Anyone have any opinions on LATAM vs Sky vs Jetsmart?

For which route?

I have flown with Latam several times and Sky a couple of times. Both were fine as ffar as service and reliability is concerned. Latam is clearly a full service airline and Sky a budget airline both were fine for me as . I dont know about Jetsmart.

One factor to consider is that Cusco is a high altitude airport and delays and cancellations due to adverse weather are not uncommon (more likely with afternoon flights apparently). Latam operate a more modern fleet than some airlines which is better able to cope with the weather. They also run way more flights than other airlines so if there is a problem with one , they willl usually put you on the next available. Indeed, when I have arrived early in Lima and Cusco airports they have asked if I wanted to go on an earlier flight.

PS you can sometimes find cheaper fares on the Peruvian or Spanish Latam websites than the US or UK sites

Thank you. My partner is fluent in Spanish so I will put her on it.

Looking to fine tune itinerary. Found trains from Poroy/Cusco to Aguas Caliente so do not need to take train from Ollantaytambo.
Option 1:
8/23: fly to Cusco, taxi to Urubamba Sonesta. Get a Boleto Turistico. Explore Urubamaba possibly market?
8/24: Taxi tour to Moray, Salinas and Chinchero. Weaving market
8/25: Pisac market (Sunday)
8/26: Move to El Albergue hotel in Ollantatambo, explore town and hike part of Inca trail.
8/27: train to Aguas Caliente, Hotel Tierra Viva. Circuit 2B Machu Pichu at 1500
8/28: 1000 Circuit 3C MP. Afternoon train to Olly, pick up luggage at El Abbergue and taxi to Sonesta hotel Cusco
8/29: Cusco
8/30 Cusco during day than late afternoon flight to Lima.
Option 2:
8/23: Fly to Cusco, same as option 1
8/24: Ollantambo
8/25: taxi tour of Moray, Salinas and Chinchero Weaving market (Sunday)
8/26: Taxi to Pisac than go to Cusco stopping in Tambomachay, Q'enqo and Pukara on the way. Stay in Cusco Sonesta
8/27: Leave luggage at hotel and train from Poroy to Aguas Caliente and MP etc
8/28: 1000 Circuit 3C MP, afternoon train back to Cusco Sonesta
8/29: Cusco
8/30 Cusco than late afternoon flight to Lima.

Decided on Latam as have flown them before several times in Chile. No better fares on Peru sites.

I always look for personal guides or local tour agents through the FindGuide. There is a link to it at the bottom of this article about Machu Picchu and Peru find.guide/blog/machu-picchu-how-to-get-there-on-your-own/

For some reason the reply I posted a few days ago seems not to have appeared!

Either would work though I think I would probably choose option two. As I may have mentioned previously , I would much prefer to stay in Ollantaytambo over Urumbamba. We know both quite well as we stayed for a few months in the Sacred Valley whilst doing some voluntary work so know both very well. Urumbamba is just a working town with little to interest the average tourist. The market is where we used to shop for food and I suppose is interesting. enough as a non tourist market ( the variety of different potatoes is truly amazing!). The main reason for staying there is the range of upmarket accommodation which is lacking in Ollantaytambo. Though it does have some very nice mid range places these days. By contrast , Ollantaytambo is incredibly pretty and is one of the few intact Inca villages remaining. The ruins are the best and it is great just to wander the village. Staying there means you can explore before and after the tour buses have been and gone.

Arrived Lima last night via United. Spent night at the Wyndham hotel across the street from the terminal. Surprisingly mediocre and expensive at $200/night. Other airport hotels such as Hilton T2 LHR, Sheraton AMS, Sheraton MXP are priced in the same range and are much nicer. Made it to the domestic terminal Lima 0640 this morning. Went to a machine to get our luggage tag but it was not working so had to wait for another machine. Got tags on luggage then onto another line to another machine which again did not work so to another line to see a person to check our bags and get our boarding passes. Security thankfully was nothing different than at most airports. Got to the gate15 minutes late but the flight was 45 minutes late. Premium economy on Latam isn’t bad as they block the center seat. Flight to Cusco otherwise smooth. Our prearranged taxi picked us up and we were away for an hour drive to the Sonesta hotel in Yucay.
pleasant hotel with large decent rooms with balcony. Good 4 star quality at $200/night. Not much around hotel. Had a decent lunch at the hotel than took a $ 20 taxi to Ollantaytambo
where we wandered around the center of the town for a bit than got our130 soles tourist ticket
(cash only) for tomorrow when we return for the ruins. Taxied back to Sonesta for dinner and bed.
Tired maybe in part to the Diamox we are talking to help prevent altitude problems. Was a-little dizzy after arriving Cusco but feel decent now.
Ready for our Peru adventure.

Looking forward to reading more about your travels..

