Itinerary · 10 days · 44 places
10 Days in the Galápagos
Three days in Quito to settle in and acclimatise at 2,850 metres, then seven days in the Galápagos: Santa Cruz with the Darwin Station, the highlands and Tortuga Bay, and Isabela with the Sierra Negra crater and the snorkelling cove of Concha de Perla.
Open in the appThere you can adjust the plan to your dates, your pace and your interests.
Photo: Summer Li · Pexels
The route on the map
The plan, day by day
Day 1Arrival in Quito
Arrival in Quito
Hotel check-in
La Floresta is Quito's quiet artists' quarter, with cafés, the Ocho y Medio cinema and short walks into the new town.
Mirador de Guápulo
From the edge of the Guápulo district, the view drops to the floodlit church in the valley and the hairpin bends of the road to Cumbayá.
Day 2Colonial Quito
Plaza Grande
The main square with the presidential palace, cathedral and archbishop's palace, where half of Quito meets on the benches in the morning to read the paper.
Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesús
The Jesuit church is entirely covered inside in gold leaf — seven tonnes of it, spread across columns, ceiling and altars.
Iglesia y Convento de San Francisco
The city's oldest church complex, with a vast forecourt, a cloister and a small museum of colonial painting.
Basílica del Voto Nacional
A neo-Gothic basilica with gargoyles in the shape of iguanas and tortoises; wooden ladders lead up into the towers.
Museo Casa del Alabado
Pre-Columbian ceramics in a colonial house, arranged by world view rather than by period and very softly lit.
El Panecillo
On this city hill stands the winged Virgin of Quito, made of aluminium plates, with a panoramic view over the entire old town.
Evening: Calle La Ronda
This narrow lane with balconies, canelazo stalls and live music is the only street in the old town that really comes alive in the evening.
Day 3Equator & mountain air
TelefériQo up to Cruz Loma
The cable car climbs to 3,945 m on the slopes of Pichincha, from where you can see Cotopaxi when the air is clear.
Mercado Artesanal La Mariscal
A covered market hall with alpaca blankets, Panama hats and tagua carvings; haggling is very much expected here.
Mitad del Mundo
The equator monument from 1982 with the yellow line on the ground, surrounded by a small replica of a colonial village.
Museo Intiñán
An open-air museum right next door that marks the actual GPS equator line and demonstrates experiments with swirling water and an egg.
Evening: Plaza Foch
This square in La Mariscal is Quito's nightlife hub, with pavement cafés and bars around the fountain.
Day 4Crossing to Santa Cruz
Onward to Puerto Ayora
Hotel check-in
Charles Darwin Research Station
A research station with a giant tortoise breeding centre and the preserved Lonesome George in an air-conditioned display case.
Playa de la Estación
A small cove at the end of the station path, where marine iguanas lie on the black lava blocks and you can swim.
Laguna de las Ninfas
A brackish lagoon in the middle of town, circled by a wooden boardwalk through the mangroves; young fish and herons stand in the shallow water.
Evening: Calle de los Kioscos
In the evening, Charles Binford becomes a pedestrian street with plastic chairs, barbecue smoke and boards full of the day's catch.
Day 5Highlands of Santa Cruz
Los Gemelos
Two huge collapse craters on either side of the road, ringed by Scalesia cloud forest where the vermilion flycatcher often perches.
El Mirador lava tunnel
A walkable lava tube several hundred metres long, with one narrow point where you have to stoop to get through.
Rancho El Chato
Pastureland where free-roaming giant tortoises wallow in mud holes; wellies are provided at the entrance.
Cerro Mesa
A private reserve with a viewing platform over the south coast and one of the largest craters on the island.
Playa El Garrapatero
A white beach behind mangroves with a flamingo lagoon along the access path, much emptier than the beaches in town.
Evening: Malecón of Puerto Ayora
The harbour promenade, with sea lions on the benches and pelicans over the water, lit up in the evening.
Day 6Beaches and crevices
Tortuga Bay
After 2.5 km of lava-stone path, the white Playa Brava opens up with its marine iguanas, and beyond it the calm swimming bay of Playa Mansa.
Pelican Bay fish market
At the concrete counter by the harbour, fishermen fillet the catch while pelicans and a sea lion wait right beside them for scraps.
Playa de los Alemanes
A short sandy beach across from the harbour, reached by water taxi and a good warm-up stop before Las Grietas.
Las Grietas
A rock fissure between two lava walls filled with clear brackish water, where you swim from one chamber to the next.
Evening: Bar Bongo
A rooftop terrace above the harbour road with live music in the evening and a view over the whole Malecón.
Day 7Crossing to Isabela
Onward to Puerto Villamil
Hotel check-in
Centro de Crianza Arnaldo Tupiza
A breeding centre for the island's five tortoise lineages, reached by a boardwalk through the lagoons.
Poza de los Flamingos
A saltwater lagoon on the edge of town, where Caribbean flamingos filter-feed in the shallows right beside the boardwalk.
Las Tintoreras
A boat trip to a small lava islet with a channel where white-tip reef sharks lie packed together; afterwards there's snorkelling.
Evening: Playa Grande
The town beach with beach bars and hammocks, where pelicans still circle over the surf in the evening.
Day 8Sierra Negra and the lava coast
Sierra Negra crater rim
After an hour's climb you stand on the rim of a caldera ten kilometres across, its floor covered in black lava from the 2018 eruption.
Volcán Chico
A field of fumaroles and red-and-yellow cinder cones with a view over the north coast to the Alcedo volcano.
Muro de las Lágrimas
A six-metre-high wall of lava blocks that prisoners were forced to pile up, to no purpose, until 1959; the path there passes meadows full of tortoises.
Mirador Cerro Orchilla
A wooden staircase up a cinder cone, from which the village, the mangrove belt and the chain of volcanoes fit into a single view.
Concha de Perla
A sheltered cove at the end of a mangrove boardwalk, where you snorkel with sea lions, sea turtles and parrotfish.
Evening: Malecón of Puerto Villamil
A sandy waterfront street with beach bars serving ceviche and live music in the evening.
Day 9Back to the green highlands
Onward back to Santa Cruz
Hotel check-in
Media Luna & Cerro Crocker
A trail through Miconia scrub to the half-moon-shaped crater, often in drizzly mist at the top — the greenest part of the island.
Rancho Primicias
A second tortoise pasture near Santa Rosa, where the animals stand in open grassland and around a pond.
Finca El Trapiche
A family farm that still processes coffee, sugar cane and chocolate with an ox-drawn mill, and invites you to taste.
Evening: Avenida Charles Darwin
The main street by the harbour, with souvenir shops, ice-cream parlours and bars that stay open late.
Day 10A last look across the bay
Playa Punta Estrada
A quiet sandy beach across the bay, reached by water taxi and usually deserted in the morning.
Muelle de los Pescadores
The old fishermen's pier at the harbour, where boats are unloaded and sea lions sleep on the planks.
Departure from Puerto Ayora
Make it your trip
Viatro AI opens this plan in the app — with map, travel times and opening hours. You change the days, pace and places yourself.
