Several years ago, the Galapagos National Park decided to stop allowing dive yachts to visit land sites within the park.  This rule was rescinded in 2012 so now several land visits are included on all of the dive yacht itineraries.  However all the dive yachts go to the islands of Darwin/Wolf.  These islands are probably the two best dive sites in the world but they are very far to the North (120 miles from the nearest other island) and no land excursions have ever been allowed there.  It takes approximately 15 - 20 hours of open ocean travel each way and the dive yachts will spend 2, 3, or 4 days up there (depending on the specific yacht’s itinerary).  Therefore Darwin/Wolf dive trips do not have very many land excursions and thus are typically not appropriate for non-divers.

 

Many divers are interested in visiting more of the land sites in Galapagos so they will add more time in Galapagos to either the front side or the back side of their dive trip.  However combining dive trip with land visits can be challenging.   Different yachts are in port on different days of the week and there are 2 airports in Galapagos.   Therefore you must match the dive trip with the naturalist trip for both the day of the week and the port of embarkment.  

 

If you are more interested in the diving, we recommend you book a trip on a live-aboard dive yacht with us FIRST and then add more time in Galapagos to that tour.

 

If you are more interested in the land sites, we recommend you book a naturalist trip FIRST then add more time in Galapagos to do some local diving.  NOTE - you will not visit the islands of Darwin and Wolf.

 

If you are interested in both the land and the diving, we recommend you book a trip on a live-aboard dive yacht FIRST and then let Galapagos Adventures match the dive trip with a naturalist trip on a yacht.

 

Matching dive trips with naturalist trips should only be attempted by tour companies that have a complete understanding of Galapagos.  You should not attempt to do this on your own.