Galapagos apartments in Puerto Ayora

Most visitors get five days in the Galápagos. You're planning five weeks — or more. Here are our answers to the questions we hear from every guest who stays long enough to unpack properly: the 60-day rule, the honest truth about wifi, what a month really costs, and how to turn a long stay into island life.

Santa Cruz is the island everyone passes through — and the one whose beaches keep making people rebook their boat. Here's our guide to every beach on our home island: how far each one is from the Puerto Ayora pier, how to get there, when it's open, and what each one does best.

In San Cristóbal you can step off the ferry and be on a wildlife-filled beach five minutes later. Here's our guide to every beach on the island — how far each one is from the pier, how to get there, when it's open, and what each one does best.

Every traveler island-hopping the Galápagos faces the same fork in the road: the $50 fast boat or the nine-seater plane from about $140. As locals who've made both crossings often enough to know them well, here's the comparison — prices, routes, seasons, luggage, and where to book each one.