Guayaquil Tours in January 2026

I completed my 16 day cruise on the 22nd December and although I had to self isolate over Christmas, missing out on the family gathering, I still had the smile on my face. I had never snorkelled before but am now hooked and have bought my own gear. December was a good month to visit as it is the breading season with lots of cute chicks and sealion pups about. Having playful sealion pups swimming around you and nibbling at your fins has to be experienced to truly know the fun of it. Also got to swim with White Tipped Reef sharks, but the icing on the cake was swimming with Hammerhead sharks in Darwin Bay, Genovesa. The land scape changes from island to island and there is always something different to see either on the islands or while navigating to them. Our ship the Cachalote Explorer could accommodate 16 and although the cabins were not particularly spacious they met our needs. Only 2 of us stayed on for the entire cruise of west and east islands and I think those who only did one week missed out in many ways. The food was served as a buffet and was generally very good and you certainly weren't going to starve. Definitely worth the money.

This is an excellent tour in a country where variety really is the spice of life. You go from the Andes highands, in fairness this is most of the trip with heights, not including the peaks of 2600 to 3600 metres, to the cloud forest, rain forest and the hot and very humid coastal belt. It is very well designed but there are some long coach days. For example on day ten (to Cuenca) we did not finish until after dark having had two long coach rides. It also helps to be reasonably fit if you are to enjoy the more strenuous walks at Chimborazo and Cajas national parks. There are things I would leave out if I was designing the itinerary. For example there is the AmaZoonica Animal rescue centre which says it is not a zoo but it is really and a crowded and disorganised one at that. The Ingapirca ruins were really a non event and mostly reconstructions. One disappointment was the Mangrove boat trip. It did not happen. This was January 2nd and the boatmen simply did not turn up.

This was to be our "holiday of a lifetime" - I was slightly concerned it might not live up to my expectations as I had wanted to visit Galapagos for many years. However I was not disappointed! Every day I thought it couldn't get any better, but it did. The wildlife was all fantastic. I didn't expect to do so much snorkelling, but it meant we were swimming with turtles, sealions, sharks and many colourful fishes :)

One can always count on this tour operator to provide the best way to discover new territories, and the Galapagos wildlife cruise aboard the "Cachalote" was awesome! The captain & crew are fantastic, I was even able to steer the yacht at Latitude 0! Our guide Darwin was exceptionnal, and the wildlife was..... WILD!!!!!!

We would rate this holiday with this tour company at or close to the top of all the holidays we have ever had. It ticks all of the right boxes for quality, knowledgeable guides, smooth transfers throughout, scenery, wildlife, culinary delights throughout the day (Galapagos Yacht), and with a small sociable peer group. All in all, I would recommend this particular holiday to anyone with a sense of adventure and a keen eye for the good things in life.

This truly was a holiday of a lifetime and we would have no hesitation in recommending anybody from 20's to resonably fit 70's to go on this holiday with this tour company. The age range of our group was 30 to 71 and we gelled together very well, p[robably partly because of the quality and variation of the tour, with many group activities but time for space if you needed it. Machu Picchu is amazing but then gets trumped by the Galapagos and being on the Cachalote, a schooner with only 16 births, was a huge bonus. Lovely crew, great boat and we went places that others sometimes didn't so had bays, snorkelling and some walks all to ourselves. The organisation was excellent, hotels comfortable with a good breakfast and the experience unforgetable. It was our first time with this operator but hopefully not the last.