Has anyone used or know of Adventure Holidays Peru (local company) or Amazing Destinations Travel Group? I'm just now starting to plan for Peru (custom, private tour) - for April 2009 - and these two companies were at the Travel Adventures Expo so I thought I'd start with them. Any comments, thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Check out this website for ratings by National Geographic, http://atr.nationalgeographic.com/ou...rchMain.action.
My husband and I used GAP Adventures for our trip over the Christmas Break. We were with a group of 12. It was great because it was the perfect mix of group tour and individual time. GAP offers a number of variances of tours (places, time, etc.) for their locations. Check them out. I cannot recommend them enough - we had a great time!

Thanks for the link; I'll check it out. I do hear good things about GAP, but we prefer traveling on our own and not as a group, and as far as I know, they don't do private tours. I'll take a look to make sure, however.

I did all the booking and planning for my trip to Peru and Galapagos recently. A great source for hiring tours is the hotel you would stay at. The people at the hotels can make recommendations for everything from private tours, to picking up train tickets.

I asked Casa Andina hotels for recommendations, and Monasterio Hotel, both were right on with all kinds, private and group tours.

Thanks - I might eventually go that route (usually do my own planning and booking), but for now I am looking for someone who will put the whole trip together for us - including making hotel reservations and the like based on input from us re: preferences. (I made a note of your trip report - will read it again when I get a chance.)

We went on a guided group trip to Peru 10 years ago with internationalexpeditions.com. It was well done. They also do independent travel.

We are also planning trip to Peru in July. Has anyone any experience with Kuoda Travel?

thanks, j

Dravencliff/Jed - thanks for the suggestions; will check them out.

Last year I decided to travel to Peru with my wife and like many americans I believed my Speedy Gonzales vocabulary was good enough to victoriously make it through a two-week self made tour. Well, it did not work right with me and I barely made it by taxi to the Sonesta Hotel I had fortunately book in internet. There I asked the front desk ladies who spoke good english where could I buy airline tickets to Cusco. Fortunately the airlines where not to far away. I later asked the same hotel ladies if they thought I could book hotel and tickets for the Machu Picchu train using the internet at the hotel. They were very helpful and it wasn't too hard to book the Sonesta Hotel in Cusco but I could not manage to book the train tickets as it appeared that no spots were available for the chosen trip dates. It was then that my wife gave me the wisest suggestion. "Use a travel agency", she said. Again I requested the hotel girls to help me find a reliable and not expensive travel agency, one of the told me about a friend of hers that manage Peruinteract Tours, a small yet professianally run tour operator (I am quoting her words). I phoned the number she gave me and to fortunately they spoke very good english. The guy at the other end of the phone offered to visit me in the hotel to save me from the hussle of running to their office in the middle of the busy afternoon Lima traffic. He brought his lap top and showed all the option tours he had for Cusco and Machu Picchu, my wife was convinced soon but it took a little while to convince me, I wasn't sure until he said that all the services included english speaking guides and all the assistance I may need during airport check-in and transfers, he also offered us a cell phone so we could get in touch with him if anything wrong came up during our trip in Cusco. The price was just right! We had a wonderful time in Cusco and Jose (the tour operator guy) called us every night to see that everything went perfect, it really did. So I could suggest you to try finding peruvian tour operators that could be as reliable. I later found that these guys also had a website peruinteract. Hope you enjoy your trip full lenght!

Hi there,
We arrived a few days ago from our trip to Peru and we used Amazing Peru, a member of Amazing Destinations. We cannot praise them enough. They did an excellent job and we chose them because of several recommendations we received along with Charlotte’s superb work (their travel consultant). She is a credit to the travel industry.
Incidentally, we met with other travelers in Peru who were also using Amazing Peru and they too were delighted with their services.
If you're looking for a private tour, this is the company to go with.