14 vs 16 day Peru Itinerary
Nov 6th, 2023, 06:02 AM
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14 vs 16 day Peru Itinerary
Hi Everyone! I'm currently planning a trip to Peru in May and am trying to decide on 14 or 16 days there. My two itineraries are as follows
14 Day Trip
Day 1 Lima
Day 2 Paracas or Arequipa (Day trip to Paracas and come back to Lima at night or skip Paracas and fly to Arequipa in the morning)
Day 3 Arequipa (Colca Canyon Day trip or overnight?)
Day 4 Arequipa or Cusco - If we fly to Cusco, we would go straight to Ollantaytambo instead of staying in Cusco. The rest of the days would shift depending on if we stayed in Arequipa or went to Cusco
Day 5 Sacred Valley
Day 6 Sacred Valley
Day 7 Sacred Valley
Day 8 Sacred Valley
Day 9 Macchu Picchu
Day 10 Macchu Pichu (Stay a night in Macchu Picchu so that we can do 2 circuts and potentially 2 mountain hikes)
Day 11 Cusco
Day 12 Cusco
Day 13 Cusco flight to Lima at night
Day 14 Day in Lima and fly home at night
16 Day Trip
Day 1 Lima
Day 2 Lima - Paracas Day trip
Day 3 Arequipa
Day 4 Arequipa
Day 5 Arequipa -Colca Canyon Day trip
Day 6 Sacred Valley
Day 7 Sacred Valley
Day 8 Scared Valley
Day 9 Sacred Valley
Day 10 Sacred Valley
Day 11 Macchu Picchu
Day 12 Macchu Pichu
Day 13 Cusco
Day 14 Cusco
Day 15 Cusco flight to Lima at night
Day 16 Lima and fly home
The 16 day trip allows us to go to Paracas (Not sure if it's entirely worth visiting still. Sand buggy looks fun but other than that the boat ride doesn't seem all that great) and adds a day in Sacred Valley or Arequipa. Skipping Puno as it seems quite out of the way and heard mixed reviews of it (Good or bad idea?). Hard to know how much time we'll need to acclimate so the 16 day option would give us an extra day to recover if we get hit hard with altitude sickness in Arequipa but the main reason I'm considering the 14 day option is the flight back home on the 14 day trip works out better than the 16 day trip. Is 14 days enough or should we stay for the 16 days and suck up the worse flight home?
14 Day Trip
Day 1 Lima
Day 2 Paracas or Arequipa (Day trip to Paracas and come back to Lima at night or skip Paracas and fly to Arequipa in the morning)
Day 3 Arequipa (Colca Canyon Day trip or overnight?)
Day 4 Arequipa or Cusco - If we fly to Cusco, we would go straight to Ollantaytambo instead of staying in Cusco. The rest of the days would shift depending on if we stayed in Arequipa or went to Cusco
Day 5 Sacred Valley
Day 6 Sacred Valley
Day 7 Sacred Valley
Day 8 Sacred Valley
Day 9 Macchu Picchu
Day 10 Macchu Pichu (Stay a night in Macchu Picchu so that we can do 2 circuts and potentially 2 mountain hikes)
Day 11 Cusco
Day 12 Cusco
Day 13 Cusco flight to Lima at night
Day 14 Day in Lima and fly home at night
16 Day Trip
Day 1 Lima
Day 2 Lima - Paracas Day trip
Day 3 Arequipa
Day 4 Arequipa
Day 5 Arequipa -Colca Canyon Day trip
Day 6 Sacred Valley
Day 7 Sacred Valley
Day 8 Scared Valley
Day 9 Sacred Valley
Day 10 Sacred Valley
Day 11 Macchu Picchu
Day 12 Macchu Pichu
Day 13 Cusco
Day 14 Cusco
Day 15 Cusco flight to Lima at night
Day 16 Lima and fly home
The 16 day trip allows us to go to Paracas (Not sure if it's entirely worth visiting still. Sand buggy looks fun but other than that the boat ride doesn't seem all that great) and adds a day in Sacred Valley or Arequipa. Skipping Puno as it seems quite out of the way and heard mixed reviews of it (Good or bad idea?). Hard to know how much time we'll need to acclimate so the 16 day option would give us an extra day to recover if we get hit hard with altitude sickness in Arequipa but the main reason I'm considering the 14 day option is the flight back home on the 14 day trip works out better than the 16 day trip. Is 14 days enough or should we stay for the 16 days and suck up the worse flight home?
Nov 6th, 2023, 09:15 AM
#2
I don't think Colca Canyon is a good idea as a day trip. I am surprised it is even offered.
Can you fly from Arequipa to Cusco any more? It's been a while for me.
