Peru car rental

Old Oct 27th, 2008, 06:41 AM
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Peru car rental

I will be traveling to the Sacred Valley for 5 nights after arriving in Cusco. After searching the forum one person mentioned renting a car.

Search the WWW I did not find much info the only actual price I got quoted was 850, which I hope was not USD.

The easiest would be to pick up from the Cusco airport and go directly to The sacred valley.

Who to rent from and how much are cars? If they are really expensive then no way. But I can't imagine why they would be more than renting in Italy!
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Old Oct 27th, 2008, 08:55 PM
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We have usually rented a car for our travels. My husband has driven in much of Europe and the UK. Italy was "interesting". But even he was glad not to be driving in Peru! It made Italy look calm and serene. We hired a driver in Cusco, at the airport, to drive us to Ollantaytambo. He returned for us two days later. The bargaining he did for us at markets more than made up for the cost. Plus, he kept up a running commentary as he drove. He checked out our lodgings and even got us fed at restaurants that were closed, but they cooked for us anyway. I never thought we would hire a driver, but we were glad we made that decision.
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Old Oct 27th, 2008, 10:12 PM
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I forgot the #1 reason renting a car in Cusco is, perhaps, not the best choice. There are almost no street signs in town, and very few signs once you get out of town and onto the highway. Cusco and the area surrounding it is a town of nearly 1,000,000 people and very narrow streets. Even when we came to small towns or villages along the way they were often unnamed on signs.

Rules of the road appear to just be suggestions and there is a complicated system of horn honking. Many cars have more than one tone to warn pedestrians or other vehicles. It was unusual, but worked well. We never figured it out. Watch out for speed bumps on the roadways!

If you do rent a car, I wish you luck. It will surely be an experience you won't soon forget.
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Old Oct 30th, 2008, 03:29 PM
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I think for now I'll pass. How about Taxi's and collectivos?

We will have a RT sacred valley (Yukay) to cusco ride arranged in advance from the tour company we are going with, which is a specialty running tour of Peru.

http://www.andesadventures.com/run2b.htm

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Old Oct 30th, 2008, 03:38 PM
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I'm not sure if I can edit a post so anyway I am replying to myself.

Yeah I know this trip is crazy but its the sort of thing I do on vacation. I have a 175 mile Christmas trek in Nepal in a few weeks!
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Old Nov 8th, 2008, 08:40 PM
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RobertR

I have been off line for a bit due to my mom's illness. She passed away and life has been crazy. Life is settling back into some sort of normalcy. You may already be off traveling.

Taxis are EVERYWHERE! We found them outside of every museum and park and on every street. I don't think we ever had to wait more than 5 minutes for an acceptable taxi. Between Juliaca and Puno we went down to the local bus stop and paid for a local bus. Even the tourist busses were inexpensive, and were also part of the Peru experience as long as you don't go first class. I will admit to taking one first class bus into the Jungle from Lima. Most of our travel was by taxi. We learned so much from our taxi drivers about the areas we traveled in.

Enjoy your travels!
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Old Nov 12th, 2008, 10:52 AM
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I'm sorry to hear about your mother passing away (rolncathy).

Taxi or hire a driver is the way to go in Peru. We've driven in every country in Europe. It's so inexpensive to hire, rather than rent a car in Peru.

Taxi anywhere in Cusco for 3 solos ($1USD). We stayed in San Blas district and walked DOWN to the square then used a taxi up to our hostel or father out. Simple. They are everywhere.

Taxi around Lima - We stayed in the M.Flores district and it cost us 20 solos to go to the airport.

Advice: Bargain before you get in the taxi. Make sure it is a reputable taxi service - we got ripped off a couple times by drivers who just put a sticker that says, "taxi" on their windshield. Taxi drivers never seem to have change for bigger bills (strange huh? lol) so they want to keep the change. Go to a bank upon arriving in Peru and get change for drivers and for tips.

We arranged for a driver with our hotel for a driver to take us from the airport in Cusco to Ollyantambo. I think it was around 80 solos. He spoke good English. Stopped at the salt mines for no extra. Helped us pick out places to eat, etc.

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Old Nov 12th, 2008, 11:18 AM
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Sorry about your loss, rolncathy.

There is one person on this forum who did rent a car and had no problems. Maybe u could do a search and find her posts. We didn't rent a car and were sorry afterwards that we didn't. I would avoid driving in Cusco, but u can certainly leave there and the roads seemed fine in SV and were marked. We too always drive ourselves and got scared off doing it in Peru. I think we would have done just fine.

All that said, the guide we used provided a wealth of information.
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Old Apr 19th, 2010, 01:29 PM
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This is my first time on fodor's and my first reply. I joined to ask you how your car rental went in the Sacred Valley. I hope this is the correct way to ask. I know it was a couple of years ago when you went. I am going in June 2010 and would like to rent a car. there will be five of us. I read all the replies where most people were against the idea. Did you ever rent a car? How did it go? Do you have any problems? What rental place did you use? Where do you park your rental car when you go to muchu picchu? Any help or suggestions is appreciated.
Thank You
Iamgoin
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Old Apr 20th, 2010, 08:17 AM
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Taxis are cheaper than car rentals. You get a Spanish-speaking person who actually knows where they are going, as well as a car.
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