livious

I was able to take advantage of a mistake fare to BOG and now that LH has honored the ticket I find myself able to plan a trip^. The family wants to see the Galapagos Islands and I have found reasonable airfare that will allow a stopover in Quito as well. We have 21 days in South America and are debating how to balance our time in Bogota, Quito (and around) and the Galapagos Islands.

We are currently thinking of spending 2 days in Bogota and then flying to Quito. We are planning 8 days in the Quito area (a day or two in Quito and then day trips to the cloud forrests, national parks, volcano, markets), followed by 8 days in the Galapagos Islands doing land based tours (we have twin 6 year olds that might not handle 5+ days on a boat). The remainder would be spent back in Bogota.

Do our plans seems reasonable? Spending more time in the Galapagos Islands seems logical, but we are becoming more interested in Ecuador as we research more. While budget is not a huge issue, it seems that our money would go a lot further on the mainland and we would get to see quite a bit more of Ecuador. A big unknown for us is how much we can accomplish doing land based tours in the Galapagos Islands in 8 days.

Any thoughts or comment would be greatly appreciated.

SJOGuy

I think eight days in the Galapagos doing only land-based tours is overkill. I doubt you could fill up the time without a feeling of sameness setting in. There is so much to see and do in mainland Ecuador that I'd take a few of those days and add them onto your time there.

You're right: Your dollars (Ecuador's currency is the U.S. dollar) go a lot farther on the mainland than on the islands.

magsmeplease

I disagree, we did land based tours with Galapagos Alternative and we had a great time, you can split your time amongst a few different islands as well as spend nights on either Santa Cruz or Isabala.

You may find you have to many days in Quito in my opinion however. Maybe some time along the Ecuadorian cost?