While we booked all our tours and transfers as a package through our hotel on Isabela, we created our own itinerary for our time on Santa Cruz. After tons of research and trying to piece things together myself, I decided to reach out to Johanna at book-ec to help us book everything. And boy am I glad I did!
Johanna can book any part of your Galapagos trip – inter-island flights or ferries, airport transfers, cruises, day tours. Even Quito tours for your stopover on the mainland. You name it, she can do it. You can use book-ec for a single tour or your entire trip.
We booked the following with book-ec:
- Airport pickup at Baltra and transfer to the pier in Puerto Ayoro
- Inter-island ferries between Santa Cruz and Isabela
- North Seymour day trip
- Hotel pick-up and airport drop-off on Santa Cruz, with stops at El Chato and Los Gemelos
Of course, as with this entire trip, we booked everything twice. Our initial trip was scheduled for April 2020 and was cancelled when all international borders were closed at the start of the covid-19 pandemic. When it became evident that the trip could not happen as originally planned, I reached out to Johanna and said that we hoped to reschedule for the summer. She wisely suggested waiting to see what happened so we only had to rebook everything once. I agreed and said I’d be back in touch when we could finalize things again. Little did either of us know that it would be more than 14 months before we could make the trip.
I have to admit that during the more than a year that we were delayed, I didn’t check in with Johanna at all. So I was nervous when I finally reached out to her almost a year later and told her we were coming. I had no idea if she would honor our bookings or not. The pandemic was especially difficult for people who work in the tourism industry and I didn’t even know if her company was still in business or if she was financially able to reschedule our bookings. I didn’t know if she had already paid the tour operators the money we had given her and if they were still in business or would honor the bookings. The whole situation was completely unprecedented and I was prepared for the possibility that we would lose that money.
So I was thrilled when Johanna picked up after more than a year as if we had booked things only yesterday. She took our new dates and rescheduled everything within a matter of days. At the end of the day I think we owed about $75 due to some price increases but that was a very small price to pay to have everything rebooked so seamlessly.
While her pre-trip customer service was top-notch, we quickly found that her actual execution was fantastic as well. It was obvious from the moment we landed on the islands that she goes above and beyond in everything for her customers. While most drivers from Baltra were waiting for their passengers on the other side of the channel, her driver came all the way to the airport to get us, helping us navigate the bus and ferry. The inter-island ferries were a little confusing and I was so glad that our tickets had been pre-purchased and all we had to do was show up and give them our names. And the North Seymour tour that she booked for us was the highlight of our trip. Both the boat and the guide were terrific.
Johanna was readily available both before and during the trip. She answered all my questions beforehand and sent us all the documentation we needed for our bookings. She also suggested some great free activities to explore on Santa Cruz. And when I sent her a few questions via WhatsApp while we were on the trip, she responded almost instantly each time.
And I have to say that having a resource like Johanna available while traveling during the pandemic is invaluable. Of course my husband and I had in the back of our minds the stress of what would happen if any of us tested positive and couldn’t return home right away. It took a huge load off my mind knowing that we had someone local who could help us navigate that whole situation if it came to that. Fortunately it did not but I don’t know how I ever would have handled being quarantined in a foreign country without a local expert to help guide us through it.
Book-ec is truly a customer-oriented company. Johanna knows the drivers, the boats, and the guides and will book you the best ones out there. She takes care of all the logistics and all the little details so you can just relax and enjoy your trip. She is responsive and helpful and is a wonderful resource both before and during the trip. You can spend hours upon hours putting together your trip piecemeal and have individual bookings all over the place, or you can go to a knowledgeable, one-stop shop for everything. For us it was a no-brainer. Book-ec helped us have the trip of a lifetime.
