4-Day Galapagos Islands Cruise: Itinerary C (South) aboard the Monserrat Yacht

Wonderful trip. We experienced so much incredible wildlife. The crew and the guides were really professional and experienced.

Beautiful experience! We really enjoyed it, excellent itinerary, excellent guides, very friendly and very knowledgeable. Thanks for everything!

As others have said, the entire experience was amazing. We were celebrating an anniversary (which our travel agent must have passed on), because we returned to our cabin the first night to find red balloons, rose petals on the floor and chocolates. That same night, they surprised us with a cake! Housekeeping was wonderful. The food was great. Every time we returned to the boat, our bartender had various fruit juices or hot chocolate along with snacks (fruit, cookies, wings, etc...). Our 2 naturalist guides, Pablo and Javier, were amazing. They could quickly identify everything we saw (even at quite a distance) and could describe the history of each island and the animals and birds endemic to each. They did a great job preparing us ahead of time for each excursion. We felt very safe at all times. There were numerous other staff to help getting on and off dinghies, driving the dinghies, managing snorkel gear and wetsuits, etc... Definitely bring binoculars as you are looking at some birds/animals at a distance(partly due to the fear of introducing Avian Flu to the birds there). We also did a lot of snorkeling, so an underwater camera would be a good idea. There is Wifi on the ship (although their website says otherwise). The ship is relatively small, so it can get quite rocky, especially at night when you're travelling to a different island. My wife and I have cruised often on large cruise ships and never had a problem, but I had a couple fairly rough nights, so if you're prone to motion sickness, talk to your doctor ahead of time, We stayed on the boat for 3 nights. (The 4th day consisted of us leaving at dawn). We saw a lot, but perhaps missed seeing penguins and tortoises in the wild. Due to the timing of when we left, we had a private guide at the Charles Darwin Research Center and tortoise breeding center. It's truly an amazing place that gives you the chance to see different tortoise species at varying ages). We had combined this trip to Ecuador with a few days in the rain forest, so couldn't stay on the Monserrat as long as others. All-in-all, an incredible experience . Highly recommended