For a quarter of a century GeoEx has thought of the Galápagos as one of the planet’s greatest places to spend the December holidays. Our wonderfully out-of-the-ordinary, weeklong holiday journey to the Enchanted Islands kicks off in proud and vivacious Quito, where we spend a full day touring colonial masterpieces alongside our savvy guide. Then we fly to the islands for four days of exploring and four nights at the new, marvelously designed, cloud-forest-nestled Galápagos Safari Camp, which we have all to ourselves. Our friends Michael and Stephanie Mesdag modeled this camp after Africa’s best permanent luxury tented camps—camps we’ve been safariing in for years—and we can attest that in comfort, hospitality, and beauty, Michael and Stephanie’s labor of love is fully their equal.

While in the archipelago we get acquainted—with help from the expert naturalist who’s at our side throughout our Galápagos stay—with some of Santa Cruz Island’s finest beaches, its geologic, floral, and faunal wonders, and with its famed Galápagos tortoises, both at the Charles Darwin Research Station, where they’re raised for introduction into the wild, and up in the highlands (Galápagos Safari Camp is located next to the National Tortoise Reserve, and these intriguing creatures galumph around freely—we may have make way for one on our way to breakfast). We also spend a couple of days island hopping aboard the sleek 40-foot Narel, navigating the neighboring isles which are peacefully populated by sea lions, blue-footed boobies, land and sea iguanas, frigate birds, and such a healthy cast of fascinating wildlife characters that, as one of our Galápagos travelers wrote, “It’s enough to make you proud to be a sentient being.”

Day 1: arrive Quito • Day 2: guided tour of Quito • Day 3: fly to Galápagos, settle in at Safari Camp • Day 4: yachting, swimming, and island visiting Day 5: explore Santa Cruz Island and Charles Darwin Research Station • Day 6: island visiting by yacht, swimming, snorkeling, and hiking • Day 7: leisurely morning at camp, afternoon flight to Quito • Day 8: depart Quito.

Ecuador Extensions is available for this trip

Machu Picchu and the Urubamba is available for this trip

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