Galápagos

The beaches are beautiful. The sand is white and powdery, the lava rock is black, and marine iguanas and sea lions share the shore with swimmers. On Santa Cruz, Tortuga Bay is a long walk from Puerto Ayora. Its open ocean beach is for walking, and the calm, mangrove-fringed cove at its end, Playa Mansa, is for swimming. Puerto Villamil on Isabela has a long, quiet town beach. Puerto Baquerizo Moreno on San Cristóbal has small sea lion beaches within walking distance of the harbour.

The water is cooler than the equator suggests. From about December to May it reaches roughly 24-26°C and the sea is calm. From June to November the cold current drops it to around 20-22°C, and many swimmers wear a wetsuit for snorkelling. Swimming here mostly means snorkelling among fish, rays and turtles, not lazing on the sand. Beaches fill a few hours of a stay, but they are rarely the reason for the trip.

Eating out is simple and centred on the sea. Fresh fish, ceviche, and spiny lobster in season are the things to order. Puerto Ayora has the most choice. In the evening, a side street there fills with open-air kiosks that grill the day's catch at shared tables. The other port towns have a handful of seafood places, along with plates of rice, beans and plantain served at lunch for locals. Almost everything else is shipped in from the mainland, so menus beyond seafood are repetitive. Cruise passengers eat on board. Nobody plans a trip here for the food.

The heritage here is scientific, not architectural. On Santa Cruz, the Charles Darwin Research Station explains the islands' evolution and the work to bring giant tortoises back from near extinction. The interpretation centre near Puerto Baquerizo Moreno tells the story of the volcanic islands and their human history. Smaller traces of the past include the Wall of Tears on Isabela, built by prisoners of a former penal colony, and the old barrel post office on Floreana that whalers once used. The towns are modern and plain. The islands themselves are the thing to see.

Evenings are short. Puerto Ayora has a few bars along the waterfront and a modest place to dance at weekends. Puerto Baquerizo Moreno has a smaller version of the same thing, and the other islands have almost nothing after dinner. Most visitors start early for boat trips, and cruise passengers are anchored offshore, so the islands go quiet by late evening. The best thing to do at night is watch sea lions sleeping on harbour benches under the lights.

There is nowhere quite like it. Animals that evolved without predators ignore people. Sea lions sprawl across paths, blue-footed boobies dance a metre away, and giant tortoises graze in the misty highlands of Santa Cruz. Marine iguanas pile up on black lava. North Seymour has frigatebird colonies, and Española has waved albatrosses from about April to December. The landscapes are raw and volcanic, with spatter cones on Bartolomé, the vast Sierra Negra caldera on Isabela, and lava tunnels and fresh flows.

In the water it is just as rich. Snorkellers swim with sea lions, turtles, rays and penguins, and divers around Gordon Rocks and the far northern islands meet schools of hammerhead sharks. Most of the national park can only be visited with a licensed guide on fixed trails, so there is less freedom to roam. The cooler months bring richer marine life, and the warm season brings calmer seas.

Day trips are the usual way to see the islands from a land base, but they are boat trips to wildlife sites, not visits to other towns. From Santa Cruz, a speedboat crossing of about two hours reaches Isabela or San Cristóbal. Their port towns are small, and Floreana's settlement has only a few dozen homes and the whalers' post office story. Beyond that there are no historic towns, heritage sites or wine areas within reach. The mainland is a flight away.

For children old enough to snorkel and walk a few hours, this can be the trip of a lifetime. Sea lion pups play in the shallows, tortoises wander the highland farms, and calm coves such as Playa Mansa and Concha de Perla on Isabela are gentle places to put a mask in the water. The port towns are small, safe and easy to walk. The breeding centres, where young tortoises are raised, hold children's attention.

The effort is real, though. Reaching the islands takes long flights, inter-island speedboats are often rough and bring seasickness, and days start early. Some cruise boats set minimum ages. There are no playgrounds or attractions made for children, so toddlers get little out of a stay.

Each port town is small enough to walk, and white pickup taxis cover the roads to the highlands and the airport on Santa Cruz and San Cristóbal. Getting between islands is the hard part. Public speedboats link Santa Cruz with Isabela, San Cristóbal and Floreana in about two hours each way, often over choppy water. Small planes fly between some islands. Most visitor sites can only be reached on a guided boat tour, so a land-based stay becomes a series of booked excursions. A live-aboard cruise solves this by moving overnight, and it reaches far islands that day boats cannot.

Shopping amounts to Avenida Charles Darwin in Puerto Ayora and a few streets in Puerto Baquerizo Moreno. Both have souvenir shops selling boobie T-shirts, wildlife prints and carvings, plus a few galleries with paintings and jewellery by local artists. Little is made on the islands. Buy Ecuadorian crafts, textiles and chocolate on the mainland.

This is an expensive trip. Getting here means flights from the mainland and park entry fees before anything else begins. Most sites can only be seen on guided tours, which are priced for international visitors. Live-aboard cruises cost the most, especially the smaller boats on the long itineraries. A land-based stay in Puerto Ayora or Puerto Villamil, with simple guesthouses and set lunches in local eateries, costs less. Even so, the daily boat excursions add up fast, and everything imported to the islands costs more than on the mainland.

There is essentially no performing arts life. Now and then a local band plays a waterfront bar or a community event in one of the port towns, but there are no theatres, concert halls or regular shows. Evenings are for the harbour and an early night.

The pace in the port towns is slow and gentle, and evenings by the harbour are peaceful. Puerto Villamil on Isabela, with its sandy streets and long beach, is the quietest place to stay. Wellness ends there. There is no bathing tradition, and only a few upmarket lodges and hotels offer massages or small spas. Most trips are full of early starts, choppy crossings and guided walks, so visitors often go home tired rather than rested.