The Stella Galapagos Cruise Tour
Aboard the Galaxy Stella, you will discover the Galapagos Islands in comfort and elegance.
The yacht offers spacious suites and social areas designed for top-tier service as you explore the archipelago. It can also be booked as an exclusive charter with private excursions, ideal for families and groups who want the yacht and crew to themselves.
Between activities, you can unwind in your suite or take in the scenery from the sundeck. The master suite is a spacious private sanctuary, with a double bed, a large bathroom with a double shower, and an independent study. Each cabin is designed for luxuiy comfort and functionality.
You will enjoy dining experiences in the elegant dining room, where the menu highlights local culinary flavours and identity, or unwind in the main lounge and bar area with a selection of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages.
On your expedition, you will observe local wildlife up close, including blue-footed boobies, iguanas, and endemic birds, alongside the natural beauty of the archipelago. Different marine activities are available throughout your journey, with every detail carefully thought out to guarantee the best experience.
Prepare for unforgettable moments on the fully equipped sundeck, complete with a jacuzzi, a BBQ area, and an outdoor fire pit, the perfect place to relax and take in the ocean breeze and the sound of the sea.
The Stella Galapagos Cruise Tour Summary
Embark on an extraordinary journey aboard the Galaxy Stella. You will visit secluded islands to find fascinating wildlife and incredible scenery.
Our Galapagos expedition packages aboard the Stella cater to both short and extended voyages, ensuring an unforgettable experience. Regardless of duration, our expert guides will lead you on captivating daily excursions, from snorkelling over volcanic reefs to kayaking through calm bays and panga rides beneath nesting cliffs. Choose from the Southern Route (4 days, 3 nights), the Eastern Route (5 days, 4 nights), the Complete Western Route (8 days, 7 nights), or the combined Eastern and Southern Route (8 days, 7 nights).
Video Introduction
Tour Info
- Country: Ecuador
- Focus Area: Galapagos National Park
- Duration: 4, 5 & 8 days
- Start Point: Baltra Island / San Cristobal
- End Point: Baltra Island / San Cristobal
The Stella Galapagos Cruise Itinerary
Choose your itinerary
Click a duration to see the day-by-day programme for this cruise.
Other itineraries may be available — send a request to check options and pricing.
Day 1 · Sunday
San Cristóbal Arrival & Lobos Island
You'll land at San Cristóbal Airport, where your naturalist guide meets you and takes you across to the vessel. In the afternoon you'll head out to Lobos Island, a small islet where sea lions doze in the tidal pools and frigatebirds sit in the bushes with their red throat pouches inflated. Blue-footed boobies nest right beside the short trail, and the sheltered water makes this an easy first snorkel with sea lions, turtles and rays.
Day 2 · Monday
Suárez Point & Gardner Bay
Suárez Point on Española is one of the great seabird sites in the archipelago. The rocky trail passes marine iguanas and colonies of blue-footed and Nazca boobies, tropicbirds and frigatebirds, and between April and January the waved albatross nests here and nowhere else on earth. Gardner Bay follows in the afternoon, a long stretch of coral sand where you can snorkel, kayak or paddle board with Española mockingbirds hopping around your feet.
Day 3 · Tuesday
Cormorant Point & Post Office Bay
Cormorant Point sits on the north coast of Floreana, where a brackish lagoon holds flamingos, pintails and black-necked stilts, and the white sand beach beyond it is a nesting site for green sea turtles. Snorkelling here takes place at Devil's Crown, an eroded volcanic cone that draws in reef sharks, rays and dense schools of fish. The afternoon is spent at Post Office Bay, where whalers set up a barrel mail system in the 1700s that visitors still use today.
Day 4 · Wednesday
Charles Darwin Station & Departure
At the Charles Darwin Research Station you'll see the giant tortoise and land iguana breeding programmes up close, along with the work being done on invasive species across the islands. After the visit you'll be transferred to Baltra Airport for your flight back to mainland Ecuador.
