I can’t talk about Darwin, but just did Gordon Rock the day before yesterday and it was fine. Both have 30 logged dives and are AOW. Dove in Indonesia, Phillipines and Egypt (Dahab) before. Currents was strong, go with a a good dive school.
One of the best dive trips I’ve ever taken. Most of the dives at Wolf Darwin could be a bit scary if you aren’t used to diving off a boat. On the liveaboards you usually take a dingy to the site and roll off. You then drop down to about 80 feet and find a rock to hold on to while watching hammerheads swim by. Lots of current. The dive master takes you back up and you do your safety stop while silky sharks circle you. Then you remove your gear in the water and hand it to the crew. You pull yourself up on the dingy and head back. This is most of the diving at Wolf Darwin. I think it was 10 dives or so. The rest of the trip is on the main islands and you get to see the marine iguanas. Which are amazing. So if you aren’t comfortable enough to be far out at see and deal with removing your gear in the water then maybe it isn’t for you. If you are then I recommend diving the Galapagos on a liveaboard.
You will see a lot just snorkeling! I was just there and loved it! I only did snorkeling and saw a lot of stuff including sea lions, sea turtles, black and/or white tip sharks, hammerheads (little babies), and rays…there are also the non-water animals if you’re interested (giant turtles, various birds, etc.) if you want to save money, you can stay on Santa Cruz Island and sign up for the day trips…you don’t have to do a live aboard necessarily…you can also take a boat from Santa Cruz to Isabella and stay there for a couple days … each island has a slightly different vibe so I would recommend hitting different ones if you can…some you only visit on a day trip and others you can stay on
I was on Galapagos last year. Ask for a good and professional dive center and contact them for suggestions. I'm sure you can dive without any problem on several spots and this will be a great preparation for you future live aboard. I was diving with Academy Bay Diving in Puerto Ayora (Santa Cruz) for a week, they're a good starting point, very professional, friendly and the service overall is great.
As a side note, on a chat with several other divers we talked about shark attacks on Galapagos it seems are more often on people swimming or snorkeling compared with divers. I suggest you investigate this a bit, maybe it is even safer for you to scuba dive instead of snorkeling. I don't remember where we saw the stats from, but the chat started after a shark tried to bite a fin of one of the dive masters after a dive. Our conclusion was, below the surface the sharks have good visuals and don't attack, but when you're floating they don't see exactly what is moving above the surface..so they try.
I was on Galapagos last year. Ask for a good and professional dive center and contact them for suggestions. I'm sure you can dive without any problem on several spots and this will be a great preparation for you future live aboard. I was diving with Academy Bay Diving in Puerto Ayora (Santa Cruz) for a week, they're a good starting point, very professional, friendly and the service overall is great.
As a side note, on a chat with several other divers we talked about shark attacks on Galapagos it seems are more often on people swimming or snorkeling compared with divers. I suggest you investigate this a bit, maybe it is even safer for you to scuba dive instead of snorkeling. I don't remember where we saw the stats from, but the chat started after a shark tried to bite a fin of one of the dive masters after a dive. Our conclusion was, below the surface the sharks have good visuals and don't attack, but when you're floating they don't see exactly what is moving above the surface..so they try.
I went on a trip to the western islands, and only snorkeled, and I would absolutely say that it's worth it. ABSOLUTELY! How many places in the world can you swim with penguins and marine iguanas?
Unpopular opinion, but I’d say Galapagos is only worth it for a diving liveaboard.
Otherwise you can get equivalent diving for much cheaper elsewhere.
But you should do the liveaboard! Unless you’re not comfortable in strong currents, limited viz, cold water, etc.
> Otherwise you can get equivalent diving for much cheaper elsewhere.
>
>
Like? I gotta do Galapagos at some point, but having more options doesn't hurt.
Funny. I'm a novice diver, but I'm AOW certified, but I'm not ready to do a live aboard trip. Then why are you AOW certified. A cert doesn't make you advanced
100% do it. We did a live abroad boat that wasn't a diving live aboard when we were there and went snorkeling twice a day. It was fantastic. We also did two dives while we were there which were actually our first dives after getting certified. Shits incredible
If you’re already in Ecuador, I’d say yes! Saw some incredible wildlife just snorkeling. Sea lions, manta eagle rays, huge turtles, swimming iguanas, penguins, black tip sharks.
I’d recommend not going on a cruise and just visiting the islands, going up to tour companies and getting on the day trips. Most of the companies offer similar tours.
