Santa Fe Island
Santa Fe Island
4.5
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Duration: 2-3 hours
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Most Recent: Reviews ordered by most recent publish date in descending order.
Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as wait time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.
4.5
93 reviews
Excellent
77
Very good
11
Average
1
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1
Terrible
3
mingfatsai
Grand Island, NE4,446 contributions
Jun 2021
A great island to interact with sea lions on the beach. You are not permitted to touch them or approach them closer than six feet, but sit calmly and watch how closely they approach you! It is an incredible interactive experience. The adult sea lions may give you nothing more than a casual glance and you want to keep a distance from territorial bulls, but the juveniles and pups will delight in your presence and welcome you with open flippers. You too will delight as they gambol toward you as fast as there undulating bodies permit. We also spotted a hammerhead shark hunting in the bay fronted by the sea lion beach. Snorkeling is so so.
Written June 23, 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Jim B
18 contributions
Apr 2016
We went on a National Geographic-Lindblad cruise of the Galápagos. It was more incredible than I had expected. We went to five of the islands, all offering a different experience. For those who are not "into nature" I can only say " you would be after visiting the Galápagos.
Written May 1, 2016
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Robin P
Sydney, Australia369 contributions
Nov 2019
Santa Fe Island is a two-hour boat trip, through the bluest ocean, from Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz. Arrival on Santa Fe Island involves a wet landing– lots of sharp rock etc on sea bed so advice is wear water shoes to wade thru the water to reach the beach. Welcoming us on the beach was a colony of sea lions with many babies. Three bulls (huge guys) in the water close to the beach making a lot of noise to intimidate each other. These animals have decreased in numbers due to el nino effect. The beach used to be awash with Sea Lions, but it is far less crowded now.
Told to keep a 2 meter distance from them, I began photographing and then felt something nibbling my ankle (we were barefoot on the beach), looking down it was a curious baby sea lion – what a privilege to be so close to these wonderful animals, I didn’t want to wash my foot!! An amazing experience!!! As we walked around this island, we saw several mothers under bushes with their newborn babies. They will stay like that, isolated from the group, for a few days to ensure bonding and give baby a chance to grow a bit which they do very fast.
I saw yellow iguanas sunning themselves on rocks surprised at how small they are); a Galapagos hawk hovering around the area of the sea lions, looking for a meal of newborns!
So many bird varieties with nesting pair of seagulls (far more beautiful & different then what we have at home) just sitting on the ground, one nesting, mate grooming her with not a worry as we walked close by with couple of iguanas on the other side of the Cactus. Giant Cactus have prickles on them when young and small, to protect them from the Iguanas. Their trunk becomes smooth as they mature and when they die of either old age or some
weather event, their cactus is a delicious meal for the iguana.
Next, we did some more swimming in these glorious waters – snorkled and I saw a sea lion and shark below, sea turtles swimming and beautiful colored fish. What a glorious uncrowded, unspoiled part of our world this is. I chose to wear a short wetsuit (which reaches the knees) – these + flippers can be rented from your hotel and snorkels were given to us on the boat. There were several very sun burned backs from the sun on those who chose not to wear a wetsuit.
Told to keep a 2 meter distance from them, I began photographing and then felt something nibbling my ankle (we were barefoot on the beach), looking down it was a curious baby sea lion – what a privilege to be so close to these wonderful animals, I didn’t want to wash my foot!! An amazing experience!!! As we walked around this island, we saw several mothers under bushes with their newborn babies. They will stay like that, isolated from the group, for a few days to ensure bonding and give baby a chance to grow a bit which they do very fast.
I saw yellow iguanas sunning themselves on rocks surprised at how small they are); a Galapagos hawk hovering around the area of the sea lions, looking for a meal of newborns!
So many bird varieties with nesting pair of seagulls (far more beautiful & different then what we have at home) just sitting on the ground, one nesting, mate grooming her with not a worry as we walked close by with couple of iguanas on the other side of the Cactus. Giant Cactus have prickles on them when young and small, to protect them from the Iguanas. Their trunk becomes smooth as they mature and when they die of either old age or some
weather event, their cactus is a delicious meal for the iguana.
