Santiago to Lima overland:two weeks

paddylonglegs

ok trying to arrange this - landing santiago 5th jan,hoping to be in cusco by 21st jan for inca trail before it closes down for maintenance in feb and cannot go after it re-opens.

so have a window here of two weeks to get up to lima (or straight to cusco if it worked) and would like to know how possible this is with using as little flights as possible so we can take in the country.Is it possible at all and is it worth it?

THanks for any advice,if it has come up before then please guide me to thread

Cheers guys

Placid_Casual

I haven't been to Chile but I think it should be perfectly feasible to get from Santiago to Cusco in two weeks via bus, though it is a lot of travelling. Expect to take a number of long (10-20 hours) bus journeys along the way. Don't worry, the standard of overnight buses in Peru is decent and i'd imagine its better in Chile.
Can't tell you much about Santiago to the border, other than you could probably take a trip to the Atacama desert along the way. Once you're in Peru you can stop off in Arequipa and see Colca Canyon and then go to Cusco via Lake Titicaca. No need to go to Lima.
Make sure you book the Inca Trail well in advance.
What's the plan after that? If you have a few weeks to spare i'd highly recommend going to Bolivia.

kraggy

If you can at all go see the Salt Flats (Salar de Uyuni) in Bolivia.

One of the most amazing places I've been in my life, if not the most.

Seeing the flats usually consists of a 3/4 day trip in a 4x4. You see the flats, Dali desert, Laguna Verde and other places. And you can stay in a hotel made from salt.

Def the highlight of my trip to S.A along with M.Pichu and Iguazu.

And it's in Southern Bolivia so it's kinda on the way for you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salar_de_Uyuni

colm_r

kraggy wrote: »

If you can at all go see the Salt Flats (Salar de Uyuni) in Bolivia.

If you head up to San Pedro de Atacama after Santiago you will be able to take the Salt Flats tour from there. This takes four days from San Pedro to Uyuni I think. From Uyuni you can then get an overnight to La Paz. I would try and book your transport (bus / train) out of Uyuni before starting the Salt flats tour as the nicer options seem to book out a few days in advance.

paddylonglegs

Placid_Casual wrote: »

What's the plan after that? QUOTE]

Thanks for all this great advice lads,appreciate it.Well santiago will be the beginnig of the 3 month trip so after inca trail we have two months left.BTW we're flying out of Buenas Aires.

Initially thought we could do salt flats after inca trail but if we can do it on the way up then great.We wanted to get into the amazon after peru but in January there doesn't seem to be any tours due to weather so we'll need to do something about that,would be a shame to miss out.We also want to get to galapagos islands,I know it cost a billion euro but we'll see how the funds are.

Then theres is Igiazu falls and Christ the Redeemer in Brazil which we will get to towards the end of the trip.But in between that we have a good 6 weeks to play with.would love some suggestions however i am trawling the travel section of boards for what other threads are saying.


Because I'm a nerd,i'v also attached a wee map of our planned itinery!In the next few mins.

paddylonglegs

Ah balls where do you have to upload an image to attach it to a thread?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28268868@N06/2728514784/
Its on here anyway