Bartolome Island

Bartolomé is the most recognizable-and photographed-island in the archipelago given its distinctive Pinnacle Rock, a towering rock face eroded to a sharp point, and its appearance in the film, Master and Commander. Visitors can climb a wooden staircase to the island's 114-meter summit and take in some of the most spectacular panoramic views in the archipelago. The island also has a truly unique lava landscape, complete with pioneer plants like the candelabra cactus.

The other visitor site is a series of small, white-sand beaches at the tapered center of the barbell-shaped island. Here visitors can snorkel around Pinnacle Rock, one of the best overall snorkel sites to search for tropical fish as well as Galápagos penguins, marine turtles, and white-tipped reef sharks. Or they can walk along a sandy trail to an identical white-sand beach on the other side of the island, where white-tipped reef sharks in the surf hungrily await baby green sea turtles that have been hatched on land.