Santa Cruz was SUCH a dream and was the best welcome to the Galapagos. The town of Puerto Ayora is so nice and charming and we loved walking around and seeing all of the animals greet us morning, noon, and night! We enjoyed the vibes here, the tours we did, and overall greatly enjoyed this island! I will smile whenever I think about this place! It felt like another world!

How to Get to Santa Cruz

When you read this, you may feel intimidated or think that it is complicated to get to Puerto Ayora. However, I promise it is very straight forward. You basically have two options for arrival in Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz Island.

By Ferry

To get to Santa Cruz you can arrive by ferry from Isabela or San Cristobol Islands. The ferry costs $30 USD and takes about 2 hours. If you arrive by ferry you will be right on the main port in the town and in the middle of everything. It will be easily walkable or a very short taxi ride to anywhere you’re staying.

Pro tip for the ferry: sit in the back, on the side, next to the motor and take a sea sickness pill before you go. You can get these at any pharmacy in Ecuador.

By Plane

If you’re coming from mainland Ecuador or the other islands by plane, you’ll fly into the airport at Baltra Island. You will have to take a short bus ride (10-15 mins), a short ferry ride (10 mins) , and a taxi or bus ride (40 mins ish) to get to Santa Cruz.

I booked a land based tour right upon landing. We were met at the airport by our driver and escorted through the bus and ferry process, and then driven straight to the Giant Tortoise Reserve. Our driver stayed with us while we toured the reserve and had lunch. He then took us to see the lava tunnels, and finally dropped us off at our airbnb without issue. This was a wonderful and stress free way to begin our trip and I highly recommend it! You could also do this on your way out of town if you’re flying home this way.

To be fair, this is much more costly than just doing the transfer the regular way, but we found it worthwhile upon landing to get our bearings without having to worry about anything.

You can click here if you’d like to book the same tour on Santa Cruz.

Where to stay in Puerto Ayora

Airbnb

We stayed in an airbnb right in the center of town. It was less than 100 USD per night and it had what we needed. The room was large and had a very large comfortable bed, we had a balcony that was nice for coffee and people watching. The bathroom was small, but workable and had warm water to shower. There was also an empty rooftop which was a nice spot to catch the sunset. Overall we found it to be a perfectly nice and adequate place to stay.

here is the link to our airbnb

While visiting we saw & explored some nice looking hotels on Santa Cruz as well. Here are a few that I believe looked appealing.

Blu Galapagos

This hotel was very popular and since we were in town over the holidays we found it a little over our budget. Especially for people who are going to be out doing things all day. But this hotel looks absolutely lovely, is working hard to be sustainable, and has such a lovely location right on the water. You can easily reach anything you’d need to do, and the property and rooms look so dreamy. If we come back this will be a place I splurge for.

Click here to BOok BLU Galapagos

Hotel Solymar

We walked past this hotel a ton of times on our trip and it really did look nice and appealing from the outside. It was very well located, has a pool, has solid reviews, and looks like a really nice mid range choice if you’re going for that.

Click here to book Hotel solymar

Things to Do

Bay Tour (Tour de Bahia)

One of our favorite things we did on Santa Cruz was the bay tour. We booked through “Get Travel Galapagos” and the tour was really smooth. This is the exact tour we did, this is not an affiliate link, if you book through get your guide this tour will cost more for the same thing. The tour cost $40 usd and I thought it was very good value for money. The tour took about 3-4 hours and we did so much.

We started out by snorkeling and it honestly felt like swimming in an aquarium! We got to see so many unique fish, white tip reef sharks, and the water was so beautiful and clear.

The tour also included some walking on land, which was really neat. We got to view a large group of sharks in the Shark Channel from above, it was really neat to see them all in one place. There were SO many and our guide taught us a lot about them. We also visited Dog Beach and saw a number of blue footed boobies! They were so beautiful to see and observe from a distance.

Our second snorkel was at Las Grietas which is a really impressive volcanic rock formation. We didn’t see as much wildlife here but the scenery was truly amazing and we enjoyed the clear and calm water.

*Quick Tips: You’ll want to bring sneakers or a solid sandal on this tour for the walking portions. They give you a VERY small towel but I suggest bringing your own if you’re worried about it. They will give you a snorkel.

Visit Tortuga Bay Beach

This is truly one of the most beautiful, if not THE most beautiful beach I have ever set foot on in my life. It looked like a movie scene where you to go heaven and it’s a beach. I was mind blown and I am not a huge beach person.

The walk to this beach from town takes about 40 minutes to an hour depending on your speed. It is SO worth it. Walking along the beach is the most lovely experience and snorkeling towards the end of the beach in the little bay areas is wonderful. We saw sharks, iguanas, fish, sea turtles, and really loved the experience here.

We heard and also saw signs in town that you could take a boat taxi here. However, we didn’t see anyone doing it, and I’m not sure how it worked. We just walked both ways, but we honestly found the walk beautiful and enjoyable.

