Day 1 - Welcome to Guayaquil!

Upon arrival at Guayaquil’s airport, after clearing customs and migration, meet your guide at the arrival hall holding a yellow A&K sign board with your name on it. Your guide escorts you to your awaiting private vehicle and transfers you to your hotel where you receive check-in procedures assistance.

Located on the banks of the Guayas River, Guayaquil is Ecuador’s principal harbor and largest city, a bustling city with three million inhabitants. Guayaquil’s strong culture and traditions stand in contrast to the modernity of its new constructions. Guayaquil’s harbor, Puerto Maritimo, is the country’s main port where 80 percent of imports and more than 50 percent of exports are handled. The commercial and industrial center of Ecuador, Guayaquil lies about 60 kilometers (40 miles) from the Gulf of Guayaquil and the Pacific Ocean.

Overnight: Hotel del Parque

Meal Plan:

Day 2 - Welcome to Galapagos!

Early in the morning, meet your private guide for your transfer to the airport.
Take your domestic flight to Baltra.

Upon arrival at Baltra Airport, pass through an airport inspection point to ensure that no foreign plants or animals are introduced to the islands. You will be met and transferred to your cruise.

Overnight: M/C Endemic

Meal Plan: B,L,D

Day 3 - Kicker Rock and Lobos Island

AM: Kicker Rock, San Cristobal Island / Witch Hill, San Cristobal Island
Visit Kicker Rock, an impressive geological formation due to erosion, a nesting place of sea birds, and curious sea lions, great for pictures, and marine life such as fish, turtles, sharks, rays, is the main attraction for snorkeling.

Witch Hill is a tuff cone hill located southwest of San Cristobal. Its name comes from the Spanish name of the bird known in English as the Vermilion Flycatcher. A zodiac ride will take passengers into rock formations along the island shore. A white sand beach and crystal-clear waters are part of this enchanted location. Fantastic opportunity for snorkeling.

PM: Lobos Island
We will go to Isla Lobos where we can observe a small population of blue-footed boobies, frigates, marine iguanas, and great frigate birds nesting. Snorkeling with sea lions in this calm bay is also part of the excursion.

Overnight: M/C Endemic

Meal Plan: B,L,D

Day 4 - Gardner Bay and Suarez Point

AM: Gardner Bay & Gardner Islets, Española Island

Gardner Bay provides you with an excellent beach for swimming. Around the small islets nearby, snorkelers will find lots of fish and sometimes turtles and sharks. The bay is also frequented by colonies of sea lions which like to swim with you.

On Española Island, we will explore endemic wildlife such as the Hood-Mockingbird. This is the southernmost island in the Galapagos archipielago, and home to several wildlife species, including masked and blue-footed boobies. We will marble at the spectacular views from the top of a cliff.

Gardner islets, amazing for underwater discovery, snorkeling is a highlight of this visitor point. 

PM: Suarez Point, Española Island

Point Suarez has outstanding wildlife, with a long list of species found along its cliffs and sand or pebble beach. 

Overnight: M/C Endemic

Meal Plan: B,L,D

Day 5 - Santa Fe Island

AM: Santa Fe Island
Santa Fe is one of the most entertaining destinations for shore excursions in the Galapagos Islands. It has two trail choices for visitors, one of which takes us to the tallest Opuntia cactus in the Galapagos. While the other trail takes us into the highlands where land iguanas can be seen. After a long walk, the opportunity to swim in calm waters or snorkel with playful sea lions will be pretty tempting.

PM: Fausto Llerena Breeding Center
The Charles Darwin Research Station is formed by an information center, a museum, a library, and a tortoise breeding station. In the breeding station, you can encounter tortoises of different subspecies, which are prepared to be reintroduced to their natural habitats.

Overnight: M/C Endemic

Meal Plan: B,L,D

Day 6 - South Plaza Island

AM: South Plaza Island
South Plaza has Sesuvium plants and Opuntia cactuses scattered across the landscape which provide some of the most interesting wildlife observations available in the Galapagos. Land iguanas are easily seen from the trail, frequently under the shade of cactuses, waiting for a prickly pear to fall.

Transfer from the M/C Endemic to Baltra airport for your return flight to mainland Ecuador. Assistance and farewell at the airport.

Important:
Itineraries and activities are subject to change without prior notice depending on weather conditions, water currents, and sea conditions.

The wildlife described above is not guaranteed to be seen during your visit. Please remember to respect your distance between any and all wildlife.
Please stay on marked trails and heed the directions of your Naturalist Guide.
Upon arrival at Quito´s airport, meet your guide, who will escort you to your awaiting private vehicle and transfers you to your hotel where you receive check-in procedures assistance.

Overnight: Casa Gangotena Luxury

Meal Plan: B,D

Day 7 - Enjoy a Sightseeing Tour in Quito

Enjoy breakfast at the hotel, afterwards at a pre-coordinated time, and meet your private guide at the hotel reception area to start your tour.

A sightseeing tour is an excellent way to discover some of the reasons why Ecuador’s capital earned its honor as the first UNESCO World Heritage Site. Kick off with a visit to El Panecillo, the landmark hill rising at the southern edge of the historical center. Gaze at the statue of Quito’s ‘Winged Virgin’, visible from almost anywhere in the city, and enjoy the beautiful vista of colonial Quito laid out before you.

Next, marvel at San Francisco Church and its religious art museum, La Compañía, and the seven tons of gold gilding on its glittering wall and bustling Independence Plaza, flanked by the Presidential Palace and Quito Cathedral. Rich in art treasures, fine woodcarvings and flowering balconies, the historical center is the lifeblood of Quito.

Enjoy lunch in a local restaurant.

