Arrival to Galapagos, Baltra Island

We did stay two nights at JW Marriott in Quito prior to the Galapagos cruise.
Read the Quito pre- and post-cruise review here.

Sunday morning we were ready at 7:30 to go to Quito airport, but there was an 'unexpected' marathon in Quito that morning. Much of the city was blocked off, so the buses could not get in to the hotel - we were over an hour late. Luckily it was a AeroGal plane chartered specifically for this Xelebrity cruise, so the plane had to wait. At 11 pm we arrived at the airport and went straight for the charter flights from Quito to Baltra in the Galapagos, - a 2 hours flight.
See the short video: Celebrity Xpedition Flight from Quito to Baltra

Arrived at Baltra Airport and went through immigration. After a short bus ride from the airport to the pier and a short panga ride in a Zodiac rugbber-raft (picture), we were aboard the Celebrity Xpedition (picture below).
Short video: Transfer Baltra Airport to Pier.

The luggage was delivered directly to your cabin, which gave us the opportunity to get lunch and explore the Celebrity Xpedition, a 296-foot megayacht, which will be our home on the tour around the Galapagos Islands.

We have cabin 419 on deck 4 - there are 4 decks with a total of 46 cabins. The cabins at deck 3 and 4 are about 15 m2 and we have to do without a balcony on this cruise, however limited in how much time will want to spend in your cabin during the day time.


Baltra Island or Isla Baltra is a small island of the Galapagos Islands. Visitors to the Galapagos Archipelago often visit here first, as this is where the main airport, Seymour Airport, is situated. Until 1986, Baltra was the only airport serving the Galapagos. Now one of two airports, most flights operating in and out of Galapagos still fly into Baltra