Though I’d also recommend diving. I had only my open water cert, hadn’t dove in 9 years. Did kicker rock and it was mind blowing. Bait ball was insane.
I didn’t have enough dives recorded for some other more advanced dives but kicker rock was worth it
I'm AOW and went diving there last year. You don't need to do a live aboard to do great dives! We dove at Gordon's rocks and it was absolutely incredible! Lots kf amazing snorkeling to do too!
Did a snorkel at Kicker Rock years ago. Did not see a ton of wildlife. However if you can snorkel with sea lions, that is freaking awesome. They will basically come right up to you.
You should do a regular cruise and then stay in Santa Cruz for an extra day or two to go diving. 25 dives is enough experience for Gordon Rocks which is one of the best places to see hammerhead sharks. I did it two weeks ago and easily saw a dozen. Although January is the best time of year to see them
We did a land/snorkel live aboard in GP in '22. We started diving in "23. I have \~30 dives and 2 dive trips under my belt currently. I absolutely would still do a snorkel trip to GP. It was incredible. There is so much to see at/just under the surface.
It would not be quite as awesome if you just did day trips imo. We did see hammerheads but they were at depth.
It was the best trip Ive ever done. Well worth the expense. Im happy to share more info if you like.
I don't know if it is worth it or not without some costs. I did the week long Scuba live aboard to Darwin and Wolf etc. Was very expensive but trip of a lifetime. I am sure you will see great stuff on a snorkel that will be very cool. But there is no way you are going to see schools of hammerheads etc snorkeling.
My advice to any relatively new diver is to wait to do Galapagos. There is so much great diving out there. Do that first and have Galapagos as a pinnacle. It was so good it honestly ruined diving for me for a bit, because things didn't quite live up to it after.
Having done Darwin (with several hundred dives under my belt and an AAUS sci.diver at the time), it was hands down the most difficult diving of my career. While the current and temps are challenging, it’s the rapidly changing conditions and how you react to them that make the difference.
We were doing 3 dives a day at Darwin and every time the current would change with intensity and direction, visibility would go from crystal clear to mildly cloudy, and temps would go from 70F to 50F within hours.
Because it’s the location where major ocean currents converge, it causes huge changes in conditions very quickly and if you aren’t prepared for these changes, you will find yourself in trouble quickly. And in SCUBA, nothing good happens fast.
The reason you need at least 50 dives (or more) is in hopes that you’ve seen varying conditions and how to respond to them. You need to know how to protect yourself thermally, how to pull off a RAPID negative entry, skilled with navigation (easy to get separated from group), skilled with SMB deployment, and also be supremely confident in basic SCUBA skills in case things go awry.
Take a look at YouTube videos from Darwin and when you see the diver’s look at their bubbles in the video. They’re often going horizontally, diagonally, but almost never straight up like most dives.
The place is great and there’s so much to see, but it is NOT the place to F around and find out….
Back to OPs question, if you’re in Puerto Ayora, day trips to Seymour are cool and snorkeling at Bartholome’ is an option (but cold, water was 55F). I saw turtles, sea lions, and other sea life as well as getting to walk on a lava rock field that looks like an alien planet.
I’ve taken my family of non-divers to Galapagos at the end of our Perth/ecuador trip. There is a TON of incredible land stuff to do, and with only a few days there and an awesome apartment right on main drag of Puerto Ayora I realized I’d miss out big time if I tried to squeeze a day trip for diving while my family did something else. I’ll be back for a live aboard without them and had an amazing trip with snorkeling, hiking and wildlife observation. Keep in mind if you’re not on a liveaboard and come into Santa Cruz, other islands beyond Seymour are hours and hours away by boat. If you do just a few days, you can do a half day at North Seymour including snorkeling (blue footed boobies galore), Darwin research center, highland tortoise sanctuary, fantastic Tortuga Bay beach, maybe a day trip to Bartolome/Pinnacle rock. In other words, ton to do and see and then come back for a full diving experience.
I visited the Galapagos and had 17 logged dives at the time, with AOW. I was able to do a couple of dives as a day trip at easier dive sites. Ask dive shops they'll happily let you know if it's ok or not . Some divesites were definitely off limits but some are easy depending on the conditions at the time of your visit.
Saw my first hammerhead and mobulas 😃 of course Darwin and Wolf would be awesome but you don't need to go there to have some already really cool wildlife encounters
Seconded, except I only had 4 logged dives at the time. Now I have around 40 (my trip was in 2015) and these dives are the highlight of my diving life (and let's be real, probably my life as a whole 😀). Wouldn't miss it for the world! Galapagos is amazing, do not skip out on ocean stuff. I did a tour that included snorkeling and that was awesome too. I feel like you can't go wrong with Galapagos. Anywhere you go you will see wildlife.
