Peru in August? Preliminary Planning
 

Just starting today to plan a mostly independent 10-12 day trip for my wife, 15-year-old son & myself to Peru in August - maybe Lima (quick), Sacred Valley, Cuzco/MP, someplace else? Have reviewed this board superficially and will do proper due diligence but would welcome any thoughts generally on overall scope & itinerary & especially whether I have enough time to plan a decent trip, find hotel space, arrange good small group &/or private guides/tours for specific destinations, etc. In short, I am just starting out with planning & would be grateful for general suggestions for my first trip to this desination, looking for middle of the road in terms of cost & comfort. Not backpacker but not super luxury either. Many thanks.

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Latin America: Help Me Not Screw Up Our Trip To Peru
10 responses; most recent on 03/20/2007, 04:20 pm

It's been a few years since we were there, but we loved the Lake Titicaca area (Puno). There was a lot to see from Silustiani and the islands of Uros, plus a day trip to Copacabana, Bolivia (such a beautiful place). And Puno is small enough your son might have fun stepping into one of the arcades while you enjoy a snack across the street.

Not sure if youre family enjoys wildlife (birdwatching specifically) or hiking, but the rainforest is lovely. However a 15-year-old might not find it much fun :)

I thought it was pretty easy to find nice lodging that wasn't extremely expensive - around $40 a night. Though in Lima we spent $17 to get a room with a shower & toilet ($10 without!) and though it was clean and an adventure getting there, we could definitely have spent more! Casa Andina was everywhere and although I didn't see their rooms the lobbies were extremely nice - Marriott-ish.

If you search on my name I have a long and detailed trip report on the second page (probably more info than you need) with some reasonably priced in country travel agencies.

I just returned from a 10 day Peru trip, it included Cusco, Machu Pichu, Lake Titicaca and a trip to the jungle; while in Cusco we have bought a 6 day package that included hotel with breakfast,tour of the city,Machu Pichu with train service and 1 day tour of the Sacred Valley, Elizabeth Travel was the best service, very personalized, it came to around $100 per day, she also arrange transportation to and from airports as well as our 2 day trip to Puno/ Lake Titicaca, you and your familiy will love this trip, I did. E-mail me if you need additional info. [email protected]

I've posted a lot on Peru. But if you have any additional questions, feel free to ask.

U might check out Arequipa with an overnight trip to Colca Canyon --spectacular scenery and if you're lucky you will see condors. That said, I think 10-12 days could easily be spent in Cusco, MP and time in the SV. We especially liked Ollantaytambo as a base for the Scared Valley. In Cusco we stayed at the Casa San Blas
http://www.casasanblas.com/
which was very nice. In Ollantaytambo we were at the Hotel Pakaritampu
http://www.pakaritampu.com/
We used David Choque [[email protected]] as a guide for parts of the trip and he was great to work with and greatly enriched our experience. Have fun!

yestravel, how was David Choque? How did you make arrangements for payment? Before you got there or when you got there?

What month did you visit Colca Canyon? I'm going in December and I wonder if I will actually see any condors. Thanks in advance.

alekea, David Choque was wonderful. He's very knowledgeable, easygoing and an all around terrific guide. We paid him in full on the 2nd day with him. He purchased our train tickets to Machu Picchu in advance for us, but we dealt directly with the hotels so he did not pay any deposits for hotels for us. However on another thread a couple days ago, someone who was using David to book everything posted that they were being asked to pay half in advance.
We were in Colca Canyon in April so I can't answer your question about seeing the condors in December. We were told that there is no guarantee seeing them when we went. We were lucky in that we say 6 condors.
Have a great trip to Peru!