What to Pack for the Galapagos (and What Gets Confiscated)
Half the Galapagos packing problem is subtraction. The islands run a real agricultural quarantine, and the inspectors at Quito and Guayaquil open bags.
Written with Oleg Galeev, Galapagos travel writer, three trips to the islands
Short answer
Pack reef-safe sunscreen, a wide-brim hat, quick-dry layers, water shoes plus one pair of grippy closed shoes, a dry bag, and motion-sickness tablets. Leave behind all fresh fruit, vegetables, seeds, plants, soil and unprocessed animal products: those are confiscated at the mandatory biosecurity inspection before your flight.
The banana went in the bin. I had bought it in Quito that morning, forgotten about it, and by the time my bag rolled off the belt at the biosecurity counter a man in a green vest was already pointing at the side pocket. No fine, no drama, just a bin and a shrug. That was 2021, my first trip, and it taught me the thing nobody puts at the top of their packing list: what you take out of the bag matters more than what you put in.
I have been back twice since. The list below is the one I actually pack from now, built around the rules that get enforced rather than the ones that sound good in a listicle.
What is banned from your luggage on the way to the Galapagos?
Fresh fruit, vegetables, seeds, live plants, soil and many unprocessed animal products are restricted or banned outright. Every bag is inspected before check-in at Quito or Guayaquil by SICGAL and Agrocalidad staff. Items are removed and binned on the spot. Sealed commercial snacks are usually fine.
This is not theatre. The archipelago's biggest ecological threat is introduced species, and the quarantine exists because a single seed in a hiking boot tread can start something nobody can undo. The Galapagos biosecurity agency publishes the official list of restricted and prohibited products, maintained under its own resolution rather than by airline discretion, so the answer does not change depending on who checks you in.
The inspection happens before you reach the airline counter, not at the gate. You queue with your checked bags, they go through a scanner, sometimes a dog walks the line, and occasionally a bag gets opened. Budget twenty extra minutes for it. Anyone arriving ninety minutes before a Galapagos flight has usually miscalculated.
| Item | Status at the SICGAL check | What people get caught with |
|---|---|---|
| Fresh fruit and vegetables | Banned | Airport bananas, apples, a hotel breakfast orange |
| Seeds, nuts in shell, live plants, cuttings | Banned | Souvenir seed jewellery, tagua nuts |
| Soil, sand, unwashed camping gear | Banned | Muddy hiking boots from the mainland |
| Raw or cured meat, fresh dairy, eggs | Restricted or banned | Jamón, cheese bought in Quito |
| Sealed packaged snacks, chocolate, biscuits | Generally allowed | Fine, keep them sealed |
| Sunscreen, toiletries, medication | Allowed | Standard liquid rules apply |
| Drones | Not permitted for use in the park or marine reserve | People pack them and cannot fly them |
That last line surprises photographers every year. Aerial tourism is not allowed in the national park or the marine reserve, so a drone is dead weight for the entire trip. Leave it in a mainland hotel's luggage store.
Does reef-safe sunscreen actually matter here?
Yes, and practically as much as ethically. You will be in the water almost every day, guides on several boats ask for mineral sunscreen, and equatorial UV at sea level is punishing. Bring a zinc oxide or non-nano mineral formula from home. Selection in Puerto Ayora is thin and prices are high.
The equator does not care that the water feels cool. In the garúa season the sea sits around 19 to 22°C and the sky is often overcast, which is exactly when people burn, because they stop reapplying. In the warm season, roughly December to May, the water climbs to about 23 to 24°C and you stay in longer.
Two practical points. First, a long-sleeve rash guard replaces most of your sunscreen need on snorkelling days and does not wash off into the reef. Second, buy sunscreen before you fly. There are shops in Puerto Ayora, but everything on the islands arrives by cargo ship and the markup is real.
A wide-brim hat beats a cap. On boat decks the reflected light comes from below as well as above, and your ears and neck are the first casualties.
Water shoes or hiking boots: what footwear do you need?
Bring two pairs, not three. Water shoes or sport sandals with a closed toe handle wet landings, lava rock and beach walks. One pair of grippy trainers or light hiking shoes covers the highlands and volcano trails. Full hiking boots are overkill unless you are doing Sierra Negra in the wet season.
Wet landings are the reason. Panga boats nose onto a beach and you step out into shin-deep water, which means whatever is on your feet gets soaked and then walked on volcanic rock that is sharp enough to open skin. Flip-flops fail this test badly.
| Activity | Best footwear | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Wet landings, snorkel beaches, Tortuga Bay | Closed-toe water shoes or sport sandals | Wet, sandy, sharp lava underfoot |
| Highlands tortoise reserves, lava tunnels | Trainers or light hiking shoes | Muddy, uneven, often damp inside tunnels |
| Sierra Negra volcano trail | Broken-in hiking shoes, boots in wet season | Long, exposed, deep mud after rain |
| Town, boats, dinner | Flip-flops | Everything else already covered |
The lava tunnels on Santa Cruz are the sleeper case. They are dark, the floor is uneven, and it drips. On a short highlands trip like the Giant Tortoise and Lava Tunnels tour, three hours out of Puerto Ayora, people show up in sandals and regret it inside five minutes.
