Galapagos Diving JANUARY Laura's Group

      Galapagos Islands

      AB
      Academy Bay Diving
      • Email address verified
      86 reviews
      Jan 19 - 27, 2020
      Group size: 1 - 30
      Galapagos Diving JANUARY Laura's Group
      Galapagos Islands

      Academy Bay Diving
      • Email address verified
      86 reviews

      Jan 19 - 27, 2020
      Group size: 1 - 30

      About this trip

      You will have an mazing time during your 9 day Galapagos adventure.

      With 6 days of diving and land tours you won't miss a thing!



      What’s included

      • Hotel
        8 nights in budget class hotel with breakfast - double or triple room
      • Airport trasnfers
        In Galapagos
      • Tours
        As stated in the itinerary

      What’s not included

      • Entrance fee
        National Park Entrance fee $100
      • TCT card
        Galapagos Immigration card $20

      Available Packages

      Trip Price
      $1,576

      Itinerary

      JAN 19
      AIRPORT PICKUP & HIGHLANDS

      Our guide will meet you at the airport arrivals section for your trip through the Highlands to see the Giant tortoise reserve & the Lava Tunnels.

      You will arrive to your hotel approx 3 hours after departing the airport.


      Please come to the Academy Bay office after you have checked in to try on your dive equipment and go over your itinerary. 

        

      Firstly a visit to Las Gemelos, the twin craters that are actually sink holes surrounded by Scalesia forest. Vermillion flycatchers and often seen here, as well as short eared owls on occasion. It is a beautiful place to take in the greenery of Galápagos and walk along the small paths around the craters to spot some of the bird life.

      El Chato Tortoise Reserve is near Santa Rosa, approx 19km from Puerto Ayora. This is one of the only places where you can observe the ancient creatures up close in the wild. They look old, they smell old and they even sound old when they suck in their necks and heads and let out a hiss of air, like an old leather cushion. The reserve is also a great place to see the short eared owls, Darwin`s finches, yellow warblers and paint billed crakes. The walking circuit also includes the lava tubes, where you can walk underground. They were formed by the solidifying of the outside skin of molten lava flow. When the lava flow ceased, the molten lava inside the flow kept moving, emptying out of the solidified skin thus leaving tunnels. At the conclusion of the visit you will be transported back to Puerto Ayora and your hotel.

      Your Organizer


      AB
      Academy Bay Diving
      86 reviews
      Academy Bay Diving is a family owned and run business dedicated to providing our customers with an amazing and safe dive experience in the Wonderful Galapagos Marine Reserve.

      Reviews

      Amazing diving experience. The diving itself is just mindblowing, but that was expected. The team of Academy Bay went instead beyond expectations. They are excellent and extremely competent, they took care of everything with great detail and made all the trips more special and relaxed. They even managed to make quite easy (thanks to how they organised it and how they prepared us) the more difficult drift dives with strong currents. Highly recommended (especially compared with some other dive centres on the other main islands).
      By Beniamino A for Daily Dive Tours on Mar 19, 2024
      The three trips we booked with Academy Bay Diving were excellent. Except for a minor glitch regarding meeting time/location on the 2nd day trip (Academy Bay resolved to my satisfaction) ... the guides were excellent as were the crew. Very knowledgeable and accommodating. Lunch served on board each boat was some of the best food we had while visiting Galapagos! Thanks for the wonderful experience!
      By Catherine O for Land & Snorkel Tours - varios 2024 on Feb 29, 2024
      This is a Tiburon Explorer liveaboard review (NOT Academy Bay Diving): Considering the huge price of this live aboard, we were really disappointed with the experience. The boat was only two years old so we thought we were paying a high price for high quality. Not so. The boat was very tired. The top deck had been patched many times with glue but still had holes in it. When it rained, water poured into the main salon, onto the floor, sofa, dining table and around all the ceiling lights. It also poured into one of the cabins, onto the bed. The crew did their best, with towels everywhere, but it was a mess. Tiburon is a boat that was made cheaply with the wrong materials and it’s now not fit for purpose. Safety was not taken seriously by the dive leaders. The briefings were poor, using slides with the wrong information on them. No currents or temperatures were checked at sites prior to briefings. We were told temperature would be 22/23 degrees when it was 27-29 degrees in the water all week. Currents in the water were often completely different to what had been briefed. Communication from dive leaders during the dives was poor. Certain divers were running out of air and sharing on octopus regularly, deliberately. It was hard to catch up with the leaders in order to tell them ‘low on air’ because of the currents. No checks were made on divers depths vs nitrox percentage. One diver wasn’t nitrox certified but was allowed to dive on nitrox all week without any understanding of the implications. Despite saying divers needed 50 dives, they accepted one diver with only 25 dives. Then buddied her up with us, meaning our dives were short as she used so much air. If Explorer is accepting inexperienced divers they should insist that they have a private guide, like other boats do. No focus on non-decompression limits. Some divers went into deco dives. One diver told the dive leader (Alex) that she was almost at her no-deco limit and he told her to go up, by herself, in strong currents. Despite my friend and I paying a huge amount and booking early, the 3 single divers who booked at the last minute with enormous discounts were the ones also given single cabins, with no single supplement paid. We should have been offered these cabins first as we had paid significantly more. The diving was good, the rest of the crew worked hard and the food was good. But there are much less expensive options and I would not recommend Tiburon Explorer.
      By Mary S for Dive - custom package on Feb 27, 2024
      Nice diving spots with a lot to see, good to moderate visibility. Very professional staff, good service. If I return to Santa Cruz I will approach them again for diving.
      By Aurimas M for Daily Dive Tours on Feb 25, 2024
      Everyone at Academy Bay did a great job and we really enjoyed our day trips to Bartolome and North Seymour Islands as well as our two days diving!! It was so good to get back underwater after four years and Santa Fe & Floreana were both easy dive sites with lots to see! The dive masters were great at pointing things out and lunches were filling and good. We hope to return again one of these days and until then, all the best! Becky and Don Brunk; Bellingham, WA
      By Rebecca B for Land & Snorkel Tours 2024 on Feb 18, 2024
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      References

      acabamos de regresar de Galápagos conde realizamos seis increíbles días de buceos... por lejos los mejores en 20 años. Tanto por los hermosos lugares y fauna de la isla y alrededores, por sus equipos de primera calidad y sobre todo por sus guías y todo el personal del centro. Es increíble como aman su isla y como transmiten todo lo que saben de su fauna e historia. gracias Alex, Jimmy y Santiago
      By sergio d on 02 Apr, 2023