Next, we did some more swimming in these glorious waters – snorkled and I saw a sea lion and shark below, sea turtles swimming and beautiful colored fish. What a glorious uncrowded, unspoiled part of our world this is. I chose to wear a short wetsuit (which reaches the knees) – these + flippers can be rented from your hotel and snorkels were given to us on the boat. There were several very sun burned backs from the sun on those who chose not to wear a wetsuit.
Written March 27, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Eve G
Loganville, PA21 contributions
Nov 2019 • Family
Let me start off my saying that the Galápagos Islands are absolutely amazing and well taken care of. This has been our dream vacation ever since my husband was a small boy. We had a blast and loved the local community; however, we took a snorkeling tour to Santa Fe from a shop located next to the docks (Santa Cruz Island). There are only 3 boats allowed to tour Sante Fe. DO NOT BOARD ON THE BOAT CALLED PATRICIA (Pictures below). They are thieves!! They go through your luggage while you are swimming and skim your credit/debit cards!!! We had $15,000 taken and another passenger on our boat had $3,000. We filed a police report and will follow through with charges.
Written December 5, 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Martinvie
11 contributions
Dec 2018
This visit was a nightmare for us.
As you can read below some tour go there in 40minutes and other in 2 hours
We were with La Galicia boat and tour operador los lobos de galapagos.
Please don t use them it is a robbery travelling time 2 hours only one engine working max speed 9 nodes
So every one vomitting and sea sick.
Only one hour snorkeling and five hour crusing. Lack of safety.
There it is amazing of course but with this boat it is dangerous and i will never do it again
So ask a 45 minutes trip with good boat sonyou are sure to spend an amazing tour.
As you can read below some tour go there in 40minutes and other in 2 hours
We were with La Galicia boat and tour operador los lobos de galapagos.
Please don t use them it is a robbery travelling time 2 hours only one engine working max speed 9 nodes
So every one vomitting and sea sick.
Only one hour snorkeling and five hour crusing. Lack of safety.
There it is amazing of course but with this boat it is dangerous and i will never do it again
So ask a 45 minutes trip with good boat sonyou are sure to spend an amazing tour.
Written December 31, 2018
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
faheymk
Minneapolis, MN157 contributions
Dec 2017 • Couples
My wife and I visited the Galápagos the last week of December and took several day tours from Santa Cruz Island, one of which was to Santa Fe Island.
We booked the trip from a tourist office in Puerto Ayora for $100 pp which included wetsuits, snorkeling gear and lunch.
The snorkeling was great, we saw so many colorful fish, turtles and sea lions. Only negative was that out of the 8 hour day you really only spend about an hour or so snorkeling with the other time spent on the boat.
We booked the trip from a tourist office in Puerto Ayora for $100 pp which included wetsuits, snorkeling gear and lunch.
The snorkeling was great, we saw so many colorful fish, turtles and sea lions. Only negative was that out of the 8 hour day you really only spend about an hour or so snorkeling with the other time spent on the boat.
Written January 8, 2018
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Smileycat16
Carshalton, United Kingdom542 contributions
Jun 2016 • Couples
After our day of relaxing in the hotel and exploring Puerto Ayora, I was a bit nervous about the boat trip to Santa Fe but the seasickness tablets seemed to work. We left straight from the hotel dock on the Sea Lion and sailed for two hours –it was a bit choppy but not too bad – and we did a wet landing onto a beach.
As we approached the beach in the panga I could see what looked like a lot of large, smooth rocks along the shoreline… as we got closer, I realised they were sealions! There were so many and they were right along the beach where we were stopping; we hopped over the side of the panga (barefoot, carrying our shoes) and waded through a foot or so of water to get to the sandy beach.
There, some of the sealions turned in our direction, decided we weren’t particularly interesting and went back to sunbathing, while a few bounded merrily in our direction. They tell you to stay 6 feet away from the wildlife in the Galapagos but they don’t tell that to the wildlife! So these friendly, curious sealions frolicked among us in the waves, stole someone’s trainer and started to play with it, and generally seemed quite happy to see us. It was amazing being in such close proximity to the animals!
When we could finally tear ourselves away, we walked along a short track to another part of the beach where we saw some iguanas, a species that can only be found on Santa Fe, then went back via the beach to the panga.
