Best way to Scuba Dive in the Galapagos Islands
There are three ways you can experience scuba-diving in the Galapagos Islands. Each offers a different balance of underwater adventure, flexibility, and land-based exploration, allowing you to choose the option that best suits your diving skills and travel preferences.
1) Liveaboard Diving
Liveaboard diving tours are cruises designed exclusively for scuba diving, offering up to 20 dives during an 8-day/7-night itinerary.
What You Should Know
- Limited Land Access: Beyond a brief land tour of Santa Cruz Island, liveaboard itineraries tend not to include disembarkation on other islands. If you’d like to experience the iconic wildlife beyond the Galapagos Marine Reserve, consider adding a Pre- or Post-Cruise Safari extension.
- Experience Required: Liveaboard cruises cater to experienced divers due to the strong ocean currents at many dive sites. Some operators require divers to hold an Advanced Open Water certification and/or have logged 50 to 100 dives, depending on the itinerary.
2) Diving Day Trips (from land)
Island-based diving (or land-based tours) allows you to join daily scuba-diving tours departing from the main ports on inhabited islands, such as Santa Cruz, where Galapagos Safari Camp is located. These excursions range from half-day to full-day trips, depending on the distance to the dive sites. This option is ideal for divers who want to combine underwater exploration with land-based wildlife adventures. It’s also a good choice for intermediate divers who don’t meet the experience requirements for liveaboard cruises or for those traveling with non-divers.
What You Should Know
- Flexible Options: You can book a dedicated Dive Safari (with three or more full days of diving) or add individual dive days to your Classic, Family, or Pre- or Post-Cruise Safari.
- Customizable Itineraries: Diving day trips can either extend your stay (by adding more days to your itinerary) or replace activities offered in our signature Safari tours.
3) Diving Day Trips (from a cruise)
Some Galapagos cruises offer ‘rendezvous’ diving excursions, where a dive boat meets the cruise ship at a designated location to take divers on a one- or two-tank dive.
What You Should Know
- Limited Flexibility: Cruise itineraries are fixed, meaning you cannot add extra dive days. Dive excursions must replace the day’s scheduled cruise activities.
- Alternative Options: If your cruise doesn’t include diving, consider a Pre- or Post-Cruise Safari extension to incorporate additional dives into your trip.
Understanding Galapagos Scuba-Diving Itineraries
All scuba diving tours in the Galapagos are regulated by the Galapagos National Park, which assigns fixed itineraries and timetables to dive operators. These schedules are updated annually (starting March 1).
Popular itineraries for both liveaboards and day trips include dive sites around the central islands. Liveaboards often extend to remote locations like Darwin and Wolf Islands in the north—renowned for their abundance of sharks and rays—and sites around Fernandina Island in the west or San Cristobal in the east.
For more information about itineraries and dive sites in the Galapagos, visit our guide to The Best Dive Sites in the Galapagos.
The Galapagos Marine Reserve is one of the world’s largest and most biodiverse Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), teeming with an incredible variety of marine life.
That said, wildlife sightings are never guaranteed. Documentary crews, such as those led by David Attenborough, spend months at sea, logging countless dives, to capture the breathtaking footage we see on screen. They also have access to restricted areas of the National Park that are not open to the public.
We recommend approaching your dive experience with an open mind rather than a checklist of species to see. The species listed in our Dive Safaris are based on the observations of official Dive Guides who frequently visit these sites and are intended as a guide only.
