I returned from Galapagos just over a week ago. The place is very interesting, and worth a visit, but I thought I'd use this platform to mention a few of the things that I wish I'd known about before going:
- Do choose your tour company carefully and make sure they have professional guides who speak your language,
- do make sure the hotel, if it is part of the package a good one. Ours was pretty dreadful and we tried to move, but everywhere was fully booked. The one we would have liked to go to was the Silberstein
- try to avoid getting full board. The hotel food might be the best on the island, but then again it might not.
- get someone to tell you *exactly* what the trip will involve, what equipment is required, whether you should hire snorkels, wetsuit etc. etc. before going, whether there will be facilities to get changed into a swimsuit at the destination, whether food will be provided, what it is going to be, what size the boat will be, will you be able to shelter from the sun on the journey etc. etc.
- make sure you take proper equipment. The Galapagos islands in August are bloody cold for somewhere on the equator and at sea level.
- probably bring your own wet suit and snorkel if you plan to swim much
- do not sign up to one of the six-hours-of-internet-use-for-a-suspiciously-cheap-price internet cafes that seem to be everywhere. You will find that using up your minutes will be as much fun as watching a prickly pear cactus grow. I bought a half an hour in one but it really made dial-up seem fast: I think the internet is via satellite or GPRS. It is certainly not 3G, WiMax, Wifi mesh, ADSL, cable.
- if you are seriously interested in the flora and fauna, bring a suitably technical book with you. The guides we had, apart from speaking almost no English, did not give the impression that they had studied natural history to any very advanced level.
- if you can, avoid going as part of a package. All the expeditions are provided by local boat operators, and are available to be booked by the public, probably at less cost than you pay through a tour (generally very expensive),
- Take the reviews of the Royal Palm hotel with a pinch of salt, except perhaps the one posted on 09/26/05.
Please don't be put off by this posting. I am sure one can have a great holiday on the islands. It's just that the place is not quite as developed as you might guess by looking at the marketing material.