I’m feeling decent today. O2 sat resting 94%. Taking deep breathes brings it up to 100%
As an addendum for yesterday it turns out there is a special booth at the Lima airport for those ticketed to premium economy so you don’t have to go the many steps to check in. Similar to those of us with good status on an airline. Will use this on returning to Lima.
Had a nice breakfast at the Sonesta. Picked up by Miguel of Exclusive Inka Tours ($300 for 3 of us) who drove us to an ATM where we took out 400 soles with a fee of 58 soles. I then used the second machine that only charged 18 which is still rather high. We then drove to Ollantaytambo ruins where we took at tour up the mountain. Interesting site. The story about the food storage buildings high up above on the mountain opposite the ruins was fascinating. A bit demanding to walk up to the top. I’m in decent shape as I walk 4 miles a day and swim 1000 yards 5 days a week but walking up a steep mountain at 9000 feet was not a walk in the park. We had wandered the town a bit yesterday. The town itself was quite touristy centrally. Was intrigued by an offer for a $30 hour deep tissue massage but settled for a cup of coca tea which was quite vile and only made drinkable with the use of significant amounts of sugar.
After the Olly ruins, we were then off to Moray to visit the circular ruins which were purportedly for agricultural experimentation. Lots of sunshine and wind. Recommend a hat plus sunglasses and sunscreen. Also recommend good hiking shoes not regular street shoes or athletic shoes.
Next we were off to the salt farms of Maras where a natural spring with briny water provides the source for salt to be farmed. 20 Soles per person entrance fee.you look down at the salt flats but can’t enter them, which was a disappointment to my partner who had been there 13 years ago with her sons and they were able to walk well into the salt field, stepping on the edge of the flats. With more tourism come more restrictions, understandably, but still too bad.
We left Maras and stopped by a nearby restaurant for lunch. Lots of llamas wandering about. I had a nice bowl of pumpkin soup for 35 soles and my partner trout ceviche appetizer for the same price. My daughter had tenderloin for 79 soles. Nice restaurant and the food was good. Touristy for sure and more expensive but prices lower than the US. Many of the other customers, who all seemed to speak Spanish, were feeding the llamas with fresh corn husks.
Last destination of the day was Chinchero to see those ruins and visit some of the weaving cooperatives. Bought some baby alpaca sweaters for about $100 US.
Returned to our hotel where we had a light dinner at the cafe. Had a huge club sandwich that was twice as big as I expected with 3 times as many fries as I expected for 35S and I ate about half. My partner had a nice bowl of carrot soup for a similar price and my daughter had an apple crepe with vanilla ice cream for about 20 soles.
A good day overall and exhausting. 11,000 steps and 27 flights of stairs climbed.

Nice live report! I will there in late September. I will be following along your trip. Thanks.

Another day which was warm and sunny. Definitely short sleeve weather. Hired a taxi
(100 soles) to go to the Pisac market which was about a 50 minute drive. Wandered around the market and bough a few embroidered T-shirts for about 25S each. Both my partner and my daughter each bought another baby alpaca sweater from a store called Factory Pata (380S) this was connected to another store where we bought a couple silver and coral rings. We then
stopped at a cafe called Valentina for drinks and a rest.
Found a taxi to take us to the top of the Pisac inka ruins (40S). (11,200feet) We explored the top of the ruins and got lost trying to find one route down to Pisac, as the main route was closed due to danger of a rockslide. In retrospect we should have hired a guide at the entrance. In the end we managed to hike down the mountain in 2 hours. Trail was a bit demanding with lots of high steps and irregular rocks and loose gravel. Recommend you bring a hat that you can tie under your chin as there was lots of wind. Taxi back to the Sonesta hotel at 1630. Arranged for one hour deep tissue massages in our room for 150S ($40). Decent massage although not up to Thailand or Japan or Vietnam for that matter. Felt good though.

Left Yucay Sonesta. Nice hotel. We had a large clean room with nice balcony. Refrigerator, safe, decent shower but no bathtub. Two decent restaurants and a cafe on site. Prices reasonable by US standards. There is also a cafe nearby which is in the Sonesta building but not run by Sonesta that does laundry for 4.5 S per Kilo. Unfortunately not open on Sunday with times we could have used. There is not much in Yucay which turned out to be ok as we were too tired to go out at night. We were going to stay at Tambo del Inka nearby but when my daughter decided to join us we downsized to the Sonesta as $400 a night vs $1200 a night for two rooms was a deciding factor.
More adventurous people could stay at the Skylodge which requires climbing up ropes for and hour and a half to reach the hotel.
It also seems that starting in the Sacred valley
vs Cusco was a good idea for two reasons. First, from a high altitude adaptation situation, Yucay is about 9000 feet and Cusco is about 11000 feet. We took acetazolamide 125 2/day until last night and did well. We of course might have done well without the medication but wanted to make sure.
I have been at altitude at the Salt flats in northwest Argentina and Aspen and Pikes Peak and Mt Fuji and did ok except when I came down Mt Fuji really fast. Better safe than sorry. The next reason best to start in S Valley is so we could reach many of the tourist sites before all the buses arrived from Cusco. Now taking taxi with Taxidatum, which was a great suggestion of Crelleston. They have been reliable, reasonably priced and easy to contact by internet. Very responsive. We have now used them twice and have them lined up for two more trips. Off to start exploring Cusco; more later.