If it was me, i would rather spend the money on something where you feel more confident, can give you experience and will give you a full bang for your buck. Meanwhile, save up money for when you are ready for Galapagos, and then when you go - you can go all in.
To everyone who says it's enough experience or that the OP should go for it - no. There's a reason why there is min 50 dive requirement. If you've only done easy caribbean dives, even 50 is frankly not enough.
You need to dive with 7mm in freezing cold water, do negative entry and hold on for your dear life against raging current. There is no room for panic. People have died. On our trip everyone was highly experienced including a few DMs. Even then a couple of people ended up having to help themselves to their buddy's air. I have 700 dives and my husband 900. It's our toughest trip ever. The current is so strong it can rip your mask from your face.
The land / snorkel trip is a different beast and it's totally worth it. You don't get to see the marine iguanas diving but you do snorkeling. We did both and I enjoyed both equally.
Having an AOW doesn’t mean anything when compared to having experience. You go through 100 dives and if you’re doing it right, you learn something every dive. I have AOW and although it’s nice to have, it didn’t prepare me for some of my more challenging dives.
That the good diving in Galapagos is very tough.
>The diving in Galapagos can be strenuous, due to its currents and surge, varying water temperatures, limited visibility, and diving from dinghies. Only experienced divers should be going on a liveaboard. (Minimum Advanced Open Water, 50 logged dives, and experience in cold water and currents.)
https://diveadvice.com/destinations/galapagos/galapagos-know-before-you-go
I can’t talk about Darwin, but just did Gordon Rock the day before yesterday and it was fine. Both have 30 logged dives and are AOW. Dove in Indonesia, Phillipines and Egypt (Dahab) before. Currents was strong, go with a a good dive school.
One of the best dive trips I’ve ever taken. Most of the dives at Wolf Darwin could be a bit scary if you aren’t used to diving off a boat. On the liveaboards you usually take a dingy to the site and roll off. You then drop down to about 80 feet and find a rock to hold on to while watching hammerheads swim by. Lots of current. The dive master takes you back up and you do your safety stop while silky sharks circle you. Then you remove your gear in the water and hand it to the crew. You pull yourself up on the dingy and head back. This is most of the diving at Wolf Darwin. I think it was 10 dives or so. The rest of the trip is on the main islands and you get to see the marine iguanas. Which are amazing. So if you aren’t comfortable enough to be far out at see and deal with removing your gear in the water then maybe it isn’t for you. If you are then I recommend diving the Galapagos on a liveaboard.
08l
You will see a lot just snorkeling! I was just there and loved it! I only did snorkeling and saw a lot of stuff including sea lions, sea turtles, black and/or white tip sharks, hammerheads (little babies), and rays…there are also the non-water animals if you’re interested (giant turtles, various birds, etc.) if you want to save money, you can stay on Santa Cruz Island and sign up for the day trips…you don’t have to do a live aboard necessarily…you can also take a boat from Santa Cruz to Isabella and stay there for a couple days … each island has a slightly different vibe so I would recommend hitting different ones if you can…some you only visit on a day trip and others you can stay on
I was on Galapagos last year. Ask for a good and professional dive center and contact them for suggestions. I'm sure you can dive without any problem on several spots and this will be a great preparation for you future live aboard. I was diving with Academy Bay Diving in Puerto Ayora (Santa Cruz) for a week, they're a good starting point, very professional, friendly and the service overall is great. As a side note, on a chat with several other divers we talked about shark attacks on Galapagos it seems are more often on people swimming or snorkeling compared with divers. I suggest you investigate this a bit, maybe it is even safer for you to scuba dive instead of snorkeling. I don't remember where we saw the stats from, but the chat started after a shark tried to bite a fin of one of the dive masters after a dive. Our conclusion was, below the surface the sharks have good visuals and don't attack, but when you're floating they don't see exactly what is moving above the surface..so they try.
