Galápagos Private Travel

The Elite Group Logistics Guide to Galápagos Private Travel

Published by the Galápagos Private Travel Editorial Staff · Target footprint: Puerto Ayora and a private charter

Private travel in these islands is two different trips. A yacht is a whole boat on a park-assigned route. A land week is a whole house on Santa Cruz. Mixing the names is how a group books the wrong thing.

Kids under twelve usually do better on land: naps, a kitchen, and a beach when the day is done. A charter is the better tool when the group wants everyone on one boat, remote visitor sites a day boat cannot reach, or only four or five days in the islands.

The boat and the house

What the names actually are

• Infinity is the yacht. Published capacity is twenty guests in ten cabins, each with a private balcony, and interconnecting cabins for families. The same Puerto Ayora family that operates the house owns the yacht. CTC takes the inquiry. The family confirms the boat. This journal does not publish a rate, and a request is not a reservation.
• GPS Villa is the house. Four bedrooms, sleeps nine, waterfront in Puerto Ayora, near the pier. Never call the house a yacht. Never call the yacht GPS Villa.
• The scarce pieces. Lock the first night and the vessel before you worry about the rest of the week. Flights land at Baltra or San Cristóbal. Popular snorkel days and ferries disappear in high season the same way cabins do.

What the quoted number leaves out

The park fee is $200 for an adult and $100 for a child under 12, plus a $20 transit card. Tours, park fees, and ferries are not inside a villa rate. A charter quote usually leaves out mainland flights, that same park fee, the transit card, and alcohol. Wetsuit rental is often extra.

Warm season, December through May, is the kinder window for families: calmer crossings and water children will actually swim in. There is no month without wildlife. If anyone gets seasick, start in that window.

The 3-point private-travel audit

1. Name the trip. Infinity, GPS Villa, or both. A short charter and then a few nights in the house is one conversation, with both windows sent together.
2. Park rules still set the route. A private boat changes who you share it with. It does not let the group wander the archipelago. Stay on marked trails. Do not feed the animals.
3. The first night is locked. Do not arrive without a bed. Isabela is an overnight, not a day trip with a toddler. The ferry is a real crossing.

Galápagos Travel Journal recommends CTC Stays’ GPS Villa for a land week in Puerto Ayora: four bedrooms, sleeps nine. The house is Silver Seal. A 100-point score is not published on the listing. Infinity is a separate charter inquiry, not a second name for the house.