Peru-Lima-Cusco-MP-Nazca-Puno- 9-10 nights

a guidebook recommendation....Fodors, of course.

www.kuodatours.com

www.peruforless.com

can do group discounts cheaper than you can...

Go with one of them.

Group DIY can be a nightmare if you do not have expertise.

Thanks.

Hi. I'm also traveling to Lima & Cusco next June 2010. We are a group of 5 people. I'm actually from Peru, but my friends are not.

Yes, it is cheaper if you plan your own trip. We are booking our hotels online. We purchased our tickets from Washington DC to Lima already. We got the roundtrip tickets for a very cheap price (~$400), so I recommend buying them ahead of time.

In Cusco, we want to see Macchu Picchu, Cusco City, the Sacred Valley of the Incas, and the Inti Raymi festival. So, we'll be booking tours for this online in January.

We'll be in Lima for 3 days.

The total price of our trip (including hotels, tours in Cusco, international/domestic flights) is $990 per person.

Amazing airfare! We are paying $760 on CO (direct flight) from Houston! Ouch

I have done all of the bookings myself for our trip this June for 5 of us. I booked airfare from NY in Nov. for $230 RT to Lima. Using the Taca & Star Peru websites for air travel within Peru was simple. I have done a wire transfer to book the train trip to Machu Pichu from Ollantaytambo. Hotels are very easy to book by internet. With an international calling card, phone calls are .35 per minute or use Skype for free. Peru for Less gave me an outrageously expensive quote for a one night trip to Paracas so I would not recommend them.

There are many hotels to choose from and most of them include airport pick-up as part of their service. Given how much tours are charging, I would definetly do it myself. Our most expensive part is our week with Panticolla Tours in Manu, but even they have run specials this Spring. Good luck & don't be afraid to do it yourself!!!!

We booked through Gate 1 Travel and saved $1000 in airfare alone (for two people). They gave you a very wide choice of flights and I compared the price by pricing the exact same flights myself. I don't know how much we saved or lost by not booking our own hotel rooms but the final price was excellent. We did choose the B (cheaper) hotels from Gate 1. We looked at Kuoda tours and their tour was very nice but upscale and cost about 2-3 thousand dollars more, NOT including airfare. If we had been able to use frequent flyer miles we might have chosen Kuoda. A friend just did Egypt and Israel with Gate 1 and raved about the trip. Trip advisor and Epinions has reviews.

I should have mentioned that this trip is for August so I can't speak from first hand info yet.