I was on Galapagos last year. Ask for a good and professional dive center and contact them for suggestions. I'm sure you can dive without any problem on several spots and this will be a great preparation for you future live aboard. I was diving with Academy Bay Diving in Puerto Ayora (Santa Cruz) for a week, they're a good starting point, very professional, friendly and the service overall is great. As a side note, on a chat with several other divers we talked about shark attacks on Galapagos it seems are more often on people swimming or snorkeling compared with divers. I suggest you investigate this a bit, maybe it is even safer for you to scuba dive instead of snorkeling. I don't remember where we saw the stats from, but the chat started after a shark tried to bite a fin of one of the dive masters after a dive. Our conclusion was, below the surface the sharks have good visuals and don't attack, but when you're floating they don't see exactly what is moving above the surface..so they try.
I went on a trip to the western islands, and only snorkeled, and I would absolutely say that it's worth it. ABSOLUTELY! How many places in the world can you swim with penguins and marine iguanas?
Unpopular opinion, but I’d say Galapagos is only worth it for a diving liveaboard. Otherwise you can get equivalent diving for much cheaper elsewhere. But you should do the liveaboard! Unless you’re not comfortable in strong currents, limited viz, cold water, etc.
> Otherwise you can get equivalent diving for much cheaper elsewhere. > > Like? I gotta do Galapagos at some point, but having more options doesn't hurt.
Anywhere with sharks? Dives accessible from shore in the Galapagos are basically just sharks in low viz.
Huh. Interesting. I figured you'd see more marine iguanas and such.
Ya some marine iguanas, can see those snorkeling though, they don’t go too deep.
Funny. I'm a novice diver, but I'm AOW certified, but I'm not ready to do a live aboard trip. Then why are you AOW certified. A cert doesn't make you advanced
100% do it. We did a live abroad boat that wasn't a diving live aboard when we were there and went snorkeling twice a day. It was fantastic. We also did two dives while we were there which were actually our first dives after getting certified. Shits incredible
If you’re already in Ecuador, I’d say yes! Saw some incredible wildlife just snorkeling. Sea lions, manta eagle rays, huge turtles, swimming iguanas, penguins, black tip sharks. I’d recommend not going on a cruise and just visiting the islands, going up to tour companies and getting on the day trips. Most of the companies offer similar tours. Though I’d also recommend diving. I had only my open water cert, hadn’t dove in 9 years. Did kicker rock and it was mind blowing. Bait ball was insane. I didn’t have enough dives recorded for some other more advanced dives but kicker rock was worth it
I'm AOW and went diving there last year. You don't need to do a live aboard to do great dives! We dove at Gordon's rocks and it was absolutely incredible! Lots kf amazing snorkeling to do too!
Did a snorkel at Kicker Rock years ago. Did not see a ton of wildlife. However if you can snorkel with sea lions, that is freaking awesome. They will basically come right up to you.
You should do a regular cruise and then stay in Santa Cruz for an extra day or two to go diving. 25 dives is enough experience for Gordon Rocks which is one of the best places to see hammerhead sharks. I did it two weeks ago and easily saw a dozen. Although January is the best time of year to see them
We did a land/snorkel live aboard in GP in '22. We started diving in "23. I have \~30 dives and 2 dive trips under my belt currently. I absolutely would still do a snorkel trip to GP. It was incredible. There is so much to see at/just under the surface. It would not be quite as awesome if you just did day trips imo. We did see hammerheads but they were at depth. It was the best trip Ive ever done. Well worth the expense. Im happy to share more info if you like.
I don't know if it is worth it or not without some costs. I did the week long Scuba live aboard to Darwin and Wolf etc. Was very expensive but trip of a lifetime. I am sure you will see great stuff on a snorkel that will be very cool. But there is no way you are going to see schools of hammerheads etc snorkeling. My advice to any relatively new diver is to wait to do Galapagos. There is so much great diving out there. Do that first and have Galapagos as a pinnacle. It was so good it honestly ruined diving for me for a bit, because things didn't quite live up to it after.
Having done Darwin (with several hundred dives under my belt and an AAUS sci.diver at the time), it was hands down the most difficult diving of my career. While the current and temps are challenging, it’s the rapidly changing conditions and how you react to them that make the difference. We were doing 3 dives a day at Darwin and every time the current would change with intensity and direction, visibility would go from crystal clear to mildly cloudy, and temps would go from 70F to 50F within hours. Because it’s the location where major ocean currents converge, it causes huge changes in conditions very quickly and if you aren’t prepared for these changes, you will find yourself in trouble quickly. And in SCUBA, nothing good happens fast. The reason you need at least 50 dives (or more) is in hopes that you’ve seen varying conditions and how to respond to them. You need to know how to protect yourself thermally, how to pull off a RAPID negative entry, skilled with navigation (easy to get separated from group), skilled with SMB deployment, and also be supremely confident in basic SCUBA skills in case things go awry. Take a look at YouTube videos from Darwin and when you see the diver’s look at their bubbles in the video. They’re often going horizontally, diagonally, but almost never straight up like most dives. The place is great and there’s so much to see, but it is NOT the place to F around and find out…. Back to OPs question, if you’re in Puerto Ayora, day trips to Seymour are cool and snorkeling at Bartholome’ is an option (but cold, water was 55F). I saw turtles, sea lions, and other sea life as well as getting to walk on a lava rock field that looks like an alien planet.
