Peru (August 2005)

(including Lima, Cusco, Aguas Calientes, Machu Picchu, Sacred Valley)

• Day 1: Newark to Lima on Continental Airlines (Business/First)
  www.continental.com
• Day 2: Lima to Cusco
  Monasterio Hotel (Orient-Express Hotels)
• Day 3: Cusco to Aguas Calientes
  Machu Picchu Sanctuary Lodge (Orient-Express Hotels)
• Day 4: Aguas Calientes to Cusco
  Novotel Cusco (Accor Hotels)
• Day 5: Sacred Valley Tour (Chincheros, Ollantaytambo, Pisac)
  Novotel Cusco (Accor Hotels)
  
  
  
  
• Day 6: Cusco Tour (Sacsayhuaman, Quenko, Koricancha)
  Novotel Cusco (Accor Hotels)
   
• Day 7: Cusco Sightseeing
  Lunch at Baghdad Cafe
  Novotel Cusco (Accor Hotels)
• Day 8: Cusco to Lima
  JW Marriott Lima (Marriott Hotels
  
  
  
  
• Day 9: Lima Sightseeing
  JW Marriott Lima (Marriott Hotels)
• Day 10: Lima to Newark on Continental Airlines (Business/First)

Restaurants:

• Link to my review of Blueberry Lounge
• Link to my review of Inka Grill
• Link to my review of MAP Cafe
• Link to my review of Pachacutec Grill and Bar
• Link to my review of Vivaldino

Hotels:

• Link to My Review of the JW Marriott Lima
• Link to My Review of the Novotel Cusco
• Link to My Review of the Machu Picchu Sanctuary Lodge
• Link to My Review of the Hotel Monasterio

I completely agree with lifelist: it will take you a minimum of 3 days due to the early flights into Cuzco arriving too late to make the train to MP and the train from MP arriving back too late to Cuzco to fly back to Lima.

I believe the entrance fee to MP has risen to $25 per person per day. I think the backpacker now costs about $85 from Cusco, with the Vistadome costing $102 and the Hiram Bingham $435 (which includes meals and entrance fees).

 We used Taca to fly one way and Lan Peru to fly the other. Taca was a lot cheaper, but only had one flight per day, whereas Lan had many. I believe that we paid about $65 per person one-way on Taca and $95 per person one-way on Lan.

 It's very inexpensive to eat in both Aguas Calientes and Cusco, so you won't need to budget a lot for food.

Sweaters are everywhere, it just depends on the quality that you want. I got a great lesson on the differences in quality of llama, baby llama, alpaca, baby alpaca, vicunya, with samples of each shown. You can really tell the difference. For a 100% baby alpaca sweater (plain, one color, V-neck or crew neck), plan on spending about $75. Sweaters with unique designs were selling for $120. (They were giving about a $5 discount for paying cash versus using credit cards.) For lesser quality, there were tons of sweaters sold on the streets and at the markets in Pisac and Chinchero, but they were acrylic blends that were machine made. Those could be purchased for about $20. But once you see how nice the handmade ones are, it´s tough to settle for something cheaper.

I just returned at the end of August from Peru, including Lima, Cusco, and Machu Picchu. Definitely take the Machu Picchu trip! The Hiram Bingham train looked really luxurious sitting in the station. We took the Vistadome train on Peru Rail instead because the HB didn't run on Sundays, and that was the only night that we could get a reservation at the Sanctuary Lodge. The Orient-Express hotels in Peru are beautiful. You might be staying at the Machu Picchu Sanctuary Lodge if the trip is organized by Orient-Express, although it only has 33 rooms and is often booked a year in advance. The only other hotel of that quality is down the hill in Aguas Calientes and is called the Machu Picchu Pueblo Hotel. It is larger than the MPSL, and many people say they like it better except for the fact that it isn't right onsite at the ruins. On second thought, you will probably do a day trip to MP on the HB. I think it leaves Cusco about 9:00 am and returns about 9:00 pm. In that case, you might be staying at the Orient-Express hotel in Cusco called the Monasterio, which someone mentioned previously. We stayed there, too, and it was fabulous. Orient-Express is really pricey, though, as I'm sure you are aware. The HB train was $421 per person (that included 2 meals and admission to the ruins), 1 night at the MPSL was $567 (although that included 3 meals per person), and the Monasterio was $385 per night. Still, it is an experience that you will never forget and will be worth the money (which must be running you about $600 per person for train and hotel). As for Lima, I liked it more than I thought I would (I had heard the horror stories, too), but we didn't do any museums there (we ARE museum people, but are primarily interested in French Impressionist art which wasn't found there). There's no contest, however. Lima is like any big city anywhere in the world, while Cusco and MP are from another era. You can check out the www.orient-express.com or www.perurail.com websites for more information on the hotels and trains.

 They stored luggage at the entrance when I visited last August. We stayed at the Sanctuary Lodge, so we didn't actually USE the storage facilities, but they seemed secure and well-organized.

We had trouble exchanging several $100 bills in Peru last August. We went to several national banks, as well as local cambios, without any luck. Apparently, we had a series of new bills that was recently put into circulation, and the serial numbers didn't appear on any valid list of numbers that they had. We had no problem using them once we got back to the US, but it did leave us a bit short on cash while vacationing. I guess I should ask for older bills next time.

I travelled by train from Cusco to Aguas Calientes in August of 2005. I seem to recall that if you are picking up the train tickets at the station (which isn't the actual station that the train leaves from, by the way), that you must go the day before your trip, not the day of. We flew from Lima to Cusco on a Saturday, I believe, which was the day before our train trip to Machu Picchu. I think that the ticket office closed at noon on Saturdays, before we even arrived in Cusco, making it impossible for us to pick up our tickets. Our only option was for the hotel to arrange the tickets, which they did, and we were also able to charge them to our room, which was nice. We stayed at the Monasterio, which may have helped, since both the hotel, and the train to MP are owned by Orient-Express, and we were also staying at the Sanctuary Lodge once we arrived in MP--another O-E property. On the other hand, we stayed at the Novotel in Cusco upon our return, and I feel confident that they, too, could have arranged the train tickets for us. I think that I tried to do just what you are asking--find a local agency to get the tickets--but I didn't have any luck (but that was nearly a year ago). Just please verify everything beforehand--you wouldn't want anything to negatively impact what will be an absolutely incredible trip!