www.galapagostourist.org

[Xever]

We are a family with 2 kids (age 9 and 11 years old), who will be staying in a hotel on the Island for 5 nights in mid-May and are planning to do day trips.

Please advise the following:

- Recommend a hotel (decent but moderately priced)...any close to the water?

- How does one make reservations? I searched, but could not find website pointers for hotels.

- Ideas for day trips for 4 days?

We are very thankful for this forum, we have learnt so much.
Any advice/tips, we would deeply appreciate.
Thank you.

[Slaed]

We decided to stay over on the Galapagos after our five day cruise around the islands and chose the Red Mangrove Adventure Hotel in the town of Puerto Ayora and were we glad we did! First of all, The Red Mangrove is absolutely delightful. It is built into the mangroves at waters edge overlooking the town harbor near the Charles Darwin Center. The rooms are quirkilly furnished yet very comfortable and all look out over the harbor. There is an extremely comfortable lounge area with free high speed internet and a fine harbor view restauant which serves a delicious breakfast in the morning and is a sushi restaurant at nighttime. The property offers a large variety of excursions and water options such as sea kyacking, fishing, etc.

The town of Puerto Ayora was also a pleasant surprise. It is filled with great restaurants, atmospheric bars and cafes and some decent shopping. There is also a glorious beach at Tortuga Bay about two miles out of town that is not to be missed.

For all those enjoying a Galapagos cruise, we highly recommend taking a few days afterwards to relax in Puerto Ayora. We had considered the Royal Palms but were glad we decided upon the Red Mangrove instead as the Royal Palms is in an isolated location far from anything else in the cloudy highlands of the island. Our only regret about our stay at he Red Mangrove was it was too short. We would have liked another day or two.