Galapagos

Home to the archipelago's main town, Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz serves as the gateway to the Galápagos and hosts the Charles Darwin Research Station, where conservationists work to protect the islands' giant tortoises. In the humid highlands above town, tortoises roam wild among lush farmland, offering close encounters with these gentle giants in their natural habitat.

The oldest and southernmost island in the archipelago, Española is home to the entire world's population of waved albatross, which gather here to breed between April and December. Dramatic blowholes send seawater spraying skyward along the cliffs, while blue-footed boobies perform their courtship dance on the trails and marine iguanas pile onto black volcanic rock along the shore.

The largest island in the Galápagos, Isabela was formed by six shield volcanoes, including Sierra Negra, one of the most active in the archipelago. Its varied landscapes shelter marine iguanas, flightless cormorants, and pink flamingos, while the surrounding waters are among the best in the islands for spotting penguins swimming alongside sea turtles.

Known as Bird Island, Genovesa hosts one of the largest seabird colonies in the Galápagos, with red-footed and Nazca boobies, frigatebirds, and swallow-tailed gulls crowding its cliffs and shrubs. Darwin's finches, the very birds that helped inspire the theory of evolution, are easily observed here, making it a favorite stop for birdwatchers.