Cyber_Sully

Hello fellow travelers,
I am taking my family of 4 to the Cusco region for 5 nights/6 days at the end of this month (June). I have our flights booked in and out. Aside from that....nothing else is booked.

I have a 9 yr old boy and 17 yr old daughter. Both of them get bored easily. So...I dont want to spend much time, if any, in a museum. Obviously, we want to see Machu Pichu and other ruins. But we are looking for your advice on where to stay and what to do. I know my wife and daughter would like the Pisac Sunday market. But not a must. I'm concerned about altitude sickness with my wife as she has bad allergies and asthma. So staying at lower elevations would be preferred. But if you all think that 1 night in Cusco is a must...then we will do it.

I am open to acquiring a private tour guide for a few days to maximize our time. But also not a must. We travel a lot....but this is our first trip to South America.

We are also staying 2 nights in Lima inbound and 2 nights in Lima outbound. Any recommendations here would be appreciated as well!

Thanks everyone!
Sully

Cyber_Sully

I should have mentioned that we dont mind staying in Hostels as a family...because we always get the private QUAD room with private bath. We only spend time in our hotel to sleep.

Thanks!

crellston

I would spend the first few nights in Ollantaytambo, a great little town and my favourite place in the SV. Lower than Cusco it will give everyone a chance to acclimatise before Cusco which is definitely worth a couple of days. Ollantaytambo is also well place for MP but you do need to book train tickets now ( it may already be too late!).

Pisac is great, I preferred it to MP, lots of places are easily accessible from Olly, moray, maras, Chinchero etc.. It is a while since I was there so cannot recommend places to stay but there are a few photos and some detail on our blog.
Peru. Starts on #55.

http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blo...ai/1/tpod.html

colduphere

Lots of rafting and biking available.

crellston

...and horseriding

Cyber_Sully

How does this look? We want to visit all of these places.

Option 1: We stay overnight at each place. We can stay at ONE stop for 2 nights. Which of these locations would you stay for 2 nights and why? We only have time to stop at the others for 1 night.

Option 2: We stay in 1-2 places and visit the others on day trips? Maybe stay for 3 nights in Olly, 1 night in AC, and 1 in Cusco?

Visit: Pisac
Visit: Oly
Visit: Aguas Calientes
Visit: Cusco

Cyber_Sully

Okay...so availability of 4-person accomodations and such have forced me to make some decisions. Here is our plan so far:

Day 1 – Arrive Cusco (0835) travel to Urubamba for basecamp, What to do?? (Urubamba overnight 1)
Day 2 – Morning/evening?? Rock climbing/zip lining, ruins?? (Urubamba overnight 2)
Day 3 – Llama farm on way to Pisac market in morning, something afternoon? (Urubamba overnight 3)
Day 4 – Morning train to AC, visit Machu Pichu late afternoon less crowds (overnight AC)
Day 5 – Early climb of Huayna Picchu, then afternoon return to Cusco (overnight Cusco)
Day 6 – Depart Cusco (0845) for Lima

crellston

Why Urumbamba? We stayed there in 2008 for 3 weeks or so while doing some voluntary work in Ollantaytambo. It is not the greatest place in the SV and I certainly wouldn't stay there out of choice. Much better to stay in Ollantaytambo where the train leves from for MP. Have you booked train tickets yet?

Cyber_Sully

I need a room for a family of 4. For my dates, price range, and review rating, I couldnt find anything in Olly. I did find a wonderful place in Urum.

We have not bought our train tickets yet. I'm trying to buy our MP tickets now (right now). But it would seem that only VISA is accepted. I only have MasterCards.

Uggh!

VeroA

We're going for a week in August with a family of five. Have you looked into Casa de Wow I Ollantaytambo? It's a small newish hostel that has family-sized rooms and gets excellent reviews. We're planning on staying two nights there while in the area.

mlgb

http://www.fodors.com/community/sout...uychi-rumi.cfm

Jaysfan had a nice review of Casa de Wow in the above post and more info on her blog (link in the above posting).