We snorkelled along the rocks around the island and were joined by a few sea lions who were swimming backwards and forwards between us, it was brilliant - though we did have to get out of the water very quickly when our guide spotted a bull shark!
As we approached the beach in the panga I could see what looked like a lot of large, smooth rocks along the shoreline… as we got closer, I realised they were sealions! There were so many and they were right along the beach where we were stopping; we hopped over the side of the panga (barefoot, carrying our shoes) and waded through a foot or so of water to get to the sandy beach.
There, some of the sealions turned in our direction, decided we weren’t particularly interesting and went back to sunbathing, while a few bounded merrily in our direction. They tell you to stay 6 feet away from the wildlife in the Galapagos but they don’t tell that to the wildlife! So these friendly, curious sealions frolicked among us in the waves, stole someone’s trainer and started to play with it, and generally seemed quite happy to see us. It was amazing being in such close proximity to the animals!
When we could finally tear ourselves away, we walked along a short track to another part of the beach where we saw some iguanas, a species that can only be found on Santa Fe, then went back via the beach to the panga.
We snorkelled along the rocks around the island and were joined by a few sea lions who were swimming backwards and forwards between us, it was brilliant - though we did have to get out of the water very quickly when our guide spotted a bull shark!
Written February 7, 2017
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
TJ T
68 contributions
Aug 2016 • Couples
We booked a snorkling tour of Santa Fe with a local agent somewhere close to town.
The Tour was for snorkling in two different locations at Santa Fe and then going on to place called 'Hidden Beach' on Santa Cruz somewhere (a place only accessable by boat)
We were astonished. Santa Fe has a reputation for having loads of Sea Lions there. Before we snorkled our boat got real close to the rocks which gave us amazing views of blue footed boobies and sea lions resting on the rocks.
When we got in the water, there was a couple of real playful sea lions, one even started nibbling on the instructors fin (flipper) :)
The amount of different types of fish was out of this world and one of the highlights of our trip. We also saw a big turtle. I started following the turtle and I also saw two sharks swimming towards me and the turtle, then they all swam away.
Our instructor found some more sharks hiding and resting in a cave and we swam down to take a look at those, I did not want to leave, ever, it was amazing, we just kept seeing new types of fish all the time. Some of the fish was the fluorescent type as well, I was literally woohooing in my snorkel like some over the top underwater madman.
We made our way to diving spot number two which was in much calmer, shallower waters. We saw white tip reef sharks again, a couple of big turtles and fish. We swam along the rocks and met a playful sea lion. All in all, you could not wipe the smile of our faces.
We shared the boat with a experienced diver called Alan, from New Zealand. He was there for the diving however took the snorkling say tour to have a good chance of sea lion interaction. He said that the snorkling he saw that day was as good as the diving.
There was one thing which put a real dampener on the day, we were told that we will be doing fishing next, as a vegan, I was horrified, I was there to be amongst the animals and admire them and the environment, the last thing I wanted was to see these beautiful fish pulled out of their homes.
Fortunately the rest of the group were also against fishing and that part of the trip was skipped, if you do not like fishing, this is something you will wish to bring up when booking the tour.
We headed to our final stop, the hidden beach. It was amazing, there was no other boats or people there. The mangroves looked beautiful, I walked waist height in the water and saw a small black tip shark and a turtle while out there.
We spend probably an hour and a half on the beach but I wasn't counting.
The trip could not have been better, totally impressed. The food was good too, they also had hot drinks on board.
We paid 90 dollars each for this tour
The Tour was for snorkling in two different locations at Santa Fe and then going on to place called 'Hidden Beach' on Santa Cruz somewhere (a place only accessable by boat)
We were astonished. Santa Fe has a reputation for having loads of Sea Lions there. Before we snorkled our boat got real close to the rocks which gave us amazing views of blue footed boobies and sea lions resting on the rocks.
When we got in the water, there was a couple of real playful sea lions, one even started nibbling on the instructors fin (flipper) :)
The amount of different types of fish was out of this world and one of the highlights of our trip. We also saw a big turtle. I started following the turtle and I also saw two sharks swimming towards me and the turtle, then they all swam away.
Our instructor found some more sharks hiding and resting in a cave and we swam down to take a look at those, I did not want to leave, ever, it was amazing, we just kept seeing new types of fish all the time. Some of the fish was the fluorescent type as well, I was literally woohooing in my snorkel like some over the top underwater madman.
