Vacation Galapagos

I am often asked which country or place is the best option to travel with family, as we have been making family trips with our daughter since she was 2 months old. We can now put Ecuador, the Amazon, and the Galapagos high on that list of places that are AMAZING options for family travel!

We started our time in Ecuador with a couple of days in Quito and a pre-arranged private driver/guide. Quito is a beautiful city, high in the Andes Mountains and definitely worth a day or 2 to visit. Highlights for us were the Equator Line, the historic centre of town and meeting the families of our local guides who were eager to share their city with us, introduce us to some Ecuadorian food and practice their English. The ceviche was excellent, and having popcorn in our soup for the first time instead of crackers was a novel thing (but soon to become a regular part of our daily diet). In the evening we met with our Galapagos group for the first time.

We chose a land based, small group active trip with G Adventures for our time in the Galapagos which we were able to do as our daughter is now 15 years old and can fully participate in all the ‘active’ options. These included biking down a volcano, sea kayaking, hiking, and snorkelling – both off the beach and in the deep waters off the boat at Kicker Rock. There are MANY options for visiting the Galapagos and they are all excellent!

We arrived on the island of San Cristobal by plane and after checking into our hotel we walked to our lunch spot, discovering sea lions all over the streets as our welcoming committee for this island. We have sea lions here at home in BC, but never this close up, and never this many! We were all like kids as we watched them sleep, play, swim and hang out on the streets, benches, roads – everywhere! It’s like when you go on safari in Africa and come home with a few hundred photos of elephants or zebra.