*Quick tips: Make sure to rent a snorkel in town before heading here so you can enjoy swimming with all the animals. You need to bring everything with you that you want here. There are NO facilities, no shops, etc. You need to bring your own everything (snacks, towels, water, sunscreen etc).

Darwin Center & Beaches (free)

This is a much easier walk from the end of town (about 10 minutes) and is an enjoyable way to spend a few hours. Within this complex of sorts you can visit a few small beaches, the Darwin Center, and do a tortoise walk. We enjoyed checking out the center and learning a little bit more about the wildlife (its free). The beaches were quite rocky and covered with crabs and iguanas, but there were still a good amount of people swimming. I visited here on my early morning runs as well and it was so peaceful in the morning.

Giant Tortoise Reserve

If you don’t visit this spot on your arrival in Santa Cruz as I suggested, you can always grab a taxi out here any time you want to visit the turtles and the Lava Tunnels. It can be an enjoyable thing to do for lunchtime. You could take the walk and observe the turtles, have lunch, do the lava tunnels and then return to town. It’s a really nice way to spend a few hours.

View Animals from the Port

This isn’t an official activity or tour, but the port in Puerto Ayora is just FULL of wildlife! We walked here multiple times a day to watch animals off the dock. We saw sharks, rays, sea lions, and fish every single time! It is really nice at night too when the water is all lit up from the docks and you can see the animals active in the water. We spent countless hours here during our 3 days in Puerto Ayora.

Other boat/island Tours on Santa Cruz

Listed here are the tours that we personally did and can vouch for. However, there are COUNTLESS options for tours here on this island. I recommend Agora Tours for an overall wonderful tour company. We also enjoyed our experience with Get Travel Galapagos on Santa Cruz so if we were going to book another tour I would have booked through them. Check out the offerings if you want more action. Additionally, it seems for most of these tours that the prices are better directly through the tour companies, so skip viator and getyourguide on this one.

Where to Eat

Ayora

This was my favorite meal in Puerto Ayora. You have to walk to the edge of town for this one, so don’t skip it! They serve tapas style food and it was all so delicious! It was such a nice vibe sitting outside on the patio and they had Ecuadorian wines too, which I really enjoyed trying. We tried the mushroom croquettes, the Ecuadorian pork sandwich, plantain with tuna, the Ecuadorian tuna, the chicken stew bomb, and the coco brûlée for desert. Literally when I tell you EVERYTHING was awesome, I mean it.

Chocolapagos

Okay first of all, the name! So good! Second of all, the chocolate turtles were wonderful. They had so many different types to try and they all were so good. They also have beautiful packaging if you want to bring some home for gifts. This spot is towards the end of town so make sure you don’t miss it!

Nikkei

This was a great spot on the second floor of a building on the main road in Puerto Ayora. It had great views, great wine, and great food! The Galapagos has a ton of seafood, which is perfect for me, but my husband loves his meat. We were glad he could get some meat here, I had octopus and we split a tuna tar tar. The staff was kind, the views were great, it was very clean, and I definitely recommend this spot.

Marez

This spot is right above Nikkei and on another night we hit up the rooftop for drinks and a snack. We really enjoyed the views for sunset from up here, you could see all directions over Puerto Ayora. We had some nice drinks and a snack of calamari tempura and enjoyed this spot for a quick stop!

Bahia Mar

This was such a lovely spot, right on the water. We stopped here for a drink during sunset and it was lovely. It is a bit pricer compared to other places but we found the lovely sunset worth it for a drink. We saw a lot of people getting ready for dinner here too and I’m sure it was really nice!

Kiosks

The kiosks are basically an entire street of local spots that all serve generally the same type of local food. We ate at “Renata” and enjoyed it, but I assume they’re all really similar. I had scorpion fish and Griffin had a meat platter. We enjoyed the vibes and found it enjoyable. We had assumed it was a bit cheaper, but it generally was not. It may be better for lunch as many places serve “almuerzo” here which is usually a full lunch for about $10 USD.

Galapagos Deli

A great little spot off the main road and worth a stop. We had some nice fresh healthy meals here and found it perfect for lunch. They also had excellent coffee. I had a really large and delicious salad and Griffin had a sandwich. This is also about as “quick” of a meal as you’ll get in the Galapagos if you’re in the middle of a bunch of activities.

Ukku Acai Bar

We stopped here for some fresh fruit smoothies and they were delightful. I had a coconut mango and Griffin had peanut butter. We both really enjoyed them and everyone in this spot looked happy.

Gelato Bar

I’m embarrassed to say we almost didn’t stop here because we were worried we wouldn’t find it impressive. It was actually delicious and I wish we’d gone more than once! Santa Cruz knows what they’re doing!

Practical Information for Santa Cruz

$$$

US dollars are the currency here. Credit cards are widely accepted but some places will still prefer cash.

Best Shopping

Out of the 3 islands we found the best shopping to be here on Santa Cruz. If you want to get your gear and souvenirs etc, this is the best spot. There are shops on the other two islands, but we found the shops here to be far superior.

Water on Santa Cruz

You can not drink the water on Santa Cruz. Make sure to get water bottles or check with your accommodation for fresh/clean water.