adventures.worldnomads.com/destination/168/itinerary/23.aspx

www.cruzdelsur.com.pe best bus

www.perucontact.com best hotels

www.hostelbookers.com best hostels

Easy to DIY if adventurous or www.kuodatours.com if not.

Have fun,

I don't think you need to join a tour for you entire trip in Peru, but depending on what part of Peru you're visiting, doing a partial group tour could be beneficial and even fun . Since you have more than 2 people travelling with you you can easily organize a private guided tour for just your group if you so desired. Of course it depends on what part of Peru you're visiting, but overall I thought Peru was very easy for an independent traveller.

I've not been to Bolivia, but I think it might be a little bit more difficult. But again since you're not travelling solo, I'd think it's easier to arrange for your own group tour from a reputable agency.

I think a good guidebook would help you narrow things down and give you some ideas of things you might like to do and places you might like to see.

If you're U.S. citizens, you'll need visas to travel to Bolivia to the tune of $132 each.

Good reminder about the Bolivian visas. When I went to Peru I was going to have a 2 day add-on to Bolivia until I learned about the visa. It's not so much the $132 but the hassle of having photos made, filling out paperwork and sending off my passport to the Bolivian Embassy. If you aren't going to spend very much time in Bolivia you might want to re-evalute whether or not it's worth it. You could easily fill up your time in Peru where a visa is not required.

If you are not American then you may disregard all of the above.

thank you all. the information is all very helpful.

I did Peru and Boliva pretty much on my own last year. I did do the tourist bus from Cusco to Puno, and joined a tour from Puno to La Paz, Boliva with a stop at Sun Island on Lake Titicaca. I looked into crossing the border without the tour and it would have been a hassel.

My wife and I are going to be in Peru and Bolivia at the end of May and in June (and then heading off to Rio).

Here's our itinerary:

2 nights in Tambopata Nature Reserve (Macaw Clay Lick, looking for River Otters, etc.)

2 nights in Ica (Nazca Lines, Paracas, Pisco Winery tour)

2 nights in Arequipa (just looking around the city)

2 nights in Colca Canyon (Condor lookout and other scenery)

2 nights in Puno and 1 night in La Paz (Lake Titicaca, both Peruvian and Bolivian side)

3 nights in Salar de Uyuni (we're doing a tour that starts in Uyuni and ends in San Pedro de Atacama, but it would be easy enough to end back in Uyuni and head back to La Paz)

Not everyone's cup of tea, I'm sure, but that's some food for thought.

If you plan on visiting Cusco or the SC, I would recommend looking into having Percy as a guide for a day or two. We had an amazing time a few months ago with him. It would be a much more personalized time if you went with him for the day rather than a tour group.

Jeffrey

ambitous trip and go gog o but sounds good. My only advice is brush up on your spanish fi you haven't already. Especially as you hit Bolivia, you won't find an english speaker for a thousand miles. Have a blast.

-Andreas

Our family of 5 (children ages 15, 13 and 9 at the time) did a short 3-week trip to Peru and Bolivia in June 2008 without a tour.

Unfortunately, I've already forgotten some of the details, such as the names of some of the hotels/BnBs. Basically our itinerary was as follows:

Lima - Cuzco - Urubamba (Sacred Valley) - Cuzco (hooked up with LlamaPath to hike Inca Trail)- Maccu Piccu - Cuzco - Puno - Copacabana - La Paz- Salar de Uyuni - Potosi - Sucre - La Paz - home.

We flew from Lima to Cuzco and from Sucre to La Paz. Other than this, we took local transportation between stops. We toured the Salar with a guide and driver that we pre-booked over the internet before leaving home. As well, all our hotels and even our homestay with a family on one of the floating islands in L. Titicaca was booked over the net. I spent a few months lurking on this site, TA and Thorntree and reading the Footprint guidebook to Peru and Bolivia. My husband speaks enough Spanish to ask directions and order food.

If you need more specifics, I'm sure I could go through some of my old files. However, my info is now two years old and I am sure you could find more up to date info from this site.

It's a trip easily done on your own even with tired and hungry kids in tow. Enjoy, it was a wonderful experience.

Karen