How much luggage can you actually bring?
The Galapagos routes are flown by Avianca and LATAM from Quito and Guayaquil, with a standard 23kg checked bag and 8kg carry-on on most fares. Small boats and inter-island ferries impose tighter practical limits: hard-sided suitcases are awkward on a lancha, and a duffel is far easier to load.
Check your own ticket, because fare classes differ and the airlines change allowances. Take the numbers below as the common baseline rather than a guarantee.
| Leg | Typical allowance | Real-world constraint |
|---|---|---|
| Mainland to GPS or SCY (Avianca, LATAM) | 23kg checked, 8kg cabin | Confirm on your fare; excess is charged at the counter |
| Inter-island ferry (lancha) | No formal weight limit | Bags get thrown into an open bow locker and get wet |
| Day tour boats | Small daypack only | Nowhere dry to put anything |
| Panga transfer to shore | Whatever you can hold | One hand must stay free |
That ferry row is the one to plan around. The crossings from Santa Cruz to Isabela or San Cristóbal cost roughly $30 to $35 and take two to two and a half hours in a small speedboat that slams over swell. Anything soft, waterproof and squashable survives. A rigid suitcase spends the trip in spray.
What colours and fabrics work in the islands?
Neutral, light colours in quick-dry synthetic or merino. Light tones stay cooler under equatorial sun and show salt crust less than black. Avoid cotton for anything you will sweat or swim in, because it stays wet all day in the humidity and never dries on a boat.
There is a lot of nonsense written about wildlife and clothing colour. The honest version: Galapagos animals are famously indifferent to people, so you are not going to spook a marine iguana by wearing red. The reason to choose neutrals is heat, salt stains and photographs, not camouflage.
What genuinely matters is dry time. Between the sea, the sweat and the garúa drizzle, you are damp most days. Two quick-dry shirts you rinse each night beat five cotton ones. A light rain shell earns its space in the cool season when the highlands are wrapped in mist while the coast is bright.
Do you need bug spray?
Yes, but less than you expect. Mosquitoes are a real nuisance in the highlands, in mangroves and around Puerto Villamil's wetlands at dusk, and there are biting flies on some beaches. A standard DEET or picaridin repellent is enough. There is no malaria risk in the Galapagos.
The islands are dry at the coast for much of the year, which keeps mosquito numbers down where most people sleep. Go up into the Santa Cruz highlands for tortoises, or walk the Isabela wetlands in the late afternoon, and the picture changes fast. Cover your ankles.
Sandflies are the underrated pest. They work the beaches at dawn and dusk, they are small enough to be missed, and the bites itch for days. Long trousers after five o'clock solve most of it.
What is the one item most people forget?
A dry bag. Everything on a Galapagos land-based trip involves getting into or out of a small boat, and a 10 to 20 litre roll-top bag keeps your phone, camera, passport copy and dry shirt genuinely dry. It also doubles as your daypack on wet landings.
Second place goes to motion-sickness tablets, taken an hour before boarding rather than when you already feel green. The channel crossings are open ocean and the swell between islands is often bigger than the photos suggest. Ginger sweets help at the margins, but a proper tablet helps more.
Third, a reusable water bottle. Tap water is not for drinking, boats carry large refill containers, and single-use plastic is discouraged across the archipelago in line with the national park's visitor rules. Those same rules include the 2 metre wildlife distance, which is easier to respect when you are not backing up to fit a sea lion into a wide-angle shot.
If your trip includes Isabela, the water gear earns its place. A boat like the Cabo Rosa Tunnels snorkelling tour, five hours through the lava arches off Puerto Villamil, is exactly where the rash guard, water shoes and dry bag all pay for themselves at once. Read the operator's inclusions and check live availability & prices on Viator before you buy gear at home. The wider set is on the Isabela day tours page.
What you can leave at home
Hairdryers, because most hotels have them and the voltage is 110V. Heavy books, because you will not read them. Formal clothes, because Puerto Ayora's smartest restaurant still has sand on the floor. And the drone, again, because it cannot legally fly where you want to fly it.
Currency is the US dollar, so no adapter maths and no exchange counters. Bring small bills, since taxis, ferries and the water taxi in Puerto Ayora all deal in ones and fives, and change for a fifty is a project.
One last subtraction. If you are still deciding when to go, the gear list shifts with the season, and our guide to the best time to visit covers what changes between the warm and garúa months. For the paperwork and fees side of the same trip, the entry rules and flights guide has the park fee and transit card in one place. And if Tortuga Bay is on your list, the walk out to it is 2.5km of paved trail in full sun, which is its own small argument for the hat.