I could write about The Galapagos Islands for a longgggg time. When I was first planning my trip to go in February 2019 I was a little concerned. Everything seemed so expensive and classy, which are two words that often scare me haha.
I’m here to tell you some of my favorite FREE/extremely cheap things to do in The Galapagos (Isabela and Santa Cruz islands)!
Side note, some of these things were actually my favorite things I did my whole time there!
These locations are all listed with little green flags on the map above.
Santa Cruz Island
1) Tortuga Bay
Tortuga Bay is one of the most beautiful beaches I saw on all of my time on The Galapagos Islands and it is FREE!
It has two beaches (one too dangerous for swimming, and the other very calm) and a TON of wildlife!
It is open from 6 AM to 6 PM daily and is within a 10 minute walk from the main Puerto Ayora.
There is a 2.5 km stone path that leads to the first beach (Playa Barva). This beach has incredible white sand and early in the morning a spot where all of the marine iquanas come and rest!
Right beyond that beach is a second one, Playa Mansa. This beach is a lot smaller but no less incredible! It also doesn’t have crazy waves and currents so you can swim in it.
Be aware that there is no shade, bathroom facilities or food vendors on Tortuga Bay!
Hint: Go early in the morning!! I went right at 6 AM two mornings in a row and it was incredible. All of the wildlife was out and I had the whole beach to myself with my friend! The sun was not strong, though it was already hot by 6 AM!
2) Playa de Los Alemanes
This is another beautiful public beach that is a great spot for snorkeling. It is also the starting point to get to the famous Las Grietas.
You pay the $.80 water taxi to leave Puerto Ayora and head over to Playa de Los Alemanes, or German Beach. The water taxi ride is about 5 minutes long and so fun! When you arrive you can snorkel, as it is a public beach!
Please keep in mind the tides! Don’t leave your things on the beach if you are going to be gone snorkeling for a while! When I came back the tide had come in so far! Luckily some kind people had picked up my backpack and moved it off the beach onto the dock or the water would have swept away everything, including my phone and shoes!
3) Las Grietas
This is one of my FAVORITE places in all of The Galapagos! It is an awesome local place to snorkel and just a really cool spot.
Las Grietas means “The Crevaces” or “The Cracks” and is a giant crack between the earth where you can swim in turquoise ocean water! It’s pretty chilly and BEAUTIFUL place to check out lots of fish and if you are daring enough, jump from some of the rocks!
There are also a few spots that you can swim through some underwater caves. It’s seriously so fun. I had a blast practicing diving deep with my snorkel!
To get there, take the same water taxi from Puerto Ayora to Playa de Los Alemanes. You will see a sign for Las Grietas after you pass the beach. Keep walking and follow the path for about 10 minutes and you will arrive. You can’t get lost. There are signs and a trail!
To avoid crowds, go early, especially on the weekend! To get the best lighting and see the vibrant blue water, go between 10 AM and 2 PM!
4) Laguna de Ninfas
This is a small tidal lagoon located right behind the harbor in Puerto Ayora. It is a place where the salt water meets the fresh water and has some beautiful mangroves and other plant life.
I would recommend passing an hour here if you have extra time. It wasn’t my favorite thing I saw, but it was really pretty to walk around the boardwalk and read some of the signs about the mangroves.
I came here at 5 PM just before closing, and it was really peaceful and calm.
Open 6 AM- 6 PM and closed outside of those hours with a large iron gate.
5) Pelican Bay Fish Market
This is one of my favorite evening activities, as there is not much to do in the evening here!
You can head down toward the dock on Puerto Ayora and see the local fishermen cutting up and selling their catch of the day every night!
It’s sooo fun because the pelicans and sea lions try to get any scraps they can! It attracts a huge crowd of marine life and the fishermen just shoe them away like it’s no big deal! It’s really fun to watch 🙂
My friend and I were cracking up at the marine life trying to sneak in and steal a bite of fish, then waddling off at “breakneck speed” hahaha.
6) Puerto Ayora Harbor at Night
Another fun thing to do at night is head down to Puerto Ayora and walk out on the dock by the harbor. At night they turn lights on under the boardwalk and the marine life is attracted to the bright lights!
You can see all types of fish, sea lions, birds, and even small sharks!
7) Kiosk Street
This was my FAVORITE place to eat in Santa Cruz. Every night tables and chairs are set up along the street (about 5 min walk north of Puerto Ayora harbor) and the local catch of the day is sold.
There are so many yummy things to eat for seafood lovers, as well as incredible fruit drinks and other dishes. I got an INCREDIBLE seafood dinner with a full lobster and a delicious coconut drink for $15.
It’s also fun to just walk around and see the crazy seafood laying on the platters, ready to be sold….eyes and all!
