Galapagos Islands: A Few Quick Money Tips

Currently, I’m editing video of my one month trip to the Galapagos Islands. As I edit these videos to post onto YouTube and Instagram, I can’t help but want to write about each day. I’m not great at talking to a camera. I can do it, just not too comfortable yet talking to myself and an audience through video. With that being said, most of the videos are just music videos: clips with music, very little talking. But I do have stuff I want to say and share about this trip that could help future travelers prepare. I won’t go into great detail, I will when I write separate post about each island and each day etc.

It can be cheap. I’ve read a lot about Galapagos being expensive and I’ve met a lot of travelers on the islands who have claimed Galapagos is expensive for them. However, depending on how you do Galapagos… it can be cheap. Here’s how:

#1 Almuerzos & Desayunos. Lunches and Breakfasts. Where ever you see those words, it’s usually associated with a $3-$5 meal. I’ll write more about what is typically served with those at a later post but you can also avoid the tourist and high food prices by eating like the locals. I guess that’s a given anywhere.

#2 Tours. Aside from visiting some of the forbidden islands, diving and snorkeling, where you legally must have a guide majority of landscape and animal sighting tours can be done on your own. Google knows more then your guide, the locals will point out the location of the caves on a map and a $3 taxi (or possibly free if you hitch a ride with a local) will take you up the mountain or wherever. In that example, I was on Floreana. For $60 you can ride in a blue Toyota up the mountain, to the caves and tortoises and a guide will tell you all about everything. Or… you can pull up google and read all about them, hitch a ride up the mountain and back with one of the farmers and go at any time you want for as long as you want. Stuff like that can be free or cheaper.

#3 Alcohol. $3–$6 at restaurants for a beer, depending on whether you get a small or large size. Wine… I did see a $12 bottle of wine at a store in San Cristobal but its usually around $20. At the grocery stores, a beer bottle can be $1-$3.

#4 Flights. From NYC to Quito roundtrip was $360 (United). That was also in in early August coming back early September. Flights from Quito to San Cristobal were typically $140-$200 one-way (Avianca) however it was “free” for me because I traded 16,000 LifeMiles (Avianca) for my flight ticket. There’s two flights a day to San Cristobal and Baltra. One’s Avianca the other is through… LATAM? But if you missed one of those flights, you;re stuck until the next day.

#5 Boat Rides. On your own, you can visit four of the 19 islands. There are boats that leave each island twice a day, usually around 7am and 3pm. If you want to go island hopping to the four islands, you always have to go through Santa Cruz. So, if you want to go from San Cristobal to Isabella, you can A.) Fly a small private plane for $150 or take a $30 boat at 7am from San Cristobal to Santa Cruz and then hop on another $30 3pm boat to Isabella. If you catch the 3pm boat from San Cristobal to Santa Cruz, you won’t make it to Isabella the same day. You’ll have to stay the night in Santa Cruz and catch the morning boat.

All boats are $30 and leave around the same times 7 or 8am and 2 or 3pm. You can’t go from Floreana to Isabella or Isabella to Floreana or San Cristobal to Floreana. All boats stop in Santa Cruz. If you go to Floreana, there’s only boat that goes there and it goes once every two or three days sometimes once a week depending on how many people are going.

Last thing on boats, not a big deal but in Floreana, Santa Cruz, and Isabella, the inter-island speed boats are’nt parked at the docks. In order to get to your departing boat, you first have to take a water taxi. They’re like $.50-$1 per ride so plan on tacking on an extra $2 to every boat ticket. Except in San Cristobal where the boats pull right up to the dock. Total to go from San Cristobal to all four islands should be about $180 not including water taxi fees because those vary based on time of day.

#6 Taxis. In town they’re $1 anywhere. When you start venturing outside of town, like a 30 minute trip to Puerto Chino, on the other side of San Cristobal; that’ll run you $15 each way which can be split if you pack 10 people in the taxi which we did on a surf tip. All taxis are white four-door trucks, easy to spot.

#7 Hotels & Hostels. I know of one or two Couchsurfers in Galapagos. One in Santa Cruz that will take you kayaking. I forget his name but he does exist. The other is Manuel at Hotel Algarrobos. He offered me four free nights for writing four blog posts for him about surfing int he Galapagos. Not sure if that deal is still around but you can search for him in San Cristobal. Otherwise, it was a $45/ night place and there’s a few of those!

AirBnB & hostels can be as cheap as $15/ night for dorm style. There are a few hostels that have solo rooms for $15. They do exist you just have to knock a few doors. Even the $30/ night places will give you as low as $15/ night if the hotels empty and you;re staying for a week. Galapagos people are pretty easy going and relaxed. You can find $10 but you’ll more than likely be way back in the cut in some random neighborhood for from everything.

Workway. I met two people using Workway in San Cristobal. Ben, an Australian surfer, was preparing breakfast for guest at his hostel and Ivana was doing online media design and management for a nice hotel in San Cristobal. Actually, it was hotel Katarma. “El Doctor” is the owner and a very cool guy.

Last thing on hotels & hostels; you pay per night, per person. It’s not pay $15/ night and stuff as many people as you want in a room and split it. Maybe they’ll give it to you for a small deal like $25 for two instead of $15 each but rarely, even in the off-season. A friend stayed at another hostel for the night and they tried charging the hostel guest full price for him but after negotiations, charged only an extra $5. Lucky.

#8 Things. Things are expensive on the islands. A GoPro Hero4 Black in the States is $399. In Santa Cruz, the Silver version (lower-end) is $799!!! Everything is imported so what do you expect right?

#9 Money. Bring plenty of it. There’s two ATMs on San Cristobal and a Bank in Santa Cruz, neither of those exist on Floreana and Isabella; moreover, these ATMs dish out 20 dollar bills which can be an issue because most merchants prefer and some only deal in small change. Once in a while, there’ll be on that cringes at a $10.

Other than that, I can’t think of anything else at the moment, money-wise, to write about. Any questions or comments about the Galapagos Islands regarding anything, feel free to ask!