Day 1 · Wednesday
Baltra Arrival & Santa Cruz Highlands
Your guide meets you at Baltra Airport and takes you to the Itabaca Channel for the short ferry crossing to Santa Cruz. The afternoon is spent in the green highlands, a complete contrast to the arid coast, where giant tortoises graze in the open and some of them weigh over 600 pounds. Finches and flycatchers move through the trees, and a lava tunnel gives you a sense of the volcanic forces that built these islands.
Day 2 · Thursday
Tintoreras & Isabela's Wetlands
Tintoreras is a small islet just off Puerto Villamil, named after the white-tipped reef sharks that rest in its shallow channels. Marine iguanas cover the shoreline, rays and turtles glide through the clear water, and a few Galápagos penguins live in the area. The afternoon takes you through Isabela's wetlands, a network of mangroves and saline lagoons full of flamingos and waterbirds, finishing at the Interpretation Centre.
Day 3 · Friday
Moreno Point & Mangle Point
Moreno Point looks barren at first glance, but the brackish lagoons inland hold flamingos, gallinules, ducks and herons, while penguins, flightless cormorants and marine iguanas work the rugged coast. In the afternoon you cross to Mangle Point on Fernandina, where the panga carries you through mangrove channels and turtles feed among the roots. This one is entirely water based, with kayaks and paddle boards available.
Day 4 · Saturday
Espinoza Point & Tagus Cove
Espinoza Point sits at the foot of the most active volcano in the Galápagos and holds the largest marine iguana colony in the archipelago, piled up on black lava. Flightless cormorants patrol the shore and sea lion pups work the tide pools. Tagus Cove in the afternoon was visited by Darwin himself, and the trail climbs through Palo Santo forest to a viewpoint over Darwin Lake, a crater lake saltier than the sea.
Day 5 · Sunday
Buccaneer Cove & Egas Port
Buccaneer Cove was a hiding place for pirates in the 17th and 18th centuries, who stopped here for fresh water and tortoises. There's no landing site, so you explore the cliffs and eroded rock formations by dinghy. Egas Port follows, where a coastal trail runs past marine iguanas and sea lions to a series of grottos holding a small colony of Galápagos fur seals. Land iguanas were reintroduced here in 2019 after more than a century away.
Day 6 · Monday
Bartolomé & Sullivan Bay
Bartolomé is the most photographed spot in the islands, and the climb to the summit opens onto a lunar landscape of spatter cones with Pinnacle Rock and Sullivan Bay below. It's also one of the easier places to see Galápagos penguins without heading out to Isabela or Fernandina. The afternoon walk crosses Sullivan Bay's pahoehoe lava flow, where the rope-like surface is still almost untouched and pioneer plants are just beginning to take hold.
Day 7 · Tuesday
Chinese Hat & Dragon Hill
Chinese Hat takes its name from its cone shape, a small islet separated from Santiago by a narrow channel of turquoise water. A coastal trail runs through a sea lion colony, and penguins often rest on the lava rocks nearby. Dragon Hill in the afternoon is the only place on Santa Cruz where land iguanas roam freely, a population that came close to disappearing in the 1970s and 80s, and the saltwater lagoon behind it draws flamingos and shorebirds.
Day 8 · Wednesday
Black Turtle Cove & Departure
The final morning is a quiet dinghy ride through Black Turtle Cove, a shallow mangrove system that serves as a nursery for sea turtles and reef sharks. There's no landing here, so everything is watched from the boat as herons, boobies and pelicans hunt the anchovy shoals. Afterwards you'll be transferred to Baltra Airport for your flight back to the mainland.
Day 1 · Wednesday
Baltra Arrival & North Seymour
Your guide meets you at Baltra Airport and takes you across the Itabaca Channel to join the vessel. The afternoon is spent on North Seymour, one of the best bird sites in the islands, where magnificent and great frigatebirds inflate their scarlet pouches and blue-footed boobies work through their courtship dance on the open ground. Land iguanas have recovered well here, and sea lions body surf the waves along the shore.
