Puerto Ayora (Academy Bay) - Activities, Attractions & Shopping

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Everywhere interesting you go in Galapagos requires you to have a guide.

Cruisers have recommended a day trip to North Seymour Island as a ‘do not miss it’.

Also recommended is the hike to Las Grietas and walking the boardwalk to Tortuga Bay. The 40-minute walk starts from the water-taxi dock and heads southwest from town to Tortuga Bay where you’ll find two white sand beaches and an array of wild life which might include baby hammerhead sharks swimming right off the beach as well as marine iguanas, turtles and pelicans.   If you don’t fancy the walk, take a water taxi to the beach as it’s about an hour’s hike to the beach from where the land taxis will drop you.

The water taxi ($20 per person return) goes four times a day from the pier in Puerto Ayora, with the last one at 4.45pm. The walking trail is open from 6am to 5pm.

It is possible to hire a taxi/truck at $10/hr to take a group up to the highlands (Spanish-speaking driver). This is much cheaper than a guided tour with an English guide if your Spanish is sufficient.

The Charles Darwin Research Station is about a 15 minute walk from the pier.  A $10 fee per person will let you see the tortoises and also includes a very good guided tour.

A 25 minute taxi ride will take you to the big inland tortoise sanctuary, where you can see the giant tortoises in the wild, and the spectacular underground lava tunnel walk.  Expect to pay about $50 per cab for four people for a return trip.

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Puerto Ayora (Academy Bay) was last updated 9 months ago.

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  1. May 5, 2018 at 12:29 PM
    Data Entry1 says:

    Important information for all cruisers who are planning to visit Galapagos Islands: when choosing the agent never ever go for Ronny Sanches, Tironne S.A. We have a very bad experience in March 2018, our passports as well as boat passport was stolen from his office and he even didn’t inform us about that immediately. His phone numbers and office address are wrong in his business card and it was very difficult to cooperate with him.

    1. May 24, 2019 at 11:34 PM
      gabrielintriago says:

      in fact we traveled in the month of October, and that agent took care of us perfect, besides that we saved budget, unlike other local agents of galapagos.