A private charter for two is the most romantic way to see the Galapagos — and for a lot of couples, it's also the wrong call. Here's what a whole boat actually costs when it's just the two of you, which small vessels we can charter, and the real math on when a private cabin gets you most of the magic for a fraction of the price.
Yes — two people can charter a whole yacht in the Galapagos, meaning exclusive use of a vessel that normally sleeps up to 16 guests, with its own captain, crew, and 1 National Park guide, on a 4-, 5-, or 8-day itinerary. It's the most private way to sail the archipelago. It's also a whole-boat buyout, so for just the two of you the cost is real, because you are paying for the whole vessel rather than two berths on it. Current departures and starting prices for cabins are in the table below; a charter we quote against your dates. Park fees ($200 entry + $20 INGALA) apply either way.
A charter means the boat sails for you and only you. No other guests come aboard, no one else joins you at the dinner table, and the days run on your pace within the route the National Park has assigned that week. For a couple, that's the whole appeal in one line: total privacy, from breakfast to the moment the crew turns in for the night's crossing — no strangers, no shared schedule, just the two of you and a boat that was, for that week, entirely yours.
The vessels available for charter in the Galapagos are, by definition, small — the same fleet used for scheduled small-group cruises, not private superyachts built for exclusivity from the keel up. A boat built for up to 16 guests is what you're chartering when you charter "small," and Ecuador's National Park law puts one licensed naturalist guide on board at a 1:16 ratio — the same guide-to-passenger rule that applies on a scheduled sailing. Itineraries run 4, 5, or 8 days, on the same park-assigned routes every vessel in that class follows.
Here's the tension the rest of this page works through: the boat is priced as one unit, not per traveler. A charter isn't two seats on a private boat — it's the whole boat, whether two of you are aboard or sixteen. That's exactly why the cost question below matters more here than almost anywhere else in Galapagos planning.
Start with the arithmetic, because it's the whole story. A small yacht or catamaran built for 14 to 16 guests is priced to run profitably with most of those berths filled. Charter it for two people and you're paying for a boat, a captain, a crew, and a naturalist guide sized for sixteen — which is exactly why a private charter is, by design, the most expensive way to see the Galapagos per person.
We price whole-boat charters by the same tiers we use for scheduled cruises:
| Tier | Typical vessel type | Built for | Whole-boat charter for two, from | Private cabin for two, from |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Budget | Small motor yacht | 14–16 guests | Quoted as a whole-boat buyout for your dates | See the departures table below |
| First-class / mid-range | Small yacht or catamaran | 14–16 guests | Quoted as a whole-boat buyout for your dates | See the departures table below |
| Luxury | Catamaran or small yacht | 14–20 guests | Quoted as a whole-boat buyout for your dates | See the departures table below |
Those figures move with the season, the specific vessel, and how far out you book, which is why we quote a charter for your exact dates rather than print a number that's stale by next week. What we can tell you today is the shape of it: the charter price is a floor, a minimum spend for buying out the whole boat, not a per-person rate you multiply by two. Whether a given boat will sell a buyout to just two people, and on what terms outside peak weeks, is a per-vessel question we put to the operator for your dates.
What's included tracks a normal cruise: the captain, crew, naturalist guide, meals aboard, and most shore activities. What isn't: international flights, the $200 Galapagos National Park entry fee, the $20 INGALA transit card, tips for the crew and guide, and alcohol or other premium extras — confirm that last one per vessel, since policy varies charter to charter.
"Couples think chartering a small boat is a modest step up from booking two cabins on it. It is not. You are buying every cabin on the vessel, whether you sleep in them or not, plus the crew and the guide for the week. For two people that is a very different number, and I would rather show it to you early than let you fall in love with the idea first."
— Evelyn Duran, Co-Owner
Three classes cover almost every charter conversation we have with couples. A small motor yacht is the most traditional Galapagos vessel — stable, familiar cabin layouts, usually 14 to 16 berths. A catamaran trades a little of that traditional feel for a wider beam and more open deck space, which most couples notice right away: more room to spread out when the boat is entirely yours, and a steadier ride through open water. And then there's the sailing yacht — in our network, Samba is the one vessel that still sails rather than motors, a genuinely different feel on the water if being under sail matters to you as much as where the boat is going.
Which specific vessels we can offer for a two-person whole-boat charter changes constantly, because charter availability isn't the same as simply appearing in our fleet — a boat with a scheduled sailing that week cannot be bought out. Rather than publish a list that is wrong by the time you read it, tell us your dates and we'll come back with what is genuinely open.
One more thing worth knowing before a vessel's photos decide it for you: onboard features vary boat to boat, not fleet-wide. Roughly 90% of the cruises in our network now run Starlink, which is a real change from a few years ago, but it's a general pattern, not a guarantee for every vessel — we confirm connectivity, hot water, and cabin layout for the specific vessel before you charter it.
"If a couple wants a charter and asks me which boat, I look at the smallest vessel that still has the deck space to feel like a holiday rather than a delivery run. Small is the point — you are paying per hull, so the smaller the boat, the less of it you are buying that you will not use. What I will not do is put two people on a twenty-guest catamaran and call it romantic."
