ABD Galapagos vs Galapagos Cruise only?

Golden Rose

Princess by Choice
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We've decided to do a Galapagos cruise in the next two years (not sure if we're planning on it for 2012 or early 2013 yet), and I know it isn't likely that anyone has done both, but I wondered if anyone could offer advice.

We have a 6 year old (he'll be 7 or 8 by the time we do the trip) and a not yet year old (who will be 1 or 2 when we go, and is likely to be left at home. Ok, certain to be left with the other grandparents if we do ABD, not as certain if we go on a cruise only trip.) We're going to be traveling with my mother and step-father, as well.

Our 6 year old is a seasoned travel pro already. We take him on all our vacations with us, so he's been to both coasts, to Europe, and on multiple cruises. He's an animal nut, and is absolutely wild about the idea of Galapagos. So, I know taking a 7 or 8 year old sounds like we're pushing it, but he's almost certain to be able to handle it easily.

If we do a cruise only trip, we're going with Lindblad or Celebrity. These would give us more time in the islands. We've never tried ABD, but I like what I've read about them. I just don't know if its worth giving up the days in the islands to spend a few days on land. Also, has anyone had trouble with the altitude the Hacienda is in? My mother is sometimes altitude sensitive, and I noticed its at something like 8500 feet.

Thanks for any advice!
 
I would suggest looking over the itineraries and choosing the trip that offers the most of what you are interested in. We've taken 3 ABD trips and they were all fantastic, but we chose to go to the Galapagos with Lindblad because we wanted to spend more time in the islands.
 
My kids went on the ABD trip with their grandparents. They are gone once again to camp so I can't get lots of details, but they loved the land part. I know they saw some animals in the mountains. We have some great pictures with the condors. My older two really love learning about other cultures so this also may be why they loved the land part so much.
 
First, I have not been to Galapagos yet, but did take an ABD trip to Costa Rica with my kids, then 10 and 12. We are ready and waiting to book Galapagos with ABD 2012 with my parents. Like you, we travel a lot with our girls and I think you would be very happy with an ABD trip. There are 2 reasons I think ABD has an advantage over the straight cruise
1) We saw how ABD handle multi generational families while on our CR trip and were so impressed
2) I think the cultural component is so important- especially for the children. A cruise will be mainly visiting un inhabited islands or areas, great for seeing wildlife, but in our wildlife viewing trips to Africa, Alaska, and our ABD CR, learning about the culture from local people was a high light! meeting villagers in Zambia, making crafts with native Costa Ricans, talking to a man whose family raises and runs dogs in the iditarod, these experiences were as amazing as the animals we saw, and gave context to the natural world the children were seeing. It helped them understand conservation from both points of view. All lessons they learned through their travel and it has helped them
gain a broader perspective. There are plenty of trips to take, even on your
own that can include both, but ABD provides that as authentically as any other group/ package/ tour we have done.
Those are just my opinions and our experience!
I wish you luck with your trip!
 

Thanks for the advice and the trip report link. We've been considering doing an ABD trip for a while, but we've actually been limited because of our child, now children. We have always brought our son with us when we travel; he's six, and he's been traveling with us since he was 8 months old. Our 7 month old DD has only been with us to WDW so far, but we've already booked her first cruise for next year. Honestly, we know the children won't remember much, if anything, of vacations they take before they're about 4, but we like exposing them to new experiences and cultures.

We're a family who loves to travel, but we don't generally travel with tour groups. We do a fair number of cruises, and we do independent land based vacations in places where one of us speaks the language or we know we'll find enough people who speak English. (I speak Spanish and some Italian; my mother speaks some Italian, German, and French; my step-father speaks German.) There are parts of the world we're interested in traveling to that we're not completely comfortable doing without a group, and we've been waiting until our son was old enough to take him with us. Now that we have the infant daughter, we're not as sure what to do about taking her along.

Galapagos is a little more on the exotic, adventure travel front than we've done in the past. I honestly don't know if we'd feel like we had a more fulfilling experience spending more time cruising the islands, or if we'd the prefer extra time in Ecuador. I expect this is a once in a lifetime trip for us. There are enough places in the world we want to visit that I suspect we won't return. (I'd actually prefer to wait a few years until our daughter could appreciate it, but my DM and DSF are worried that travel may become more difficult for them in the next years, and they very much want to do it sooner rather than later.) Part of me would hate to spend all the time and money to do this trip, and feel like we'd rushed through the islands, which was the point of the trip to begin with. On the other hand, I am definitely interested in seeing some of Ecuador, and experiencing some of its culture, so I do see the appeal of a few days there. I'd also thought about adding on a few days to visit on our own if we did one of the longer cruises.

I'm sure we'll love whichever trip we decide to take, I'm just not sure which one best meets the needs of our group. We're definitely more used to more "traditional" cruises on larger ships than something like this, so this is going to be a learning experience for all of us.
 
