Los Tuneles Snorkeling Tour, Isabela Island [Rated + Reviewed]

Rating: 🤿 🤿 🤿 

I know. You were expecting higher. Stick with me.

My husband and I are avid, experienced snorkelers. We have snorkeled reefs across multiple continents and rate every site through that lens.

Los Tuneles earns a solid 3 out of 5 from us, but with an important caveat.

This rating is based on our visit in early May, which is considered a transition month. The waters were unusually warm for that time of year, which may have affected the shark and ray activity we saw.

It is entirely possible that Los Tuneles is a 3-mask snorkel during warm water months and a 5-mask snorkel when the Humboldt Current is running strong and the sharks and rays are more active. If that is the case, I would absolutely give this tour another try.

If you love turtles, this tour might feel like a 5 out of 5 to you. We counted at least 10 at one point, all completely unbothered, swimming and feeding right around us.

For a first-time or occasional snorkeler, that alone is extraordinary. For us, who have seen turtles in many places, we were hoping for more shark and ray action.

Worth doing once. And potentially a very different experience depending on when you go.

Galapagos Snorkeling Rating System

Before we get into it, here is how I rate snorkel sites so you know exactly what the masks mean.

Book through Agora Tours.

Alicia will likely be your contact. She co-owns the company with her husband Carlos and they own their own boats, which is one of the reasons we preferred booking directly with them! 

No middlemen, no third-party operators. You are booking direct with the people who run the whole experience.

Alicia is incredibly sweet and goes above and beyond before you even arrive on Isabela. She sends every guest a thorough Galapagos informational packet covering the island, what to expect, and how to prepare.

Genuinely one of the most helpful pre-trip resources we received from any operator on the entire trip.

A note on the guide: Darwin is listed as the expert guide for the Golden Ray boat and gets a lot of love in the reviews.

Agora Tours describes him as “one of the finest spotters among guides on the island, with an infectious positivity” and deep knowledge of the area. I had assumed he would be leading our tour.

He was not available that day and we had a different guide, who was nice and professional throughout. Worth asking about Darwin specifically when you book, though availability will depend on the day.

Tour times: 7:30 am or 11:30 am departure

Why we chose 11:30 am: We typically prefer early morning snorkeling but chose the later departure because it aligned best with low tide on the day we went. More on tide timing below.

Book in advance: We booked about six weeks out. Do not leave this one to book at the last minute, especially during peak travel months.

Cost: $160 per person

Snorkel gear: Agora Tours provides snorkeling equipment. We always bring our own. Nothing beats gear that actually fits.

Here is my personal gear I brought to the Galapagos: Best Snorkeling Gear for Travel.

This tour can be cancelled if swells are too dangerous for safe navigation. Have a backup plan for your day.

This is one of those questions where I do not have a definitive answer, and I would rather be honest about that than guess.

The general rule for snorkeling anywhere: mornings are better. Winds tend to be calmer.

Some travelers swear by low tide for Los Tuneles, saying visibility is better and the lava formations are more dramatic when the water level drops.

We chose the 11:30 am departure specifically because it aligned best with low tide on the day we went.

But here is where it gets complicated. What if low tide falls in the afternoon? Do you chase the tide and sacrifice the morning conditions, or book the early departure and accept higher water?

Honestly, I do not know. That tradeoff is genuinely unclear and I have not found a convincing answer in any traveler report or research I have read.

What I can tell you is that after snorkeling Concha de Perla four times on Isabela, low tide occurring in the morning was consistently our best snorkel. Whether that same rule applies to Los Tuneles, I genuinely cannot say.

What I would do: check the tide table for your specific travel dates, then ask Alicia at Agora Tours for her recommendation. She knows these waters better than any tide chart or snorkeling blog, including mine, lol.

We met at the Agora Tours office at 11:00 am for an 11:30 am departure.

A taxi takes you the five minutes from their office to the day boat pier. This is where sea lions love to take their naps, right on the ferry platform. Step around them carefully and then board the water taxi out to the Golden Ray.

The boat was the Golden Ray, a fantastic double decker boat with shaded areas on both levels. We sat on both the top and bottom decks throughout the day. I personally loved the top deck near the captain!

About 35 minutes out from the pier, the captain stops at Roca Union, a large rock rising out of the open ocean where Nazca boobies perch dramatically against the sky. It is very wavy out there, so the stop is brief, but worth seeing.

We also spotted a massive manta ray gliding under the water on the crossing to Los Tuneles. Just casually there. Classic Galapagos.

The open water crossing is choppy. Come prepared. We always bring Bonine and ginger chews on any boat crossing in the Galapagos.