8) Charles Darwin Center
I cannot say much about what it is like here because I never went, but we did check out the beach located by the center. It was pretty but once again, not my favorite place in Santa Cruz. More somewhere to go if you have extra time to kill.
If you are really dying to see The Galapagos Tortoise, though, this is a good place to spend an hour or so!
Isabela Island
Isabela Island is the most beautiful and sleepy island you will ever see. There moment you step off of the boat onto the dock, you can tell it is a different island. We had a blast and saw most of our marine life here! They are so un-bothered by human life. It’s incredible!
1) Concha de Perla
Concha de Perla is a beautiful little lagoon closed off by a barrier reef. It is an easily-accessible snorkeling spot located right next to the main port (Puerto Villamil). There is a boardwalk leading right out to it.
There are often sea lions sleeping right on the pier!
When we went we did not see a ton of sea life but we didn’t go at the right tide, apparently. Often you can see turtles, rays, sea lions, penguins and iguanas!
This lagoon is completely free and open 24/7. One night we went with some friends we met and just looked at the full moon and the stars. It was incredible.
2) Wall of Tears
There is like one main route on Isabela island that everyone takes either on foot or bike (you can rent bikes for $5 a day, which is how we did it). There are a ton of free stops on the way (beaches, lava cave, tortoise center, flamingos) and the final stop is the Wall of Tears.
The Wall of Tears was built between 1945 and 1959 by prisoners. Apparently thousands of people died during it’s 25m construction. It is called the Wall of Tears because of the sad story behind how it was built. Some people even say there is a heavy energy surrounding it. It’s pretty crazy to think about the men that built this wall.
Do this early in the morning or the late afternoon. We did this during the HOTTEST part of the day and there are parts where you are biking through sand. We were DRIPPPING with sweat. It’s really not that hard of a path, but bring plenty of water and sun protection. Just please don’t start the trip at noon like us hahah.
It took us about an hour each way just biking. That didn’t include all of the stops we made. If you want to make stops at all of the main points, leave yourself at least half a day to do this!
We also saw a TON of Galapagos giant tortoises on this route, just chilling on the path! There is a specific spot that they come to eat poisonous apples along the route. So cool!
3) La Playita
La Playita is another stop on the way to the Wall of Tears. It is a beautiful beach and we saw SO much here, including sting rays, sea lions and Blue Footed Boobies!
There were so many marine iguanas chilling on the sand!
The water is incredible and there are some spots to lay your towel out in the shade. Just watch out for the tide. Make sure to hang your stuff in the trees if you go out.
I left my favorite travel towel here so if you see it, let me know haha.
You can just park your bikes right outside of the beach and walk along the path for about 100 meters. It’s a nice break from the hike to Wall of Tears.
5) Centro de Crianza (Tortoise Breeding Center)
This is a free place you can go and check out tortoises of all ages. There is some signage and you can get up pretty close to the tortoises.
This is a cool place but honestly I loved seeing the giant tortoises along the Wall of Tears route even more! There is something extra special about seeing animals in their natural habitat that just gives me a level 500 excitement haha.
We went here at the very beginning of our Wall of Tears route, just in case we didn’t see any tortoises.
6) El Lava Tunel
THIS was pretty cool, super unique and 100% free. This is a tunnel that was formed from the flow of lava out into the ocean. You can go as far back as you can until you get too scared haha.
It gets completely pitch black but you can hear the water leaving into the ocean. It was something I had never seen before, and super awesome!
7) Hire a Taxi Driver to Take You Around
We were walking around when a taxi driver offered to just take us around to a few local spots. We agreed because we didn’t really have much else to do. It ended up turning into a big excursion and was super fun!
We went to another cave, an incredible lookout, and had surf lessons on the beach. Then he took us to his house and showed us/let us sample a ton of local fruits.
We had a blast!!!!
We ended up spending $20 a person on this, which was so cheap for everything we got to do, including surf lessons!
Hint: Try negotiating or going with other people to split prices!
8) Meet the Locals
This is one of my biggest recommendations for any place you travel, but we had SO much fun meeting locals from The Galapagos. I had never met so many people that were so passionate about animals and the place they lived.
Everyone was so friendly and I felt safe the entire time. There were a lot of things we saw on this trip that we would not have been able to see if we just kept to ourselves the whole time.
I was pleasantly surprised during my time on The Galapagos Islands how much there was to do for free. That said, there were some really incredible experiences we were able to have only through paid tours.
I would recommend finding a few “must dos” and spending money on those, then filling in the rest of your time with these activities!
For us, a priority was to swim with penguins. We ended up booking the Los Tuneles tour on Isabela Island because we were pretty certain we would be able to swim with penguins there, and we were! It was worth the splurge for that trip. But some of our other free activities were just as fun.
We had such a blast on this trip and I hope to go back some day!