I think you could take days off of the Sacred Valley. Instead of Paracas, maybe research sightseeing in Lima. I like to stay in Barranco, try two nights at the 3B if that bed size works for you.
Book direct and you get a price reduction for a two-night stay.
Can you fly from Arequipa to Cusco any more? It's been a while for me.
I think you could take days off of the Sacred Valley. Instead of Paracas, maybe research sightseeing in Lima. I like to stay in Barranco, try two nights at the 3B if that bed size works for you.
Book direct and you get a price reduction for a two-night stay.
Nov 6th, 2023, 09:21 AM
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I don't think Colca Canyon is a good idea as a day trip. I am surprised it is even offered.
Can you fly from Arequipa to Cusco any more? It's been a while for me.
I think you could take days off of the Sacred Valley. Instead of Paracas, maybe research sightseeing in Lima. I like to stay in Barranco, try two nights at the 3B if that bed size works for you.
Book direct and you get a price reduction for a two-night stay.
Can you fly from Arequipa to Cusco any more? It's been a while for me.
I think you could take days off of the Sacred Valley. Instead of Paracas, maybe research sightseeing in Lima. I like to stay in Barranco, try two nights at the 3B if that bed size works for you.
Book direct and you get a price reduction for a two-night stay.
Yeah I watched some videos on day trips out to Colca Canyon and it seems like a very long day. Not sure we want to do a night in Chivay though and turn it into a 2 day trip.
You can still fly to Cusco from Arequipa which is our plan.
Yeah we could add an additional day in Lima so we would have 3 days instead of 2. Paracas doesn't interest me much but Huachachina looks fun for the sand dunes. Don't think it would be worth an 8 hour round trip bus ride just for the dunes though so if we went we would end up doing both Paracas and Huachachina.
What would you do instead if you were to take days off from the Sacred Valley? Just not stay in Peru for as long?
Nov 15th, 2023, 08:43 AM
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A few observations:
Personally I would skip the coastal sites like Paracas , Huanchachina etc and just head straight from Lima to Arequipa
Arequipa is a wonderful city and usually has something going on in terms of fiestas and parades. IME three nights/two full days would be about right. Monasteria de Santa Catalina alone warrants a half day.
I agree that a day to our to Colca is a very long and wasted day - too much travel. Two nights in somewhere like Yanque would allow time to appreciate the canyon.
From Colca you could return to Arequipa and fly or bus to Cusco OR continue on by tour bus to Puno and Lake Titicaca ( allow 2-3 nights there).
I have spends a lot of time in the sacred valley and love it but in the context of the time you have fro this trip, you have too much time there. Also, you don’t need two nights for MP. One is plenty for most people and you could even do it as a day trip from Ollantaytambo.
I would add more time to Cusco. There is a huge amount to see, do and eat! Consider adding a day trip to Pisac and Sacsayhuaman etc.
Lima is an oft underrated city and deserves two of three days - probably best at the end of your time in Peru.
With counting the days , you should be able to fit those places into 14 or 16 days. However, if you really want teh more convenient flight home ypu may need to drop Titicaca.
some photos and detail of some of our time in Peru which may assist in helping to decide, are in our blog @
https://accidentalnomads.com/category/peru/
One final thought is that an alternative to Titicaca and a totally different side of Peru , ypu could consider a trip to the Amazon. Puerto Maldonado is easily reached from Cusco.
Personally I would skip the coastal sites like Paracas , Huanchachina etc and just head straight from Lima to Arequipa
Arequipa is a wonderful city and usually has something going on in terms of fiestas and parades. IME three nights/two full days would be about right. Monasteria de Santa Catalina alone warrants a half day.
I agree that a day to our to Colca is a very long and wasted day - too much travel. Two nights in somewhere like Yanque would allow time to appreciate the canyon.
From Colca you could return to Arequipa and fly or bus to Cusco OR continue on by tour bus to Puno and Lake Titicaca ( allow 2-3 nights there).
I have spends a lot of time in the sacred valley and love it but in the context of the time you have fro this trip, you have too much time there. Also, you don’t need two nights for MP. One is plenty for most people and you could even do it as a day trip from Ollantaytambo.
I would add more time to Cusco. There is a huge amount to see, do and eat! Consider adding a day trip to Pisac and Sacsayhuaman etc.
Lima is an oft underrated city and deserves two of three days - probably best at the end of your time in Peru.
With counting the days , you should be able to fit those places into 14 or 16 days. However, if you really want teh more convenient flight home ypu may need to drop Titicaca.
some photos and detail of some of our time in Peru which may assist in helping to decide, are in our blog @
https://accidentalnomads.com/category/peru/
One final thought is that an alternative to Titicaca and a totally different side of Peru , ypu could consider a trip to the Amazon. Puerto Maldonado is easily reached from Cusco.
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