Free Enterprise

Cruise

Owner‘s Description

The Free Enterprise is a 20-passenger sailing yacht with style, comfort, and charm. Ten double cabins, with twin upper and lower berths or double bed, are equipped with private bathroom, hot water, and air-conditioning. Social areas are limited but comfortable, with communal dining room, bar/lounge, and some deck space. Snorkeling and scuba-diving equipment is also available for a price.

Four-day, five-day, and eight-day depart on Tuesdays and Saturdays.

Traveler Reviews of Free Enterprise

Great Galapagos Trip

Rating: 75%

We flew back from our 8 day trip to the Galapagos yesterday. It was a wonderful experience. We stayed on a boat called Intrepido, also known as the Free Enterprise. It was better than we expected & had a nice lounger area & sun deck. The rooms were ok, until ours flooded & we had to move. Food was ok, but nothing to write home about. Our guides Eddie & Raphael were excellent, very knowledgable. The itinery was fantastic & we saw different animals each day & got so close to them. We went to some beautiful white sandy beaches, swam & snorkelled with all sorts of sealife. I could go on & on, but instead will just list a few highlights:- Rabida Island, had a red beach & its where we saw our first sea lions. Two babies, no more than 3 weeks old were playing on the beach. One of them came right up to me, very curious & the other laid down in one of my flippers. We had our first experience here of snorkelling with sea lions too. They swim right up to your face & then turn upside down & then underneath you. At Bartolomew Island, we waked across black lava from a volcano explosion in 1888 that joined 5 islands together. The patterns it left were incredible. From there we walked down to the white beach & clear blue sea for swimming & saw 18 galapagos penguins.

By V!VA user from New Zealand, Dec 20, 2008

don't go on Free Enterprise!

Rating: -10%

the berths stank of insect poison and the engine continually broke down

By V!VA User from australia, Nov 19, 2007

DO NOT TRAVEL ON THIS BOAT

Rating: 0%

The Free Enterprise/Intrepid frequently breaks down. The captain and crew will even pretend that the boat is broken down just so they do not have to sail to some of the islands. The guides are drunk most of the time. The boat changes its name regularly as its reputation in the Galapagos is shot to pieces. Companies that book places on the boat include Intrepid travel and Galasam. Almost all tour companies in Ecuador refuse to book places on this boat! The manager of the company that runs the boat, Miguel, is a low, dishonest man who just wants as much money from you as he can get. Sadly we only found this out after booking our trip but we hope no one else gets robbed like we felt we were.

By V!VA User from Australia, Nov 17, 2007

Free Enterprise

Rating: 25%

Wish I had found this site before we went on our trip. We were not told the real name of our boat...
Galapagos was a great experience and our fellow travellers fun, well worth a visit, but do not go on the Free Enterprise.
All was said before was true. Our cabin was extremely dirty, cockroaches and all and we did not have water for four days. Others were luckier.
Food was basic and edible, drinks exhorbitantly priced and unfortunately our naturalist not over enthousiastic. There were only briefings in the evening,.. very brief..
Thank god we had lots of info between the passengers.

By V!VA User from England, Apr 09, 2007

If you want to drown choose the Free Enterprise

Rating: 0%

One of the guides was really good, the other one told us to dive at the Devil's Crown and didn't inform us at all about the risks. I almost drowned and got cuts all over my body and 4 other people also got bad cuts. We found out later that it was prohibited to dive there and people had died. The captain is a pig. He wrote his initials on my back without me knowing it when he cleaned my cuts and touched another girl's breast. The last day the crew didn't even bother to wake up and make us breakfast or take us to the airport. If you want special food, they don't really listen to your requests and they give you what they feel like giving you.

By V!VA User, Jul 24, 2006

Please don`t work with Free Enterprise and Gaby

Rating: 0%

We really had a bad situation with this company Mora Tours that is the owner of the 2 yachts, the Free Enterprise and the Gaby. We booked in advance the 5 day program in the Gaby yacht and our travel agency confirm all the services. Unfortunately when we arrived to Galapagos we had no guide, no boat, no services and the people from Mora Tours told us they had a problem with the Gaby and they will take us to the Free Enterprise but we couldn't sleep in the Free Enterprise so had to go to a hotel. Finally we didnt get the tour we bought, they gave us back some money and MORA TOURS. Please don't use their services to plan a full trip almost one year in advance and have so many problems is not fair.

