Hello,

We're going to the Sacred Valley in October and our initial itineray looks like this:

Day 1 - fly into Lima, overnight
Day 2 - fly to Cuzco, rent a car, and head to Ollantaytambo, overnight
Day 3 - relax and leisurely explore
Day 4 - Machu Picchu, overnight in Ollanta
Day 5-6 - back to Cuzco for two nights
Day 7-9 - to Puno and Lake Titicaca for 3 nights (2 in Puno and 1 in islands)

Then we'll have 4 more nights before heading back to Lima.

My questions are this: how is this initial itinerary (too long in Cuzco)? What could we do for the last leg of the trip without exhausting ourselves, but still pack enough in? We thought about taking a bus to Bolivia (but Iheard we may need advance visas), or heading into Parque Manu (enough time?).

Any advice or recommendations is appreciated, as always!!

Lori

I'd fly to Arequipa and spend a couple days there. From Arequipa you could go to the Colca Canyon for an overnight or 2 nights. We especially enjoyed Colca Canyon.

yestravel--

We are looking at Colca Canyon for a 4 day trek. One of the primary reasons I selected this area is that supposedly there are a number of villages in the canyon one can walk to. Did you find this to be the case? Thanks.

Yes, Julies, there are some villages that you can hike to. Time didn't allow us to do that--we did a 2 day 1 night tour from Arequipa. However, several of the people on the tour did leave the tour and hike around for a few days and then picked up another tour to return to Arequipa. Some camped and others stayed at hotels. The ones we talked to after they did this, loved it. It's a beautiful area.

Thanks for the replys and great suggestions on Arequipa. Our itinerary is starting ot look like this:

- Fly into Lima, stay in airport and catch first flight to Cuzco. Transfer to Ollantaytambo for 3 nights.

- See Machu Picchu on 3rd day in Ollanta.

- back to Cuzco for 2 nights (weekend)

- Take bus to Puno and Titicaca

- To Arequipa for 3 days, then back to Lima and home

Can anyone tell me what the best way is to get from Puno to Arequipa? I haven't read good things about Juliaca, but I think that's the only place to fly out of. Is it worth it to drive, or hire a driver, or should we just fly?

Thanks again!!!

Our itinerary was precisely the same as your original posting. We thought it was just about perfect for the time we had. Wished we'd had a few extra days for Arequipa! And yes, an extra night in Ollanta (per your revised itinerary) would have been quite nice - we didn't really have enough time for Pisac (didn't get up to the ruins). You're going to have a GREAT time!
Karen