Here at WoWasis, we recommend two nature guidebooks for travelers to the Galapagos. We’ve already reviewed Pierre Constant’s Marine Life of the Galapagos: The Diver’s Guide to Fishes, Whales, Dolphins, and Marine Invertebrates, which is the essential marine life guide. For land animals, plants and flowers, you won’t find a better one than Wildlife of the Galapagos (2000, ISBN 978-0-691-10295-5), written by Julian Fitter, Daniel Fitter, and David Hosking.

At 4 ½ x 7 ½ inches, it’s easy to carry when hiking and its plasticized cover is rugged enough to survive well through constant use. The book contains more than 400 color photographs and covers more than 200 commonly seen species, including birds, mammals, reptiles, and plants. At 256 pages, it includes essays on history, climate, and geology, and make for a very good preliminary read before reaching the islands. Like many books on the Galapagos, it’s not readily available when you reach the islands, so you’ll want to buy it before you go.

The book is also a key to planning your trip well before you go. Our favorite part of the book is the 23 pages of island maps denoting hiking trails with keys to where you’ll encounter specific animals and plants. We’ve written a previous post on how to simplify a Galapagos visit, must reading, because at first the plethora of options seems so daunting (and expensive).  We now wish that we’d read this book before our visit. If we had we would have been better aware of the spectacular geological views to be had on Isla Bartolomé, which is otherwise a bit too easy to miss. The authors are keen on photography and the book is to a very large extent geared to people desiring to come away with memorable photographs.

If you’re contemplating or planning a trip to these remarkable islands, you’ll want to buy this book first in order to determine your own visiting priorities. Buy it now at the WoWasis eStore.