Wild Frontiers

The Galapagos Islands

A Galapagos tour encapsulates a truly wonderful travel experience - the sheer diversity of wildlife, the incredible volcanic landscapes, the scientific importance of the islands and the awesome diving and snorkelling. Perhaps the most striking feature of the Galapagos Islands, however, is that due to lack of natural predators, no animal has developed a fear of humans - so the resulting wildlife experience is all in extreme close-up!

As Charles Darwin discovered, wildlife migrated to the striking volcanic island habitat long ago, and due to the uniqueness of the habitat some have since evolved into entirely new species. Nowhere else in the world can you see the Darwin finches, Galapagos penguin or the giant Galapagos tortoise. Thanks to Darwin few other places on earth can claim to have had such an influence on science or human development. We can offer the complete range of Galapagos tour services - cruises, flights, diving & hotel packages. Most importantly though we try to make the organisation of your Galapagos tour simple and easy!

Galapagos Boats - The most popular way to visit the Galapagos Islands is on a boat cruise. A Galapagos cruise visits a number of different islands and is therefore the best way to see a lot of wildlife in a short time. We work together directly with over forty different Galapagos boat owners, all of whom are proven and reliable tour operators.

Broadly speaking there are 4 classes of Galapagos boat - Economic, Tourist, Tourist-superior & First-class. A Galapagos cruise can last for 4, 5 or 8 days. Obviously you can see a lot more on an 8 day tour, but 5 days can also show a good deal of what the Galapagos Islands have to offer for those limited for time. Generally we recommend against the 4 day tours, however, as it generally does not allow you enough time to fully appreciate what the Galapagos Islands have to offer.

Galapagos Island Conservation: There is a lot of pressure on the precious Galapagos ecosystem from tourism, over-fishing, population growth, introduced domestic animals (pigs, goats, rats etc.) and the el niño phenomenon. In the case of tourism much has been done to limit the impact of the 70,000 annual visitors. The National Park Service regulates tourism and has limited tourism to 56 official landing points across the islands, each of which has properly marked trails to prevent destruction of other areas. They also employ park rangers to monitor and control tourist activity within the marine reserve. In addition, the Charles Darwin Research Centre, an internationally owned non-profit organisation, is devoted to supporting scientific research and channelling international funds for conservation. To aid the conservation efforts 40% of your National Park entry fee goes towards park work and environmental conservation.

Organising your Galapagos trip - Wild Frontiers clients can access a complete range of Galapagos cruise options on a selection of boats to suit all budgets - from basic economy to first class luxury.