Palo Santo Galápagos Hotel

No fridge, no microwave, no restaurant only breakfast, no place to buy anything, no elevators but good staff and very clean the only bad was the pool that did lock clean

My wife liked the hotel; I did not. I thought the room was very Spartan; she thought it was very nice. I was annoyed that the internet did not work on the 2d floor (and it did not work well in the lobby, either). There is no elevator so you have to schlep your luggage up the steps. Breakfast was so-so, although the outdoor dining area was very nice to sit at. It was nice to watch the egrets every dawn leaving their roosting area by the water and flying inland, and then flying back at dusk. They say they have a restaurant but they really don’t. That said, they did whip up a huge lunch for us one day that we ate on our balcony. The dessert was great; a cross between pineapple upside down cake and a twinkie. None of the staff spoke English which I thought unusual for a tourist hotel. We made do, though. Note that you need to use a water taxi to get there.

I’ll start by putting this review in context. We weren’t expecting to stay at the Palo Santo. It was chosen for us by our erstwhile cruise provider, who cancelled our cruise with no notice and instead put us up in the Palo Santo. That may have coloured my opinion of the hotel, but I’ll try to stick to the facts. The Palo Santo is accessible only by water taxi and a half-mile walk from the jetty. The water taxis are available on demand, so that’s not too much of a burden. We later stayed in Puerto Ayora proper and preferred the location for its convenience and ease of access to the town’s facilities. Our room was large and clean but the bathroom was blighted by a strong smell of sewerage. This was occasionally masked by the copious amounts of cleaning product poured down the offending plugholes by the surprisingly cheery cleaners. Our room was free of invasive bugs but, unfortunately, the same could not be said of the neighbouring room occupied by our friends. Breakfast was served in a pleasant, open area by the pool. The food was very poor, consisting primarily of (I suspect) the cheapest ham and processed cheese available from the local supermarket. A special mention goes to the staff member at the front desk, who appeared quite irritated by our arrival at the hotel (there were no other guests). I can only hope that the Tripadvisor community respects the peaceful tempo of her working life and look elsewhere for accommodation in Puerto Ayora.