We made our way to diving spot number two which was in much calmer, shallower waters. We saw white tip reef sharks again, a couple of big turtles and fish. We swam along the rocks and met a playful sea lion. All in all, you could not wipe the smile of our faces.
We shared the boat with a experienced diver called Alan, from New Zealand. He was there for the diving however took the snorkling say tour to have a good chance of sea lion interaction. He said that the snorkling he saw that day was as good as the diving.
There was one thing which put a real dampener on the day, we were told that we will be doing fishing next, as a vegan, I was horrified, I was there to be amongst the animals and admire them and the environment, the last thing I wanted was to see these beautiful fish pulled out of their homes.
Fortunately the rest of the group were also against fishing and that part of the trip was skipped, if you do not like fishing, this is something you will wish to bring up when booking the tour.
We headed to our final stop, the hidden beach. It was amazing, there was no other boats or people there. The mangroves looked beautiful, I walked waist height in the water and saw a small black tip shark and a turtle while out there.
We spend probably an hour and a half on the beach but I wasn't counting.
The trip could not have been better, totally impressed. The food was good too, they also had hot drinks on board.
We paid 90 dollars each for this tour
Written August 29, 2016
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
hopefulist
The Dalles, Oregon19,622 contributions
Apr 2016 • Friends
By the time we got to the 7th day of our boat trip we had sworn we wouldn't take more sea lion photos but the young ones here were waaaaay too entertaining for that, both on land and in the water. A trip highlight (of many!) was snorkeling with them - such showoffs! We also enjoyed the really unique looking land iguanas on Santa Fe - big lips and flopped over combs.
Written May 20, 2016
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
icedtee
Vancouver, Canada200 contributions
Jan 2016 • Friends
Santa Fe was my second favorite day tour only to Pinzon. We snorkeled in some shallow, clear water where sea lions were plentiful and playful. There were a good number of reef sharks and random puffer fish as well. The tour finished off at a beautiful, remote beach on the south side of Santa Cruz. Santa Fe is only a 45 minute boat ride off the Puerto Ayora port so minimal time was spent in transit relative to Bartolome or Pinzon.
Written February 16, 2016
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Bonjour, merci pour votre message à propos de l'ile Santa Fe (Galapagos). AUriez-vous une agence à recommander pour y aller?
Merci d'avance !
Christophe
Written April 19, 2019
Hola,
Cuanto cuesta el tour?
Con que compañía tomaste el tour?
Gracias!
Written August 5, 2018
Chicos me acabo de dar cuenta que esta descripción e arriba es de Isabela, me equivoque, jajajaj pero ya tiene información sobre la isla.
Respecto a Santa Fe, fue una de las mejores experiencias de snorkeling, lo hicimos con nuestra hija de 8 años. Aquí vimos de todo, tortugas marinas gigantes, lobos marinos, tintoreras, y peces variados de hermosos colores. La bahía es de un azul turquesa precioso, es un excelente lugar donde ir en familia y pasarlo chévere. Este tour lo tomamos en el hostal Galápagos Dreams, ya que ellos mismos son operadores y siempre, cada uno de los tour tomados con ellos fueron excelentes. Los tour incluyen a media mañana un box lunch.
Written March 4, 2018
Do you remember the tour agency you went with? It seems like only some of them also include a visit to the island itself (land).
Written February 19, 2018
Sorry but I don’t remember the name of the tour agency, we booked the tour in Puerto Ayora from one of the many agencies there, however I think that they are all pretty similar, good luck and have fun
Written February 20, 2018
We're on a full day (Dec. 13) tour to Santa Fe and Playa Escondida (BM Tours - Viator) but
the voucher does not mention snorkeling. Is there plenty of snorkeling?
Written August 25, 2017
Kaleb G
Not sure about that specific tour. However, we've had one of the best snorkeling experiences in the world at Isla Santa Fe. On the North-East side of the island is a bay where you can snorkel with lots of wild sea lions (looks like two beach areas in the bay on satellite maps). The north side of the island offers great picture opportunities of the Blue-footed Boobies in the cliffs from the boat.
Written August 26, 2017
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