BEST VISITOR SITES IN GALAPAGOS - ACCORDING TO NATURALIST GUIDES

We asked 12 naturalist guides, with a combined 231 years of Galapagos guiding experience to rate visitor sites on a scale of 1 to 100 (1 being the poorest) against 5 specific criteria:

1. Iconic species: The likelihood of seeing relatively rare but iconic Galapagos species (e.g. giant tortoise in the wild, penguin, flightless cormorant, flamingo, land iguana, hybrid iguana, red-footed boobies, Galapagos hawk...).  Because some iconic species are relatively common and will be very difficult to miss on just about any cruise (e.g. marine iguanas, blue footed boobies), these don't enter into consideration when rating a site for this criterion.
2. Biodiversity: The abundance and diversity of plant and animal life (not necessarily iconic). Basically, sites rating well under this criterion will have plenty of vegetation, birds and/or marine life.   Sites rated the lowest will tend to be barren lava fields, for example.  
3. Striking vistas: For this one, we asked the naturalist guides to give the highest scores for those sites at which they have seen visitors taking a lot of landscape pictures.  For some sites, the landscape is banal and doesn't attract an "ooh! aah!" reaction, while others are impressive and the subject of many pictures, including selfies.  
4. Beach quality: The quality of a beach for playing in the sand, sunbathing, swimming, relaxing - also child friendly. Even though Galapagos is not a "beach holiday", there's no need to feel guilty for taking in the pleasures of a nice beach on occasion!
5. Snorkel quality: The likelihood of seeing rich and diverse underwater life.

You can see the results and filter them according to your interests here: https://www.galapagosadvisor.com/visitor-sites