Rolfg

We have booked a tour that stops in Lima and offers a two-night side trip to MP for $1575@, which seems a bit steep. Can anyone recommend a local tour agency or a route that gets us from Lima to MP and back for less money? Thanks for any suggestions you may have.

lifelist

You should be able to set this up yourself. All you need is a couple of roundtrip tickets from Lima to Cuzco and the train tickets. I bought my tickets on LanPeru for $200-300. You'll need to spend two nights in Cuzco, which should be relatively cheap - maybe $50 for a nice hotel room. Roundtrip train ticket Cuzco-Machu Picchu is about $100. Entrance fee to Machu Picchu is around $20 per person, and the bus from Aguas Caliente up to the ruins is like $5. So, it shouldn't cost more than $500 per person to do a two-night Machu Picchu trip from Lima.

Day 1: Fly Lima to Cuzco; Tour the City
Day 2: Early morning train to Machu Picchu; Tour the ruins; return afternoon to Cuzco.
Day 3: Fly back to Lima early morning.

The Andean Travel Web website has lots of great information on setting this up yourself, as well as, some recommendations for local tour companies.

http://www.andeantravelweb.com/peru/index.html

Jed

What exactly do you get for that? Which hotels, guides? Itinerary?

lifelist

I gotta assume that it includes roundtrip air, two nights at the Hotel Monasterio in Cuzco (best hotel in Peru), the expensive train to Machu Picchu, Cuzco city tour, meals, transfers, and a guided tour of the ruins. That's the only way they could charge so much. If you're not getting all of this, you're getting ripped off.

Rolfg

Thanks to you all. This information is exactly what I was looking for. It was most helpful.

vmcb

The $1575 does seem a bit steep. We have just returned from Cusco/MP and think you could easily do this on your own. I had the name of a guide, Percy Salas, in Cusco who was very reliable and booked our train tickets on the Vistadome, arranged a top-notch guide at MP, got the bus tickets up/back to MP, booked 1 night at the MP Pueblo Hotel ($400+ for lowest priced room, wh/ was a splurge, but fabulous), and gave my husband and me a private day tour through the Sacred Valley for a nominal cost. He booked a hotel for us in Cusco and also took us to airport when we left Cusco. RT airfare
Lima-Cusco was $280, which he did not book.
Percy met us at the Cusco airport on arrival and gave us a tour thru the Sacred Valley and left us late day at Hotel Pakaritampo (which he had booked) in Ollantaytambo. We think going to the lower altitude of the SV (compared to Cusco)helped us adjust to altitude better, plus it's a shorter train ride from Ollantytambo to MP than from Cusco. The MP guide met us at the train station and the Pueblo Hotel took our luggage at the station (they do that for all their guests).
When we returned by train to Cusco, Percy met us at the station and took us to our hotel, Novotel, wh/ he had booked. Novotel is about $200/night and was great. We had a room in the Colonial part, wh/ is charming, but costs more. We thought it was worth it. There are less expensive hotels in Cusco and Aguas Caliente that could lower your cost even more.
Percy followed thru on everything, gave accurate advice, and is a soft-spoken, hard-working congenial guy w/ good English skills. We did everything w/ him thru e-mail (his spelling is not the greatest...)
Here's basically what he booked/did for us and the cost:
Private tour of Sacred Valley $80/couple
Booked Pakaritampu Hotel in Ollantytambo (we loved it. walked to train station--hotel delivers your luggage) $100 (great value!)
Vistadome Train tickets Ollantaytambo to MP and back to Cusco $110 per person.
Guide at MP--$12 per person
Bus tkt. up/down at MP--$12 per person
MP Pueblo Hotel--about $400/nite, includes nice dinner and buffet breakfast.
Airport/hotel transfers, train/hotel transfers--not sure exact, maybe $20 for all.
Novotel Hotel in Cusco (easy walk to main Plaza, and quite charming) $200/nite. Need 2 nights to have chance to see Cusco.
Group city tour of Cusco $25/couple. (Percy can do a private city tour for $50, or arrange the group tour for you). He can book less expensive hotels, as needed. His e-mail is [email protected].
I will be glad to answer any questions.