Visit to Machu on a budget
 

We are a family of five heading to Peru in late July. We have flights and our first and last night reserved in Lima. We are looking for a cheap way to do Machu Piccu and would appreciate the best value way to do it. We heard booking flights to Cuzco in country is cheaper than from the US for instance. We want a great value experience-- ie a smart mid budget trip. Any help much appreciated.

DG

Suggest you post this as well on the Lonely Planet Thorntree board - a lot of great budget suggestions there

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/index.jspa

www.peruforless.com good budget packages

www.gotmyfare.com cheap packages with air from US

for DIY

www.spiritair.com FLL LIM usually cheapest

bus cheap hotels up the Gringo Trail to MP

adventures.worldnomads.com/destination/168/itinerary/23.aspx

follow this route...

bus www.cruzdelsur.com.pe or with 5

Driver/taxi/guide might work better $100/da

Car Rental usually too expensive

www.casa-andina.com nice moderate hotels everywhere...

www.traficoperu.com for cheap flights but with 5

will still be lots of money...

No reason to spend lots on hotels and meals. Avoid the places around Plaza de Armas Cusco.

I recommend staying in Ollantaytambo, try KB Tambo Hostal (see reviews on Tripadvisor), and take the train/bus from there for a day trip to MP (earliest in latest back). Book your own trains on PeruRail, cheapest option is just fine.

Taxis are inexpensive if you negotiate, recommended when you have luggage. No real reason to book a group tour which will charge you by the person. Hire a taxi for transport and there are guides at the sites. For MP you can also bring the Ruth M Wright guidebook.

Do you have your internal airfare already?

Good chicken restaurant in Cusco, Los Toldos. In Ollantaytambo Hearts Cafe for light meal and the restaurant on the train platform at El Albergue for a nice meal. Might want to bring sandwiches for MP day trip.

For internal flights you might look into Taca and I don't think I would wait. You can save more by playing with the day of week of travel.

Bookmarking

Peruvian Airlines has $99 round trip fares between Lima & Cusco. 2 flights a day. Had to try a couple different credit cards on the website before I found one that worked though.

When looking at flights online, pay close attention. Some fare prices are only available to Peruvian residents who pay less than foreigners. If the $99 fare is available, it is pretty reasonable. A bus ride would be around 20 hours and probably cost that much.

http://alongwaysouth.wordpress.com/

For the most part it is just LAN that overcharges if you are not a Peruvian Resident. But read ALL the small print carefully. And try to figure out what will happen if your flight is cancelled or delayed, which happens fairly often since Cusco is a tricky airport.