How Much Does It Cost To Visit Galapagos with Kids

Last Updated on Feb 13, 2025

One of the biggest misconceptions about a trip to the Galapagos is that it must be crazy expensive. I get it; I thought so too when I saw the prices of cruises around the Galapagos. When I requested a quote, it was around fifteen thousand dollars for a family of four for just a few days which is undeniably a lot of money.

You can absolutely travel to Galapagos with kids on a budget. My first trip to the islands, a decade prior, was done on an extreme backpacker budget, and this time we traveled on a mid-range budget. We loved our trip and it wasn’t as pricy as some might think it is…

Trip to Galapagos: How Much Does It Cost?

1. Entry Fee

One thing you cannot escape from is the fee to enter the Galapagos islands. This is a one-time compulsory fee for the national park and is valid for all the islands. Everyone including kids 2 years old has to pay it.

You might read that it’s $100 per person, but in August 2024 the price was raised to $200 per adult.

Every adult has to pay $200 and kids have to pay $100. This put us at $600 just to enter Galapagos, which was a lot.

2. Accommodation

You absolutely don’t need to pre-book a fancy cruise before arrival. You can stay on land and take day trip if you desire and see the same things you would see on a cruise.

Alternatively, a trick to saving money is to arrive in Puerto Ayora and visit a few agencies (they’re everywhere) and see what last-second deals they can get you for a cruise. There are ALWAYS options as long as you’re willing to wait a day or two. You can get a 5-day cruise for as little as $1800 for a family of four, when online it was about five times more.

We booked accommodation ourselves for both the Santa Cruz and San Cristobal islands. There are many options, but I opted for a comfortable room with two big beds in a perfect location. If I was willing to go further out, I would spend even less.

We spend about $150-170 per room including breakfast, but could have easily done it for $120.

3. Activities

A lot of people don’t realize that many things around the Galapagos are free. You can easily spend two days wandering around Puerto Ayora without spending a dollar…

Seeing animals at the ports is fun in itself. Charles Darwin Center is free unless you want to pay for a guide. You can walk to Tortuga Bay Beach and Las Grietas for free as there’s no entrance fee.

The same goes for San Cristobal where public beaches are obviously free and full of sea lions. If you’re feeling lazy you can take a taxi, but even a driver for a few hours who will wait for you at every stop around the island will set you back about $40. If you just want to visit La Loberia beach the taxi will cost you just $4.

What can quickly add up though are day trips….

4. Day Trips

You don’t have to do any day trips, but I recommend doing at least one per island as you can see uninhabited islands. Day trips are expensive because groups are tiny (they’re all really semi-private trip), and hence why the kids don’t get any discount as they still occupy space and eat.

I recommend visiting a few agencies on the island to see which one can give you a better deal and differences can be significant. I was quoted $220 per person for Isla Plazas Sur island tour, while another agency gave me a deal for $175.

If you’re traveling with kids the best excursions would be mixed with water and land, because realistically no kids is going to be snorkeling like adults. In some places the water can be rough even for adults and there’s a lot of waiting around if the trip also offers diving.

5. Food

Food on the islands isn’t expensive at all. If you eat at smaller spots you can pay $7-9 per meal, but you can also spend close to $30 a meal if you fancy some sushi, steak, or anything fancy.

If you rent an AirBnb which you might prefer, you can even cook your meals. I did it in the past when I stayed at a hostel and I know that’s what the other family we met did and they loved that they could just make their own lunches for the kids.

I can’t speak for the full amount, but we never spent more than $60 on all of our meals with drinks and often starters. Kids usually shared a portion of something, because portions weren’t exactly small.

Total Cost:

We spent 5 nights in Puerto Ayora and 4 nights in San Cristobal. We had breakfasts included in Santa Cruz island, but in San Cristobal we had access to the kitchen for breakfasts. We ate out every night and sometimes even for brunch. We didn’t limit ourselves and took water taxis to Tortuga Bay and my husband visited some spots twice by regular taxi when he wanted to film more wildlife without the kids running around.

We took a day trip to Isla Plazas Sur, which tends to be the priciest tour and did multiple land excursions. We wanted to take another day tour in San Cristobal, but water conditions weren’t great which would have been a waste of snorkeling, so once again we ended up with a land excursion.

We spent about $1750 for accommodation and food for the entire stay, about $210 for taxis and ferries (we took one from Santa Cruz to San Cristobal), $600 on entry to Galapagos, and $850 on day excursion and fees.

For almost a two-week trip I think it was pretty reasonable, especially since we saw so much and every day was filled with activities.