When you plan to visit the Galápagos, you soon find out that Santa Cruz and San Cristóbal are the 2 main islands to stay at within the archipelago. A recurring question is: which one should I pick? i.e. which is most interesting? Honestly, if you have the possibility, you should try and visit both, but if you need to choose, let’s see what differentiates these 2 destinations.
General information and accessibility of the islands of Santa Cruz and San Cristóbal
The island of Santa Cruz is bigger than the island of San Cristóbal, and Santa Cruz is definitely more popular among tourists. Both have an access by air. The small airport of San Cristóbal is about 5 minutes outside of the main town of Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, there are taxis available right outside the airport, many hotels also offer to pick their customers up. Given the distance, you can also just decide to walk. The bigger and fancier airport of Santa Cruz is actually not on Santa Cruz itself but on another island, Baltra, and is about 1 hour from the main town of Puerto Ayora, but still easily accessible: a taxi can bring you all the way north to a small harbor where you can take a ferry boat that brings you to Baltra, on the other side of a small canal, in less than 5 minutes. On Baltra, a dedicated bus service takes you to the airport. That bus trip itself is very interesting, going through a dry landscape, with remains of abandoned constructions dating from WWII, when this island was used by US Army as a naval base to protect the Canal of Panama. It’s a pretty surreal environment! If you plan on taking a cruise, you’ll want to land on Baltra, since many of the Galápagos cruises depart from this island.
What is the difference between Santa Cruz and San Cristóbal?
For those who prefer visiting the Galápagos islands by themselves rather than on a cruise ship, Santa Cruz is overall the favorite island for tourists to stay at in the Galápagos, and it shows: as soon as you arrive in the main town, you can see the difference in wealth, the town of Puerto Ayora is definitely more classy and Puerto Baquerizo is more modest. Just as the island of Santa Cruz is bigger than San Cristóbal, Santa Cruz’ main town Puerto Ayora is also way bigger than San Cristóbal’s Puerto Baquerizo.
Local businesses are adapted to the tourists’ affluence: there are more shops, they are more fancy, and they are more expensive. Where San Cristóbal has souvenir shops, Santa Cruz has art galleries. Restaurants on Santa Cruz are fancy and really expensive, when on San Cristóbal they are simpler and more affordable. Of course, you can find less expensive, more basic restaurants on Santa Cruz, if you look a little further away from the “tourist zone” around the harbor. Just as you can find more expensive places on San Cristóbal. But the main tendency is that staying in Puerto Ayora will likely end up being more expensive than staying in Puerto Baquerizo.
What can I see on each island?
In terms of visits, both islands are the starting point of various boat tours within the Galápagos, enabling you to see all the beauty and wonders of its wildlife.
Both have access to various beaches (on foot distance), and snorkeling and/or diving spots. On San Cristóbal, the closest beaches (Playa de Oro and Playa Mann) are just after the town center, and one of sea lions favorite napping spots, but they kindly accept to share it with humans! On Santa Cruz, the famous beach of Tortuga Bay can be accessed by taxi-boat or on foot, then it’s about 1,55 mile from downtown Puerto Ayora, along a nice walking path through nature. As it is a protected place, you need to sign in and out at the entrance of the walking path. When I say it’s a nice path, it is both because of the environment and the quality of the path itself, really accessible to anyone. The only “difficulty” you could encounter being the steps you need to climb up at the beginning of the path. Be careful, Tortuga Bay is a protected area, it’s not a beach to go for a swim, but the home of many protected species, namely the marine turtles who come lay their eggs. If you do want to swim, you need to keep walking along the beach, to a cove.
On San Cristóbal, you can find the Interpretation Center, where you will be told everything about the Galápagos Islands and their history. There is also the Tortoise Breeding Center, about an hour drive from Puerto Baquerizo, where you can learn more about the tortoises, from hatching to the moment they are released in nature.
Santa Cruz is also home to different places that can not be found elsewhere, and are unmissable: namely the Charles Darwin Research Center (a must-see, mixing pedagogical information and a tortoise breeding center with many tortoises of all ages and sizes). The center is accessible on foot as it is just outside the center of Puerto Ayora. Further north on the island, a taxi can take you to a reserve for giant tortoises, and natural spots like the lava tunnels, which are definitely fun to explore and also show the volcanic origin of the Galápagos Islands, which, even if you know about it, is not necessarily obvious to the eye. A little further, you’ll come across the “Gemelos” (twins), a pair of huge natural craters, or more accurately sink holes, that you can discover thanks to walking trails, and have an amazing variety of endemic flora.
The attractions listed for both islands of San Cristóbal and Santa Cruz are far from exhaustive, but they are the most popular and unmissable ones. Santa Cruz being bigger, it has more attractions than San Cristóbal, but is also more expensive, and San Cristóbal’s attractions are also very interesting. Ideally, it’s best to visit both islands.
How do I go from one island to the other?
The easiest way to go from Santa Cruz to San Cristóbal or the opposite is to take a specific taxi boat, that connects the islands once a day. From San Cristóbal, it leaves early in the morning (7am), from Santa Cruz it’s in the early afternoon (1:45pm). The trip takes about 2 to 3 hours, depending on the sea conditions. It seems the waves are stronger in the second semester than in the first. If you have a tendency to seasickness, come prepared, because it is a bumpy journey. If you are not usually seasick, take some medicine with you anyway, because sitting next to a sick person for two hours can affect your own stomach! Also, if you are seasick, prefer going from San Cristóbal to San Cruz rather than the other way around, as it is “smoother”.
And don’t forget, the journey to the Galápagos will totally be worth it!