Peru - Help with planning my first trip to S. America

I need some guidance on planning our first trip to Peru in mid-August. Family of 4 - 10 and 13 year old girls.


Day 1 Flying from Miami to Lima to Cusco. Arriving in Cusco 8:30.
Wanted to stay at the new Marriott on points but max occupancy is 3. Don't want to pay for 2 rooms. Any suggestions for hotels that would accept 4?
Plan is to rest and may tour town if up to it.

Day 2 - Sightsee Cusco
Day 3 - Sacred Valley - hiring a taxi to take us to Chinchero, Moras, & Moray. Would this be interesting for pre-teen girls? They do like learning about history and seeing interesting things. Would love to do Sunday market at Pisac but we'll be on Inca Trail. Does Pisac have other market days? Stay in Tamba del Inka in Urubamba.
Day 4 - 7 - Hike the Inca Trail & Huayna Picchu - these are already booked. Stay at Tamba Del Inka
Day 8 - Fly to Manu? I know there is flight from Cusco to Manu but are there direct flights from Manu to Lima via Lan? Are we allowing enough time in Manu? Where should we stay?
Should we look at going to Paracas instead?
If you had 2 places to go and 2 weeks, where would you go?
Day 11 - Fly to Lima - tour cultural sites (cathedrahl, changing of guards) and visit waterfalls at night
Day 13 - Fly back home

I want this trip to be a lifetime experience. I know that Inca Trail will be tough but hopefully with all summer training and 3 days of acclimatizing, we will be ok. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Chincheros has a nice market on sundays, too if your pre-teen girls like typical clothes and crafts, they will enjoy it. If you go on weekday and the market is not open, there are several stores too. And the valley around Chincheros is beautiful. If they like historic places as you say, they'll love all places around Cusco.

Keep in mind the Inca trail is hard. It's a beutiful experience. If you and your family love camping, trekking, sleep in tents on cold, very cold nights, stantd the not getting a shower in 3 days (are you taking the long 4 or 3-days trail or the short 2-days trail?) you will enjoy it. The trekking is very hard cause you go up on mountains at 3500, almost 4000 mts. over the sea.

Flights from Cusco are to Puerto Maldonando, not specifically Manu. I don't know exactly where's the usual entrance to the Park, but always read people go by bus or 4wd from Cusco to Manu park. Probably the distance from there is almost the same as from Puerto Maldonado so it wouldn't be an advantage to fly to PM. But again, you must confirm this, I suggest you to do more research.

If you don't want to go on the hard road by bus to Manu, you can fly to Puerto Maldonado (LAN) and go to one of those lodges in the jungle near PM.

I've not been in Puerto Maldonado or the Madre de Dios parks (Manu, Tambopata). But I do know Iquitos and Pucallpa (also cities in the amazon jungle). So if you ask me wether to go to Paracas or the jungle, I'd choose the jungle. But that's my personal opinion. Besides august is very good to go to the mountains (Cusco) and jungle (Madre de Dios, Iquitos, etc.). It's winter in the coast so in Paracas you can get cloudy or foggy days. It's not so cold but humid.

Wanted to stay at the new Marriott on points but max occupancy is 3. Don't want to pay for 2 rooms. Any suggestions for hotels that would accept 4?


Most hotels, especially the premium ones, will not accept 4 people per room. You may try Casa Andina Cuzco Plaza, they have rooms for 4. Casa Andina is a Peruvian hotel chain, which is quite good and reasonably priced. But I doubt that you will save a lot with a room for 4 compared to 2 rooms.

I agree woith MarLim

August is kind of high season in Peru. Good weather to visit Cusco and any mountains place. And lot of schools are on vacation so try to reserve asap.

Villavic & MarLim -Thank you for your comments.

We love to camp & hike. We live in a state where winter is below zero so we are used to cold weather. I mostly worried about the altitude. I am hoping that 3 days will be enough to acclimitize. We'll be training for Inca Trail all summer by doing stairmasters and climbing ski slopes as well as other sport activities. Thanks for the hotel suggestions. Goal is to book rooms by this weekend.

Question - Do you know if Lan flies out of Puerto Maldonando to Lima or do we need to fly back to Cusco in order to get back to Lima? 11 hours on the bus to Puerto Maldonando from Cusco just seem grueling. I understand it is a beautiful scenery. Thought we would maximize our time in the jungle by flying to Puerto Maldonando. Would we be saving time by flying?

Villavic & MarLim -Thank you for your comments.

We love to camp & hike. We live in a state where winter is below zero so we are used to cold weather. I mostly worried about the altitude. I am hoping that 3 days will be enough to acclimitize. We'll be training for Inca Trail all summer by doing stairmasters and climbing ski slopes as well as other sport activities. Thanks for the hotel suggestions. Goal is to book rooms by this weekend.

Question - Do you know if Lan flies out of Puerto Maldonando to Lima or do we need to fly back to Cusco in order to get back to Lima?

I'm almost sure all LAN flights to Puerto Maldonado make always stops at Cusco. You can do an itinerary at Lan.com and they will show you the stops.
Yes you will save time

I didn't find the Inca Trail particularly tough at all. I think unless you're a total salad-dodger you shouldn't have much trouble.

As for Cusco, I'd recommend making time to head up to San Blas to see the artist's studios. It's a quite a 'trendy' district, and if I had kids to entertain that's where I'd be going. Well, either that or up to the Sacsayhuaman (sp?) ruins, with the huge rock slides (like playground slides, not avalanches...)