Private Santa Cruz Tour : Darwin Station & Tortuga Bay

My wife and I took this tour to start off our stop in Galapagos. Ramiro was our guide and was very efficient and friendly. He timed activities before crowds came and took time answering our questions. We would recommend him to others. Great guide! And we loved the private tour--so much better than with a large crowd.

Simply spectacular and very beautiful; the contrast of the white sand with the turquoise sea is unforgettable. The view was excellent: always as a group we were watching to keep the beach clean. Walking through the mangrove and seeing marine iguanas completed the experience.

This was a very informative tour. We had a wonderful time learning so much about all of the plants and animals that we passed while we walked. It was a lot of walking, but we were prepared with good shoes, so it was not too strenuous. We are in “average shape” and the walking was a little tiring but not too much and was definitely worth everything we got to see. Our guide, Juan, was very knowledgeable and very patient with our millions of questions. He was funny and it was a lot of fun to spend time with him. The beaches and landscapes were very beautiful, and it was a treat to encounter so many animals such as iguanas, pelicans, and other birds and lizards in the wild.

It's a scam, TURTLE BAY Beach IS FREE AND PUBLICLY ACCESSIBLE, just like CHARLES DARWIN STATION, IT'S FREE TO ENTER. There are those who charge $10 per person to enter and you MUST NOT PAY, you can even report that if they want to charge you. Even if you don’t want to walk to Tortuga Bay, you only pay for yourself to go by boat, round trip is at $20 or walking is done 1 hour per route (bicycles or cars are not allowed in, the road is very narrow and some animals could hurt if they go by bike). I've been there many times, I've seen how they charge for that and it's not fair that they do.

My parents and I had a wonderful time. The walk to tortuga bay was very relaxing and interesting. We saw lots of wildlife and enjoyed the beach. Lunch that was included was at a really nice restaurant on the water and the Charles Darwin Museum was fabulous. Our tour guide CheChe was so knowledgeable and friendly and even after doing this tour for so long you can tell he still enjoys it everyday. Highly recommended!

It was a very good experience, it is also impressive to know that they have the legendary George embalmed, also to be able to see up close the breeding of the turtles, also living with another group of tourists is very nice

We had a tour of the whole season and we could observe different species of turtles among other reptiles, we visited the lonely George the last giant turtle we had a very capable guide that explained in depth about the differences of the species and the creation of the season.

Visiting the Charles Darwin Science Station is an enriching experience that makes you reflect on the importance of conservation. The work they do with giant turtles and other endemic species is very admirable

Guided tour with very good explanation of the conservation site, entertaining and dynamic tour that allows to interact with everything exposed of the Station.

This was interesting tour to review, because it involved A LOT more walking than my family ever anticipated. Aside from two very brief taxi rides in town, which you have to pay extra for, the entire day was walking either in the hot sun or in the rain. If title of the tour had the word "hike" or "trek", then we would be ready for a lot of walking that day. Our guide was almost 70 years old and obviously he was in better physical shape than two people in their early 50s with a 9 year old child. He walked day without water and didn't looked tired at all afterwards. We were exhausted by the end of the day. It was just too much for us. Be aware that the walk to Tortuga Bay Beach is very long and exposed to the sun most of the way. At the end of the trail, you have the beautiful Tortuga Bay Beach, there's always a red caution flag that swimming is not allowed because of the rough surf. Then here is a calm beach in a lagoon further down which is in between a colony of lava lizards, that was fun to see. The calm beach was crowded and not particularly great, but after the exhausting walk, a dip in the water was what I needed. Then we had to walk back from where we came...that was painful...at the end there were no taxis available, so walked some more. Lunch at a local restaurant across from the fish market had very limited options, so we decided to order a la carte so we can choose our own meal instead of the limited choices that was covered by the tour company. After lunch, we walked some more to the Charles Darwin Research Station. By this time, our brains were fried and it was difficult to enjoy seeing the giant tortoises and the facility. Afterwards, we did so more walking back to the dock where we had to get on a water taxi to get back to our hotel. So, if you are thinking that this private tour involved a nice air conditioned car driving you from location to location, this is not it, it is a grueling all day tour walking in the heat. Obviously, we saw a lot, but it was difficult to enjoy it...our guide was a nice old man, but he didn't tailor the tour for a 9 year old, and he just kept walking and walking and walking and rarely stopping for us to catch up.