My 16 yr old son and I have decided to travel to Peru together in July 2007 for 2 1/2 weeks. I travelled quite a bit in Mexico to the ruins in my 20s, and I have always wanted to go to Macchu Pichu (have never been to South America). I feel if we don't do now it might be too late and it will be (and maybe already is) overrun from heavy tourism, adn my son won't want to go with me after the next few yrs. Would also like to spend some time in a lodge and on the river in the Amazon.

I am thinking that this might be a trip that I will want to use a tour/guide service for, to help us plan and have someone there for support in case something is needed w/the local culture. I speak only a little Spanish. Although I am basically healthy and do a lot of hiking in the U.S., I have some heart health issues (which make my feet swell sometimes) and had an experience while traveling in Japan w/my son last yr. which almost sent me to the hospital. This did not scare me in Japan, but I would not want to be in South America in the area of the ruins or in the jungle and be on our own completely- although I am still somewhat open to doing it on our own. The idea of planning it all from scratch is daunting at this point though, and I don't want to give up on the trip because of that.

Can you recommend any tour companies that you have used for Aguas Calientes/Cusco, Macchu Picchu combined with trips to the Amazon? I've searched this board already but thought I'd ask for fresh info before I start doing more research into different outfits.

Also, did you feel the need to use two different companies, one for Macchu Picchu and one for the Amazon? I am wondering about doing that vs. finding one tour that does both.

Can we also fit in a visit to Urubamba?

And should we acclimitize to the altitude in Sacred Valley? Will a tour company rush the altitude acclimitization too fast? Some of them take you up pretty fast it seems...

I am also confused about the different lodges available to stay in in the Amazon areas, trying to sort out what the different experiences are in those, Iquitos vs. Puerto Maldonado vs. other areas, etc.

Any guidance you can give at this point is appreciated and I will follow up w/more research.

Thanks in advance.

We visited Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley in January of this year - we used a private guide who customized the itinerary for us - cost wise it was comparable to a mid range package tour but MUCH better.. We were very happy with his services and would recommend him - I think he also does jungle tours.

The guide's name is David Choque (I found him here on Fodors) - his web site is:

http://www.cuscotoptravelperu.com/index.htm

Here's a link to our blog so you can get a sense of the itinerary.

http://lizandrichardsa.typepad.com/l...aca/index.html

Regarding acclimation - David recommended we stay in the Sacred Valley upon arrival from Lima rather than Cusco as the Valley is actually lower altitude and it makes the acclimation much easier. We also took Diamox (a prescription med) and neither of us had any problems. We stayed in Ollantaytambo (nicer than Urubamba IMHO)

Happy to answer any questions.

Excellent site and blog- I just spent over an hr. reading them both. You must have had an incredible trip.

This is exactly the kind of info I hoped to get.

A private guide is not something I had thought of, but the prices are very reasonable, and now I am thinking this might very well be the way to go for us.

Questions:

1) How did you deal w/staying at the $$$ nice hotel right at Macchu Pichu vis a vis your guide? Did he go back down to Cuzco for the night?

2) And how did the private guide enhance your visit, other than just convenience? How knowledgeable was the guide about the Incas, the native people at Lake T., and what you were seeing and experiencing?

3) And did the guide "fit in" well w/your travel style? I noticed that you could not do the rest of one of your scheduled hikes, and that made me wonder about how you communicated w/the guide before the trip about what the hikes and experiences would be like...just wondering about that.

I don't see anything about Amazon travel on David's website, but I will email him- maybe he has a contact for Amazon tours.

Thanks in advance for the further help.

Hi - thanks for the nice comments about the blog - we had fun doing it!

Here are answers to your questions:

1) How did you deal w/staying at the $$$ nice hotel right at Macchu Pichu vis a vis your guide? Did he go back down to Cuzco for the night?

We stayed two nights at Machu Picchu Sanctuary Lodge - here's what we did. Because we were staying in Ollantaytambo we took the train to Aguas Calientes from there (it's only an hour train ride). David had booked the tickets and we simply went to the train station (alone) that morning (he had organized a pedicab with the hotel to take us the 1.5 km to the train station with our luggage - we booked all hotels through him other than the Sanctuary Lodge - his prices were the same or better than I could find on the internet. Even though he didn't book the Sanctuary Lodge (they require a large deposit that I assume is beyond his cash flow abilities - he phoned them several times on our behalf to confirm information/etc).

The Sanctuary Lodge picked us up at the train station and transported our luggage separately. We spent the first afternoon and the next full day at the site alone. David met us at the Sanctuary Lodge early on the last morning of our stay (he had stayed at AC the night before) and we toured the site with him.

Some people might skip having him come up to do the tour but we were glad we did it this way. We all took the 4pm train back to Ollantaytambo where his wife and son were waiting for us with their comfortable van and drove back to Cusco. That's actually a faster/nicer way to go from AC to Cusco as the train trip is longer.

