If we HAD to choose and could only send you to one of the 3 islands we visited, Isabela would be it. The laid back beach vibes, relaxed town, great locals, and wonderful tours were a true highlight of our time in the Galapagos and the reason why we found Isabela to be best. Isabela island is beautiful and a bit more rustic than Santa Cruz & San Cristobal (rustic in a good way). There were also quite a number of free things to do here, which is excellent for anyone with a lower budget.
How to get to Isabela Island Galapagos
By Ferry: You can take a ferry here from Santa Cruz island. It will cost $30 USD and take about 2 hours. You can walk to the main town of Puerto Villamil from the dock in about 10 minutes or take a quick taxi ride. There will be taxis here waiting when the boats come in.
Pro tip for the ferry: Sit in the back, on the side, by the motor, and take a sea sickness pill before you ride. You can get them at any pharmacy in Ecuador. This will make for a much smoother ride.
By Plane: You can fly here from San Cristobal island, it costs between $100-200 USD on average and takes about 40 minutes.
You can also fly from Baltra Island to Isabela. This would take a bit longer as you have to get to Baltra airport to fly here. Getting to Baltra involves either a flight from the main land or a taxi, ferry, and bus from Puerto Ayora. This would only take up about 3 hours of your total day. If you are flying into Isabela you should probably arrange transport to pick you up from the airport. It is very small and there is nothing there, so having a ride would be important. Check with your accommodation or a tour company.
Where to stay:
The airbnb we stayed in here was our favorite of the trip. We stayed in a beach bungalow that was right on the main beach and very quiet and relaxing. It had AC and warm showers. It also had a really nice balcony overlooking the beach and a shared space with hammocks, tables, and a kitchen we could use. Our host was very responsive and helpful leading up to our trip and with check in and check out. We could walk right into the town within minutes for anything we needed and we could also walk to the port and Concha De Perla in about 10 minutes. We loved our stay here and I would highly recommend it, especially at less than 100 usd per night.
If you’re looking for more of a hotel feel though, here are a few spots we checked out that looked good.
Iguana Crossing: This place is on the end of town and as far as we could see is the only “high end” type hotel on Isabela. It has a pool and a nice restaurant (we wanted to eat here but had trouble arranging a reso with them, so do that in advance). It looked like a very nice stay and if we were working with a different budget on this trip it would have been an excellent place I’m sure.
The Drake: this hotel kind of looked like the middle man between our airbnb and Iguana Crossing. It had cute decor, was right across the street from the beach, and had some nice looking balcony areas outside. We didn’t go in, but it looked like a solid mid-range option if that is what you’re looking for.
Things to do:
Los Tuneles Tour with Agora Tours: To start, I am not affiliated with Agora tours in any way & none of my experiences with them were gifted. There were so many options when looking for tours in the Galapagos and I was nervous to choose. We went on 3 different tours with this agency and all were wonderful so I recommend them as I know they were a very solid choice for us.
The Tuneles tour was probably my favorite tour we did in the entire Galapagos. We started out checking out some birds and were were able to see some blue footed boobies. Then we went snorkeling at Cabo Rosa. It was an awesome snorkel and we saw so many animals. After this we were able to explore the Tuneles area. We did a shorter snorkel here, but saw some really neat things, and got to swim with penguins! Exploring the tuneles area was MIND BLOWING. There can’t be any other landscape like it on earth. We were so impressed and it was amazing to get out of the boat and be able to walk along the lava formations. From our land walk we saw baby blue footed boobies (they have white feet till they grow up), adult blue footed boobies, sharks, turtles, and sea lions in the water as well! It was truly a magical place to visit. We had lunch on board (chicken and rice) and it was delicious! Overall we felt so well taken care of and loved everything about this tour.
Hike Sierra Negra Volcano: This was another super neat experience! The landscape was out of this world. The hike starts by visiting the absolutely giant caldera formed by the volcanos eruptions over the years. After viewing the caldera, you walk onward through lava fields and the most other worldly landscape! It was truly such a neat experience and we’ve never seen anything like it.
To be honest, if we were book again, we’d book a private tour to do this. We are in very good shape, like to move quickly, and felt this tour was a little slow paced for us. We loved our guide and learned a lot from him, but we’d have just loved for this to take a little less time than it did. If you don’t mind a slower pace or are a slower hiker in general, take the group tour and you’ll be just fine. We did this tour with Agora Tours as well.
Concha de Perla (free): This is the coolest spot! Rent yourself a snorkel in town and walk here for some fun! It is the most peaceful lagoon and it is full of wildlife and good vibes. We snorkeled here a couple of times during our down time and really enjoyed it. We saw sea lions, marine iguanas, giant sea turtles, fish, and birds. There is a boardwalk that you stroll along to get to the dock to jump in, and walking the boardwalk is an adventure too. The sea lions love to hang out on, around, and under it! They are so playful and entertaining! We recommend going early in the morning, you can have it essentially to yourself and we saw a bit more wildlife early in the day.