Day 2 · Thursday
Santa Fe & South Plaza
Santa Fe sits in one of the prettiest bays in the archipelago, backed by a forest of giant prickly pear cactus. The trail is the only place to find the endemic Santa Fe land iguana, and hawks often perch on the cacti watching for prey. In the afternoon you land on South Plaza, a narrow island covered in reddish succulents, where land iguanas wait under the cacti for falling fruit and the far cliff drops away over seabirds riding the updraft.
Day 3 · Friday
El Barranco & Darwin Bay
Genovesa is well north of the main group and worth the overnight crossing. El Barranco climbs a set of fragile lava cliffs where storm petrels nest in the crevices and short-eared owls hunt them in daylight, something you won't see anywhere else. Darwin Bay in the afternoon is simply full of birds, with red-footed and Nazca boobies, gulls and frigatebirds nesting at eye level along the beach and in the surrounding bushes.
Day 4 · Saturday
Santa Cruz Highlands & Bachas Beach
The morning is spent in the highlands of Santa Cruz, where giant tortoises graze freely in a private reserve and lava tunnels run beneath the farmland. Bachas Beach follows on the north coast, reached by a wet landing straight onto the sand. It's a nesting beach for green sea turtles, and the saltwater lagoon behind it usually holds flamingos, pintails and herons. There's time to snorkel, kayak or just walk the beach.
Day 5 · Sunday
Kicker Rock & Departure
The last morning takes you out to Kicker Rock, a sheer volcanic tuff formation rising straight out of the sea off San Cristóbal, with a narrow channel running between its two walls. Boobies, tropicbirds and frigatebirds nest on the ledges above. From there you'll be transferred to San Cristóbal Airport for your flight back to mainland Ecuador.
Day 1 · Wednesday
Baltra Arrival & North Seymour
Your guide meets you at Baltra Airport and takes you across the Itabaca Channel to join the vessel. The afternoon is spent on North Seymour, one of the best bird sites in the islands, where magnificent and great frigatebirds inflate their scarlet pouches and blue-footed boobies work through their courtship dance on the open ground. Land iguanas have recovered well here, and sea lions body surf the waves along the shore.
Day 2 · Thursday
Santa Fe & South Plaza
Santa Fe sits in one of the prettiest bays in the archipelago, backed by a forest of giant prickly pear cactus. The trail is the only place to find the endemic Santa Fe land iguana, and hawks often perch on the cacti watching for prey. In the afternoon you land on South Plaza, a narrow island covered in reddish succulents, where land iguanas wait under the cacti for falling fruit and the far cliff drops away over seabirds riding the updraft.
Day 3 · Friday
El Barranco & Darwin Bay
Genovesa is well north of the main group and worth the overnight crossing. El Barranco climbs a set of fragile lava cliffs where storm petrels nest in the crevices and short-eared owls hunt them in daylight, something you won't see anywhere else. Darwin Bay in the afternoon is simply full of birds, with red-footed and Nazca boobies, gulls and frigatebirds nesting at eye level along the beach and in the surrounding bushes.
Day 4 · Saturday
Santa Cruz Highlands & Bachas Beach
The morning is spent in the highlands of Santa Cruz, where giant tortoises graze freely in a private reserve and lava tunnels run beneath the farmland. Bachas Beach follows on the north coast, reached by a wet landing straight onto the sand. It's a nesting beach for green sea turtles, and the saltwater lagoon behind it usually holds flamingos, pintails and herons. There's time to snorkel, kayak or just walk the beach.
Day 5 · Sunday
Kicker Rock & Lobos Island
The morning is spent at Kicker Rock, a sheer tuff formation rising straight out of the sea off San Cristóbal with a narrow channel running between its two walls and seabirds nesting on the ledges above. In the afternoon you land on Lobos Island, a low islet where sea lions doze in the tidal pools, frigatebirds display from the bushes and blue-footed boobies nest beside the trail. The sheltered water here is good for snorkelling with sea lions and rays.
