Travel tips to Peru?

Hey guys, I was wondering if any of you have been to Peru A friend and I are thinking about going for a week to see Machu Picchu, Inca Trail, and so forth. Can any of you could recommend good websites that provide general travel tips, as well as any ideas for good tour groups for the Inca Trail? We are thinking about going in March or April. Thanks, Numi

I would buy Lonely Planet: Peru and check out what kind of things interest you. I live off of those books.

I would recommend places, but have only cruised through the Lima airport - never set foot on the soil … =)

Thanks, Philip - I did pick up a copy of the Lonely Planet book already and it’s definitely a good one. Would love to hear more about personal experiences in Peru, if you or anyone else might have some. FYI I am also thinking about going to Costa Rica in March or April (possibly instead of Peru). I have about a week’s worth of vacation days that I have to use up by then or I lose them.

I’ve been looking at itineraries for Machu Pichu trips, and I found this one (see Link) with Mountain Travel Sobek. Link: http://www.mtsobek.com/cgi-bin/trip.py?tripID=OTH

Peru is awsome. I woudl recomend inca/trail amch pichu its amazing. When I did it we ended up stay in

I went- it was great. I did the 4 day walk and recommend it over the other options. When I did it the only way on the trail was with a group. You basically pay the fee (which wasn’t too much because I was pretty broke at the time and cannot remember it being a huge issue) and meet up with the group. Mine had about 8 ppl and we were bused to the begging of the trail and started hiking from there. you are basically on your own as everyone sets their own pace. There are porters that carry camping equipment who are like little inca wondermen running past you in flip-flops with 50k of goods strapped to their backs. They set up camp before you get there and break it down afterwards- repeat. Take into mind the altitude as it might effect you if you are just flying in for the trip. I bussed it in and was somewhat acclimated so it didn’t really effect me too much, but many ppl on the trail complained. I also treated myself to a western meal the night before we left (since I’d been eating nothing but highly suspect bolivian/peruvian street food for the couple weeks prior) and payed for it greatly when I had massive digestive issues mid-trail from day one. Don’t eat raw produce- there is a reason the locals don’t :slight_smile: !! The big benefit to doing the trail vs the train is that you get to machu-picchu at dawn and miss the train crowd (camera wielding middle aged gringos). I thought is was amazing and really regret being so sick though it as I was on the verge of passing out the whole time. Also, don’t be too turned off about the whole tour thing- it wasn’t as bad as it sounds. The guides and porters are locals and were actually really great around the campfire at night to explain the whole history and teach us a little Quechua. We stayed in a hostel (really nice) the night before and bought the passes when we got there without issue, and much cheaper per others who pre-booked from abroad. Cuzco is really nice to, but it is touristy with the typical peddlers and shoeshine boys. I remember the market was great. You could do a day-trip to lake titicaca, but I wouldn’t really recommend it.

There is a Peruvian guy in the forum, Cesar, I don’t he’s posted recently. http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/ Since you’ll be in the neighborhood, I would recommend a side trip to Bolivia’s Uyuni Salt Flats and Buenos Aires

Thanks for the suggestions, guys. akanska – great tips. I am really going to try to push this trip to Peru around end of March, but not sure how feasible that will be because I am having a hard time trying to find tour packages of the Inca Trail. cjones65, I checked the site you suggested and it looks like the earliest availability is May/June. What I might end up doing is to just get plane tickets, book some hotels in Cuzco and Lima or whatever, and then book the Inca Trail/Machu Picchu tour with a local tour company (instead of trying to buy a travel package to Peru). Is this what you did? Would you recommend it? ceo1975 – I took a quick look at that travelblog.org site, and it is awesome. If I can’t get the Peru trip together in time, I’ll certainly use that as my inspiration to check out some other destinations (most likely in Latin America or Western Europe).

honestly- if you only have 5-7 days I’d go for Costa Rica. Go lay on a beach, relax, get some sun… its been a rough winter in dallas ; ) Just seems like its not really worth it to go all the way to Peru. There is so much to see in the area, and just the trail will take up 4+ days so its better to have more time. If you are just burning expiring vaca days I’d hit up the beach idea and leave SA for when you have a couple weeks. In 15 days you can do it justice and go to bolivia/argentina for a couple days as well as noted above by ceo1975. The salt flats are AMAZING, but there is no way you could do it in such a short time span. Bolivia is very underdeveloped and it takes a day just to get there from La Paz and you need more than a day to see everything.

