Galapagos-Red Mangrove tour
 

I am looking at the Red MAngrove Aventura to stay and take their 5 day-4 night tour of the island. We would spend the night before and after in Quito. Has anybody used this hotel and tour? We thought about a cruise, but my husband gets seasick and I like the idea of moving around the island and staying in different beach locations. Any thoughts on staying at the Hilton in Quito? We have our daughters 21 and 24 with us. Thank you!

We stayed in Puerto Ayora for a month in February 2006 and ate at Red Mangrove several times and really enjoyed it. One comment about the rooms though - they are very inconsistent - some large/some really small.

Looking at the itinerary of the 4 night tour I see alot of boat transportation between Santa Cruz and Floreana and Isabela. If your husband has problems with seasickness he may actually be better on a (larger) cruise ship than this land based option - the crossing to Isabela and Floreana can be quite rough. We went to Isabela for a few nights and in the end we flew rather than take the boat (due to my husband's bad back - 2+ hours of bouncing would not have been good for him and probably not good for your husband?)

May I suggest you get a copy of Barry Boyce's book A Traveler's Guide to Galapagos - it is a really great resource to understand what the various options are (small/medium/large) cruise ship/sites by island/etc and the best time to travel for calm seas.

We went on a 7 night cruise on the Eclipse - 45 passengers and very calm. You can do a 4 night version on the Eclipse as well.

Happy to answer any questions - here's a link to our (long) blog - scroll down for the Eclipse portion.

http://lizandrichardsa.typepad.com/l...th_/galapagos/

Thank you so much! Very helpful!

what is the best month to travel to Galapagos for moderate temperature-around 70. Are there other cruise ships in addition to Eclipse going there too?

Thanks again to Liz for her incredible blog. Except for the spider picture :-p Eek!
We ultimately decided on the 6 day trip through Red Mangrove so that we could ride the horses throught the lava field.(I really do not like cruise ships- the Seabourn is tolerable but I can hardly stand to be confined with all those people.) Daniela in the office there has been exceptionally helpful. I will post when we return for an update.