Day 6 · Monday
Suárez Point & Gardner Bay
Suárez Point on Española is one of the great seabird sites in the archipelago. The rocky trail passes marine iguanas and colonies of blue-footed and Nazca boobies, tropicbirds and frigatebirds, and between April and January the waved albatross nests here and nowhere else on earth. Gardner Bay follows in the afternoon, a long stretch of coral sand where you can snorkel, kayak or paddle board with Española mockingbirds hopping around your feet.
Day 7 · Tuesday
Cormorant Point & Post Office Bay
Cormorant Point sits on the north coast of Floreana, where a brackish lagoon holds flamingos, pintails and black-necked stilts, and the white sand beach beyond it is a nesting site for green sea turtles. Snorkelling here takes place at Devil's Crown, an eroded volcanic cone that draws in reef sharks, rays and dense schools of fish. The afternoon is spent at Post Office Bay, where whalers set up a barrel mail system in the 1700s that visitors still use today.
Day 8 · Wednesday
Charles Darwin Station & Departure
At the Charles Darwin Research Station you'll see the giant tortoise and land iguana breeding programmes up close, along with the work being done on invasive species across the islands. After the visit you'll be transferred to Baltra Airport for your flight back to mainland Ecuador.
Rates & Inclusions
4 days / 3 nights
Cabin (Double Occupancy): $3,600
Master Cabin (Double Occupancy): $3,800
Charter rate: $41,420
from $3,452pp at max capacity (12 guests)
5 days / 4 nights
Cabin (Double Occupancy): $4,800
Master Cabin (Double Occupancy): $5,000
Charter rate: $55,100
from $4,592pp at max capacity (12 guests)
8 days / 7 nights
Cabin (Double Occupancy): $8,400
Master Cabin (Double Occupancy): $8,780
Charter rate: $96,482
from $8,040pp at max capacity (12 guests)
Included
- Airport assistance on the cruise departure dates
- Private transportation Airport-Channel/Channel-Airport
- VIP Lounge at Baltra and San Cristobal airport
- Accommodation in single, double or triple cabin according to your booking
- Bilingual naturalist guide (English-Spanish)
- Cruise Director onboard, ensuring seamless coordination and guest experience
- Personalized crew service
- All visits, excursions and activities according to the itinerary
- Transportation and fuel surcharge in the Galapagos Marine Reserve
- Docks use and ferries
- All meals during the cruise, from lunch on the first day to breakfast on the last day
- One snack after each activity (except the last day)
- Welcome cocktail
- Soft drinks
- Unlimited purified water, coffee and tea
- Snorkeling gear (mask, tube and fins)
- Wetsuits
- Use of kayaks and paddle boards in authorized places
- Beach towels
- Shampoo, hair conditioner and soap for daily use
- Hair dryer in the cabins
Not Included
- International flights to/from Ecuador
- Galapagos Islands airfare from/to mainland (Quito or Guayaquil)
- Galapagos National Park entrance fee ($200 per person)
- Transit Control Card ($20 per person)
- Alcoholic drinks
- Tips and gratuities
- Personal expenses
- Travel insurance (highly recommended)
- Additional services not indicated
Operated By Galaxy Expeditions
About Galaxy Expeditions
Galaxy Expeditions operate a fleet of premium vessels in the Galapagos Islands, including the boutique Galaxy Sirius, elegant Alya Catamaran, eco-friendly EcoGalaxy, and the family-oriented Bonita Yacht. Their cruises range from luxury multi-day cruises to flexible day trips with Galaxy Daily, each offering comfort, exclusivity, and deep connection with nature.
With over 15 years of experience, Galaxy Expeditions creates personalized and immersive journeys across the Galapagos, Ecuador, Peru, and Colombia. Their vessels carry a maximum of 16 passengers, allowing for attentive service and minimal environmental impact.
Galaxy Expeditions promote sustainable travel through eco-conscious design, responsible operations, and respectful engagement with local communities. Their team ensures a seamless experience from planning to return, combining adventure, cultural connection, and environmental stewardship.
Galaxy Expeditions Details
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