Golden Rose, Lindblad also offers a Quito extension to their Galapagos trip. I didn't look into it because we took the trip during spring break and had just enough time to do the base trip, but it might be something you would be interested in. They also offer a trip that combines their Galapagos and Peru itineraries. Obviously we didn't have enough time for that one either and it's quite pricey.
 
/
Thanks for posting about your experience. Really great photos! I'm glad you had such a fantastic trip.
 
Wow! What an amazing trip, brazilgirl. You really got some great photos!

Thanks for sharing your report.

Sayhello
 
Gotta-Gotta-Gotta go to the Galapagos 'fore I kick da bucket!
 
Just got back from the Ecuador/Galapagos ABD trip and it was fantastic! It is a totally different experience from anything we have done before. If you love nature this is a trip to do!
Anyway, what I got out from one of our guides is, they will offer a cruise only 7-nights and the other regular land tour and 4-night cruise. I would go back and do the 7-night once time permits. Galapagos is an amazing place!!!
 
Just got back from the Ecuador/Galapagos ABD trip and it was fantastic! It is a totally different experience from anything we have done before. If you love nature this is a trip to do!
Anyway, what I got out from one of our guides is, they will offer a cruise only 7-nights and the other regular land tour and 4-night cruise. I would go back and do the 7-night once time permits. Galapagos is an amazing place!!!
Cool! What you got out from your guide sounds like they've been listening to people who wanted more time in the islands!

Glad you had such a great trip!

Sayhello
 
Oh and I believe she mentioned that the land-cruise tour will have one less day at the mainland. We had Rae and Eduardo as our guides. They were both great!
 
Oh and I believe she mentioned that the land-cruise tour will have one less day at the mainland. We had Rae and Eduardo as our guides. They were both great!

Question for you tufbuf-
did the guides say they were offering a 7 day cruise only ; or a 7 day cruise as an option with the land portion? I would love to cruise 7 days, but don't want to miss out on the Otovalo valley. Did you do a review? I'd love to hear about your trip!
TIA
 
She said cruise only and it's the 7-day one, which we would love to do since the islands are just amazing! I would not call that official, either way she said it will be done in 2 ways.
I will post a review/ insights (and maybe photos, if I learn how to do it) once I am back home. :)
 
Thanks I look forward to your review. My mom was especially interested in the weather - have a safe trip!
 
Okay, so I finally settled down (a bit) and I can give my review/insight in a nutshell...

Day 1 (arrival): We came in late, at least before midnight and for the first time we did not do a pre-night. I didn't think there was anything to do in Quito, which I was mistaken and found out later on. I figured we will be fine arriving late since the activity on the first day did not look hectic at all. Anyway, as we were landing, I was watching the TV monitor regarding the flight and noted the altitude to be 10,000+. When I looked out the window, we were nearly landing! I found out later on that Quito is 9200 feet above sea level. Funny thing is, I did not feel any of the alititude sensation like I did in Peru, although we went higher in Cuzco. Eduardo, one of the guides was the one who greeted us at the airport. When we got to the hotel, Rae was waiting and we had a refreshing glass of tree tomato juice and a warm towel waiting for us.

Day 2 (Quitsato): Mind-boggling! Amazing!! I've seen this landmark on a few occasions on TV and could not believe I am right there!! A stone-lined marker delineates lat 0'0'0', put your foot on one side, you are stepping on the northern hemisphere and the other on the southern hemisphere. Ancient Ecuadorians mapped latitude 0 and they got it quite accurately. It still amazes me how the ancient folks used the stars to navigate themselves. It's kinda hard for me to grasp. Anyway, the research group is currently advocating changing how the world should be viewed on a map.
We also went to Hacienda Cusin, a 300-year old establishment in Otavalo. It looks and smells old. Our room had a fireplace to heat it and a handful have electric heaters. It is cold up there!!! Each room is unique and quite spacious. There is no safe in the rooms so we carried all our papers and valuables wherever we go. I don't think theft is a big thing in the highlands but I am glad we did not lose anything. We did keep an eagle eye on our backpack.

Day 3 (Flute-making and Otavalo Market): This was fun. The Pichamba family, the home we went to who makes all these different flutes performed for us as well. It's not easy to play these flutes since they have to be blown a certain way. Some of the kids was playing it quite well near the end of the tour. We also went to the home of Jose Cotacachi who still weaves by hand. Hand-weaving is not as big as in Peru and I think the weaving quality is much better in Peru as well. They don't have local llamas and alpacas, if ever just a few and they import the wool from Peru.
The market was a great place to buy souvenirs. It is almost similar to the market in Pisac. Great bargains!!