By V!VA User from Germany, Jun 17, 2006

Great place - awful boat

Rating: 0%

First let me say, that the Galapagos Islands is a truly magnificent place, and that I most highly recommend taking a cruise around the islands. Just don't take the Free Enterprise!!! Overall, the boat has a very nice atmosphere, the crew is very friendly and the naturalists are both friendly and competent. However, the management of the boat is so poor, that it wrecked our entire trip. Halfway through our cruise, the boat had had some complaints about the many cockroaches aboard, and the generally poor hygiene, so the management decided to fumigate the ship in the middle of the cruise! They did this while we where in port for a short day-trip, without telling us about it, so all our luggage which were lying in our cabins where fumigated as well. When we got back on the boat, the air below deck was so thick with toxic gasses, that you couldn't breathe properly for more than a few minutes, so we had to cancel the rest of the cruise and get off the boat. A few of the passengers were willing to continue the trip and sleep on the deck, so the cruise continued, but they didn't get more than 5 minutes out of the harbour before the engine broke down, and they had to be towed back. When we later went to the owner of the boat to get our money back, they only offered us a very small compensation, not nearly covering our costs for the trip, so we had to get help from the local Chamber of Tourism. The Chamber of Tourism were extremely helpful, and helped us get a larger portion of our money refunded. They have been working for a long time on shutting down the company behind the boat (Mora Tours), but unfortunately, they have not had any luck yet. So, in summary, the islands are fantastic, but do not book a cruise from Mora Tours (boats Free Enterprise and Gaby).

By V!VA User from Copenhagen, Denmark, May 11, 2006

The islands are great, shame about the boat

Rating: 25%

The good points: One of the three guides we observed was excellent, one was OK. The crew worked incredibly hard, and were friendly and fun. The islands are amazing and worth almost any amount of trouble to see. And we did eventually see everything on our itinerary (although some of it was rather rushed). The bad points: The boat broke down and had to return to Puerto Ayora after visiting only one island. The owner (Mora Tours in Puerto Ayora) is in my opinion dishonest - he told us the boat could almost certainly be fixed, then waited until after all the other agencies had shut before telling us it couldn't, so we had no chance to see if we could find another tour. He then offered us a choice between transferring to his other boat (the Gaby) with no air conditioning, or an immediate refund of our money. When those of us who transferred to the Gaby returned two days later we found one of those who had left the boat having the owner escorted by the police to the bank to pay the money he'd still refused to hand over. He also tried to get all the passengers to sign a form (in Spanish only, of course) agreeing not to make any complaints about the trip. In short, my advice is: Go to the Galapagos, it's great. Do not book on the Free Enterprise or the Gaby, or have anything to do with Mora Tours. I'd also be very cautious about Pam Tours in Quito, who we originally booked through: they gave us wrong information about itineraries, showed us pictures of a different boat to the one they were telling us about, and told us the Gaby had recently been bought by a new company and was now better, while the owner told us he'd owned it for eight years.

By V!VA User from New Zealand, Feb 28, 2006

Beautiful trip

Rating: 75%

We had a beautiful trip on this charming boat, in spite of the (small) cockroaches and occasionally overflowing shower... One of the two guides (Patricio) was excellent, the crew was very friendly and there was a nice group of travellers. The bar is overpriced compared to the ecuadorian mainland, the food was good and included a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables. I recommend the Free Enterprise as a mid-range Galápagos tour boat!

By V!VA User from Berlin, Germany, Nov 05, 2005

high seas adventure

Rating: 75%

Great company on the first leg of the tour, food was great, guides were so-so, boat is for the young at heart, sense of humor necessary when residing with numerous cockroaches, what air conditioning?? Raul and Victor should be on the QE2. Wilson should walk the plank for his indiscriminate attempts at bunking up with anything female.

By V!VA User from New York, Oct 23, 2005

An Amazing Experience

Rating: 100%

In a nutshell: better than average food, comfortable accommodations but most importantly FUN and KNOWLEDGEABLE STAFF! Their knowledge of geology and ecology of the area was top knotch... and they were all excellent dancers!

By V!VA User from Edmonton, Canada, Oct 19, 2005