The Galapagos Pearl B&B

Worst hotel experience ever. This is a 1 Star hotel at best. The place is dirty and lacks basic maintenance. Everything looks worn and not looked after. We stayed 2 nights and had no hot water for showering. The first morning we were told both cold and hot taps needed to be on before hot water would come out, which doesn’t make any sense but we tried it later in the day and of course it didn’t work and neither did it work the next morning. Problems getting room serviced-finally happened around 5 pm; no TV remote; minimal breakfast; tea bags that looked mouldy; dirty towels; 2 pools both dirty; bedding and curtains have not been upgraded since the 70’s; room size misrepresented. Was about 1/2 the size and definitely not a suite. Overall a horrible last couple of nights in Santa Cruz

An overall subpar experience that I cant recommend. The cons All the lights were bright white fluorescent, like it was a hospital. The main light is a flood light that has no shade. Even the night lights are bright white. The room in general looks very bleak and minimal. There's one painting of sea lions and that's it. Our TV was broken and the hotel didn't do anything about it. They gave me a story about how they are getting new tvs soon, but only after several days of asking them what was the status via whatsapp. I understand watching TV is not the point when comimg to the Galapagos, but you'd be surprised by the amount of downtime you have. I asked them not to come into our rooms for cleaning service. They decided to come in the second to last day I was staying. It's frustrating when there's no sign I can leave on the door. This place generates a lot of noise. I heard full-on parties from public pools that were across the street. I heard multiple dogs barking at all different hours. When it's windy, everything shakes and bangs across the building, especially the hammock on our back patio. Wifi is pretty bad. I dont hold it against them too much, since internet in general is bad. I will say, in comparison to other spots, this place had the worst wifi. If more than a few people are logged in, becomes unusable. Not every window has blackout curtains. This may be a little thing, but it's pretty annoying to try to take a nap in the afternoon when you can't really block out all the light. The pros Not everything was bad about this place. The "patio" area and pool area looked quite nice and inviting with all the tropical vegetation. The AC works quite well. The best part is having a lip on the edge that I can adjust where the air blows. This can be the difference between sleeping comfortably and being frozen in bed. I like that they give you big commercial size bottles of shampoo and conditioner. While they have they limited breakfast, I like that it's fresh and made in front of you. The beds here, like any other place I've tried in the Galapagos, are pretty hard, but they felt softer than other places. The pillows were actually comfy and supported for my neck.

We stayed at the Galapagos Pearl for 3 nights. It was really quiet and peaceful. It is a family run establishment and everyone was so nice. There is one room with an ocean view and a few other rooms with small balconies. Most of the rooms have AC. There are two pools and a ton of greenery on the property. It was nice to wake up to the birds singing. The breakfast was good. The main part of town is only a few blocks away, even though you feel as if you are in a garden somewhere far away from everything. Keep in mind that the wifi and cell service on the island are spotty. The best place to get wifi on this property is in the eating area, near the router. I don't think we had wifi in our room.