Make Your Next Trip Extraordinary

Barbra and Eugene Hirsch horseback riding in Hacienda Pinsaqui, Ecuador.

Hiking and horseback riding—plus great food—were highlights of Hacienda Pinsaqui.

My wife and I are in our 70’s and are experienced travelers so it means a lot when we can tell you that Allie did a fantastic job of planning and arranging our trip to Ecuador last month, December 3-19. We asked her to include time in Quito, the Andes, the Ecuadorian rain forest and the Galapagos Islands. She did it all with accommodations and guides that were exceptional.

We arrived in Quito late and stayed overnight at the beautiful Wyndham Airport Hotel, from where we were picked up the next morning by Christina, our guide, and a driver who took us via some scenic stops at mountain lakes, a condor park, street markets, a weaving factory, and a wonderful lunch to our destination at Hacienda Pinsaqui. It is a beautiful large home and ranch where we stayed for 3 nights enjoying history, hiking, horseback riding and great food. We were picked up at the hacienda and returned to the airport hotel from where, the following morning, we travelled into the amazing rain forest with a short flight east from Quito, a 2-hour motorized canoe trip down the Napo River, which flows into the Amazon River, then a shorter paddle canoe trip to the La Selva Lodge.

The Lodge is magnificent, and this is a great learning experience. Each day we were accompanied by 2 native guides and a naturalist guide to explore the myriad ecosystems of lakes, rivers and forests, as well as a nearby village. Paul is an outstanding, personable and knowledgeable guide who did not miss a thing. The lectures were most informative, the Lodge staff are fantastic, and the food is wonderful. After 3 nights we returned to Quito, then left for Galapagos the next morning. We were greeted at the airport on Baltra Island by Daniel, our superb guide, and the delightful staff of the Endemic. This is a gorgeous, motorized catamaran that can accommodate 16 passengers, but had only us and one other couple from the US booked for a 5-night journey.

It was the first 2 weeks of December with fewer visitors than usual. The attention, service, food, activities and company were wonderful and, as you can imagine, quite personalized throughout. A tour of the Galapagos Islands is truly an extraordinary experience. Daniel introduced the next day’s activities/options each evening before dinner. From the magnificent tortoises to sea lions, penguins, blue and red-footed boobies, frigate birds, falcons, flamingoes, sharks, sea turtles and so many other species of flora and fauna, these islands are unique in the world. On the 6th day we returned to Quito, stayed at the beautiful Casa El Eden boutique Hotel, hosted by the exceptionally hospitable Blanca and Mario, and were joined the next day by Christina, our excellent guide, for a tour of Quito and the strange features of latitude 00.00’. There were no questions unanswered and we were most comfortable every step of the way. All in all, a great trip!

We just returned from the Galapagos with our 13-year-old grandson J who is a swimmer, animal lover and fisherman. Allie and her team planned the perfect trip for us. I have worked with many travel planners, and to say that Allie tops the list is not an understatement. She followed our lead—no cruises, fine hotels, kid-centered trips with guides who “get” 13-year-old boys. And she delivered: a day in Quito with Alejandra who took us to the equator, a chocolate tasting, and a visit to a working cathedral where Mass was in session. As this was a Bar Mitzvah trip for our grandson, going to a Mass with a thousand locals and indigenous people was moving and revealing about the power of religion for everyone in every country.

In San Cristobel, Allie surprised us with a delicious congratulatory chocolate cake in our room. When I thanked her, she told me that she had called J’s mother to find out his favorite flavor! That is going well beyond expectations. Finally, she secured for us our guide Christian who spent five days in the islands with us and took care of two older grandparents and an active boy. He was a superb naturalist and fun to be with and really connected with J, diving and snorkeling with their Go-Pros, swimming with sea life and fishing with him on one of our day cruises. When there was something we wanted to do, he made it happen even before we thought of it. I cannot thank Allie enough for seeing to it that we all had a trip to remember forever.

We just returned from an amazing trip to Quito and the Galapagos. From start to finish the planning and execution were perfect. I would use this dream team anytime. Allie did all of the planning and she was spot on—even catching that my husband should get a new passport as his was just a few months from expiration. The team in Quito could not have been better and we enjoyed this charming city. Although it rained every day, it was mostly at night and didn’t slow us down. The local team arranged a cooking class and lunch at a small, new restaurant and it was hands down the best meal we had on the trip. If you go, find it: Claroscuro.

