Planning a week doing both Galapogas and Quito with my grandchild. Any suggestions ? Trying to keep cost down. Going end of December

Wrong continent. Try South America forum instead.

Yes, reposting on the South American forum might garner more responses but I see the post showed up there anyway since you tagged it 'Ecuador'.

Do you actually just have 7 days for both? The round trip flights between Quito and Galapagos will be $400-500 each - not sure if the expense of getting to Quito, then to Galapagos and back would be worth the high cost for just 3-4 days on the islands. Best way to see Galapagos imho is by boat since most of the coolest stuff isn't accessible from the populated islands, even as day trips. 'Cruises' at various price points (but none are really cheap) are available for as few as 3 or 4 nights. You could also just pick one inhabited island and visit what's there and do a day trip or 2 which would be cheaper. We spent a night near the Quito airport both before and after Galapagos, did an 8 day (7 night) 'cruise' on a 16 passenger boat, then spent an add'l 4 nights on the big island so I could go scuba diving and we'd have more time to explore. My photos are below in case you're interested.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/stacey...7665975954203/

Ha ha. Geography matters!

That's not directed at you cwilkov

This post started on the Asia board earlier today so at least it’s moved closer to where it belongs, but it’s still a bit north!

We did a four night cruise which we really enjoyed and spent two nights in Quito before going on to spend some time in Peru. I believe we were on the Coral I or Coral II ship which is a small ship. We had the least expensive cabin which was perfectly fine. Our guides were great, the food was delicious and the other passengers were very nice.

We first looked into the Coral boats (trip was in celebration of our 35th 'Coral' anniversary!), 36 and 20 passengers, respectively. I read a tip on this forum and we chose the Angelito, a gorgeous remodeled 16 passenger boat. Everything about it was amazing, especially Maja, the naturalist guide who has a wonderful reputation in Galapagos; she doesn't guide every trip, though, so I'd choose your dates accordingly if you go with them. The Angelito was quite a lot less expensive than the Coral boats and most others we looked into; we ended up going with an 8 day trip that would have been out of reach otherwise.
Virtual Map. - COMETA TRAVEL

Yay for Maja.. If you can't do a full week (I recommend that) then Angelito' s A5 isn't bad... I don't recommend their A4 because the last day isn't much...

I did the full A and was happy with it.

If you can get Maja I would highly recommend them, especially if you are budget conscious (as much as ANY Galapagos trip can be a budget trip).

I booked directly through Cometa Travel and the communications were excellent. At the time you did have to wire money to their account in Panama. If that is an issue a number of the consolidators also book them.

In fact it was Adventure Life that recommended that boat to me. Kudos to them!

https://www.adventure-life.com/cruises/angelito

What boat tour did you use, would you recommend it?

If you're asking mlgb or me, the Angelita. Highly recommended, links in the posts above.

Yes we are both talking about Angelito. I saw a photo of Maja on their Facebook page, so she is still guiding. Angelito is booked by other companies but if you want to book direct you go thru Cometa their travel agency.

When I went several years ago Cometa only took bank transfers but that might have changed. I liked being able to communicate directly with them and they were flexible on allowing me to book my own internal flights ( I used miles and had extra days in Puerto Ayora).

As I said other companies can put you on Angelito. If you have time you can shop around and see.