Playa Isabela: This is the beach right by the port and it is such a fun spot to see all the sea lions hanging out. They’re almost always here chilling on the beach or playing in the water. You can snorkel here too, or just relax and watch them hanging around. It is also a very short walk from Concha De Perla so you can pair them together if you’re wanting something to do for a few hours.
Visit the park at the end of the beach for a few attractions: If you walk, or ride a bike to the very end of the main beach you’ll hit a sign for a park. When you enter there are a number of attractions you can check out.
Playacita is a lovely little beach with the clearest most beautiful calm water. You can snorkel or relax here and check out some of the wildlife.
Playa de amor is COVERED in Iguanas. You can snorkel here too, but we didn’t see anyone in the water, just a bunch of us all wandering around observing the most iguanas I’ve ever seen in one place!
The wall of tears is a sad but powerful thing to see. It is the site of an old prison camp and holds some sad history. We found it worth a visit, it was beneficial to bike here as it is about 4km from the main park area. There are also a few viewpoints you can stop at along the way and some opportunity to see Giant Tortoise in the wild.
The main beach: The main beach here is incredibly long and absolutely stunning. The sand is white and soft, the water is clear and blue, and it is so big you can spread out and enjoy pretty much any of it to yourself. It is absolutely lovely!
Flamingo Lagoon: Right behind the town square there is a little pond/lagoon type thing with a small viewing dock for checking out some of the flamingos. They are beautiful to go take a peek at!
Tortuga Island: This was one thing we didn’t do that I wish we did. If we had another day I would have scheduled a boat tour to Tortuga. The wildlife sounded like it would be amazing! We actually got a little peek at it from the plane!
Tortoise Breeding Center: You can also walk or ride bikes here from the center of town, or come with a tour if needed. We just walked over and took a stroll around. It is free to walk around and honestly we didn’t enjoy it as much as the Tortoise spots on Santa Cruz or San Cristobal. But it’s worth a short amount of your time to take a peek at it. We also were able to spot a few tortoise in the wild on our bike ride to the wall of tears.
Try Surfing: Admittedly this isn’t our best skill. But you can rent a surf board for a few bucks here and give it a try. You can also take lessons, there are a number of spots along the beach that offer this.
Where to eat & drink
I will admit we slacked a little on where to eat in this town. We had a really really bad meal at “Iguana Point” and it kind of gave us a scare about the food. Due to that scare we decided to eat dinner at the same place twice because we just wanted to know it would be good.
Gracias Madre: This was the place we ate twice (they also have a location in Puerto Ayora) and even though we don’t usually do this, I’m not upset that we did. The meals here were great and varied enough that we had different things each time. I had an awesome tuna dinner the first night and Griffin had tacos. The second night I had a seriously great coconut shrimp dish and Griffin had chicken mole. This place was well priced, clean, had nice wine, and overall was worth 2 visits.
Pan e Vino: We grabbed lunch here and it was quite nice. Griffin had a delicious chicken sandwich and I had a large salad. We had some nice coffee here to and the food was fresh and delicious. Sorry, forgot a photo!
Panderia Aroma Josua: The bakery in town (right on the edge of main square towards the beach) was a true highlight of our time on the island. We went here every morning and we also often went in the afternoon too. We were obsessed with their cheese empanadas, their chocolate bread, and pretty much any other snack they had. If you walk up and they have the chocolate frosted donut and you don’t get it, you have failed me! It was so good!
Pink Iguana Bar: I wasn’t sure if I should list this as a thing to do or place to eat. I guess it kind of fits the bill for both. They have snacks, but I’m not sure if they had full meals. We had some nice greasy cheesy empanadas here with our drinks, we really enjoyed them! This place is a sanctuary for marine iguanas and also a hostel. There was a really fun crowd here and it was a beautiful place to relax on the beach and watch the sunsets. Sunsets on Isabela were our favorite in the Galapagos.
Practical Information
$$$: There are ATM machines on this island. We heard a lot of people saying that there were not, and I don’t think they were lying, they just didn’t have updated information. But I am writing this as of December 2024 and they have ATM’s now.
You WILL need cash at most places on this island.
There are markets & a pharmacy: You can get some basic things here, but don’t expect too much from the markets. We were able to get some eggs, some snacks, etc. We relied on the bakery a lot. We didn’t need a pharmacy here, but they did have them.
Renting bikes is popular here: You can bike to many of the above mentioned activities and biking is very popular on Isabela. Bikes are very affordable to rent at about $2.50 an hour or $10 for a day.
Isabela has a beautiful long beach: This is good to know as you can spend a lot more time relaxing and doing the typical beach thing on this island. With a side dose of wildlife of course!
Other Posts to Check out
3 Days on San Cristobal Island
What You Need to Know Before Visiting the Galapagos Islands
9 day Itinerary for the Galapagos Islands
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