When travel advisor Courtney Morin chose the Galápagos Islands for her honeymoon, she brought along her husband, her parents, and absolutely zero expectations — and the islands delivered something none of them could have planned for.
At a Glance
Small-boat expeditions in the Galápagos offer intimate wildlife encounters unavailable on larger cruise ships, with daily snorkelling revealing hammerhead sharks, sea turtles, and playful sea lions at arm's length. Ecuador's strict conservation regulations keep animal populations unafraid of humans, creating uninterrupted exploration of remote islands where every morning brings a new anchorage and unexpected wildlife sightings.
He had never snorkelled before in his life. Not once. So when Courtney Morin's husband pulled on a mask for the very first time, jumped into the open ocean off the shores of Kicker Rock, and put his face beneath the surface, she held her breath. Then came the sharks. Six or seven hammerheads, gliding past in the blue. "That just blew his mind," Morin recalls, still delighted at the memory. "I had set such a high level of expectations — but it's very rare to have the opportunity to see them. They're not always there. So that was just absolutely unexpected and incredible."
That moment, at once improbable and perfectly Galápagos, is the kind of thing that cannot be manufactured by any itinerary. It can only be created by choosing the right destination, the right boat, and the right mindset. As a travel advisor, Morin had done the first two. The third, she would discover, was the most important lesson the islands had to teach.
A Honeymoon, a Family Affair, and a Small Boat for Sixteen
It takes a particular kind of adventurous spirit to invite your parents on your honeymoon. Morin laughs recounting the arrangement: she had long promised her father they would travel to the Galápagos together, and when the time came to plan the trip, she simply asked her new husband if he would mind the company. He agreed. And so the four of them, Morin, her husband, and her parents, embarked on seven nights aboard a small expedition vessel called the Lolita, sailing the volcanic archipelago off the coast of Ecuador with just sixteen guests on board.
That intimate scale was not incidental. It was the point. No queuing for zodiac tenders, no crowded shorelines, no waiting. The small boat moved easily into narrow coves, pulled close to each island, and gave its passengers something rare in modern travel: the feeling of having a place almost entirely to themselves. "I still expected it to be somewhat similar to other destinations, where you're going to be passing boats here and there," Morin admits. "But I think the size of these islands and how far they spread, and just having that really uninterrupted, dedicated time — it shocked me how different it felt."
The journey began in Quito, Ecuador's capital city, perched high in the Andes at over 2,800 metres above sea level. Morin is quick to recommend that travellers linger here. The altitude demands acclimatisation, but the city more than rewards the pause — colonial architecture, mountain vistas, and the chance to stand on the Equator itself. "There's such a contrast to the Galápagos," she says. "When you do the trip, you really are getting two different experiences." From Quito, the group flew down to sea level and boarded their vessel, trading the thin mountain air for salt breeze and open water.
Every Morning, a New Island
Life aboard the Lolita followed a rhythm that Morin now describes as one of the great pleasures of expedition travel. The boat would sail overnight while guests slept, and each morning brought a new anchorage, a new shoreline, a new world visible through the cabin porthole. "Every morning, putting your head in the ocean and really just not knowing what it's going to capture you — what the colours are going to be, what the wildlife is going to be," she reflects. "Just a sense of surprise. No day was the same."
The snorkelling was at least once daily, sometimes twice. And the underwater world of the Galápagos, it turns out, requires no scuba certification to be utterly overwhelming. Morin, who describes herself as someone who finds scuba diving nerve-wracking, had deliberately chosen a destination where the snorkelling rivals the diving. Giant sea turtles, estimated at around a hundred pounds, drifted past at arm's length. The Galápagos penguin, the smallest penguin species in the world and one of the rarest sightings on the islands, appeared on the final day as a kind of farewell gift. Sea lions swooped and spiralled through the water with theatrical enthusiasm. "Playing chicken with sea lions," Morin says, laughing. "They love the snorkellers. They love to swim right up to you and kind of give you a smile and say hello. And I've never had another trip where you can interact with the wildlife, with the wildlife enjoying you actually being there."
On land, the wildlife was equally unbothered by its human visitors. Blue-footed boobies stood within arm's reach, entirely absorbed in their elaborate courtship displays, utterly indifferent to the small group of wide-eyed onlookers surrounding them. "You see a blue-footed booby standing two feet from you," Morin says, "and he's just going about doing his mating ritual, as he would whether you were there or not." It is, she notes, a quality unlike any other wildlife destination she has visited. The animals here have not learned to fear people, because people here have been made to behave.
A Front-Row Seat to Evolution
Ecuador's conservation regulations governing the Galápagos are among the strictest in the world, and Morin felt their effect in every uninterrupted hour on the islands. Visitor numbers are controlled. Routes are managed. The wildlife exists on its own terms. For an advisor who has travelled widely, this was not merely admirable policy — it was the defining quality of the experience. "The Galápagos gives you a holiday because you're in the sun, you're in the ocean," she says, "but you really are learning about evolution and you're learning about transformation."
Darwin's legacy is embedded in the landscape here, in the peculiar beaks and adapted limbs of creatures found nowhere else on Earth. Morin came home with something more than photographs. She came home with a philosophy, one she now passes directly to her clients. "Go in with an open mind," she says. "Just trusting that nature is amazing — because we can't plan it and we can't predict it. And there's no two trips to the Galápagos that are going to be the same."
What Every Traveller Needs to Know Before They Go
As an advisor, Morin is precise about who belongs on this trip. Ocean comfort is essential. A willingness to snorkel in open water is non-negotiable. And the first decision — whether to base the experience on land or aboard a vessel — is the most consequential one a traveller will make. For Morin, sleeping on the boat was unambiguously right. The ability to sail overnight, wake at a new island, and spend every daylight hour exploring rather than transferring was exactly the pace she wanted. But she is clear-eyed that a week or more on a small expedition boat is not for everyone, and matching the right itinerary to the right client is precisely where her first-hand knowledge earns its value.
She also offers a piece of insider advice that no guidebook will give: in the water, stay close to the guide. "They knew where all the critters were hiding. They knew how to point out the octopuses, they knew where the sea horses were, the stingrays. By following that expert, you really are going to get those things that you may not have seen yourself." The difference, she says, between a memorable snorkel and an extraordinary one often comes down to those few metres of distance from the person who knows exactly where to look.
Packing, she adds, matters more than most travellers anticipate. The Galápagos is remote in the truest sense: if you forget something, you cannot buy it. A thorough packing list, appropriate sun protection, and physical readiness for heat and daily activity in the open ocean are not optional extras. They are the foundation of the experience.
The Advisor Who Keeps Going
Morin returned from the Galápagos not just as someone who had honeymooned there, but as someone who had done the homework in the most direct way possible: by living it. She knows which boat size transforms the experience. She knows why Kicker Rock should be on any itinerary. She knows the particular wonder of waking up to a new island every morning, and she knows the quiet reverence that settles over a person watching animals who have never been taught to run from a human being.
Next up is Costa Rica, where Morin is leading a group of women on a trip built around yoga, stand-up paddleboarding, wildlife viewing, and surfing. It is a natural extension of the philosophy she carries home from every journey: that the best travel is immersive, that nature is the greatest guide, and that the traveller who arrives without a rigid checklist of expectations is always the one who comes home with the best stories.
For anyone dreaming of the Galápagos, her advice is simple and hard-won: trust the ocean, trust the guide in the water beside you, and trust that what is waiting just beneath the surface will be more extraordinary than anything you thought to put on your wish list. "Don't get disappointed if you don't see that one thing on the first day," she says, "because the next day you're going to see it — or you're going to see something you didn't even know existed."
