If you want to visit the Galápagos in style, take a look at the just-launched 157-foot-long Hermes luxury catamaran. It holds a maximum of 20 guests per cruise there, and its five-star service includes a personal butler on call 24/7. The crew-to-guest ratio is about one-to-one.
Hermes (no relation to the French luxury brand Hermès) has a beam of more than 45 feet. It has six double and two single cabins on the main deck, and six double cabins on the upper deck. Each cabin has floor-to-ceiling windows, a walk-in closet, minibar, head, and private balcony a Jacuzzi. The accommodations are a far cry from those on the HMS Beagle, the home of Charles Darwin who formed his theory of evolution on his second voyage to the Galápagos in 1835.
Stradling the equator, the Galápagos is an archipelago of 189 volcanic islands with unique land and marine ecosystems about 520 miles off the Coast of Ecuador. A province of Ecuador, the Galápagos is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and home to giant tortoises, marine iguanas, penguins, flight less cormorants and blue-footed boobies, among others.
Hermes is operated by Via Natura, a high-end travel company with offices in Peru, Ecuador and the Galápagos. It’s filled with upscale social areas inside and out, including two lounges, a large library, a spa overlooking the ocean, a steam bath, an aperitif lounge, and a sun deck with a Jacuzzi and sun beds.
If you’re not hiking around the islands with the two naturalists on board, you can take cooking or cocktail-mixing classes. Or you can take to the water to dive, or paddle an SUP or kayak.
Cruising at 12 knots, the Hermes has three-to-14 night cruises with stops at Gardner Bay, Black Turtle Cove, Santa Fe Island, and Buccaneer Cove. Rates start at $6,195 for a double cabin on a three-night cruise; or you can charter the entire yacht for $117,705.
Read more at http://vianatura.com