In the afternoon enjoy a Chocolate & Art Experience that combines these two legacies into a two-hour experience in Quito

To’ak, -born and based in Ecuador-, uses the rarest and most-priced cacao variety on Earth to make extremely limited editions of single-origin Ecuadorian dark chocolate. Its flagship edition was aged for four years in a French oak cognac cask and retailed for $385 per bar, and is considered the most valuable chocolate in the world.

The chocolate experience will take place at the Fundación Guayasamin museum, which is home to a large selection of intriguing artworks by Oswaldo Guayasamín. Mr. Guayasamín -considered one of Ecuador’s greatest artists- was born in 1919 and during his long career as a sculptor and painter, he received many awards and enjoyed great recognition. Before his death in 1999, Mr. Guayasamín donated his personal art collection to this museum. His style is particularly notable for the intense emotion it expresses. The Museum is divided into three different sections: Archaeology (containing Guayasamín’s private collection of pre-Columbian art); the Colonial Art section; and the Guayasamín section.

Return to the hotel.

Overnight: Casa Gangotena Luxury

Meal Plan: B,L

Day 8 - Explore Lima, the City of the Kings

Enjoy breakfast at the hotel and enjoy your morning at leisure.

*Please note Check out is at 12:00

At a pre-coordinated time, meet your guide at the hotel reception area for your transfer to Quito´s airport to board your flight to Lima.

On arrival at Lima International Airport, you will be met and transferred to your hotel.

Meals today are under your own arrangements.

Lima, the Capital of Peru was founded on 18th January 1535, by Spanish Conquistador Francisco Pizarro, and quickly became known as the City of the Kings. Within 70 years it was the most important city in the Spanish-American Empire and was the focal point for European trade and cultural activity in the region. It is a city of rare fascination and unexpected pleasures. Lima has decaying colonial splendor and the teeming vitality of an oriental bazaar; melancholy cloudy winters and warm breezy summers; impoverished urban sprawl and quiet elegant corners among ancient buildings where the night air is scented with jasmine.

Overnight: Belmond Miraflores Park

Meal Plan: B

Day 9 - Visit the Larco Museum

This morning, visit the “City of the Kings”, starting in Plaza Mayor, the original site upon which Lima was founded. You will visit the historic Cathedral which is an architectural masterpiece. Leaving here you will pass the presidential Palace with its excellent photo opportunities and go on to Santo Domingo Convent. After you have finished in the historic center, you will be driven across Lima to the Larco Museum where the extensive private collection of pre-Inca ceramics is considered to be the largest of its kind in the world. It showcases remarkable chronological galleries providing an excellent overview of 3,000 years of development of Peruvian Pre-Columbian History. For an unforgettable experience, Larco is one of the few museums in the world where visitors can also choose to enter the storage area with its 45,000 classified archaeological objects.

Overnight: Belmond Miraflores Park

Meal Plan: B

Day 10 - Welcome to Cusco!

This morning, you are transferred to the airport where you embark on your flight to Cusco.
Upon arrival in Cusco, the Andean community and former ancient capital of the Inca Empire, you are met and transferred to your hotel in The Sacred Valley of the Incas.

En route, you visit Manos de la Comunidad, a center where South American Camelids (members of the camel family); Llamas, Alpacas, Guanacos, and Vicunas are all bred. You learn about the renowned fibers created from their coats, as well as the ancient weaving techniques which are still used.

Overnight: Belmond Rio Sagrado

Meal Plan: B,L

Day 11 - The Paso Horses

Meet Quechua-speaking farmers and weavers on an inspiring half-day visit to an Andean highland community in the Sacred Valley near the well-known market town and former Inca royal palace of Chinchero. This personal encounter reveals the unique lifestyle and traditions of descendants from the mighty Inca Empire. Explore their village, see and taste the typical food of the area, understand their ancient medical remedies, watch weavers at work, wander into the fields to learn about local agricultural practices, and join in a traditional Andean blessing. Drive through the valley to the salt pans of Maras (Salineras de Maras) to appreciate a method of salt extraction used since Inca times. From the village of Maras, continue to Moray, a fascinating archaeological site comprising a series of concentric agricultural terraces, some as deep as 150 meters (492 feet), while enjoying the magnificent views this part of the Sacred Valley offers. This is followed by lunch at Rancho Wayra, where you will witness a spectacular equestrian exhibition. The Paso horses will amaze you with their graceful gait and impress you with their elegant look, prancing to the rhythm of live Marinera music, played and danced by a group of first-rate artists.

Overnight: Belmond Rio Sagrado

Meal Plan: B,L

Day 12 - Explore the Beautiful Machu Picchu

This morning you board the Vistadome train to Machu Picchu. Accompanied by your guide, explore the city’s ruins, and feel its pulse as you visualize the lives of the priests, craftsmen, and servants who inhabited this seemingly uninhabitable citadel. Excavations at the site have revealed skeletons, artifacts, and woolen clothing, but no gold. The same precision of assembled stones exists here as in other Incan sites. Enjoy a buffet lunch at Belmond Sanctuary Lodge. Then, you will go to your hotel in Aguas Calientes to rest.

Dinner on your own.

Overnight: Belmond Monasterio Hotel

Meal Plan: B,L

Day 13 - Visit the Cathedral on Plaza de Armas

Morning at leisure. By the afternoon, enjoy a city tour which includes the Cathedral on Plaza de Armas and Santo Domingo, a Dominican church and convent built upon the foundations of the Koricancha. Also known as the ‘place of gold’, this was the Incas’ principal religious building, dedicated to the worship of the sun.
Arrival, and transfer to your hotel.

Overnight: Belmond Monasterio Hotel

Meal Plan: B

Day 14 - Departure

Private transfer from the hotel to the airport for departure flight to Lima. Assistance upon arrival for your international flight.

Overnight:

Meal Plan: B