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Galapagos Travel Guide: Cruise, Tours, Last minute deals
Santa Fe Island | Tour price $140 | Galapagos
Santa Fe Island, is one of the most famous tours in Galapagos. You will snorkel with turtles, sharks and with luck the sea lions will swim. I can help you book the tour to Santa Fe Island for *$140
Chokotrip unlike Viator and other websites
Reserves your tour directly with the boat operators when you send your first payment. This is why our prices are not inflated and why when you reserve with us you recieve, the name and information of your tour operator so you can follow up directly with the tour operator and have the security of knowing that the tour is confirmed the moment you pay for it.
Santa Fe Island (Galapagos – Ecuador) is one of my ultimate favorites and you can visit it on an experiential fishing tour or on a land tour. The best part is when you’re snorkeling in the bay and sea lions start to playfully approach you (sea lions’ behavior may change during mating season).
Santa Fe Island in daily tour
Santa Fe Island:
- How to get there
- Trip itinerary
- Tour information
- Reviews
- Check availability
- Check availability
- ES: Isla Santa Fé
How to get to Santa Fe Island?
There are two ways to get to Santa Fe Island in the Galapagos. The first is on a Galapagos cruise that includes this stop in its itinerary. The second is by taking a day tour from Santa Cruz Island.
Santa Fe Island bay
Santa Fe Island Bay
Trip itinerary
Once on the yacht, you’ll sail for 45 minutes until you reach the bays around Santa Fe Island to do some snorkeling. Since the island is located between San Cristobal, Floreana and Santa Cruz Islands, you’ll observe a variety of marine life, like: tropical fish, rays, Tintonera sharks, and sea turtles. This is a wonderful snorkeling experience!
The sea lions tend to be harmless, they’ll swim alongside you in a playful way. There’s always an alpha sea lion present, and you should keep your distance. Before ending the tour without landing, you’ll observe some sea fishing in action. Get ready to see a 30 lb fish battling the rod.
ENTER AND ENJOY IT!Included in the itinerary of the tour without landing, you’ll visit Playa Escondida which is located on Santa Cruz Island. It’s surrounded by a volcanic arm, ideal for swimming, hiking, observation of baby Galapagos sharks and colonies of marine iguanas.
Meanwhile, in the itinerary with landing, you’ll visit South Plazas Island, which has an incredible landscape and is home to a mix of marine and land iguanas. The cost for this tour is much higher since it is on a luxury yacht and because it stops on both islands as well as snorkeling on Santa Fe.
SANTA FE ISLAND VIDEO
Information on Santa Fe Island
› Tour price WITHOUT landing: US$ 140
› Tour price WITH landing: US$ 335
*The price of the tour changes in high season
› Passenger capacity per boat: 10 or 16 people
› Available days: Every day
› Pick up: As agreed with the operator
› Total travel time: 1h45 (45 mins there and 1hr back)
› Start time: 8:00 am
› Return time: 4:00 pm
› Does not include: Alcoholic drinks, soda, tip, and neoprene suit (I recommend renting this from June-Nov at any local operator).
* Price does not include 12% tax. (We only charge it if you want a invoice).
* This tour is not recommended for children from 0 to 2 years old.
* Reserve this Santa Fe Island tour with a partial payment using the available payment methods: a bank transfer from any Ecuadorian bank (no additional cost), using WeTravel you can a bank transfer from any U.S. bank (1% + 0.30 cents in additional costs), credit or debit card (only 3.9% additional cost) o using Paypal (5.9% additional cost).
DON’T MISS OUT!
I can help you reserve a tour to Santa Fe Island with local operators that own the vessels. Instead of wasting time wandering around each island looking for tours, you should be enjoying the places you can visit on your own while at the Galapagos Islands.
DON’T MISS OUT!
I can help you reserve a tour to Santa Fe Island with local operators that own the vessels. Instead of wasting time wandering around each island looking for tours, you should be enjoying the places you can visit on your own while at the Galapagos Islands.
TRAVEL SAFE THROUGH THE GALAPAGOS
After a lot of research, I found a travel assistance service that really works and helps in difficult moments. Good travel insurance that covers flight cancellations is key and, in purchasing this, travelers that visit my blog also get a 5% discount.
en descuento en tours diarios con ChokoTrip para cada persona y disfruta de las mejores islas de Galápagos.
Reserva tu hospedaje en Galapagos con Choko.Host y por cada hospedaje en cada isla obtienes 10 dólares por persona hospedada.
No importa, solo asegúrate que la misma persona que reserva los tours reserve los hospedajes en Choko.Host.
Mira aquí cuáles son las políticas para usar del descuento.
Reserva ahora tu hospedaje en Choko.Host
I’m sorry to admit that I was a bit disappointed with the Santa Fe island trip. Even though we met a beautiful guide, who was very helpful and did an excellent job, it didn’t really looked like a trip to the island. After a nice snorkeling near the shore in Santa Fe, where we played with sea lions in the water, and a nice fishing session by the crew of the boat, we headed back to Santa Cruz to visit another beach (playa escondida), which was ok, but basically we did not spend any time on the island. If you want to land on the island and have a walk there and know more about the wildlife or ecosystem (as it is possible in Seymour, Bartolomè and Floreana for example) this is not the right trip.
