We’ve been helping people plan their Galapagos trips since (!!) 1999…  We’ve fielded thousands of calls, responded to tens (hundreds?) of thousands of emails during that time.   After “Galapagos” the words we hear/read most frequently have to be “I’m completely overwhelmed / it’s totally overwhelming”.

The internet is a fantastic tool – there’s no doubt about it.  But one thing it can’t do is to cut through the chaff.  Search for “quality Galapagos cruise ship” or any such combination of words, and your search engine will return hundreds of responses, leaving it up to you to try to make sense out of them. 

Indeed, finding the ship that's just right for you is a big challenge.   Price / itineraries / reputation / amenities / hidden costs / availability / approach to guiding … there are many factors that come into play.  Also, you’ll find that the same ship will be offered by a gaggle of different travel companies – at prices that appear to vary enormously, causing further confusion (hint: Always be sure you’re comparing apples to apples). 

Our approach to helping people find the ship that’s best for them usually starts first by trying to understand our prospective guest’s interests / expectations and of course, comfort level.   Typically, we will start off by highlighting our two “go-to baseline ships” that we believe are representative of the best of their class (based on many years of experience).   Starting from there, and understanding that no ship is perfect, we will bring in other ships that compare favourably – allowing our prospective guests to develop and understanding of the various trade-offs that need to be made when choosing a ship.  Itinerary?  Availability? Price?  Guiding reputation?  Size? 

Our two baseline ships are:

Samba:  14 passengers, tourist superior

 

 

Integrity:  16 passengers, luxury: 

 

Both ships are among the last to be locally owned and operated.   The owners (Galapagos families) take great pride in their operations, focusing on quality maintenance, service and guiding.  These ships also have what we consider top quality itineraries (non-circuitous, uninterrupted 8 days, higher than average number of visitor sites / day, minimal time spent in human settlements).  

While we firmly believe that you can’t go wrong with these ships, we also fully endorse many other ships in the islands. Sometimes the dates don’t work out – or our guests will be keen on a catamaran.  Others are keen on shorter itineraries.   We’re glad to report that overall improvements in the fleet of Galapagos cruise ships since we first set foot in the islands (1998) has been tremendous, giving you a wide range of quality vessels from which to choose.  

www.cnhtours.com

Galapagos:  We are TripAdvisor's Destination Expert

Antarctica:  Our expert has worked for 25 seasons in the region

 Contact us for more information