derekinla

Booked a trip to Peru for 2 in August and wanted to get some advice:

Here is the itinerary

Day 1: Friday: Arrive to Lima at 2:10 pm
Day 2: Saturday: Fly to Cusco: depart 5:25 am and arrive 6:25 am. Taxi to SV
Day 3: Sunday: All day Sacred Valley
Day 4: Monday: Leave SV to Aquas Caliente at 1:27 PM on Vistadome
Day 5: Tuesday: All day at Machu Picchu
Day 6: Wed: Machu Picchu in the morning and Expedition train to Cusco 4:43 PM
Day 7: Thurs: All day in Cusco
Day 8: Friday: Leave Cusco by plane to Puno depart 2:40 pm and arrive 3:30 pm
Day 9: Saturday: All day in Puno
Day 10: Sunday: Leave Puno by plane to Lima depart at 4:00 pm and arrive 6:45 pm
Day 11: Flying out of Lima at 2:55 pm

Questions:

1) After arriving to Lima on day 1, any suggestions on something to see or do for the remainder of the afternoon and early evening in Lima?

2) Will be taking a taxi from Cusco airport to SV on Day 2 and was wondering if there are any stops or sights to see along the way to Urubamba?

3) Any suggestions for tour operators or tour guides based in Sacred Valley? We want to be able to see Ollantaytambo, Pisac Market, Pisac Ruins, and Chinchero during our time in SV and would like to do some of it on our own but would rather use a guide / driver for incrased efficiency - especially on day of departure.

4) Any suggestions for must do things to see and do for our 1.5 days in Cusco?

qwovadis

1) www.limaeasy.com/fun_in_lima/lima_citytours.php -

Jump to Mirabus‎: Mirabus Panoramic Sightseeing buses in Lima. Mirabus (Special Panoramic Sightseeing Buses). Mirabus Panoramic bus in front of the church in Miraflores ... They have a very good standard (not only for Peru)

2)driver guide down to www.ollantaytambo.org from Cusco 11000 ft personally would stay at apulodge.com casa-andina.com there
to adjust to altitude only 8500 ft till a day or 2...if you
stay right away at Cusco odds of altitude illness are great
mdtravelhealth.com Peru good info consider Diamox.

3) Percy Salas and David Choque or your hotell best careful
many scammers/touts on the boards never wire money.

4)City Tours nearby ruins about all you have time for.

www.pmeplorers.com nice folks

www.saexplorers.org/clubhouses/cusco

good insider info discounts...

Happy Travel insuremytrip.com for strikes weather always

wise has saved me lots of dough multiple times...

robertino

Hi der -

1. Lima is actually pretty interesting. You could spend the afternoon of your arrival walking around centro. The area around the main plaza is where you want to be - Cathedral, President's Palace. A few blocks away is San Francisco. Definitely take the tour. For the evening I highly recommend Barranco. Very good bars and restaurants, and a very pretty part of town. No need to bother with Miraflores.

2/3. I would also recommend that you stay in Ollantaytambo instead of Urubamba. Ollantaytambo is a really charming Inka village surrounded by towering mountains with an amazing archeological site - maybe #2 in Peru after Machu Picchu. I didn't, but you can easily stop at Chinchero on the way there but it may be a little quiet that early. On Sunday get a taxi to take you to Pisac. You don't really need a guide. I did not go up to the ruins, and regret it. I think a taxi can take you pretty far up. You walk the rest, and then you can down into the village. Sunday is market day.

4. For Cusco, the main attraction is really the town itself. I was there for 5 days and never got tired of just walking around. I think the area north of the main plaza - up to San Blas - is more interesting than other areas. If you need to see more ruins, you could go up to Saccsayhuaman I guess.

You didn't ask, but I can highly recommend El Alberque in Ollantaytambo and Rumi Punku in Cusco. Both very nice and reasonably priced. Not as charming but perfectly OK was the Wiracocha in Aguas Calientes. I appreciated the fact that the hotel send someone to the train station to pick me up and then showed me where to buy tickets for MP, and waited for me to buy the tickets before proceeding to the hotel. I would stay at one of the airport hotels in Lima to catch your early flight.

Eschew

Very interetsing itenary. We are leaving in October and the following were suggested to us by our TA and friends.

Lima: Plaza de Armas, Palace, Cathedral and San Francisco Monastery, side trip to Ica: flight over Nazca line

Cusco/Sacred Valley: Ollantaytambo, Cathedral and Santo Dominigo Monastery

I_HEART_TRAVELING

Our guide for the Sacred Valley was Edwin Escalante Mendoza. We saw Chinchero, Ollantaytambo, and Pisac, which was a lot even in a full day. Edwin's enthusiasm and knowledge were superb. We stayed at Hotel Rumi Punku in Cusco and Katrina, an agent that works with the hotel, arranged him for us as a guide. We highly recommend him. His email is edwinmoico at hotmail.com.

mlgb

I like all of Robertino' suggestions. Although 5 days in Cusco a bit too much for me. Would stay more days in SV & add visit to Salineras/Chinchero/Moray/Pisac.

majmaj4

I would add a visit to the Precolumbian museum in Cusco.

I stayed 5 days in Cusco with side trips to chinchero (1/2 day); pisac/Sacsayhuaman,kenko,PUKARA ,TAMBOMACHAY (1 day).
Pisac and Sacsayhuaman were the favorite stops for me.

djkmann

Here are some additional things to do, eat, etc. in Cusco that you may not find in a guide book. I spent several months there, and will agree with the poster above that you never run out of new things to do or places to visit in and around town:

http://blog.dojoklo.com/2011/09/20/t...o-do-in-cusco/

But I also agree that 2 (or 3) days is enough for the main Cusco sites, and then take advantage of all the Sacred Valley towns and sites within reach of Cusco.

mlgb

A clever way to market e-books. But there is some good information and no sale is required.

althom1122

When you say all day in Puno, i'm assuming you're planning at least a short excursion on the lake - definitely a must-do, at least to see the reed islands. If you could possibly extend your stay there in order to do a homestay on one of the islands, i'd highly recommend it.

We used Percy Salas as our guide in the Sacred Valley and can't recommend him highly enough. He's terrific.