Taxi (from Tacidatum) to Cusco was by the way of a few other Inka ruins—Tambomachay, Q’engo, and Pukapukara. Arrived Sonesta Cusco around noon. Standard double small, maybe 200 sq feet. Very 3 star like hotel. No way this is a Booking 9.1. I think the Peninsula Chicago I stayed at last year was a 9.1 and this hotel is not anywhere in the same universe. Took a taxi downtown for lunch at Kintaro to try Nikkei food. Turned out to be a Peruvian version of Japanese food similar in a way Japanese food is Americanized in the US. Had better sushi at 7-11s in Japan. Wandered around the city afterwards with a stop at the Inka Museum, which was interesting. Returned to hotel to get ready for train tomorrow to MP.

Enjoying your live report.

Awoke 0545 for a 0630 check out. Took 10 minutes to get a taxi (10S) and 10 minutes drive to San Pedro train station for 0700 arrival for Railperu Vistadome train to MP that departed 0730. Few people got on the train here. Half the train filled up at Poroy station about an hour later. Train configuration 4 seats /side around a table.
Drinks of water/tea and snacks of quinoa bars, chocolates and quinoa chips served. Our cabin allowed to go to the last cabin/ bar for about 20 minutes. Pretty decent band playing what I assume are some Latin favorites. Best music I have heard since arriving Peru. (my musical tastes however are odd according to my daughters so take this with a grain of salt) Arrived Ollantaytambo at 2 1/2 hours. The drive takes about half the time and scenery similar. The rest of the cabin filled up here. Most tourists we have been seeing here are Spanish speaking. The train ride towards MP much more scenic.

Arrived Aguas Caliente. Bellboy at exit of train station who took our bags to Hotel Tierra Viva. Nice hotel about 100 yards down from the train station next to River. We upgraded to a superior room which was about $40 more for a total of about $240 a night. Nice view of the river and jr suite style with separate sitting room, refrigerator and shower. Bed seems so larger than a queen but short like everything in this country. I’m 6’0
(183) and my head is up near the headboard. Taxis here are also Toyota Corolla size or smaller so fitting in requires adjusting the front seat and hoping whoever is behind me is ok. Now waiting for our guide for MP to pick us up.

Aguas Calientes is only at about 6700 feet and my resting O2 sat is 99 instead of 94 in Cusco. Overcast skies and 68F. Put on insect repellent as the area is rather sub tropical and the mosquitoes are really out due to the farmers burning stuff. Apparently the mosses are worse at around 1100.
Our guide picked us up at our hotel at 1400 and we walked up the road to stand in line for a bus for 1500 admission. Line was about 100 yards long and they checked your passport and your bus ticket. The bus ticket was rechecked just before boarding the bus. Bus took about 25 minutes to reach MP at 7900 feet. Our MP ticket, which apparently has to be on your phone, was then scanned at the entrance and matched to your passport. The next two hours were consumed by our guide taking us through Circuit 2. It was quite a marvelous spectacle. 30 floors of steps. We left at 1700 on return bus with ticket but no passport required. Had dinner a short distance from our hotel. Have been eating much less than normal due I think to a combination of Acetazolamide (now stopped), high altitude and exhaustion. I will be unhappy if I have not lost a few pounds on this trip. Now to bed to awaken early as our reservation at MP for Circuit 3 and Huchey Piccu is at 1000 and our guide told us to be in line for the bus by 0830.

Awoke 0730. Easy to pack as we left most of our luggage at our Cusco hotel and were only allowed carryon size for the train to MP. There were however people with large pieces of baggage so there must be a way to pay to bring more luggage. Hotel is more like 150-200 yards than 100 yards from train station. Got to 10am bus waiting line and we are at least 60 yards back so guess we are not that early. Weather blue sky 60 degrees.

I believe there is a separate luggage cart that runs daily between Ollantaytambo and Macchu Picchu (only). I think with your (strange) plan to backtrack to Cusco and take the longer train ride that option was not available.

Did Circuit 3 MP yesterday with Huchuy climb. The climb is steep and in some places narrow. It’s not long but steep. I found it rather demanding but I would have found it easy in my 50s. Long line of people waiting for bus to return to Aguas Caliente, maybe 200 yards long which made it about a 40 minute wait for the 25 min bus ride down.
Retrieved our luggage from our hotel which I would rate a 3+ star and walked up to the train station to take the 1455 Vistadome train to Olly where our Taxidatum car and driver picked us up for the drive to Cusco. Arrived Cusco about 1900.
Interesting to note while driving the number of partially built buildings and homes. Something I have seen before in Latin America and even places like Rhodes. Must be a financial reason for this. Also noting bars on all lower windows but no glass shards on the fences that you see in some other countries.
Back at Sonesta Cusco where we get our luggage out of storage and check in. This time we have an executive corner room which is like large jr suite with large bathroom with separate shower bath and toilet. This is closer to a 4 star hotel while the standard rooms are clearly 3 star class. Had dinner at hotel which was pretty mediocre. I had the grilled Alpaca which was overcooked as were the fried potatoes. The corn and cheese was bland. My partner had cuy which was rather nondescript. My daughter had a dry grilled chicken breast. Bed early.