eng3

I've booked flying into LIM night of 4/19, to SCL on the 23rd, and back home on the night of the 25th. I plan to fly to CUZ on the 21st, stay on Oly, See Manchu Picchu on the 22nd, stay in CUZ, Fly out the 23rd to SCL via LIM.

1. The flight to SCL leaves 5:30pm. Since my flight from CUZ back to LIM will be on different tickets, how early do I need to arrive in LIM to safely catch my 5:30pm intl flight? Ideally, I'd like at least a little time to see some of cusco, but its more important I get back to LIM to catch my flight.

2. There seems to be multiple "low-cost" options (under $100USD) Star Peru (2I), Avianca (Trans American (T0)), LC Peru (W4). Would you recommend one over the other?

3. When would it be recommended for me to leave Lima and arrive in Cusco? It's a trade between seeing more of Lima (maybe skipping Oly and going straight to AC) or leaving Lima in the morning and seeing Oly (ie. Ruins). I have to admit, I've spent more time looking at MP than Lima so I'm not sure how much there is to see. The only thing in Lima I really want to see is the park with the water fountains but that's only at night. I'll have some time on day 2 probably no time day 1 and I'm not sure how much I can see day 3 morning since I need to check out of my hotel and go back and retrieve my luggage if I'm not leaving immediately

ajeleonard

Lima absolutely isn't worth skipping any of the Sacred Valley or Cusco to see

I'd book CUZ-LIM on the same airline you're using for LIM-SCL

eng3

The LIM-SCL segment is already booked. I can't book the same airline. To be on the same ticket would be more than 3X higher cost.

That is why I ask about how early I should arrive in LIM given transfer time and potential delays.

RustyC

Yeek, what a hurried trip! I did an ATL-LIM-SCL-ATL last year using an NK award for ATL-LIM, Sky Airline for LIM-SCL and an AA award for SCL-ATL but didn't do the CUZ loop on that trip. When I did do the CUZ loop it was on Peruvian Airlines, which had old 737s but was 2 hours LATE on the outbound though thankfully not the return. I had budgeted most of the day for the return, so I dumped off the luggage at the left-luggage counter and got the taxi downtown to look around by day and then the metro to Miraflores for food and a little looking around by night before taking a taxi back to the airport.

Stuff can happen on either end with weather or other delays, so it might be worthwhile to favor an airline with a more frequent schedule on the LIM-CUZ so that other flights that day could be backups. I didn't do that with Peruvian but also didn't schedule it close.

For MP I did it in a long day buying an improvised package from one of the travel agents in Cuzco. It was $205 a-i (train travel both ways) and also included time in Oly. The best part was 4 hrs. at MP with only 2 needed for the walking tour, and crowds really thinned and the picture-taking was nice toward the late afternoon. Weather is always a YMMV. Didn't get back to Cuzco until 10:30 p.m. or so.

eng3

I don't have much control over the dates but since I'm there already, I want to squeeze in a trip to MP. So LIM-CUZ morning of 4/21, see some of Olla, Train to MP and then back to Cusco on 4/22 then back to LIM 4/23 to catch my flight to SCL. Yes it's quick but its better than none at all.


How early of a flight should I take back to LIM to be able to catch my 5:30pm intl flight? If I go later, that may give some time to see Cusco but the later the flight, the more risk of mis-connecting in the event of delays. I'm not familiar with how often delays happen at CUZ that time of year.

They're all pretty close in price except LAN which is double. From what I read, LAN and Avianca are the most reliable. LAN has lots of flights, avancia only has about a couple choices but its part of the star alliance so I dont know if it might help in case of delays. since I'm star gold.