Best time to visit The Galápagos

Ecuador · Latin America

All twelve months scored on daily temperature, rainfall, humidity and holiday crowding.

The year in The Galápagos

Tap a month for its page

Sweet spot
Good
OK
Avoid
Busy

Go in Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Sep, Oct, Nov or Dec — these months score within a whisker of each other; 23C max, 11 rainy days. Feb is the next best.

Dry season: Feb, 6 or fewer rainy days a month.

Plan this trip

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Things to do in The Galápagos

Floreana Island Island in Ecuador's Galapagos Archipelago
Isabela Island The largest of the Galápagos Islands
San Cristóbal Island Island in the Galápagos archipelago
Santa Cruz Island Island of the Galápagos Islands
Pinzón Island Island in the Galapagos Archipelago in Ecuador
Rábida Island Islet in the Galapagos Archipelago, Ecuador

Tours and tickets in The Galápagos

Each site opens on its own search: choose your dates there. A few open on their home page, where you type the place too. Links marked Ad pay us a commission if you book, at no extra cost to you; most pay nothing, and what a site pays never decides whether it is listed or where. How we rank

Sights and their lines from Wikivoyage, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, and Wikidata; in order of how often each one's Wikipedia article was read on phones in the last 12 months.

Month by month

No fare history for this route yet, so this ranking is climate and crowds only — the price column will fill in as the scanner collects.

Month	Max °C	Rain days	Humidity	Sun h/day	Verdict	Why
Jan	26°	9d	86%	11.3h	okbusy	busier than usual
Feb	28°	6d	83%	11.2h	okbusy	busier than usual
Mar	29°	6d	82%	11.5h	sweet spot	29C max, 6 rainy days
Apr	28°	7d	85%	11.5h	sweet spot	28C max, 7 rainy days
May	26°	10d	86%	11.5h	sweet spot	26C max, 10 rainy days
Jun	25°	12d	86%	11.0h	sweet spot	25C max, 12 rainy days
Jul	24°	13d	87%	9.9h	sweet spot	24C max, 13 rainy days
Aug	23°	11d	85%	9.7h	okbusy	busier than usual
Sep	23°	11d	86%	9.2h	sweet spot	23C max, 11 rainy days
Oct	23°	11d	85%	9.6h	sweet spot	23C max, 11 rainy days
Nov	23°	8d	83%	10.4h	sweet spot	23C max, 8 rainy days
Dec	24°	9d	86%	10.8h	sweet spot	24C max, 9 rainy days

Rain days are the days with at least 1 mm of rain, as a weather station counts them.

Weather read at Puerto Ayora, on Santa Cruz, 33 km from the airport (GPS): ten years of ERA5 and ERA5-Land reanalysis, through Open-Meteo's open data.

A busy month is a crowded one, not a bad one — usually it is crowded because the weather is good. It is flagged rather than scored down, and crowds alone never make a month “avoid”: that is reserved for weather worth skipping.

How busy it gets

Busiest in January and February; quietest in September.

Then and now

No month in The Galápagos is clearly warmer than in 1981–1990: the differences are inside the ordinary spread between one year and the next.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
1981–90	28.5°	29.2°	29.8°	29.5°	28.7°	27.6°	26.7°	26.3°	26.4°	26.9°	27.3°	28.0°
2017–26	26.0°	27.8°	28.5°	27.6°	26.1°	24.5°	23.6°	22.9°	22.6°	22.6°	23.2°	24.3°
Change	-2.6°	-1.3°	-1.2°	-1.9°	-2.6°	-3.1°	-3.1°	-3.4°	-3.8°	-4.3°	-4.1°	-3.7°

The average daily high, month by month, for the nearest ERA5 grid cell. Bold is a clear change; grey is within the ordinary spread between years. Every destination, ranked.

Getting there

How far The Galápagos is, and what it costs, depends on where you set off from — the months above do not.

Before you go

Cost of living	cheap — prices run about 43% of the United States' (World Bank, 2025)
Currency	United states dollar
Languages	Spanish, Northern Quichua, Shuar
Plugs	Type A and B, 120 V
Driving	On the right
Calling code	+593
Travel advice	avoid all but essential travel to parts — UK Foreign Office, updated 2026-10-02
Health	UK Foreign Office health advice

Facts from Wikidata (CC0), the UK Foreign Office (Open Government Licence) and the World Bank, refreshed 2026-10-07. The advisory is written for British travellers; entry rules depend on your passport.

Being there

On arrival

Paying — Ecuador uses the US dollar, with its own coins alongside American ones. Bring $1 and $5 notes, as $50 and $100 bills are often refused; cards are taken mainly where tourists go, often with a commission, and you may be asked for your passport.
UPI, for visitors from India — Not accepted for paying here; bring a card that works abroad.
Tipping — Not required, as bars, restaurants and hotels add a 10% service charge; in restaurants, leaving some spare change for good service is customary.

Getting around The Galápagos

From Baltra airport, buy a ticket for the Lobito bus to the Itabaca Channel (about $5), cross on the barge ($1), then take a bus (about $2.50) or a white pick-up taxi (about $25 a car) to Puerto Ayora, 45 minutes to an hour. Small passenger boats leave the main pier every day for San Cristóbal and Isabela, taking 2 to 3 hours; buy tickets at the agencies near the pier.

Apps — Rides: DiDi, Uber. Maps: Google Maps, Apple Maps. DiDi and Uber work in Quito and Guayaquil, the only cities with flights to the islands; on Santa Cruz, taxis are white pick-up trucks.

Seeing the sites and wildlife of the Galapagos is best done by boat, just as Charles Darwin did it in 1835. Over 60 cruise ships ply the Galapagos waters - ranging in size from 8 to 100 passengers. More on Wikivoyage

From the Wikivoyage article on Galapagos Islands, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Help

Emergency — 911 (any emergency).
TravelCharika is not an emergency service: we cannot call for help or send anyone. Numbers can change; if one fails, ask someone local or your hotel.

Put together by hand from the sources listed, checked 7 October 2026. Apps, cards and rules change, so check before you rely on one.

Sources (16)

The Galápagos in pictures

Libélula (Tramea sp), isla Lobos, islas Galápagos, Ecuador, 2015 07 25, DD 61 — i

Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

E bailey, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Waved Albatross in flight, Española Island 2 — i

E bailey, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

ISS038 E 6296 View of the Galápagos Islands — i

Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Lyndon B, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Darwin Lake on Isabela Island Near Tagus Cove, Galápagos — i

MasterfulNerd, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

What The Galápagos is like

The Galapagos Islands are a small archipelago of islands belonging to Ecuador in the eastern Pacific Ocean. The islands are quite remote and isolated, lying some 1000 km (620 miles) west of the South American continent, and the archipelago is bisected by the equator. More on Wikivoyage

Worth seeing: At many national park locations and all uninhabited islands, the number of visitors are limited, and there are only a few official landing and visitor sites. More on Wikivoyage
Worth doing: Cruises are the only option to see the majority of remote islands. All cruise ships are required to have a certified naturalist guide. More on Wikivoyage
Getting in: Visiting the Galapagos is not cheap, owing to travel restrictions and the remote nature of the archipelago. The only way to get in the islands from the mainland by plane is from Guayaquil or Quito airports. More on Wikivoyage
Staying safe: In general, crime is not a problem in the Galapagos. More on Wikivoyage

From the Wikivoyage article on Galapagos Islands, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; the full article has far more. The numbers above are measured; this is experience.

Around The Galápagos

Nearby

Kind of place

The Galápagos is in Ecuador, Latin America. Distances are great-circle, so a short one can still be a long way round.

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