Galapagos Islands and Sardine Run Advice

[nomadic-brands]

Hi all,

My husband and I are currently travelling in South America and are flying to the Galapagos in a few days time for 3 and a half weeks. We hope to stay on different islands, but were also hoping to get a deal on a dive boat....(if not it's not the end of the world as we are happy to island hop and do day tours)....so my questions are

1. does anybody know how easy is it to get a last minute deal on dive boats when you are on the galapagos?

2. is it REALLY worth the extra to go to Wolf / Darwin?

3. how good is the snorkelling around Santa Cruz / Isabella / San Cristobal?


Any advice welcome,

Thanks

 

[laurenceh]

darwin and wolf are the only reasons to dive the galapagos imo to go all the way there and not visit them would be a sin. at the other places you just notice how cold it is and how poor the visibility is, neither of those things crossed my mind at darwin and wolf!

 

[galapagosexpert]

Hi! There are plenty of reasons to visit Galapagos, and the archipelago offers something for every kind of traveler.
1) Given that you have 3 weeks here, you´ll definitely have time to hunt and peck around town looking for a liveaboard, but that doesn´t necessarily mean you´ll find something to your liking! As this is generally a less busy time for liveaboards, things can go either way: some ships take the opportunity to go to dry dock or do some maintenance, while others may end up selling off some spaces (if they have any). There is a regular poster on here who seems to know which boats have spaces when, so perhaps they´ll jump into the thread and help you out as well!
2) Wolf and Darwin are the "creme de la creme" of diving here, but the islands around town do offer good trips and the chance to see some pretty spectacular things as well.
3) There is ok snorkelling from Santa Cruz and Cristobal, but Í´d say the snorkeling is better from Isabela (if you are talking about doing snorkeling on your own from town, rather than doing day trips to other islands).

Good luck with it all, and you are bound to have a great trip no matter what you end up deciding to do!

 

[GLENFWB]

YES...go to Darwin and Wolf. It is worth the trip and effort. I was there in July and would highly recommend it.

 

[nomadic-brands]

Thanks for the replies folks. It seems that we have been offered a fairly good discount on one of the liveaboards to darwin and wolf. However, a friend who spent several months in the Galapagos has said to us that it's not worth it outside of whale shark season! This has completely confused us!

Comments pleeeaaase....as these are the last two spaces and we don't wanna lose them!

Thanks

 

[Arturo]

That is correct. This is not the whale shark season at Galápagos. At any rate, you got to go to Darwin& Wolf. If you don´t, you´ll miss most of the fun. I did Galápagos on a liveaboard a few years ago, about this same time of the season (Easter), and the number (and proximity) of sharks you can see on the southern islands are no match for what you´ll see at Darwin&Wolf.

 

[ChainDiver]

My wife and I did a liveaboard in the Galapagos January 2011. We did not see whale sharks, but Darwin and Wolf made the trip. Schooling hammerheads, dolphins, eagle rays, large schools of fish. I did enjoy the other islands, but I concur, Darwin and Wolf are a must.

 

[DiveTheGalapagos]

Once you've dived Wolf and Darwin, it's a bit hard to settle for 'just' the central islands' sites. Usually, there is a huge difference in the quality of the diving. Up north, whale shark season begins in June and runs through December, however, April to June seems to be when the most are spotted either around Floreana or Gordon Rocks in the central islands. Promotional spaces are still available between now and the end of June, so you can relax on that front. See all discounted departures here.

If you are going to be diving the central islands, I'd recommend Scuba Iguana on Santa Cruz for the best in central island diving, including Gordon Rocks, N. Seymour, Mosqueras and Floreana. I love Isabela though sites you can get folks to take you to are not usually worth doing. Los Tuneles is a must...perfect at this time of year.

 

[nomadic-brands]

Thanks for all the replies. We have just secured ourselves places aboard the Deep Blue....fingers crossed Darwin and Wolf will live up to all of our expectations!

 

[GLENFWB]

I was on the Deep Blue in July 2010....it has an awesome crew and is a first class ship. I posted a video from our trip...has some shots of the boat you will be on.

[vimeo]13713355[/vimeo]

Thanks for all the replies. We have just secured ourselves places aboard the Deep Blue....fingers crossed Darwin and Wolf will live up to all of our expectations!