The Galapagos Islands are a brilliant destination for solo travellers in search of adventure and mind blowing wildlife encounters. All of our solo holidays have at their heart a Galapagos wildlife cruise. On board your cruise, you will get to share the experience with a small group (maximum 16) of like-minded travellers. All logistics will be taken care of, from meals to transport to the expeditions, meaning you are free to immerse yourself in the amazing wildlife around you. As part of our service, we can also recommend places to visit in Ecuador and Galapagos before or after your cruise, so you can make the most of your trip to this incredible country.
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Company founder and Galapagos expert, Rachel is on hand to help you plan your trip of a lifetime!
We listen to you. We take the time to understand what you want your Galapagos trip of a lifetime to be. We then we use our decades of experience and unrivalled network of local contacts and team of top guides to make it happen.
All our Galapagos solo holidays have a naturalist-led cruise at their heart. Because the islands are spread over more than 200 km, by visiting on board a live-aboard Galapagos wildlife cruise, you can reach the most remote and pristine parts of the archipelago
Navigating mostly at night, you spend the best parts of the day wildlife watching, with early morning and late afternoon land visits to the islands. Then in the middle of the day you can experience some of the amazing Galapagos wildlife below the water, with some of the best snorkelling in the world! Some of our yachts also offer kayaks and paddle boards.
There is no right answer to this. Galapagos truly is a year round destination thanks to its location on the equator and each month has its own special highlights. Depending on what your particular wildlife interest is, some times of the year may be better for you than others and we would be able to help guide you on this.
Want to chat through your plans face to face? Fill in our form and request a video chat and we’ll be in touch with the details.
We are an owner run business that genuinely loves what we do. Dedicated personal service is at the heart of everything we do here in the UK, as we work with you to create your ultimate Galapagos holiday. Once you are in Ecuador, we have a superb team on the ground that will take care of you every step of the way.
We particularly enjoy organising holidays for solo guests as we know that our in-depth knowledge and network of local contacts really can make the difference in ensuring you have the wildlife holiday of a lifetime. The best way to start planning your Galapagos trip is to give us a call, but in case it is helpful here some frequently asked questions about solo travel in Galapagos.
Galapagos is one of the safest places in the world to visit, which is an important factor for many people when planning solo travel. Tight controls on visitor numbers and the remote nature of the islands mean that they still remain largely off the beaten track for most tourists. 97% of the land in Galapagos is tightly controlled by the Galapagos National Park and the archipelago is a UNESCO World Heritage site. The waters around the Galapagos Island comprise the second largest marine reserve in the world. All of this means that it is one of the most protected and regulated destinations anywhere in the world.
All of our live-aboard Galapagos cruises have to have a licensed Galapagos National Park guide with them. The Galapagos National Park guides must accompany the guests, with a maximum ration of 16 guests per guide, throughout every single expedition that takes place within the Galapagos National Park. This means guests are accompanied at all times during land visits and snorkelling by their naturalist, who is there not only to look after you but to share their passion and delight at the wildlife and nature that you will be experiencing. Trust and camaraderie are such a deeply enshrined way of being for the crew, staff and guides in the yachts that all the yachts we work with have a no-key policy for their cabins.
We take great care in looking after every Think Galapagos guest, from the moment you arrive at the airport in Ecuador to the moment you leave and every step of the way in between. This is even more important for the single guests who travel with us. We have an exceptional team on the ground in Ecuador and Galapagos that takes great pride and care in looking after our guests. For solo travellers who want to explore Ecuador as well as Galapagos, we have lots of great options that work really well, not only in providing superb wildlife viewing and cultural experiences for single guests, but also in avoiding or at least minimising the dreaded single supplement.
Years of organising Galapagos holidays for single guests means we have found a number of ways of avoiding what can sometimes be an eye watering single supplement for the cruise portion of your Galapagos trip. It costs the same to book through us as direct with the yachts, and in many cases we can get even better rates. So here are what we have discovered to be the best options for our single guests to avoid and minimise the single supplement on your Galapagos cruise:
Galapagos cruises with single cabins and no single supplement.
This is always our top option for solo Galapagos travellers. A number of the Galapagos yachts we work with offer a single cabin for no supplement on a first come first served basis. Some yachts have one single cabin they offer in this way, others have the capacity for a large number of single cabins they can offer for no supplement, whilst others have two extra cabins, so in these cases it is something that we try and negotiate for our guests. A relatively new addition to the Galapagos yacht offering is the Solaris, a yacht specifically designed for Galapagos solo travel. Although there is something of a premium built into the costing on this yacht, it is a really good option. Finally, if Galapagos yachts have unsold cabins close to the time of departure, they are much more willing to sell the cabins for no single supplement, but this only works for guests who are booking relatively last minute.
Being able to share a cabin.
Although most luxury Galapagos yachts don’t offer this option, many yachts do offer the option for solo travellers to share the cabin with someone. Unless the yacht confirms at the time of booking that they already have a single guest, the yacht then will need to find another single guest for that same departure who is happy to share too. Very often they don’t find anyone for you to share the cabin with, so you get the single cabin for no supplement. However, with this option there is always the possibility that they will find someone, so for this option to work, you do need to be happy also that there is a chance you will be sharing the cabin.
Paying the single supplement.
Sometimes for our solo Galapagos travellers, actually paying the single supplement can work out to be the best option. This is where we come in to help, as we are very often able to negotiate down the official single supplement rate for our single guests thanks to the excellent relationship we have with the yacht owners. Some yachts, we don’t even try with this however as their single supplement is 100%, usually we go for this option for yachts whose single supplement is 50% and we can usually get this down to a better rate.
Pre-Trip Information
This downloadable pre-trip information document will help you plan for your Galapagos trip as well as answering some key questions you may have. Despite being quite long it is by no means exhaustive, so please do get in touch with any questions you may have and we would be delighted to help.
Think Galapagos is proud to be a member of Protected Trust Services (PTS). Our membership (No:5731) provides us with a trust account and insurance model which ensures all consumer money for bookings taken on or after 10th November 2021 is fully protected. To find out more click here.
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