Agreed! I just returned and we never felt unsafe! We left our things on beaches unattended, left our bikes while we hiked without locking them up, walked around at night in the dark… it’s probably the most safe I’ve ever felt travelling. Don’t let the warnings about Ecuador put you off the Galapagos- they are completely separate.

I'd like to echo this comment (and a few others here). Galapagos Islands is one of the safest places on the planet. Mainland Ecuador is totally fine too: just use common sense, talk to the locals and don't do dumb things.

On that topic. We booked our Galapagos trip through a Canadian agency called CNH Tours, and our trip was July 30 thru August 5, 2024. What a wonderful team of professionals! They work with a boat called Samba, and it is an absolutely marvelous experience. The boat is small; therefore, you get to experience a very small group eco-tourism at its best. I believe the maximum boat capacity is 14 tourists (there were only 9 of us on our trip). By having small groups, the naturalist guide can take you to some of the most remote islands and you get to see parts of wildlife that very few people get to see. Everything was impeccably organized and run. I highly recommend CNH Tours.

What news are you referring to?

Theresa, it was over a year ago.

Laurie D. Do you mind sharing your itinerary and accommodations?

I’m planning a two week trip next march and would love to get some insights

Rebecca Travel Adventure could help you plan your trip.

https://rebeccaadventuretravel.com/faqs/

They will organize other trips for you as well if you share your interests. We went through them and they were very responsive. Our experiences were excellent compared to others we met during our journey.

Everybody talks about ‘cruising’ the Galapagos - expensive!

Based on information regularly posted on here by an independent traveller, I spent a year planning a trip from the UK, land based only, in 2019.

We stayed on three different islands, did many day trip boat tours including Espanola (for the Waved Albatross) and stayed in mid to high quality accommodation.

We had a total of 18 nights there, flew Avianca and even won a low cost bid to upgrade to business class from the UK all the way there (failed in our bid to upgrade coming back ☹️)

At the time, a 10 day cruising package was about £6,000pp or more (flying standard economy).

Including everything; flights, accommodation, eating out, inter-island ferries, boat trips, it cost us between £3,000 to £3,400 each!

Travelling independently meant we could set our own timetable, do things at our own pace and choose our own duration. It was hard work setting it up but went flawlessly, And by the way, 18 days was not long enough, we would have liked to double that (unfortunately at the time, we were both tied to work/leave restrictions).

AND - definitely the ultimate destination in the World. (We consider ourselves’travellers’ not ‘holidaymakers’ and have travelled independently off-radar many times including the depths of Borneo many, many years ago before it became so well visited.

Would return in a heartbeat.