Planning a three week holiday for next Spring, for me and MissRobot. Any STW-ers been there? Any tips on where to go, how to avoid the crowds, good companies to book/fly with, what do once you've done the obvious? I want it to feel like an adventure rather than a school trip so any off-the-beaten track hints would be ace.
Also keen on taking an internal flight from Lima and perhaps exploring Brasil, Columbia etc. Again, and tips or experiences welcomed.
Thanks.
Yeah, it's impressive. Take a bag with you and clean up the rubbish at the top whilst you are there..
3 weeks? One country IMO Don't try to do too much
Machu Picu - I believe there is a multiday trek to get there which means you avoid doing the tourist trap bit. IIRC all the tourist arrive at the same time otherwise
Been a few times, a while ago now though.
I guess most still arrive by train which means people arriving en masse. Think the Inca trail is still open to walk along if you fancy a trek as TJ mentioned.
There's a hotel at the top but we stayed in a nice place down near the village at the bottom. There's also some natural spa type places there, nice to relax in.
EDIT: There's enough to keep you interested in Peru for three weeks. I always liked the Nazca lines, the jungle areas are great too.
Yes, I did the Inca Trail trek which gets you to the Sun Gate overlooking the Machu Picchu early doors before the tourist coaches arrive. Awesome views on the trek and get to just over 4000m at one point. Spent three weeks in Peru, great trip (was there when Sept 11th, 2001 was in full flow).
If you want to do the Inca trail, you need to book months in advance. We just turned up in Cuzco and booked locally on the Salkantay, which is far quieter, and has spectacular views of the mountains. You climb up to about 4,500 metres.
3 weeks is enough to see a good amount of Peru, but forget anywhere else. I recommend the Colca canyon (stay in Arequipa, it's lovely)and trekking in the Cordillera Blanca (Santa Cruz trek, stay in Huaraz). Lima has some good museums and lively nightlife.
If you need to get about without flying, the night buses are actually pretty comfortable if you pay for the tourist class, which has fully reclining seats and food.
Thanks everyone. Plenty to look into and think about.
Any more recommendations / thoughts much appreciated.
I'd definitely recommend the trek to machu pichu, as otherwise you'll get there with all of the rest of the fatties, and the walk is amazing, especially the high pass. Only let down is the final night where suddenly there are hundreds of people all at the same campsite - however things may have changed now the limit the amount of walkers..
As ransos mentioned go to colca canyon, it was awesome, especially at cruz del condor.
Other good places were huacachina: a small oasis in the desert with a nice colonial style hotel (but not much else to do)
Manu reserve - pretty nice and unspoilt rain forest,we stayed in the jungle for 6 or 7 days there.... can't remember the name of the company now.
Nazca / arequipa were amazing
If you can get to the salt flats in bolivia its well well worth it, its pretty surreal, lots of pink, purple and green lakes
if you like to see people taking a dump in lake titicaca i'd heartily recommend puno - thats about all that place was good for... but you can stay on the floating islands on titicaca with a local family which is good fun.
Erm, i can' remember much more..
If you can get to the salt flats in bolivia its well well worth it, its pretty surreal, lots of pink, purple and green lakes
Agreed - but we took nearly two months to travel through Bolivia and Peru. I think that 3 weeks is pushing it...
I was there this time last year for a while as part of our honeymoon and absolutely loved it.
Just south of Lima is the Ballestas islands which are well worth a trip then an hour or so's drive inland to the dessert oasis for a dune buggy and sand boarding trip and Pisco tasting was one of the best days of our whole trip. highly recommended.
Arequipa's brilliant as are so many of the towns, I could just soak up the town squares all day. loved it
Here's a photo book from our trip
Moves into Bolivia and Chile too but starts in Peru.
I didn't realise the walk into Machu Pichu was restricted / guided only. Can you not do it independently?
The Inca Trail was great - we expected it to be disappointing given all the hype, but not at all... you have to do it with a guided trip and book well in advance (best to check out reviews although we had a recommendation). The actual hiking isn't too hard but the altitude on the 2nd day makes it tough. It's nice having the camp already set up when you arrive and lots of good food too. When you get to Machu Picchu, make sure you do the extra bit up Wayna Picchu - it's pretty hairy but you get a fantastic birds eye view back over Machu Picchu.
Cusco is worth a few days, as is Arequipa (you can do guided hikes from there into the Colca Canyon which is also well worth doing, or the volcano).
We weren't keen on Lima or the coast south from there (if you do Nazca, you must fly over to make it worthwhile - my missus is afraid of flying and it was pretty rubbish as a result!). Puno/Lake Titicaca were touristy but we enjoyed them - easy to cross into Bolivia from there too.
A trip the jungle is also well worth it (can be expensive but unique). We went to Puerto Maldonardo but there are a number of alternatives - I seem to remember hearing good things about the jungle around Iquitos.
3 weeks is enough to do the highlights of Peru (and maybe nip into neighbouring countries).
