Royal Palm Galapagos, Curio Collection by Hilton

This hotel was amazing! First of all, Alejandro is the best and will show you around the 300 acre property when you arrive (with a welcome drink of course). The property is remote and relaxing and the villas are beautiful. Highly recommend to anyone looking to get away!

What an absolute treat! From arrival to departure we felt so welcomed and cared for. The staff there are superb, from the Front Desk to the Maintenance guys, not forgetting the Restaurant. On arrival we were given a room upgrade to the Presidential Suite, which was a lovely separate villa with all sort of amenities. What better way of celebrating my birthday! Once checked in, the hotel manager (Diego?) kindly showed us to out villa and explained the facilities of the hotel. The hotel has a pool, gym, restaurant, and even a lava cave (biggest in the islands I believe) where they do a special set menu dinner. The grounds of the hotel are immense and you can find several giant turtles around Breakfast was also superb with a good selection and an even better service! The staff there remember the day of my birthday and the chefs prepared a lovely Bday cake which I was so surprised by. Dinner at the main restaurant was algo very good, and again the service was the best part of it. Lisset was our waiter and she was just amazing :) On the last night we could definitely not pass on the lava cave dinner experience, and we are so glad we did go! It is definitely something to experience. The hotel is situated pretty much in the middle of the island. If you come to Santa Cruz by plane, you will most probably land in Seymour, from the terminal there is just a short bus ride to the port and then a super-quick taxi boat sail to Santa Cruz. Once in Santa Cruz there will be plenty of taxi waiting for passengers to get off the ferry. The ride to the Royal Palm is $25 and 30 min max. From the hotel to Puerto Ayora (south of the island and main hub) is $15 and a 20min ride. The hotel can arrange for a taxi pick up. Our driver shared his number and we just had to text him 10min before we needed him again to get back to the hotel. Definitely one of the best hotel experiences I have had in a while.

We had originally been planning to stay for 6 nights, then move on to Guayaquil for 4 nights but were advised against travel to anywhere outside the airport by the UK government. We decided to extend our stay at Royal Palm instead and were so glad we did. From the moment we arrived until we left we were made to feel most welcome, and were looked after so well. Particular thanks go to Alejandro for helping us to arrange an amazing day trip to Santa Fe island during the extended part of our stay, and to Rita, Gustavo and Danny in the restaurant. Cristina, the Sales manager who I had been in touch with prior to our visit had arranged a 5 day tour package which was really great. There was one day when we were due to leave the hotel early in the morning for a tour, but the restaurant opened 15 minutes early for us so that we could get breakfast before we left which we really appreciated. The hotel was not too busy and in fact restoration work is going on, but it was not obtrusive in any way. There were a couple of largish tour groups which came in during our stay, and the only downside to this was that the tour director of one of them insisted on his group meeting in the bar at 1845 each evening of their 4 nights there for a briefing which was very loud and meant that nobody apart from them could use the bar so we had to sit inside the restaurant in order to have a drink and a quiet game of cards. The weather at the hotel is a little different to that experienced at the coast, but that is due to the fact that the hotel is up in the cloud forest, and actually meant that it was not too hot. We did have a problem one night when the AC developed a fault but that was fixed as soon as it could be - it took a day or two but the staff sorted us out with a fan in the interim - and normal service was resumed again. I cannot emphasise enough how good the staff were from our arrival to our departure. The food in the restaurant was excellent - no complaints at all. Breakfast was good- some days when there were more people staying at the hotel there was a buffet, otherwise order from the menu. We stopped on the way from the airport to the hotel at a site called Los Gemelos (see photo) and walked through the Scalesia forest where we saw twin volcanic craters which were just incredible. What a way to start the visit! We were very lucky to be given an upgrade to an incredible villa - it even had a sauna inside, although we didn't actually use it. We had a lovely surprise from the hotel on our 32nd wedding anniversary - we had been out all day on a tour to Bartoleme island and returned to the hotel absolutely buzzing at the sights we had seen and found that they had put a lovely tray of fruits, dessert and a drink out for us along with a very thoughtfully hand written card signed from the team. Just when you thought a day couldn't get any better - the team showed it can! We were genuinely sorry to leave. As a lifetime Diamond member, I have stayed in a