Peru- Trekking to Machu Picchu

Cillo rs200

Hey all, I'm organising a group trip to Machu Picchu this summer and i was wondering has anyone here been? If so, any advice on which guides/ rough prices to expect would be great as I really have no clue what i'm doing and i'll be shot if I make a mess of it!

I've heard good things about Llama path?

greenflash

I've been there but booked nothing in advance and had a ball travelling around Peru on local buses and staying in hotels for less than $10 a night. A friend of mine went recently and stayed in top dollar hotels and took tourist buses everywhere and spent two weeks soiling himself...

Anyway, that's not too helpful but this probably is:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056884610

Cillo rs200

Haha! Thanks! we were thinking of going the cheap route too. Was it hard make your way around? We want to see the sights but those guided trips are ridiculously expensive

greenflash

Cillo rs200 wrote: »

Haha! Thanks! we were thinking of going the cheap route too. Was it hard make your way around? We want to see the sights but those guided trips are ridiculously expensive

I went in 2004 so I'd say there's been a few changes since. Myself and the then girlfriend flew Dublin - Newark - Lima with United Airlines. We had one night booked in Lima in advance and that was it. We had planned on getting a bus to Cusco but found it took 21 hours so went back to the airport and got flights to Cusco for about $40 each at the LAN desk. The taxi driver in Lima said he had a friend who could arrange tours etc once we got to Cusco. He introduced us to a woman at the airport who started making calls and being really pushy about getting us to book hotels, trips, excursions, meals, coca tea, llama interface workshops and whatever else she could think of. Eventually we agreed to let her book accommodation for us just to get rid of her. She told us her friend would be waiting at Cusco airport and would arrange everything for us. We arrived in Cusco and walked straight past her woman holding out a sign with my name on it and went on to find a really good room in a small hotel for a quarter of the price of the one we'd had pushed at us in Lima.

We spent a couple of days exploring Cusco and getting used to the altitude before looking to get to Machu Picchu. We wanted to do the Inca Trail but couldn't because of the restrictions, so we booked accommodation in Aguas Calientes through the hotel in Cusco and headed off. We got a local bus to Urubamba from Cusco, then a "taxi" (20 people and a goat in the back of a van) to Ollantaytambo, where we caught a train to Aguas Calientes. The hotel room in AC was outstanding and we caught a bus to MP first thing in the morning to get the sunrise. We were there for 5 or 6 hours and climbed Huayna Picchu for the most spectacular views of the ruins and the mountains. Back in AC, when not jumping out of the way of trains driving down the main shopping Street, we walked around looking at the Inca Trail zombies limping around in their sleep and generally feeling glad we took the easy option and enjoyed ourselves.

From Cusco we got a bus to Arequipa and arranged a three day track into the Colca Canyon. We booked by finding a local travel agent and avoiding the tourist trap networks of pushy women that are everywhere. We got local buses around the canyon and surrounding areas which were all cheap as chips and full of farmers with goats and llamas sitting (and peeing) on the seats.

From Arequipa we got a bus to Puno and spent a few days around Lake Titicaca then got bus to Nazca to see the lines in the desert before heading back to Lima. In Arequipa we'd booked a rainforest lodge trip at a place called Muyuna, which is now staggeringly expensive. We flew from Lima to Iquitos and spent an amazing week in the Amazon paddling boats around looking for pink dolphins, cayman and sloths and catching piranha for dinner

Basically yeah, getting around was easy and we calculated it was about a quarter the price of organised tours. Speaking a bit of Spanish helped a lot. We got to see loads, had a great time, ate and drank some mad stuff, met loads of good people, and had an unforgettable experience. I wouldn't like to try the same trip with a group of any size and I wouldn't really recommend it to unadventurous types. Afterwards I discovered we had done the "Gringo Trail" backwards which was how I got the price comparison.

http://www.explorebyyourself.com/en/peru/about_the_country/the_gringo_trail/

Fieldmouse

Nothing much has changed since Greenflash went except for prices and better buses! If you are talking about June/July/August when you say summer, that's a good time to go but high (and dry) season. Book any flights you need as soon as you can. Trekking the Inca Trail is expensive and requires booking fairly far in advance as numbers are limited. You have to go with a group tour. But there are free alternatives. Google Salkantay trek.

schemingbohemia

If you were able to go a bit earlier, there are very cheap flights to Lima available through TAM, you have to start in Paris and end up in London but way cheaper than elsewhere, see holiday pirates for details
http://www.holidaypirates.com/uk-ireland/openjaw-flights-lima-205-232-roundtrip-incl-taxes

The main thing if you want to book the Inca Trail is that you could be too late already, you now need to book in advance and numbers are limited to protect the route, so best to check that first before looking at flights.

Cillo rs200

Cheers guys. We are planning to go in August because one of the lads plays inter county football but he is pretty sure they will be out of the championship by then! I've already checked availability of the inca trail and so far there are plenty of spaces. The only hold up with booking is that a few more of the guys have to wait a week or so to check football fixtures so that we can work it in-between matches. I have my own thoughts on that but those are better kept to myself!

solerina

Cillo rs200 wrote: »

Cheers guys. We are planning to go in August because one of the lads plays inter county football but he is pretty sure they will be out of the championship by then! I've already checked availability of the inca trail and so far there are plenty of spaces. The only hold up with booking is that a few more of the guys have to wait a week or so to check football fixtures so that we can work it in-between matches. I have my own thoughts on that but those are better kept to myself!

I wouldnt wait too long if I were you, when I went (early August) it was totally booked up by the start of april...we booked in Feb with G Adventures who I can recommend highly.

Cillo rs200

I'll hurry them on so. G adventures were one of the companies we were looking at, their prices seem reasonable too