Because getting there is not easy and for most it will be a once in a lifetime trip, I would add two pieces of advice. First, don’t wait too long to do this. At a healthy, fairly active 78, I was a little unsure of one of the hikes. They are not demanding in terms of length or steepness, rather it is because the islands are volcanic, and the lava creates very uneven terrain on some islands. But the guides were very reassuring and helpful. And what you see on the hikes is just what you dream about for a Galapagos trip—incredible creatures everywhere. Go now—you will never regret it. Also, I would say, I think this would be a fabulous family trip, for kids water competent and maybe 10 and over.

Secondly, I would recommend doing the longer itineraries on the ship. I couldn’t talk my husband into that but looking back, I would have preferred seeing more. We were on a five night itinerary on the Infinity, which was super. Our room was big, much to our surprise, the staff spectacular, and the days very busy and well planned. The naturalists really knew their stuff and even more than that, we were impressed by their deep love of place. The food was local, fresh, plentiful and tasty—even the coffee was great! The snorkeling was just amazing—sea turtles, sharks, rays, angel fish, oh my!

The only thing I might do differently, because our flight home was very early, would be to spend the last night in one of the airport hotels. That 3am wake-up call was tough and made for a very long day home.

A giant thank you to Wendy and her team, Allie and her team, and the local crew in Quito, and the remarkable team on the Infinity.

Judy Calvert next to an iguana in Galapagos Islands, Ecuador.

“We were joking that a Hollywood producer was ahead of us cueing all the birds and animals into position.”

My husband and I did a one-week cruise on the Horizon trimaran, 8 cabins. It was 13-14 guests with equal number of crew. Allie and her company had suggested it, and we are very grateful as it was a great boat, superb crew, a fantastic Naturalist Maria, very good food and excellent itinerary. Snorkeling trips were well organized and fairly easy out/in of the zodiac, and all of the excursions were very good, we saw everything you could want to see—we were joking that a Hollywood producer was ahead of us cueing all the birds and animals into position:

*blue footed boobies, red footed boobies, Nazca boobies, babies of all the above, pelicans, male frigate birds with the red swollen neck on trees and flying and mating ritual, waved albatross and babies and juveniles , marine iquanas on land and under water snorkeling, 2 penquins on a rock, hammerhead sharks, white tipped sharks and galapagos sharks while snorkeling, a gazillion sea lions on shore, in water, while snorkeling, tons of mum and pups, huge parrot and king angel fish while snorkeling, large schools of fish, the 2 different types of land iquanas*

The water was cold, around 19C, but the boat had 2.5mm wetsuits which made it perfect. We did a couple of long crossings (7hrs) at night but relatively smooth.

We were supposed to have a full pre-day in Guayaquil with a WOW Moment but due to Hurricane Milton our flight from Miami to GYE was cancelled until the next day. Allie kept in touch with us throughout and ensured everyone knew that we weren’t coming :-(

My husband really wanted to dive, so with Allie’s help, we extended at Puerto Ayora for 3 nights and she hooked us up with a scuba operation and they made arrangements to pick Doug up right from Horizon! Unfortunately, visibility was not the greatest, so even though he got to dive with the Hammerheads, it wasn’t the experience he truly wanted. Weather, what can you do.

Allie was a pleasure to work with. We had an unrealistic expectation/thoughts on Galapagos at first. We were coming at it as a recommended diving/snorkelling destination, so realizing that we can’t do both on a boat— you choose a dive boat OR a tourist/snorkel boat—was an eye opener, but then the compromise of tourist boat and staying on so Doug could dive with the scuba operator. And I was unsure if we were going to enjoy the land excursions—just birds was my thought, try to get photos when they hide in trees and spook easily. We wanted to snorkel with penguins and sea lions (didn’t really happen, just one sea lion). BUT it was actually quite fun each excursion which species we were looking for and how none of them had any fear of humans and you could literally get right in their faces to take photos and watch them. She had great advice to get to GYE 2 days early, obviously helped when Hurricane Milton cancelled our Thursday flight (huge thank you to her for the heads up on what was happening) but Allie got us out on the Friday in time to make our cruise on Saturday.

Overall, great trip, quite a bit of time/work to get there and VERY expensive, but worth it for the overall experience. Horizon was an excellent boat choice and luckily they found Maria, plus we really really enjoyed our other guests! And staying longer in Puerto Ayora was cute.

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