I only had 3 full days at the Galápagos Islands and booking with Chokotrip ensured that I had a spot on the tours I wanted to do. The process was easy and the prices are similar to what is offered when booking in person on the island.
The Santa Fe tour was incredible! the boat was comfortable and the guide very friendly and knowledgeable. We saw so much amazing sea life including sea turtles, eagle rays, star fish, sea snakes, plenty of colourful fish, and swam with sea lion pups 🙂
Tour to Santa Fe was amazing! Due to limited of time to do research, I simply write to chokotrip what tours I’d like to join! They are also very responsive through email.
The trip we booked included visits both to Santa Fe and South Las Plazas islands. While more expensive than the “traditional” Santa Fe excursion, we wanted the opportunity for both snorkeling and hiking while experiencing the diversity of two different islands. The guide and crew were friendly and helpful. The food was exceptional. I was a bit disappointed with the hike on Santa Fe (very short) and limited, but we were still able to see the Barrington land iguana. Our time snorkeling near Santa Fe was amazing. The sea lions were so playful and our guide showed us how to safely engage with them. Next we went to South las Plazas where we had a great land based experience that allowed us to capture the breadth of the flora and fauna.
Christian was great with getting this setup and helping on the day of the excursion with some clarity around meeting times and location when the crew wasn’t immediately there.
My dad and I went to Galapagos at the end of March, and that is definitely the best time to go. Chokotrip made things searching for tours very easy for us to do, and they were very easy to get in contact with to book things. The engine on the tour boat was damaged the day before our tour. Chokotrip gave us another tour that same day and time going to pinzón instead of Santa Fe. We thought that Santa Fe would have been much better. The companies were very accommodating, friendly, and followed all safety rules. The food was also very good.
Christian m’a parfaitement aidé dans l’organisation et la réservation de mes différentes activités aux Galápagos.
Hi Christian,
I very much enjoyed the two tours that you arranged for me. First the 360 around San Cristobal and then the Santa Fe/South Plazas out of Santa Cruz. At my age I don’t snorkel however I enjoyed the landings and treks that came with the tours and watching everyone else be super happy with the interaction they had with the sea lions and turtles. My joy was photography and I took over 900 photos. After arriving back home I prepared a flash drive and commentary of all the animals that I photographs and sent it on to my grandchildren. They receive it today and I know they will be overjoyed. Even though I have traveled the world over I was amazed at the number of families that travel to the Galapagos. Generations better understand what has and is happening by experiencing Galapagos. They go home knowing the change they must be part of in the future. The very best regards and success that you will have in being part of this in the future.
Had an amazing trip!! ChokoTrips was easy to book and communication was great. The trip to Santa Fe was amazing we had the opportunity to swim with sea lions! They were amazing to watch in their natural habitat!
Santa Fe was probably the best snorkeling we encountered while in Galapagos. The water was quite cold though even in late December. I would recommend renting a wetsuit if one is not provided.
I will be there in November and was looking for a Tour of Santa Cruz Island without landing. Will you be offering?
thanks
Sure. you can do it here http://www.choko.tours/book-tours
What a tour. Best snorkeling with sea lions. Two spots and tons of sea lions playing right in your face. And with you. Such an amazing experience. If you want to snorkel with sea lions this is trip to take. Thanks choko and to the guide for a great trip.
My daughter and I had a wonderful day of snorkeling and fishing. While there was no landing on Sante Fe island, we stopped first at “Hidden Beach” on the end on Santa Cruz. Gorgeous beach and much wildlife. Well organized with friendly captain, crew and guide. Well worth the money. A highlight of our trip to the Galapagos.
It was amazing snorkeling on this tour. Thank you, Choko, for making reservations for us and arranging all.
The trip to Santa Fe was amazing.
Firstly Christian helped us find a spot on the boat in a time of the year where it soon gets very busy. It can be hard finding spots for the daily trips and whilst no other tour operator seemed to be able to help us, Christian really managed to get us onboard.
The boat was amazing and the crew very helpful. The trip itself was fantastic; Visiting Santa Fe from both land and sea is a great opportunity to spot lots of different animals amongst which sea lions, turtles, school of fish.
The guide we had was very knowledgeable and could speak both English and Spanish. He really took his time to explain lots of things about wildlife and the interaction with the environment. It was like being in a BBC documentary.
I highly recommend this trip and Christian as organiser. He is truly great, always available and super efficient!
All six of us enjoyed the snorkeling trip to Santa Fe on yacht. The tour included deep water snorkeling in a scenic bay and fishing. The trip was very well organized, the boat was fast, food was great, and snorkeling was excellent. First spot with the sea lions had pretty strong currents for our group, and the guide decided to move us to a safer area. On the way back we caught 2 pretty big fish. Just make sure you understand that landing on the island and hiking are not part of this trip.