My trip to the Galapagos was an incredible experience, like stepping ashore in a world without humans.

We spent a week exploring the western side of the archipelago, making daily zodiac landings on uninhabited islands and snorkelling amongst penguins, turtles, manta rays and pelicans. We saw hundreds of black marine iguanas slumped over the rocks on Fernandina, we wandered amongst dozens of giant tortoises on Santa Cruz, and we came across nesting blue-footed boobies on Floreana.

The Galapagos is a wildlife experience like no other, and it deserves to be on everyone's bucket list. But make sure you do your research first - different itineraries will show you different wildlife, and some species are absent at certain times of year.

Explore the Galapagos