We've long wanted to visit the Galapagos islands and had tried to plan them in to our around the world trip in 2013, however there was no way that
we could have afforded to include them as a planned trip at that stage. We knew you could turn up and hope to receive a heavily discounted seat or two to fill a boat but
in order for this to pay off you needed to spend a decent amount of time in country waiting for boat to have free capacity and we neither fancied wasting our time doing this
or the costs associated with it. As such once we became aware of the much more accessible and affordable option of flying into the Galapagos we immediately chose to revisit
the idea. Given none of us are great on boats this also would minimise any sea sickness effects ruining the experience.
When we visited Central America in 2013 we had been unable to include El Salvador due to safety concerns. Given it is now much safer in El Salvador we thought about making a
trip up to consist of filling in the blanks we'd missed in 2013. We have always really enjoyed our time in Central America and it is probably one of our favourite places
with lots of hidden gems rarely explored. Adding in El Salvador to this trip would also allow us to view some more Mayan ruins and for some of our party this would be their
first time seeing Mayan ruins.
We are also partly blessed that Avianca serves the UK direct and we managed to book all of our flights including connections with the same airline for this trip both minimising
risk and the number of bookings.
NOTES: All flights to El Salvador are not great from Europe. There are two options really via Colombia or the United States. The route through Colombia from the UK
is actually less connections and shorter overall, surprisingly. Having said this door to door you are still looking at over 1 day (24 hours) of travel.
El Salvador has some unusual rules regarding car insurance and rentals. All rentals require car insurance but this is not typically included with a rental fee. This may not
be immediately clear and fees will be due on arrival. Some companies may allow insurance to be purchased in advance by selecting their top collision damage waivers.
The Santa Ana volcano hike is a moderately difficult hike at altitudes up to 2,400m. It can also be hot as it is almost entirely exposed and the time the hike takes place.
NOTES: Quito is the second highest capital city in the world sitting at 2,850m. This means a risk of altitude sickness and a need to take your time to acclimatise. This includes eating small meals but more often and avoiding alcohol. Locals often chew on Cocoa leaves to ease the effects of altitude sickness and these can easily be brought. El Panecillo raises the altitude to 3,100m and the top of the cable car raises this even further to 4,100m.
NOTES: Rough Seas, Horse Flies
This trip undertakes multiple flights traversing multiple destinations reflecting the difficulty of reaching both El Salvador, Ecuador and the Galapagos islands. As such the flights alone will cost in the 4 digits per person. While El Salvador and its sights, food and accommodation are very cheap car rentals are rare and the added insurance can bump costs up quite a bit. The Galapagos is lone set as one of the world's most expensive destinations after places like Antarctica. Doing it with flights in and out and limiting boat tours can keep costs down dramatically however the while this may not cost £7,000 anymore it is still not a cheap destination.
You can see how our actual trip went along with photos here: El Salvador 2025