www.ecuadors.org

[Jarrell]

I would like to travel to the Galapoagos in mid july with a 11 and 14 year old. any siggestions on a boat and hotel and how many days i should spend on the boat? any information you can provide i would appriciate keeping in mind the age of my children.

[Gwawl]

Last August (2006) my wife and I took our two kids, ages 13 and 10 at the time, to the Galpagos. We stayed at the Finch Bay Hotel on Santa Cruz Island.

The week long stay included 4 day trips on boats to nearby islands as well as guided land trips on Santa Cruz Island and a couple of days to explore on our own. The kids got to go sea kayaking with the hotel staff, and most importantly, had room to stretch their legs, swim in the pool, go to the beach, etc. on the off days and at the end of the day on some of the shorter day trips. For us it was the perfect mix of time on the water, visiting the islands, and time ashore. The Finch bay hotel is, in my opinion, the best place to stay for a "land based" exploration of the Galapagos with kids. There are some who feel that a full week cruise is better than a land and water based tour like we had, but with kids we felt we needed to have some time off the boat, some time to ourselves, and some time for our fellow travelers to have a little break from our kids too and this worked fine for us.