. Would it even be advisable for a newbie to dive Galapagos?

Thanks,
Wiggy

 

[DiveTheGalapagos]

We have a 6 day island hopping dive charter Nov. 9-15. You can take a look at the itinerary here, however, indeed, it could be challenging for someone new. We do offer less experienced divers the opportunity to go out on our charters with your own divemaster who would stay only with you for assistance. We would probably insist on this with less experienced divers, however, we will make it affordable for you to do. This way, the group is split into experienced divers with a guide and inexperienced divers with a guide. You'll learn a lot, see a lot, gain a lot of experience as diving in the Galapagos is certainly more challenging than diving in calm, clear warm waters.

You could also just plan to arrive a few days before your tour, find a local dive shop and do some diving on your own. If you are new, I would still recommend hiring a private divemaster just to accompany you. Book your hotels now if that is the case as hotels fill up around Thanksgiving. Are you flying into San Cristobal or Baltra? Before I could make any suggestions, I would need to know where you are flying into.

While it is true diving the Galapagos can be challenging, people do get certified here and people do their first ever ocean dives here. Not all sites are the stereotype you read about online. So much of the reputation of the Galapagos being only for advanced divers come from the degree of difficulty at Darwin or Wolf...primarily Darwin. And you can only dive Darwin from a live-aboard. There are sites appropriate for all experience levels in the central islands.