Isla de la Plata 'Mini Galapagos' Private Day Trip

Overview

A private day trip from Guayaquil to Isla de la Plata, nicknamed the 'Isle of Silver' or mini Galapagos for wildlife that closely mirrors the real islands — a yacht crossing, short hiking trails past blue- and red-footed boobies, pelicans, frigatebirds, and albatrosses, and snorkeling among coral reef, sea turtles, manta rays, and sea lions.

Isla de la Plata sits off the coast near Puerto Lopez, several hours from Guayaquil by road, so this is honestly a full day out rather than a short excursion — expect an early start and a full day of driving, boat time, and island exploring before returning to Guayaquil that night.

Highlights

• Yacht Crossing to Isla de la Plata Take a yacht trip out to Isla de la Plata, often called Ecuador's 'mini Galapagos.'
• Seabird Hiking Trails Walk short hiking trails on the island to see blue-footed boobies, red-footed boobies, pelicans, frigatebirds, and albatrosses up close.
• Snorkeling Snorkel around the island's coral reef, spotting colorful reef fish, sea turtles, manta rays, dolphins, and sea lions.

What Stops Does This Tour Make?

A popular starting point — every Voyzo itinerary is fully customizable, so we'll shape the order and stops around your group.

Important Information

Frequently Asked Questions

About This Tour

A private day trip from Guayaquil to Isla de la Plata, nicknamed the 'Isle of Silver' or mini Galapagos for wildlife that closely mirrors the real islands — a yacht crossing, short hiking trails past blue- and red-footed boobies, pelicans, frigatebirds, and albatrosses, and snorkeling among coral reef, sea turtles, manta rays, and sea lions. Isla de la Plata sits off the coast near Puerto Lopez, several hours from Guayaquil by road, so this is honestly a full day out rather than a short excursion — expect an early start and a full day of driving, boat time, and island exploring before returning to Guayaquil that night.

Isla de la Plata — literally 'Silver Island' — takes its name from a real piece of maritime history rather than anything to do with its wildlife. According to several historical accounts, the English privateer Sir Francis Drake anchored off this island in 1579 after capturing the Spanish treasure galleon Nuestra Señora de la Concepción further up the coast, and reportedly divided up (and in part discarded overboard) the silver he'd seized here — which is why 17th-century maps sometimes label it 'Sir Francis Drake's Isle.' An alternative, less romantic theory is that the name simply comes from sunlight glinting off the island's guano deposits. Either way, the island now sits inside Machalilla National Park, roughly 22 nautical miles off Ecuador's mainland coast near Puerto López.

The 'mini Galápagos' comparison is grounded in real, documented overlap in species rather than marketing shorthand: Isla de la Plata hosts five of the world's booby species — blue-footed, red-footed, Nazca, masked, and Peruvian — alongside magnificent frigatebirds, Inca terns, and both brown and Peruvian pelicans, all species also found in the Galápagos archipelago. It's also home to a small resident colony of waved albatross, a species that breeds almost nowhere else on Earth outside the Galápagos — though the colony here is genuinely small, generally estimated at under 20 breeding pairs, so an albatross sighting is a real bonus rather than a guarantee on any given visit.

What the comparison doesn't claim is that this is the actual Galápagos: it's a mainland-accessible island roughly 600 miles closer than the real archipelago, reachable by boat in under an hour from Puerto López rather than requiring a flight and a multi-day cruise. The tradeoff is real too — fewer endemic reptile and mammal species than the true Galápagos, and a smaller island overall — but for travelers who want a genuine look at this seabird community without the time and cost of the islands themselves, the overlap in species is the honest basis for the nickname.