Royal Palm Galapagos Curio Collection Hotel by Hilton

I had a great experience here in the highlands of Santa Cruz. The Royal Palm is comfortable oasis with traditional rooms and grand villas. The central area has a restaurant and bar with excellent food and drinks and even a happy hour. The rooms have great amenities and the property offers a pool and two hot tubs. Don’t miss the lava tunnel restaurant- one of the most unique experiences I’ve ever done! The staff is excellent; everyone was friendly and eager to please. I had laundry done with a promise of 24h turnaround; it was done in my room within a few hours.

This resort / hotel in the The Highlands is extremely remote. You can enjoy the quiet and get away from the hustle, crowds and chaos in Puerto Ayora for some peace and quiet. There are only a few traditional hotel rooms in a row, while the rest are large villas. We stayed in Villa 8, which really did have the most privacy AND the best view. The breakfast, which is complimentary, had a wonderful crew. Danny shared with us some local hotel architecture and history - some of which Hilton / Curio removed to "modernize / luxury glam" it in my opinion, but some they kept like the original wooden furniture in the lava tunnel. Josue helped us with any requests we had, organizing our lava tunnel tour onsite and finding the literal best taxi driver on the planet - Lenny. We highly recommend you request him. He was so friendly, helpful and easy to work with that we had him as our driver for all 3 days of our stay. The office can help you prepare before or during your stay with exceptional tours that they have vetted and coordinated as well as airport transfers. We chose to use them for the airport transfer, and Maurice, a hotel employee was wonderful from the lobby to literally getting our boarding passes. While it does have a decent pool and two above ground hot tubs, we didn't use them but my kids were happy to see it was an option. While this is clearly an older guest destination, my kids loved the lava tunnel, staff, breakfast, the piano they let my son play, daily chocolate from housekeeping, rooms with their own beds, and nightly visits from geckos and frogs. Rooms and lobby have umbrellas.

The Royal Palm Galápagos provides a personalized luxury experience that can’t be found elsewhere on the islands. Each employee was respectful and professional to us and remembered our preferences throughout our stay. As a Hilton diamond member we were upgraded to a villa from a basic room which was appreciated. The property was beautiful and had a vast variety of local plants which added to the ambiance. On the last day of our trip we dined at the lava tunnel restaurant on property. This was a unique dining experience which is not be missed.