akanska Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > honestly- if you only have 5-7 days I’d go for > Costa Rica. Go lay on a beach, relax, get some > sun… its been a rough winter in dallas ; ) Just > seems like its not really worth it to go all the > way to Peru. There is so much to see in the area, > and just the trail will take up 4+ days so its > better to have more time. If you are just burning > expiring vaca days I’d hit up the beach idea and > leave SA for when you have a couple weeks. In 15 > days you can do it justice and go to > bolivia/argentina for a couple days as well as > noted above by ceo1975. The salt flats are > AMAZING, but there is no way you could do it in > such a short time span. Bolivia is very > underdeveloped and it takes a day just to get > there from La Paz and you need more than a day to > see everything. What could one do in Costa Rica other than beach. Good place to go solo?

A friend of mine described the Uyuni Salt Flats as the world’s most amazing acid trip sans the acid… I agree, 5 days is not enough. You should definately cross the continent either Peru-Bolivia-Argentina or Brasil-Bolivia-Peru and take about 15-20 days to take it all in.

I’ve been considering going to Costa Rica in about a year (January 2010) is it a worthwhile place to visit? I’d be there two weeks probably.

Well, my lady friend and I are both of the mindset that we just want to get up and go somewhere. We’re both suffering a bit of job burnout (I only used 1/3 of my vacation days last year and she didn’t use any). Some place to get away, be it beaches, wildlife, or whatever, would be pretty cool. Right now, given time constraints as well as the possibility of mediocre weather in Peru in late March/April, I’m thinking about saving South America for a later time. Any of you guys been to the Galapagos? Is it going to be prohibitively expensive to get a trip together in a couple months? I know we can get Costa Rica together in a matter of weeks, but I’ve always wanted to go to the Galapagos.

My parent went there illegally (they are sailing around the world so they just sorta pulled up in their little sailboat)- they said it was amazing, so were the pics. I still think that considering the timespan, and even more so the reasons (burnout, etc) doing a relaxing trip might be better. Less stress in planning, and less stress/rushing once you get there.

Cuzco is really cool, had a great time in that town. Hire some motor bikes, go rafting, etc, party also rented an appartement in Lima in a suburb called Baranco (spelling?), not too far from mira flores, that was also good. Another time i stayed right near the airport, that wasn’t good. I think Costa Rica is great also, if your single even better

hey guys, I just saw this post, I was raised in Peru and been to Machu Pichu a couple of times, so let me know if you have any questions. I spent a month in Costa Rica too, let me if anything.

elrecio81 – would definitely like to be in touch with you about this. Can you please let me know your e-mail address? Either that, or kindly drop me an email at porcupines AT gmail DOT com. Thanks!

Hey, i’ve been to peru a few times, my wife is actually from peru. Here’s a blog of our most recent trip: We started with Puno (near Titicaca) and bussed to Cuzco for the Inti Raymi festival. http://www.travbuddy.com/travel-blogs/37919/lake-titicaca-Puno-2 (the links for following days is near the bottom of each page) If you go in March, you won’t have to worry about the Inti Raymi crowds. If you already comfortable with world travel and you like food, i would recommend a stop in Lima for at least 1.5 days. Very good eats and some interesting things to see, like the Inquisition museum. Most tourists will obviously stay in Mira Flores which is a half hour taxi ride from the airport. Obviously, its better if you speak spanish. Otherwise, perhaps better to stick with the standard tourist towns stuff like my wife put in the blog. Btw, I haven’t done the Inca Trail, so I can’t comment on that. However, the other way to see Macchua Picchu in the morning is to take the train from Cuzco and stay in Aguas Calientes in the night before. (its like a few miles away). Then they have a bus you can catch in the morning, i think at 6am, that gets there in 10 minutes. But, go a half hour early, the lines can be long, as tourists are aware of this now. Actually, if you wanted to walk on your own, i can’t imagine why you wouldn’t. Its not that far from Aguas Calientes. btw, some people don’t have problem with mountain sickness, but I do (coming from Chicago with only 100ft above sea level). So I arranged my trip so I would be in the mountain for 3 days before I did any serious hiking. I’ve been to Machu before without this acclimation and though it was still fun, it was quite exhausting. Oh yeah, +1 on using lonely planet or frodors or some other kind of travel book. preferably one more heavy on the info.

Hey xreflux – thanks for the detailed thoughts as well as the link to the blog. This is really helpful. I’ll be spending more time looking into this stuff over the weekend. I appreciate the advice.