It was a typically warm April day at La Lobería beach in San Cristóbal, one of the 13 main Galápagos Islands. I was snorkeling behind a blue-barred parrotfish, hypnotized by the sound of it crunching on coral, when I felt a tug on my hand. I turned to find my seven-year-old son, Remy, pointing out a diamond stingray. A moment later, we both spotted a green sea turtle. Wowed but eager for more, Remy flapped his fins and we were off, chasing creatures he’d only ever seen in wildlife documentaries. The trip, I had to admit, was going swimmingly.

Remy has long been a big nature enthusiast, with an eye for animals and a heart for conservation. So my husband and I decided that, as a birthday present, we’d treat our son to a trip to the Galápagos. 

I’m usually the type-A, take-the-wheel planner of our family’s trips, which have included many #vanlife adventures in our Ford Transit. But this time I decided to hand off the logistics to someone else: we booked an eight-day group tour with Intrepid Travel, because of its kid-friendly itinerary. We also liked that Intrepid is certified as a B Corp and partners with the Galápagos Conservancy. Then there was the chance to meet other families — something we don’t often get to do when we’re traveling on our own.

When we touched down in Quito to rendezvous with our group, though, I was disappointed to learn that only one other family would be traveling with us. I had envisioned a mini United Nations of kids from around the world. Instead, we’d be traveling for a week with just one other couple, from Erie, Pennsylvania, and their eight-year-old twins.

Turns out, Intrepid had already filled one 16-person group tour and had created a second, smaller departure just for us. I’ll admit to some apprehension about being in such an intimate group. But within a couple of days, the kids were playing like old friends, bonding over Pokémon and imagined battles between prehistoric species. One evening along the malecón in Puerto Ayora, the archipelago’s largest town, the children made up their own rap song as sea lions barked rhythmically on a nearby beach. I was pleased for Remy, who said he enjoyed traveling with the twins. “It’s nice having someone to talk to that understands you,” he confided.

It took me a bit longer to fall into the group-trip flow, and to warm up to our new friends from Erie. Then, while swimming one day in Tortuga Bay, off the island of Santa Cruz, our guide Lorenzo Panchana spotted a blue-footed booby standing on a rocky bluff. As we all giddily dashed out of the water to marvel at it together, the joy of our shared adventure suddenly clicked.

Soon enough, I was opening up to the group over our meals of fresh tuna poke and rounds of piña coladas at sunset. We exchanged frame-worthy photos of each other: basking with dozens of marine iguanas on the beach, walking with giant land tortoises in the Santa Cruz highlands, and kayaking around the harbor in San Cristóbal surrounded by playful sea lion pups. Each family gently pushed the other out of their comfort zone: we coaxed them into riding bikes, while they had convinced us to hop into those kayaks in the first place.

We bonded over the knowledge that we’d remember these wild moments because we’d shared them together. Remy still FaceTimes with the twins, usually to workshop new song lyrics. And next summer, we may join our new friends on another Intrepid tour, this one to the Southeast Asian island of Borneo, where our three budding naturalists can reunite and venture into the wild to spot orangutans and pygmy elephants.

4 More Tours for Adventurous Families

Antarctica

Kids are welcome on board Lindblad Expeditions ships, such as the 148-passenger National Geographic Explorer. They can learn photography from experts and kayak past icebergs alongside breaching whales.

Canada

Tween-friendly itineraries from Frontiers North Adventures incorporate mushing and museum visits in and around the town of Churchill, Manitoba, which bills itself as the polar-bear capital of the world. 

Thailand

Black Tomato takes families from the legendary noodle stalls and lush gardens of Bangkok to the mountains of Chiang Rai for walks with rescued elephants.

West Virginia  

Outdoor Afro and REI have teamed up on a guided camping journey that visits New River Gorge National Park & Preserve, where kids aged eight and up can go whitewater rafting, hiking, and swinging through a canopy-​level ropes course.

A version of this story first appeared in the July 2024 issue of Travel + Leisure under the headline “Learning to Evolve.”