Galápagos · Backpacking
ON A BUDGET
Not a cheap backpacking destination, but land-based travel makes it possible without a cruise budget.
Uphill in Puerto Ayora
Hostales a few streets back from the harbour on Santa Cruz cost a fraction of the waterfront. Puerto Baquerizo Moreno on San Cristóbal is quieter and similar.
What a day costs
Even done frugally, $60–100 a day: a hostel bed $25–40, an almuerzo $5–8, water taxis a dollar. Day boats add $100–200 each.
Fees before you land
Budget for the transit control card, around $20, and the national park entry fee — since the 2024 increase it sits near $200 for most foreign adults, about half for children.
Fibras, buses and water taxis
Public buses cross Santa Cruz to the Itabaca channel for a couple of dollars, harbour water taxis cost a dollar, and inter-island speedboats run roughly $30–40 each way.
Free by day
Tortuga Bay is a free 2.5-kilometre walk from town, the Charles Darwin Station charges nothing, and the pelicans queueing at the fish market cost nothing to watch.
Calle de los Kioscos
Charles Binford closes to traffic in the evening and fills with cheap seafood kiosks and plastic chairs — where budget travellers eat and form boat groups.