— Marcelo Guerrero, Co-Owner
Here's the math, stated plainly. Book a private cabin on a scheduled small-group sailing and you get the same wildlife, the same National Park guide, and the same route as the couple who chartered the whole boat next door — at a fraction of a whole-boat buyout. A cabin for two is a fraction of a whole-boat buyout, and current starting prices are in the departures table below. That gap is the real decision.
A charter earns its price when the guest list grows past a couple: a family filling most of the berths, a friends' group buying out the boat together, or a milestone where total privacy and a genuinely bespoke pace — set your own meal times, skip a landing, linger somewhere the schedule wouldn't normally allow — are the actual point. It earns it less when what two people mainly want is privacy at dinner and a quiet cabin at night. A 16-guest yacht already delivers a fair amount of that on a scheduled sailing, cabin door closed, without buying out the other fourteen berths.
If a cabin sounds like the smarter call, our guide to the most-romantic cabins and suites in the fleet is the next stop. Building a longer trip around the islands rather than a shorter splurge? See our Galapagos, Amazon, and Andes honeymoon itinerary. Pointing a couple toward the cabin, or toward a land-based option, isn't a downsell on our end — it's the answer that actually fits more often than not.
A couple chartering a whole boat is already spending for exclusivity, and the natural next step is to keep that privacy going before or after the islands. Quito's old town, a Sacred Valley or cloud-forest lodge, a couple of nights in the Andes — these pair naturally with a charter because you're already planning around "just the two of us," not a group's schedule.
We treat the mainland extension as part of the trip, not an afterthought tacked on at checkout. After the islands, the two things we sell most are the Ecuadorian Amazon and the Andes highlands, and either pairs cleanly onto the front or back of a charter — a few nights in the cloud forest or at a highland hacienda, then the boat. For the full range of what's possible on the Ecuador side, see our Ecuador honeymoon tours page.
Talk with an expert insider — we'll price your private charter (or the smarter cabin) in 24 hours.
USA & Canada 1-773-280-9571 · Ecuador +593-987-004-404 · [email protected]
Yes. Chartering means exclusive use of the entire vessel — a boat that normally sleeps up to 16 guests, sailing only for your party, with its own captain, crew, and National Park guide. Two people can book a charter on any vessel size we offer for it; you're simply paying for the whole boat rather than two cabins on a scheduled sailing shared with other travelers.
It depends on the vessel's tier and size, since you're buying out the whole boat rather than paying a per-person fare. We quote it against your dates and the specific vessel rather than publishing a tier table that ages badly. On top of that figure, everyone pays the same fixed costs regardless of group size: the $200 park entry fee and the $20 INGALA transit card.
Vessel size in our network runs from around 14 guests on the smaller motor yachts and the sailing yacht up to 20 on a couple of larger catamarans and small yachts. A smaller vessel doesn't necessarily mean a smaller charter cost — you're still buying out the whole boat. Which specific small vessels we can offer for a two-person charter depends on the week and on which boats have an unsold sailing to release, so we confirm it for your dates.
Sometimes. It's worth it when total privacy, a bespoke pace, and skipping the group schedule are genuinely the point — a milestone trip, for instance. It's often not worth it if what you mainly want is quiet time together, since a private cabin on a scheduled 16-guest sailing already delivers that at a fraction of a whole-boat buyout, with the same wildlife and the same guide.
Yes — that's what chartering means. You're not buying two discounted seats; you're buying out every cabin on the vessel, whether two of you sail or the boat's full capacity does. That's why we always show the charter figure next to a private-cabin figure, so the real cost of exclusivity is visible before you commit.
Catamarans are one of the vessel classes couples ask us to charter, largely for the extra deck space and steadier ride. Which specific catamaran we can offer for a two-person charter depends entirely on the week, so tell us your dates and we'll confirm what's genuinely open rather than what merely exists in the fleet.
Not automatically — "better" depends on what you're paying for. A charter buys total privacy and a schedule built entirely around you; a cabin buys the same wildlife, guide, and route at a fraction of the cost, with privacy that's already fairly strong on a 16-guest vessel. We'd rather walk you through both numbers than assume the charter is always the right upgrade.
Live availability and starting prices for our Galapagos departures. Dates and rates update automatically.
Give us your dates and how many are traveling, and we'll come back within 24 hours with the real numbers: the whole-boat charter figure for the vessel you have in mind, the private-cabin alternative next to it, and which one actually fits what you're after. Charter when total privacy and a bespoke pace are the point. Book a cabin when you mainly want quiet time together. We'll tell you which one your trip is.
USA & Canada 1-773-280-9571 · Ecuador +593-987-004-404 · [email protected]
Start with our hub, Galapagos honeymoon cruises, or browse the Galapagos cruise charters we work with directly. Comparing a cabin instead? See the most-romantic cabins-suites spoke]">the most-romantic cabins and suites in the fleet.
