Silversea Expeditions - Silver Galapagos

A destination long on our bucket list, we were waiting for a better ship to come along, which finally happened with the launch of the Silver Galapagos in 2013 and its second refurbishment in the Fall of 2014.

In order to minimize tourist impact on the islands and disperse ship traffic through the islands, new rules for ships went into effect in 2012. Ships can now only repeat a stop every fourteen days. Silversea offers two itineraries, a North-Central one and a Western one, sailing roundtrip from Baltra every Saturday. 

Doing research on the itineraries is a bit involved and at times confusing, but there are some sources that will tell you what you will see where, so if you are an avid birder you can be sure to see that species you've always wanted to observe by selecting an itinerary that goes where you're likely to see it. For instance you will only see waved albatross on the North-Central itinerary, penguins on the Western itinerary. There are certain times of year different species are mating and that could influence your decision on which itinerary to take and when to go. There is the rainy season/dry season/water temperature factor. Otherwise, both itineraries offer plenty of wildlife observation, up close time with sea lions, land iguanas, giant tortoises and endemic birds, plus snorkeling, kayaking, hiking, zodiac excursions, lectures and more. And, of course, you can see it all by doing a two week, back to back itinerary.

We booked the North-Central itinerary mainly based on the timing, but it turned out to be fabulous and I highly recommend it. I asked our expedition leader what the differences were between the two and he told me that there are things you see on North-Central itinerary, such as all three types of boobies, the waved albatross and the frigate birds with the inflated red pouch, that you don't see on the Western one. On the other hand, you would see the Galápagos penguins and the flightless cormorants on the Western one. So both are good, but according to my guide book and we agree, Genovesa and Espanola are big highlights, as was the hike on Punta Pitt.

North-Central itinerary

Western itinerary

A couple of sources that I recommend are:

A Naturalists Guide to the Galapagos by Steve Rosenberg, available as an e-book through Amazon or Apple. This gives you a great overview of what the excursions are likely to be on each island and what you will see there

The web site Galapagos-islands.com destination page has an interactive map - click on each place and find out what you will see there.

In addition you can search for first hand accounts on Luxury Cruise Talk, Cruise Critic, TripAdvisor, blogs and other sites.

Subsequent posts will detail our experiences, day by day.

Photos courtesy of Silversea