Day 4 (Peguche Waterfall, Parque Condor and kite flying): Nice walk to the falls, we climbed up to the side of the falls and took a few photos. The guides didn't say much about the falls but I believe this was revered by the ancients before as sacred. We visited another Hacienda, called Hacienda Pinsaqui. Beautiful grounds! I wonder why Disney didn't book the tour there instead. It is marginally more expensive but not a whole lot. Anyway, we probably had our best lunch there. The meals were quite disappointing since they were serving lasagna and pasta. I am not sure if the Ecuadorian cuisine is too adventurous for the average tongue.
Parque Condor was an interesting place. I always admire people/establishments who make an effort to help wildlife. We were able to see an Andean condor up close and boy those birds are huge! There was also a bird show, well just one hawk which the caretaker would let go and come back to him by just raising his arm. Amazing vision!! Those raptors!
Kite flying was fun, if the wind was more consistent. Most of us struggled to get the kites flying. Eventually, our daughter thought of going to higher ground and got her kite flying really high! She had to bring it down only because it was time to go.

Those were what I called the 'slow' days.

Day 5-9 (Galapagos): We had to get up really early to go to the Quito airport for our flight to the islands. ABD gave us access to the VIP lounge so that was where we waited, which was very convenient and comfortable. There was a half hour flight to Guayaquil, about a half hour wait there (we stayed on the plane) and an hour and a half flight to Baltra. We boarded a zodiac to get on the ship. At first I did not know how we would do on the ship since the cabin bookings are on the lowest level. We always stay in cabins with balconies. Well, surprisingly, the cabins are quite spacious! Our cabin is on the second deck right next to the restaurant. It's not a big ship but that made it all convenient. We had our buffet lunch and got ready for our first hike.
I find this the best part of the trip! We snorkeled four times in 4 different places. On the fourth snorkel, less than half of the group went. That day was cloudy and windy but Eduardo and the guides were saying it would clear up, and it did so we went. The wet suit really helped! On the first snorkel area by Dragon Hill on Bartolomew Island, we saw white tip reef sharks and penguins. It was soooo cool!!! The second snorkel area was in Puerto Egas on Santiago Island. There we snorkelled with sea lions!!! They were all at arm's reach. The next day we snorkeled on the coast of Isabella Islands with lots of green sea turtles! They were a little skittish and will swim away once they feel you're nearby. They all came up though once everyone was out of the water and saw most of them when we did the dinghy tour.
We were anchored on the first night and there were sharks lured by the light on the ship.There were like 7 huge sharks just swimming on the side of the boat! That was the one thing we failed to take a picture or video of.:confused3
The hikes were all very interesting. The islands looked like how earth looked before civilization took place - barren and dry. At first glance, it looked dead with no life in it but it is teeming with flora and fauna once you look closely. It was great to see marine iguanas laying everywhere, a sea lion pup nursing, land iguanas, lava lizards, flightless cormorants and my all time favorite - the blue-footed ****ies. There were frigate birds everywhere and some had their red chest inflated hoping to attract a female to their nests.
Some said there was not enough down time during the cruise but we loved it! We love active trips and we want to be on the go. The naturalists and the guides were very good in briefing us about the activities the next day. There is a wake up call every 6:30 am and we meet at 7:45 am every morning. The ABD group leave the ship 15 minutes before everyone else and we also have dinner earlier than the rest of the people on the ship. They also had our snorkel geared sent to the room unlike the rest of the ship.
The water was wavy/rocky on the last night. It was quite uncomfortable and one person in the group got seasick.

We had an extra day in Quito and went on a half day tour of their old town. Very interesting and quite beautiful. It is a developing country so there are beggars everywhere. Another must-see is Teleferico. We didn't have time to do it but most of the group did that. It is 13,000 feet above sea level, so just a note.

Other notes:
The Ecuador denomination is the USD, so NO foreign transaction fee if you use your credit card! The paper bills are the same but the coins are not. The dime looks the same but it is lighter and will not work in vending machines here in the US. :)
As usual, ABD made a seamless, worry-free adventure. Our flight was late at night the day after the farewell dinner and the Marriott was gracious enough not to charge us an extra day.
Ecuador is the number one exporter of long stemmed roses. Eduardo managed to squeeze in a tour of a rose garden to see them from production to exportation. They are selling 25 roses for a mere $12 at the airport. We got one since we were celebrating my mom-in-law's 80th birthday. They will check the roses at the US Customs but as long as they tap it upside down and no bugs come out, you keep the roses.
The check in procedure was tedious! I think they checked our passports 4 times before we finally got to the gate. Like Peru, they do not allow any liquids on the plane even if you bought it in the airport. They go through all your carry-ons meticulously, as in go through everything. It took us a good 1 hour plus before we got to the gate.
All in all, it was a great trip! The highlands offered more than I expected and the islands were surreal. I've watched several documentaries on the Galapagos in the past, I couldn't believe I was there experiencing it!

Any questions, I'll be glad to answer them!
 
tufbuf...

I posted my trip report on this thread...we stayed at the Hacienda Pinsaqui. Very nice! We stayed at 2 other haciendas that were even more amazing (Rumiloma and Haceinda San Agustin de Callo).

I think Ecuador is special and deserves to be explored...we did 1 week in Ecuador and a week in the Galapagos and could have seen and done even more. So diverse.

I enjoyed your report , thanks!

Kim
 














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