The Galápagos Islands are in the eastern Pacific Ocean, about 900–1,000 km (roughly 600 miles) west of mainland Ecuador in South America, and they belong to Ecuador.

Quick Scoop

  • The islands sit on the equator , so the archipelago straddles both the Northern and Southern Hemisphere.
  • They lie roughly 605–620 miles (about 973–1,000 km) off the west coast of South America, with Ecuador as the closest landmass.
  • Politically, the Galápagos form a province of Ecuador and are protected as a national park and marine reserve.

Handy map-style details

  • Approximate coordinates: around 1° north to 1° south latitude and 89° to 92° west longitude.
  • The archipelago is a group of volcanic islands spread over about 45,000 square km of ocean, with around 3,000 square km of land.

If you imagine it on a globe

  • Picture the west coast of South America, find Ecuador, then move your finger straight out into the Pacific Ocean about a thumb’s length on a standard school map to “discover” the islands.
  • Because they are isolated and right on major ocean currents, the islands have very unusual wildlife, which helped inspire Darwin’s ideas on evolution.

In forum and travel discussions, people often describe the Galápagos as feeling “in the middle of the Pacific, level with the equator, opposite Ecuador” — which is a pretty good mental shortcut for their location.

TL;DR: The Galápagos Islands are an Ecuadorian volcanic archipelago in the Pacific Ocean, sitting on the equator about 600 miles west of mainland Ecuador in South America.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.