Galapagos on a budget - activities and accommodation

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saloffel2
saloffel2

Hello, I'm heading to the Galapagos in early Feb and although I know it will be much more costly than mainland Ecuador I'd like to keep costs as low as possible. Im a solo traveller and I'm happy to sleep in dorms where I can meet people. I'm after some advice on activities and accommodation. Has anybody been on a budget that good give me some rough figures of day to day expenses or tips! I have 4 full days there not including the travel days to fly in and out :-) Here are my plans so far:

I'm flying in to Isla Baltra and have so far been advised to stay around Puerto Ayora but I'm open to other suggestions. I'm not doing a big cruise or anything, just preferring to do day trips. I'm a certified diver and would love to do some diving and/or snorkelling. I've heard North Seymour recommended. I've also heard of some kayaking in lava tunnels there. Not sure of the details. Is there the opportunity to do a volcano hike? Can all of this be booked on the island? What is a good way to go about some bird watching?

I guess the biggest question of all is can somebody recommend a low budget place to stay and can I just turn up or do I need to book in advance? I'm going early Feb.

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acegikm
acegikm

everyones budget and itinerary cannot possibly be the same. the lonely travel guide is a great place to start. we stayed on santa cruz island for 5 days and isabela island for 5 days. we did prebook our hostels in advance, just in case, but wasnt really necessary. lots of accomodations on both islands. everything you want to do can be booked when your'e actually there....the hostels help you out immensely! and its the galapagos! its NOT cheap :-)

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cigarboy
cigarboy
In response to #1

We just booked a flight from Quito kind of last minute and we had no problem booking day trips out of PA, it's very organized in terms of what outfits go where when to control visitation traffic etc. San Bartolome island day trip was great ( all day trips around $100-$120 day )as was Isabella island. Just booked a place for first night and went from there, again no problems ( this was in Feb/Mar ). Didn't dive but lot's of options, check out trip advisor for recommendations, a couple outfits are not. You can survive on empanadas if you have to, but there are reasonable places to be had off the strip along with the more expensive. It's $100 before you land for park fees etc. All in all we had a great trip to an awesome place without dropping the thousands that you can on a cruise etc.

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sara.castiglioni.56
sara.castiglioni.56
In response to #0

I recommend to book in advance the tours, in our experience they were a bit cheaper....
I recommend to ask to Zenith Travel in Quito Ecuador for assistance. They supported us a lot and prices were very low compared with travelling agencies in Europe.
http://www.zenithecuador.com/

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