Nope highly restricted and well governed. It's never crazy busy, everything taken is in taken out, so very clean and natural.
There are a number of other routes to Machu Pichu which are quieter and cheaper as you can use animals to carry stuff instead of loads of porters. No horses or Donkeys on the main trail. it's very well looked after and managed. well worth doing it's amazing.
but to put it in to perspective Winchester Cathedral is 500 years older.
still amazing and I'd love to go back and do it again. Just not as old as perceived by most
+1 Wayna Picchu (and pretty much everything Rod's said), rush for a ticket and do everything else later, you wouldn't want to miss it
don't even think about it unless you're good with heights though.
If you do a Nascar Lines flight, check for a good company, 3 days after our trip this happened
Just found our blog on it...
http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Cusco/Inca-Trail/blog-65876.html
(silly hats are mandatory 
TJ, nah we had to go with a guide too.. Although he was really good and we missed a lot of "fatamericans"TM it kinda felt like a bit of a let down, we're used to doing our own stuff see..
Never got to see the Nazca Lines, shame, would have loved to see that.
Check! Silly hats and dress throughout our book above too 
Trekked the inca trail 12 years ago - just at the end of the rainy season (around about March I think). It wasn't too busy - maybe because of the time of year. Booked it in Cusco the day before.
Up there with the best things I've ever done.
You need a ticket for Hauyna Picchu now? I guess when we lived there it was still plagued by Sendero Luminoso so tourists weren't plentiful. We just ambled up.
I did some independent trekking in the high andes in Bolivia along some ancient trails - and saw various geoglyphs in Northern Chile - the train from Bolivia to Chile is a real treat - I really liked bolivia I must say.
make sure you do the extra bit up Wayna Picchu + 2
An "interesting" climb that one
yeah, there are x tickets (a few hundred?) per day, they're free though.
Just head straight there first thing and get your ticket and then you can go up later in the day, as long as you start going up by 14:00 or something it's fine.
Bolivian Salt flats and Atacalma in Chile were just stunning!! some of the most amazing landscapes I've ever seen, flick to the end of the book above for some panoramas
I didn't realise the walk into Machu Pichu was restricted / guided only. Can you not do it independently?
Not any more... Cuzco's odd, it's the only really 'touristy' place in Peru, but somehow manages to transcend all that and still be astonishing. The Inca Trail is lovely, if only for the view from high up of the ruins at dawn. If you are going to do some trekking, give yourself a decent amount of time to acclimatise first.
If you fancy something a bit wilder and have some trekking experience, take a look at the Ausangate Circuit trek which is around a day's journey by bus and truck from Cuzco. It circumnavigates a whopping great mountain and climbs over three passes of around 5,000 metres. It's quite stunning and, when I did it around ten years ago, utterly deserted bar the odd llama and a few scattered settlements/fincas in the valleys.
As far as elsewhere goes, I think Bolivia is astonishing. It's quite easy to get down to Lake Titicaca and on to La Paz from Cuzco and I'd definitely look at doing that. And the mountaineering there is good too if that interests you. Colombia's a mad place, though not necessarily in the sense that people tend to think, lovely people, very friendly, quite beautiful.
But there's so much to see just in Peru. One thing, if you don't speak Spanish already, it's worth learning some before you go. It'll make your life much easier in South America as not many people speak English and, out in the sticks, the usual first language is either Quechua or Aymara, so even the Spanish isn't always that great.
Have fun.
"Reads on ispired by Bolivia"
Advice? Don't fall off - it's a long way to the hospital...
Rachel
The image of arriving at the sun gate and seeing machu picchu emerge from underneath the mist will live with me forever.
Its a stunning place regardless but definitely do the trek if you can. If was restricted numbers when i did it in 2007, and i believe you had to have a guide.
The trip we did started in Lima, overnight stay in the Amazon forest. Inca Trail, on to Lake titicaca, Puno, and finished in La Paz. If you do get to Bolivia you can ride the road of death! shonkiest bike ive ever been on but it and i made it!
When you are in Cuzco go to the huge market where the locals get there food, amazing.
At the top of Dead Womens pass there were enterprising local youths selling Coke drink not drugs. Dont get mad at the fat Americans on little horses being carted about and porters carrying all their stuff.
One of the girls we trecked with blew her knee out going down from the ruins to the train station in the valley. That made getting on the non tourist train an experience. Happy memories.
Blown away by all the suggestions. Thank you again.
+1 for learning some Spanish, at least enough to book a room, give directions in a taxi, etc.
We went last year and did a couple of weeks biking and then tagged on the Inca trail at the end. Totally recommend the inca trail (we'd actually already visited Machu Picchu but wanted to do the trek as well and it was worth it - the scenery is amazing and the limited numbers on the trails means it was quieter than I was expecting). Check out the reviews of various companies, but we went with theses guys http://llamapath.com/, mostly because they treat their porters way, way better than any of the others. They are bit more expensive but I thought it was worth it.
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