Galapagos Beach at Tortuga Bay, Puerto Ayora

A beautiful bay with, at the end, an even more beautiful laguna where the water is calm and you can swim comfortably. There is also a little place towards the end where you can rent kayaks.

Take the 40 minute walk from Puerto Ayora and bring water and snacks. Go to the far end to see sharks and diving birds. Don’t step on the resting whitetip reef sharks at the far end! If you’re lucky you’ll catch baby hammerhead sharks weaving alongside the smaller reef sharks just off shore second to last mangrove grouping. Of course there are turtle heads popping up in the bay. $10 per person for an hour kayak rental until 4pm. Slow clearing/closing of the beach from the far end at 5pm.

One if the most fabulous beaches anywhere. If you would like to stay the day on the ocean side bring a tent or some kind of sun protection.

A must see in Santa Cruz and the whole Galapagos. After a nice walk of around 30-40 minutes (good path, not rocky nor wild) you get to Play Brava. A huge beach with fine white sand and waves. Is not allowed to swim here because of the current, but it's great for surfing. After a nice walk of 1 km on this gorgeous beach, you get to the second part. It's smaller, like a bay, and the water is calm and perfect for a swim. Mangroves provide shade and there's also a kayak renting. Perfect to lay down and enjoy some relax.

Playa Braba, the initial beach had many many iguanas. Walking past this beach you'll reach the Playa Mansa which is beautiful, and great for swimming and they have kayak rentals. We didn't see any turtles so set your expectations accordingly.