5 Best Hotels in The Galápagos Islands, Ecuador

You can combine a stay here with day cruises on the hotel's Sea Lion yacht , or day tours that include snorkeling, diving, sea kayaking, hiking, mountain biking, and visiting a giant tortoise nature reserve. On kayaking trips behind the hotel you'll get a close-up look at sharks, sea turtles, rays, and a variety of birds. The stunning pool deck and hammocks throughout the property are especially great places to relax after all your activities. Most rooms have a garden view, but the ocean-view rooms are larger and offer more privacy; all are non-smoking. Rates include a buffet breakfast. The remoteness of Finch Bay makes a one-night stay possible only before or after a multi-day cruise; packages for three nights or more are a better value.

No matter that this place sits a few blocks inland; Puerto Ayora is tiny enough that a walk to the ocean is not long. The friendly staff and sparkling rooms with wood furnishings (and a few with their own balconies) make this a good bet. Take a dip in the rooftop pool at the end of a day of sightseeing, and dine at the poolside barbecue, or the more formal restaurant downstairs.

This comfortable place is often referred to by its former name, the Hotel Angermeyer, and you'll find a pool with a waterfall and large, pleasant rooms. Dive tours are a specialty here; the hotel has five-day packages for $695, including breakfast and dinner in the hotel and box lunches when out on dives. They also have rooms for travelers with disabilities.

Rooms snake back along a garden strewn with morning glories at this hotel on Puerto Baquerizo's main street and the nicest lodging on the island. The outside is stone and stucco and a three-story section affords water views to the higher balcony rooms. Inside are pastel-color rooms, some with refrigerators. The lobby coffee shop is a pleasant place to relax; upstairs an open-air restaurant specializes in seafood.

This small resort on Santa Cruz is the only five-star luxury hotel on the islands. Suites, villas, and rooms blend into the garden surroundings within a 500-acre property; all have the proper amenities of a mainland high-rise hotel. Features include an observatory with computerized telescopes for stargazing and a Galápagos museum that focuses on the ecology and native species. Tours offered include horseback riding, diving, snorkeling, hiking, birding, sea kayaking, and windsurfing. You also are welcome at the Royal Palm Hotel's Airport VIP room in Baltra. An entire dinner here, without drinks, will run you about $25.