Cost of your trip - MP and Sacred Valley
 

Hi,

We are currently planning our trip to Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley in August 2007. We have a breakdown of the projected costs but I want to make sure the prices are reasonable (and that we are not overpaying). Would anyone be willing to give us an idea of what they paid for certain things?

We are primarily interested in what people paid for airfare, guides, food, and transportation.

Here are some our projected costs, what do think?

Airfare: NY(JFK) to Lima, non-stop overnight flight to Lima and connection to Cusco = $2400 roundtrip($1200 p/person) Does this sound reasonable for late August? This is what makes the trip so expensive so I want to be sure we aren't overpaying. Although, we aren't really willing to take a flight with stops and layovers.

Private Transportation from Cusco to hotel in Sacred Valley = $78 for the two of us (each way)

2-day Inca trail = $229 each person (includes guide, meals on trail, train tickets, entrance to MP, one-way bus fare)

Guide for day spent at MP = $108 each person (includes RT bus fare, guide, and entrance ticket to MP)

How much should we expect to pay for dinners in the Sacred Valley? We plan on going to restaurants in Ollantaytambo and not just eating in the hotel. We enjoy trying different things and try not to limit ourselves to just what the hotel has to offer.

How much should we expect to pay for day tours around the Sacred Valley? and Cusco?

Thanks for any input/suggestions, we really appreciate it!

Your airfare is pretty high for economy, low for first. The flight from Lima to Cusco is approximately $250. First from Miami can be as low as $900. Economy is usually around $600. From NY, it's a bit more, but not tremendously so.

I wouldn't just have the driver take you straight to your hotel in the Sacred Valley. I'd turn the transfer into an all-day private tour. There's a lot to see between Cusco and Ollaytantambo. Ours even included an amazing lunch.

How are you getting back from MP to Cusco? I highly suggest the Hiram Bingham train. It's a much more enjoyable way, and they provide you with a guide for the day. It also includes lunch at Sanctuary, a 4-course dinner on the luxury train, tickets, and the bus. It's also nice to have access to Sanctuary to leave your bags, use the nice bathrooms, etc. They also take care of transfering your bags to the train back to Cusco. It makes the day much nicer.

All our transfers, guides, tours were included on one bill through our travel agent. If you give me an email address, I can send you the quote, as well as our itinerary.

At first reading, these prices seemed high to me, but I've almost always made all my own arrangements when I travel in Peru and (usually) waited until I arrived to do so. There is a cost associated with having everything arranged in advance and having someone else do it for you.

Example: You can go outside the airport in Cusco and find a taxi to take you out Ollantaytambo, probably for less, but you'd have to do it. There wouldn't be someone waiting there for you with your name on a sign. That is a reassuring feeling, but you pay more for those services.

You can do Machu Picchu without a guide but with a good guidebook and with a lot of reading done in advance. The guide is very nice, but that's an extra expense.

You have to have a guide for the Inca Trail portion of your trip. There's no way around that, and for an August trip, you should be booking that now. Those fill up quickly.

I'm not sure how much better you can do for airfare to and from. August is the high season, and round-trip airfares from the northern U.S. run about $700-$900 to Lima. The Lima-Cusco R/T portion is another $200-$250. I assume you are flying LAN. That's the only non-stop I know from JFK to Lima. Delta, American and Continental fly to Lima too. It would mean a stop and change of flights. I wouldn't reject them outright just because of that if they turned out to be cheaper. That's me. It's something only you can decide.

Has anyone used peru4youtours? We're trying to arrange some tours in advance for Machu Picchu, Sacred Valley and Lake Titicaca and we've been emailing them but have no idea if they're legitimate.

Sorry Roz, never heard of them.

Hi hills27,

my e-mail is [email protected].

Thanks!

We (4 adults and two children) are also visiting Peru in late August- Cusco, Sacred Valley, Machu Pichu, Titicaca, Manu Biosphere and Colca Canyon. Your airfares are very similar to what we got. I found that Continental had the cheapest fares from NYC to Lima/Cusco when we booked, but we had to go with slightly higher AA fares because of schedule preferences etc.
We are doing the Express Inca Trail with similar costs as yours.
As for transportation in and around Cusco, our guide is charging us $48/per adult and $38/child for a tour around Cusco and surrounding ruins (Sacsayhuaman, Q’enqo, Pucapucara and Tambomachay), starting and ending in Cusco. The next day, we will pay $28/pp for a Sacred Valley Tour starting from Cusco including Pisaq ruins, Urubamba and Ollantaytambo. We will be spending that night at Ollantaytambo. The costs include private transportation and guide.
Hope this is useful.

I'm scrambling to find decent prices for a June visit. Of course, my friend who'd like to go is only available that month and June is prime time season in Cuzco, with the Inti Raymi (solstice) festival. Which, by the by, anybody have any experience w/ visiting during this time?