Is a private Galápagos tour worth it? My honest Galakiwi cost breakdown

If you’re planning a Galápagos trip, one of the biggest questions is probably: should you do a cruise, join a group tour, or try to plan it all yourself?

I ended up doing something a little different.

I skipped the cruise, but I also did not fully DIY the trip. Instead, I ended up doing a private, land-based guided trip with Galakiwi.

This is not necessarily the normal way people visit the Galápagos, but I kind of stumbled into this in-between option, and honestly, I’m really glad I did.

This was not the cheapest way to visit the Galápagos, and I’ll show you the actual numbers in this article, including what it looked like for just two people versus the original group quote.

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I did work with them to plan the trip, and if you end up booking with them and mention that you found them through Have Clothes, Will Travel or through me, I may receive a small referral commission at no extra cost to you.

But this is still my honest experience. I’m going to talk about what worked, what made the trip easier, what I’d double-check, and what I think you should know before booking.

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But the short version is: I decided not to move forward with TrovaTrip, and I started reaching out to Galápagos tour companies to see if someone could help salvage the trip.

And I reached out to a lot of companies.

There were definitely lower prices out there. Galakiwi was not the cheapest quote I found. But they were, by far, my favorite in terms of helpfulness and communication.

After I jumped on my first call with Karen, I felt really confident about booking with them. She was responsive, patient, and flexible, which was important because this trip was already coming from a messy planning situation.

They also had strong reviews, and they came highly recommended to me in a couple of women-only travel forums I’m part of. I wasn’t just looking for the lowest price. I wanted to feel like the company knew what they were doing and would not make the planning process even more stressful.

I also liked that Galakiwi did not feel like some huge, faceless company booking tours all over the world. I actually got to meet Karen in Quito before we went to the Galápagos, and when we were in San Cristóbal, I even got to say hi to the owner — the “Kiwi” in Galakiwi (Tim) — which I also appreciated.

At first, the plan was still to have a group of us going. Galakiwi put together a private land-based itinerary based on that original group plan. But once we got further into payments and final commitments, the other group members weren’t able to commit.

So this trip that started as a group trip ended up being just my husband and me. And Galakiwi was able to adjust for this no problem…

Included in our quote
7 nights lodging
Standard / standard-plus accommodation
Double occupancy
Galápagos land, air & sea transport
Private naturalist guide — 6 days
Included excursions
Activity equipment
Meals as specified
Service tips
Water refill stations

Meals listed in our quote
7 breakfasts
6 lunches
5 dinners
Drinking water included
Drinks besides water extra

And the activities were a big part of the value here. This was not just someone booking hotels and transfers.

Activities included on our itinerary

Santa Cruz
Highlands + giant tortoises
Los Gemelos + lava tunnels
Tortuga Bay
Charles Darwin Research Station

Isabela
Wetlands + Tortoise Breeding Center
Tintoreras walk/snorkel
Sierra Negra Volcano hike
Sea kayaking

San Cristóbal
La Lobería
Kicker Rock snorkel
Interpretation Center + Tijeretas

We were staying on Santa Cruz, Isabela, and San Cristóbal, with ferries, an inter-island flight, snorkeling trips, kayaking, a volcano hike, and different hotels all built into the plan.

I’m keeping that overview quick because I have a full 8-day Galápagos itinerary post that shows the whole route and what each day actually looked like.

But the reason I want to show this here is that it helps explain the cost. This was a full, multi-island itinerary — not just lodging and a few transfers.

The thing I appreciated most was not waking up every morning thinking, “Wait, where do we need to be? Who is picking us up? Did I book the right boat? Did I accidentally schedule two things too close together?” That part was handled. And that made the trip feel so much smoother.

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He was also an accomplished photographer and helpful with my photography, which I appreciated. And he kept everything moving on time.

We still had the land-based experience I wanted — hotels, restaurants, free time, walking around town — but we also had structure where it mattered.

For me, that ended up being the ideal balance.

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This itinerary was originally built as a private group trip, not a standard group tour that anyone could just join. So the cost changed depending on how many people were going.

For the original private group version, which was based on 8 to 12 travelers, the base tour price was listed at $3,555 per person.

But once the trip ended up being just my husband and me, the 2-person private version was listed at $4,585 per person.

So going from the original private group quote to the 2-person private quote made the base tour price about $1,030 more per person.

Private Galápagos pricing example
Original private group quote: $3,555 pp
Group size: 8–12 travelers
2-person private quote: $4,585 pp
Group size: 2 travelers
Base price difference: +$1,030 pp
Flights and fees not included

And that makes sense. With a private trip, the fewer people you have, the fewer people there are to spread out the cost of the guide, logistics, transport, and planning.

This is why I think this kind of trip could be especially interesting for a family or a small group of friends. If you have more people traveling together, your per-person cost could be lower than what ours was as a couple.

On top of that base tour price, the Galápagos flight was listed separately at $615 per person.

There were also required cash fees that were not included: the $200 Galápagos National Park entrance fee, the $20 Ingala fee, and the $10 Isabela pier tax.

So before guide tips and drinks, the original 8-person private group quote came out to about $4,400 per person.

For the 2-person private version, it came out to about $5,430 per person before guide tips and drinks.

Tips for the guide were also not included. The original group quote suggested around $8 to $10 per person per day, while the 2-person quote suggested around $10 to $12 per person per day. Of course, tipping is discretionary.

So my biggest advice is to ask for a clear breakdown before booking. Ask what’s included, what’s not included, what has to be paid in cash, what is subject to change, and whether the quote is for a private tour, a group tour, or a custom itinerary.

Because those are very different things. And I was really happy with how straightforward Galakiwi was with this all.

If you love planning, want to save money, and don’t mind figuring out ferries and inter-island flights and all the other fun details, then DIY could absolutely make sense.

If you don’t want to handle the logistics but you want something more cost-effective, then joining a group tour or booking a cruise may make more sense.

But if you want a land-based trip, you want to stay on the islands, you want the context of a guide, and you can swing the budget, I think a private guided itinerary is a really fantastic option.

It is definitely not the cheapest way to visit the Galápagos. But I honestly would not have done this trip differently.

I’m happy I stumbled into this way of traveling there, because it gave us the exact mix I wanted: guidance, context, logistics handled, but still enough freedom to enjoy the islands.

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It wasn’t the cheapest option I found, but once I decided to move forward with them, this became one of the easiest trips I’ve ever booked.

Karen made the planning process feel straightforward, Bernie added so much context once we were there, and the trip had the exact balance I wanted: enough structure that I wasn’t managing every little thing, but enough freedom that it still felt like our trip.

I’ll link my full 8-day Galápagos itinerary if you want to see the exact route we followed, and I’ll also link the TrovaTrip story if you want the background on how this trip started.