Oddly enough we didn't see a lot of guides at the entrance to MP - we did have a really good self guided tour book we found on Amazon so had toured a lot of the site by ourselves, so when David joined us we could revisit things of particular interest to us and visit some of the less well traveled places such as the Inca Bridge.

I really recommend two nights at MP – it gives you a hedge if the weather is bad and in our case we were very interested in it, so it worked for us. We saw a lot of people dash up and down – yes, they *saw* MP but it wasn’t at the relaxed pace that we enjoyed.

2) And how did the private guide enhance your visit, other than just convenience? How knowledgeable was the guide about the Incas, the native people at Lake T., and what you were seeing and experiencing?

Convenience was certainly a major benefit - although I'd describe it somewhat differently – “customized”. We set out each morning for a tour as agreed and spent as much time or as little as we wanted at the destination. Also we made a lot of spontaneous stops at markets, etc. David is Incan and extraordinarily knowledgeable about the history/etc and in addition to merely providing information he was able to put what we were seeing into context. Plus, we had l-o-n-g political discussions which really enhanced our appreciation of South America. He speaks excellent, idiomatic English (taught it at the University in Cusco). There's another poster on Fodors who traveled with him with her 12 year old son – apparently he was especially good with a teenager so that might work well with your plans (he has 3 kids of his own – the youngest is 11)

3) And did the guide "fit in" well w/your travel style? I noticed that you could not do the rest of one of your scheduled hikes, and that made me wonder about how you communicated w/the guide before the trip about what the hikes and experiences would be like...just wondering about that.


Communication was excellent - we in fact did finish the hike you refer to - just took a different route and perhaps took a bit of "artistic license" describing (dramatizing??!!) the event on the blog!! It was just a funny thing for us!

Seriously, my husband has a bad back and David was extremely aware of, and solicitous, of that. He planned our events with that in mind - he would drop us off at one place and double back to park the van to minimize unnecessary climbing for Richard.

Another comment about "fitting in" - I was a bit worried about being the only people - that we wouldn't be able to just observe without being the constant centre of attention for a guide - David is very perceptive and senses when to just leave you alone to experience something for yourself. (I know I sound like a paid commercial but I can stress enough how he made our trip so much more memorable than had we been on a tour).

I have lots more info regarding our itinerary but it's maybe too long to post here - you can email me at

[email protected]

if you would like pages and pages of info!

I have spent time today looking at the Sanctuary website; it is so pricey but it looks great, and being there in early morning and late in the day when it is not crowded woudl be worth it to me. I'd like to expereince it, not rush it. Experiencing MP has been a dream of mine for over 20 yrs.

I see on the Sanctuary website that you can get a private guide package where you can have a private guide from Sanctuary go with you to the ruins. Did you think of doing that instead of having David come up? Of course, then you'd be dealing w/a different guide, not knowing how that person would be. The difference in cost for the guide as opposed to just the patio rm. through Sanctuary (guide for 2 1/2 hrs) looks to be about $180, but that includes a 30 min massage along w/the deal also.

I think we'd like to go to Ollantaytambo (instead of Urubamba- I've been researching both of them in the last few days), but Cusco looks good too. It might be nice to go to to both Oll. and Cuzco, and also go to the Lake, before heading to Iquitos and the Amazon area.

I have your guide David at the top of my list. I saw from your prior posts that you tried to reach Lost World Adventures and were not successful. IT does sound like you ended up very happy w/David as your guide.

As I start to sort out the exact info on where we are likely going, the order of it, etc, I will email you.

Thank you very much!

Hi - I'd estimate that David's costs were around $200 for his tour portion at MP so it's pretty comparable (plus you get a massage!) - I'm sure the Sanctuary Lodge guide will be good.

We stayed 4 nights in Ollantaytambo and really enjoyed it and 3 nights in Cusco - Cusco wasn't our favourite place but we mostly just relaxed there!

Have fun planning - it's one of my favourite things to do!

Liz

it pleases me to oir that she wants to come with his son, is surprising, good my advice is that she takes 2 different companies one for the rain forest and another one for Cuzco, with respect to puerto Maldonado or iquitos each city offers different things but simultaneously the people of those zones are very similar, in puerto Maldonado the forest one is but virgin and it is but tourism adventure, and in iquitos one can walk in a the amazons, to spend day in boats that sail, to visit aymaras (indigenas)peolpe very good, port Maldonado is but calm and iquitos but are moved, but diversion, and good many exist lodges that is super pretty and each one this oriented to different estidlos, one to the viewpoints of birds, another one of farm, another one of long walks, another one where monkeys crian, and asi different styles, pára all the tastes and different prices, good is a pleasure to help it, and if let me know if you needs aid in Lima, I can help or transport from the airport, very surely(safe) and prices it coways and also to look for different hotels in diverse districts and different prices, depends on the necessity that you wish, if you need me, my mail is [email protected]