Each evening, our guide Carlos would gather the “San Jose Family” together in the ship’s lounge to discuss the plans for the next day. He would have a map and a whiteboard and would walk us through the ship’s travels and our proposed excursions. Daily Activity Board (Kevin Moore)
Each ship in the Galapagos has a very strict schedule to keep. The National Park Service has divvied up all the potential landing spots, snorkeling areas, and points of interest amongst the 60+ small ship cruise operators in the Galapagos, on a 15-day schedule, in roughly half-day increments. This keeps each destination from being over-run, or environmentally degraded, and prevents skirmishes between rival boats that might otherwise be jockeying for limited space and resources.
Within this national park schedule, each ship’s captain and naturalist can create their own plans for a given day’s activities. Our naturalist quickly got the sense that he had an adventurous, wildlife-loving crew of travelers, who would stay in the water until their lips were blue when snorkeling. So he inserted a few pre-breakfast walks, scheduled back-to-back snorkeling sessions, and generally kept us busy. Jen, Isabela, Skull (Kevin Moore)
Each time we got back on the boat, we were offered fresh squeezed juice and a snack. After our morning snorkeling sessions, we were able to sit down straightaway to warm homemade soup as the first course of our “almuerzo” or set lunch. After other excursions we had time for showers or a drink on the top deck. Dinners and breakfasts were buffet-style meals on our boat, and our group managed to trade seats so many times, it seemed we were just one big family by the end. A family representing Paris, Vancouver, Missoula, Los Angeles, and the UK… but a family none-the-less. Swimming, San Jose (Kevin Moore)
The ship would hoist anchor after dinner, and head off for the next day’s destination. Some evenings we’d only move a couple hours, while a couple nights we were still motoring well after midnight. These nightly movements were the only time I ever felt the movement of the boat. (Not bad for a notoriously weak-stomached sailor.) We’d awake in a new location each morning, ready to explore it all over again!
Excellent travel advice and service
This is my second experience working with Adventure Life. I’m sold. Jess Heuermann is an experienced traveler and provides a lot of useful information when planning a trip. These are the questions I like to ask at the outset - What’s it like to go here, there, what would you suggest, what do people report, can we add any additional side trips? Jess took the time to answer my questions and seek additional information to share with me. Petchie Colina is outstanding in helping with travel logistics and final preparations. Adventure Life has excellent guides and offers private guides and small group adventures. We enjoyed the opportunity to talk with the guides and drivers to learn more about their countries, cultures and histories. A highlight was having the guides pick local restaurants where we could share meals together. Highly recommend.
Claire Cordon
5 days ago
Our six-day tour in Iceland went smoothly with one exception. We had asked for two rooms each night. Somehow we were booked with one room with three beds. It could not be fixed at the first hotel in Reykjavik because the hotel was fully booked. Once informed of the problem, however, Adventure Life rebooked for two rooms for the remainder of the trip. As an 85-year-old traveler, I appreciated that one could participate at different physical levels at many of the stops. Iceland is a great place to visit but on the expensive side.
Mary Warren
6 days ago
Jess was very easy going and answered all our questions. It’s not easy dealing with 6 people at once but she did an outstanding job!
Diane Foster
1 week ago
Kassandra and the Adventure Life team have been incredible! Kassandra was very knowledgeable and attentive to our asks while making sure we kept within our budget. This was our first experience with a travel agent and we were blown away by the booking/initial exploration service. We will use Adventure Life again.