Getting into the Los Tuneles area requires the captain to time the entry with the waves. A little intimidating in the moment, but Agora Tours’ captain was seasoned and experienced and we felt completely safe.

Then you are inside, and everything changes. Completely calm water. Like glass. You can see straight through to the bottom. After that choppy crossing, the contrast is remarkable. 

Lunch was served on board after we crossed into Los Tuneles.  Rice, chicken, and vegetables. Simple, fresh, tasty.

After lunch the group transfers to the lava rock area. This is where Los Tuneles earns its reputation.

• 11:00 am: Meet at Agora Tours office
• 11:30 am: Depart Puerto Villamil pier
• 12:45 pm: Arrive at Los Tuneles
• 1:00 pm: Lunch on board
• 1:30 to 2:00 pm: Walk across the lava rocks
• 2:00 to 4:30 pm: Two snorkel spots
• 4:30 pm: Back on board
• 5:15 pm: Return to Puerto Villamil

Total snorkeling time across both spots: approximately two hours.

The landscape is extraordinary. Volcanic lava arches rise out of the calm water in every direction. You walk across the rocks with the ocean on both sides, crossing between formations that look like something from another planet.

Turtle heads popped up in the water periodically as we walked the path. Penguins perched on the rocks nearby.

We took a photo standing in front of one of the arches above the waterline with a booby in the foreground. Then on a separate photo, another booby posed right beside us on the rock.

That booby did not move. Did not flinch. Just stood there looking magnificently goofy.

It is one thing to see blue-footed boobies from a boat. 

It is another thing entirely to be standing on a rock eye to eye with one while it stares back at you with zero interest in your presence.

What to wear for the walk: Long sleeve rash guard, shorts, and closed-toe water sandals or tennis shoes.

The lava surface is uneven and sharp in places. Flip flops are not a good idea here. After the walk, change into swim leggings for the snorkel portion.

What we saw:

• One eagle ray in the distance, brief but beautiful
• One stingray
• Two whitetip reef sharks resting under a rock ledge (our guide dove down to capture the footage)
• Yellow pufferfish and Guineafowl pufferfish
• Penguins on the rocks. We snorkeled right underneath hoping one would jump in. No such luck.

We did spot one penguin in the water at Concha de Perla across four visits, and snorkeled with multiple penguins on three visits to Playa Isabela.

If penguins in the water are your priority, those two sites are your best bet on Isabela.

The submerged arch: On this snorkel the conditions were right to swim under a submerged lava arch. The arch frames the water around you in a way that feels almost cathedral-like. Not every tour gets this opportunity depending on conditions.

The second spot was inside a mangrove section called El Finado, dramatically different from the first.

The water here is murky. That is just the nature of the mangrove environment. Visibility is limited.

After snorkeling the mangroves, we literally wiggled our bodies over some lava rock to access a second section where the turtles were.

The seahorse: My husband dove down in the murky water and captured clear video footage of a seahorse. I never personally saw it with my own eyes. Given the visibility, do not count on a clear sighting but the seahorse is apparently there if you know where to look and are willing to dive down.

The only other time I have spotted a seahorse was under a pier in Caye Caulker in Belize. They are extraordinarily difficult to spot because their camouflage is essentially perfect.

The turtles: This is where Los Tuneles delivers. We crossed into the second section and were suddenly surrounded. At one point I spun around and counted at least 10 turtles, swimming and feeding, completely unbothered by 12 snorkelers in their space. They just do their thing and let you watch.

On group size: The mangrove section and turtle area are tight. 12 people felt cramped here. There is no smaller group alternative for this tour, so it is what it is. Just be aware going in.

• Book through Agora Tours
• Choose the time closest to low tide and confirm if Alicia agrees
• Bring your own snorkel gear. Agora provides equipment but your own gear fits better.
• Bring your GoPro. The guide also takes photos and videos for the group, which were actually pretty good.
• Come prepared for a choppy open water crossing. Bonine, seasickness band, ginger chews.
• Wear closed-toe water sandals or tennis shoes for the lava rock walk. Not flip flops.
• Change into swim leggings after the walk for the snorkel sessions.
• Grab a spot on the top deck near the captain for the best views on the crossing.
• The tour can be cancelled in bad swell. Have a backup plan.

Los Tuneles is one of those Galapagos experiences where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

The snorkeling alone earns a 3/5 from us. The full tour: the lava arch landscape, the blue footed boobies, the glass-calm lagoon, the 10 turtles spinning around you, the full experience earns something much higher than the snorkeling rating alone.

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Questions about our snorkeling experience at Los Tuneles? If you have been, did you go at low tide or high tide, and was that in the morning or afternoon? What did you see? 

Let me know in the comments below!