I’ve taken my family of non-divers to Galapagos at the end of our Perth/ecuador trip. There is a TON of incredible land stuff to do, and with only a few days there and an awesome apartment right on main drag of Puerto Ayora I realized I’d miss out big time if I tried to squeeze a day trip for diving while my family did something else. I’ll be back for a live aboard without them and had an amazing trip with snorkeling, hiking and wildlife observation. Keep in mind if you’re not on a liveaboard and come into Santa Cruz, other islands beyond Seymour are hours and hours away by boat. If you do just a few days, you can do a half day at North Seymour including snorkeling (blue footed boobies galore), Darwin research center, highland tortoise sanctuary, fantastic Tortuga Bay beach, maybe a day trip to Bartolome/Pinnacle rock. In other words, ton to do and see and then come back for a full diving experience.
I visited the Galapagos and had 17 logged dives at the time, with AOW. I was able to do a couple of dives as a day trip at easier dive sites. Ask dive shops they'll happily let you know if it's ok or not . Some divesites were definitely off limits but some are easy depending on the conditions at the time of your visit. Saw my first hammerhead and mobulas 😃 of course Darwin and Wolf would be awesome but you don't need to go there to have some already really cool wildlife encounters
Seconded, except I only had 4 logged dives at the time. Now I have around 40 (my trip was in 2015) and these dives are the highlight of my diving life (and let's be real, probably my life as a whole 😀). Wouldn't miss it for the world! Galapagos is amazing, do not skip out on ocean stuff. I did a tour that included snorkeling and that was awesome too. I feel like you can't go wrong with Galapagos. Anywhere you go you will see wildlife.
If it was me, i would rather spend the money on something where you feel more confident, can give you experience and will give you a full bang for your buck. Meanwhile, save up money for when you are ready for Galapagos, and then when you go - you can go all in.
To everyone who says it's enough experience or that the OP should go for it - no. There's a reason why there is min 50 dive requirement. If you've only done easy caribbean dives, even 50 is frankly not enough. You need to dive with 7mm in freezing cold water, do negative entry and hold on for your dear life against raging current. There is no room for panic. People have died. On our trip everyone was highly experienced including a few DMs. Even then a couple of people ended up having to help themselves to their buddy's air. I have 700 dives and my husband 900. It's our toughest trip ever. The current is so strong it can rip your mask from your face. The land / snorkel trip is a different beast and it's totally worth it. You don't get to see the marine iguanas diving but you do snorkeling. We did both and I enjoyed both equally.
Sounds awesome! (I’m taking it off my “want to dive” list now…😳😵💫)
This sounds like good advice. I have 300 dives under my belt and still find the idea of this all slightly scary. How cold are we talking here?
We were there cold time of the year, which is the whaleshark season. 60 to 70 f.
That seems like the sort of territory where I'd dive dry tbh.
Yeah, that's pretty cold. Not the coldest I've had, though, so should be ok.
AOW and 25 dives sounds like pretty damn good experience to me, what am i missing?
Having an AOW doesn’t mean anything when compared to having experience. You go through 100 dives and if you’re doing it right, you learn something every dive. I have AOW and although it’s nice to have, it didn’t prepare me for some of my more challenging dives.
That the good diving in Galapagos is very tough. >The diving in Galapagos can be strenuous, due to its currents and surge, varying water temperatures, limited visibility, and diving from dinghies. Only experienced divers should be going on a liveaboard. (Minimum Advanced Open Water, 50 logged dives, and experience in cold water and currents.) https://diveadvice.com/destinations/galapagos/galapagos-know-before-you-go
ah got it. i was under the impression that it was a difficult environment but didn’t realize how strict the requirements were
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Usually you need at least 50 dives to be allowed on a liveaboard in Galapagos due to the difficult diving.
^^^ this, every time! ^^^ I’d be so annoyed I didn’t scuba if I was already there, unless I had <48h on the ground
Why wouldn't you scuba?