Cruise ship or yacht for the Galapagos …

One of the major decisions that we had to make regarding our visit to the Galapagos Islands was how do we want to visit the islands … by land or sea.  The land based option would mean that we would need to stay on one of the islands with a hotel, which subsequently would mean that we would be geographically limited in what we could see.  The choice between land and sea was easy for us, because we wanted to see as much of the Galapagos as we could.

  Now, the decision for us was whether we would visit the islands via cruise ship or yacht.  Until I started researching our options, I did not know there were so many options from 16 passenger yachts to 100 passenger cruise ships.  Given all these options, I tried to read as many comments and blogs from other travelers as possible. 

There are strong feeling on both sides.  Some of the compelling arguments that the cruise ship side make is that “you get to travel comfortably” without really compromising the experience of visiting the Islands and seeing the wildlife.

  The yachts make many compelling arguments too.  They refer to their accommodations as cozy or intimate.  They say that your experience and contact with the naturalist is more flexible with you being able to make requests.  Yachts are also less expensive and are allowed closer to the islands, and in some instances the only vessels allowed to some islands … supposedly.  The National Park Service actually determines where each vessel goes.  Perhaps, most compelling is that yachts have less of an impact on the environment than cruise ships. 

Given the two, we decided to take the cruise ship option.  Our ship, the Explorer II was excellent.  We had great service like clean towels and room service daily, there was a physician aboard, there were social and educational activities, we had access to the naturalists, the group sizes on our ship were no larger than the groups on the 16 passenger yachts, we could even change groups if we wanted, conservation seemed important [the Explorer II talked about the 3 R's - reuse, reduce, and recycle], passengers could snorkel and scuba dive, the ship’s size minimize swaying and motion sickness, the food was good [the buffet breakfast was okay, the buffet lunch was good, the menu dinner was excellent], most importantly, we could avoid passengers that we did not like … hard to do on a small ship or yacht.  Believe me there were many passengers that would have made me abandon ship had we been on a 16 passenger yacht. 

We had the best of both worlds, an ecologically friendly way to see the Islands without giving up too many comforts.  Admittedly, cruise ships are more expensive.  For instance, we could have taken a 7 day, 6 night adventure on a yacht that would still have cost less than our 5 day, 4 night cruise.  In fact, the yacht option I looked at would have been at most 60% of the cost of our cruise.

The true choice between cruise ship and yacht is not really which is better, but a matter of taste.  Service and comfort are important to us.  The thought of being trapped for days with a small group of people that I do not like scares me.  The yachts and smaller ships may get closer to the islands, but a few minutes longer on a dingy is okay with me.   

For some, a yacht or small ship would be the best option, but I am glad that I did my research first … for us, cruising was the best option.