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Hello -
Just got back from a 10 day Peruvian vacation put together by Nina Fogelman of Ancient Summit. This was a vacation of a lifetime - a 40th birthday present for my husband - and turned out wonderful.
Peru is a beautiful country. We did the Cusco - Sacred Valley - Machu Picchu itinerary. We stayed at Sol Y Luna for three nights (beautiful place with beautiful flora), Inkaterra Machu Picchu two nights (another beautiful hotel) and Royal Inka 1 two nights (standard hotel but very nice).
Nina put together a great vacation for us. My husband has MS and mobility issues, so Nina designed a trip for us that would be comfortable for my husband but still allow us to see the sights. Our main guide, Laura, was great. She was friendly, very knowledgeable, and spoke excellent English. Most of our meals were included in our package and the food was suprisingly good. We traveled to tourist sites but also got to visit some homes and villages that aren't visited regularly by visitors. These stops were the highlight of our trip. The people of Peru are so beautiful and we were lucky that Nina let us meet them.
A couple of other ways Ancient Summit hit the mark. Our flight from the US was running 8 hours late. I called Nina late at night to let her know and she promised that they would figure everything out for us. We missed our connecting flight to Cusco but Nina's staff in Lima managed to get us on the last flight of the day to Cusco by doing some majornegotiating with the LAN rep at the airport. Without her help we would have not gotten on that flight and would have been pretty shook up since we really didn't speak the language and would have put us a day behind in our itinerary.
Again - our guide and our driver were wonderful. On time and made us feel safe and comfortabe in Peru. My husband also liked that we got to spend some meals with our guides and drivers and we got a chance to exchange stories and the cultures of two countries.
The best thing of all about Ancient Summit was the price was very reasonable. Since coming home and doing a little research on some other tour companies that I noticed on our trip - I realized that the cost of our trip was much less than some itineraries were almost identical to ours (without the added bonus of meeting local people and villages).
If anyone has any specific questions on our trip or Ancient Summit please let me know.
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awesome report thanks for psoting
www.ancientsummit.com
Nina gets great reviews on all the boards
have never seen a negative review...
and best of all she truly cares for the people of Peru.
Regarding the Machu Picchu portion of your trip, do you recommend staying at the Inkaterra for two nights? Or would one have been enough? Was the three hour train ride comfortable? How about the bus ride up to the Machu Picchu?
Thanks for any advice you can offer.SQ
SuQue -
We were really tired from our hike up to Huayna Picchu and spending the entire day at Machu Picchu that unfortunatley we didn't take advantage of all the hotel had to offer (nature tours, etc). So if I were to do it again, I would have only stayed one night since it was pretty expensive. I would plan on taking an early train from the Sacred Valley and arrive in Aguas Caliente early enough to explore the city. Then do Machu Picchu the next day and head back down to the Sacred Valley in the late afternoon or early evening.
I don't remember the train ride being three hours but we caught it from the SV and not Cusco. Yes, it was comfortable. Not luxury but not uncomfortable. They served a snack/drink and there was so much to look at. Plus - on the way back you will probably be exhausted. The bus ride was fine too - again you have so much to look at that it goes really fast.
Thanks for your helpful reply.
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offtohawaii,
I am considering hiring Ancient Summit as our pathway in Peru. I spoke to NIna last night. I do have some questions for you. We have the luxury of staying in Peru for two weeks. Did you choose your own hotels or did you allow her to choose the hotels. If she chose them, were you happy with her choices? Could you tell me where you stayed in
Lima
Cusco
Sacred Valley
Did you get to visit some weavers, markets in out of the way places?
Oh sorry, I saw where you stayed in the Sacred Valley!
Sorry, I haven't checked this forum in a while. I loved Sol Y Luna in the Sacred Valley. Our hotel in Cusco was Royal Inka I and it was ok. Not wonderful but a great location and much cheaper than Sol Y Luna. Our hotel in Lima (we were only there for 1 day) was an apartment like hotel with a kitchen. It was nice and the bathrooms were huge. Like as big as a bedroom back home. It was an interesting use of space to say the least.
Nina sent us a document with a bunch of hotels she recommended and then we picked the hotels from there. I did some research on here and trip advisor to make the final selection. Good luck!