8-Day Peru from Lima: Cusco, Puno, Machu Picchu, Lake Titicaca

Fabulous trip, looked after by Lenin and the extended team of transport and hotel staff who were all caring attentive and professional. Even when my Sister was taken ill arrangements and hotels were changed to accommodate her without any fuss. The trips and Machu Picchu was out of this world. Definitely recommend this tour and thank you to all the team.

This tour delivered on its agenda. My adult daughter and I were amazed by the beauty of these places. It was a very busy itinerary having us wake up between 4:30-6:00 a.m. for pick up by a different driver or tour bus each day, but always punctual (if not early: once showing up at 5:15 instead of 5:30). The hotels were clean, staff friendly, breakfasts good and available early. The first night, since the restaurant wasn't open yet, provided us with a breakfast-to-go on the way to airport. This was a "third party" tour, where a company did all the organizing with other tours, so we never had the same people from day-to-day joining us on our outings, but there was always someone to count on and our organizer Lenin was a Whatsapp message away, quick to respond for any questions or concerns. He coordinated all the pick-ups/drop-offs and tours. The tour guides were all very kind and knowledgeable. We did tipping at the end of the day; which didn't seem common, but very appreciated by guides and drivers. The three included lunches were very good, as were any of the restaurants we went to for dinner. This country knows how to cook. We still followed the rules about not eating raw vegetables and only peelable fruit, drank only bottled water and had no stomach issues. The only down-side was that it may have been a little too busy, especially the first day in Cusco, trying to acclimatize to the altitude. Even with a prescription of medication and drinking coca tea (highly recommended upon arrival), we got altitude sickness, because rather than resting the first day, we did four different sites that afternoon. Symptoms by the end of the day were shortness of breath, blue lips, severe headache, nausea/loss of appetite and extreme tiredness. We should have taken it easy, but after 11 hours sleep felt much better. Headaches, breathlessness and tiredness hit us in Puno as well, the highest altitude of all places. Other advice: "buyer beware", the tour guide dropped by a silver jewelry making place, where you think you're getting great quality for the price, but it's not real. The silver started peeling off the ring later that day. Also by the last day we were exhausted and although the Lake Titicaca boat ride and islands (avoid toilets on these!) were truly interesting and beautiful, we could have skipped it just to relax. All in all AMAZING TRIP!

Obviously experiencing the high Andes was brilliant. But I did want to commend the tireless work of our overall trip co-ordinator Lenin. The volume of travellers visiting the key sites is huge, and we were travelling as a couple. Access to the sites requires working through a huge range of intermediaries who package the individual experiences. Each day required us to be met, transported, guided, give access, returned and lodged in different hotels. So everyday's group was different, and we tended to be moving around in groups of 12 - 18. But we never saw the same people twice. All this complex timetabling was managed to perfection, and on top of that Lenin was always instantly and courteously available at the end of a phone to answer your concerns and fix things when problems arose. We couldn't have been in better hands. Thank-you Lenin!

Many parts of trip done well, but I wouldn't reuse Viator. No pick-up when we flew into Cusco and no pick-up in Lima. Ran into two other groups with Viator and neither of them had a pick-up in Cusco either :-( Also, for my husband and I, we were only given one train ticket to Agua Caliente each way, and only one ticket to Machu Picchu. Lenin Roman had gone over all tickets with me and my husband in person once we arrived Peru. How could he not see we only had one ticket for each of these? A day into our trip and before we left for Machu Picchu, I noticed we only had one ticket to MP. I called Lenin Ronan. He said the one ticket was good for both of us for admittance to MP-anyone with any experience would know each person needs a MP ticket. We confirmed this when we tried to get onto the train to Agua Caliente and MP. The train ticket was two-up, so I thought one was for my husband, but one half of the ticket you gave to train personnel; the bottom half you kept yourself. Train personnel very helpful and let us get on the train, but told us we had go to an agency in Agua Caliente to get tickets printed out for our return train. Plus we were told we needed a second ticket to MP and could get that printed out in Agua Caliente as well. How could Lenin have told us that one ticket to MP was good for two people? No excuse for this.

This tour group was not what we expected. This is not a group. We were constantly added to some other group. We were picked up in the morning at 7am from hotel and then drove around town for an hour picking other passengers. We were told to be ready by 9am in Puno for our ride to the airport due to traffic congestion then we waited in the lobby of the hotel till 9:30 and then drove again around town picking other people. It turned out to be a communal shuttle to the airport. For some reason they had us take the train to Machu Picchu from a city that is 1.5 hour driving in the car over very uncomfortable roads instead of a train station 20 to 30 min. away plus on top of it no one was meeting us upon our return from Machu Picchu. It was very nerve racking. I also wished we had taken a private tour guide in Machu Picchu. They are plenty standing right at the entrance. We only had a tour guide for 2 hours and definitely it was not enough. After she left us we continue our way down around the citadel and tried to listen to other groups tour guides. In 8 days of traveling there was only 3 occasions that the person that we were meeting arrived into hotel on time. Even in Aguas Calientes the man that was supposed bring us our tickets for Machu Picchu showed up almost an hour late. Instead of 8:00pm he finally came at 8:45 and that after I had a hotel reception call him. And then he told us that we had to be in line for the bus by 6:30am. Another note when you are taking a trip of Taquile Islands you will have a hard steep 25 to 30 minutes hike with no shade to get to the place where you have lunch. Going down is not as bad. Or you can stay for about 2 hours. This is specified anywhere in the description of the tour. I wish I new this before. Overall I was disappointed with this tour agency.

Lenin put together a well-organized tour. From pick up and drop off to transportation and tour guides someone was expecting us. Each individual tour was amazing and was done in both English and Spanish. All the hotels were centrally located and within walking distance of great food and fun things to do in the evening. The Sacred Valley tour and Machu Picchu were my favorite tours. The Guides are passionate and knowledgeable. Wear long pants and long sleeves to Machu Picchu and bring a hat itll help keep the bugs and sun off you. Puno is my least favorite. I enjoyed the experience! Just not something I would ever want to do again. You spend a lot of time in a boat in comparison to how much time to spend on the islands. Overall, this tour receives and A!

Lenin was amazing he organized everything wonderfully! I will recommend to anyone personally. I was alone and worried about schedule, and places I would stay, but Lenin was reassuring, prompt, and organized. I had made a few changes during the trip and he was very accomadating. A++

The tour was extremely well organised. We enjoyed every minute.

Hi husband and I were very happy with everything. We you book airfare, Lima to Cusco take the earliest flight so you can enjoy more time there. Very happy thank you Lenin for everything.

Overall tour was organized pretty well. I would give them a 4.5 star rating. Hotels we stayed in were centrally located with good service.